Quote:
Originally Posted by chowhou
If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but bear in mind that just because they were encamped on Hastings doesn't mean they were confined there. The more unhinged homeless people were always allowed to go anywhere they wanted in Vancouver; I wouldn't expect being in Strathcona Park, on Robson, or in Yaletown would change crime rates that much.
I'm also not a huge fan of the "East Hastings is a slum, so let it rot" mentality, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I don't think we should condemn a part of our city as a permanent "slum district". Yaletown used to be a "slum district", but look at how it has changed.
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Fair enough, and yeah, looks like we'll have to wait and see. There's a fairly good chance the same campers just pop back up on Hastings sometime this year, in which case
both arguments are wrong.
I'm not saying let East Hastings rot, I'm saying it was already rotting to begin with, and maybe moving the rot around downtown isn't the best idea.
It's the old "concentrate it" vs "spread it out" argument; social housing somewhat favours the latter, but tent cities don't really have a good answer on any end of the spectrum.
Worth noting that Yaletown's negative elements (heavy industry) moved out; the DTES' ones have not.
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