Public Disorder & the Decline of Vancouver's Livability

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Vin

Please enlighten me (or us).

Police fines do not translate into funds to hire more police.

[whatnext]

It's not your imagination, Vancouver is becoming more of a grafitti-tagged mess:

Vancouver sees 70% spike in nuisance graffiti reports to 311 during COVID-19 pandemic
By Kristen Robinson Global News
Posted October 4, 2021

The City of Vancouver has seen a massive spike in graffiti vandalism since the COVID-19 pandemic began and merchants say they’re paying the price – while taggers often face no punishment for their unsolicited criminal scribbling....

https://globalnews.ca/news/8240692/vancouver-spike-nuisance-graffiti-calls-311-covid-19-pandemic/

[Metro-One]

Taggers should be forced to do community service, as in cleaning up the mess they create and meeting face to face with the owners and operators of the businesses and properties they vandalize.

The worst are the huge messy splatter ones that cover entire walls.

But who am I kidding, learning personal responsibility is a no no in our current cultural climate.

This is just them expressive their individuality as an asshole!

[Vin]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Police fines do not translate into funds to hire more police.

Someone could make it so.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Taggers should be forced to do community service, as in cleaning up the mess they create and meeting face to face with the owners and operators of the businesses and properties they vandalize.

The worst are the huge messy splatter ones that cover entire walls.

But who am I kidding, learning personal responsibility is a no no in our current cultural climate.

This is just them expressive their individuality as an asshole!

I'm with you on that, but many forumers here may think that sort of "punishment" equates being in a gulag.

There will always be assholes anywhere, but the City of Vancouver is enabling them to flourish here.

Originally Posted by Klazu

Things must be getting really bad Downtown when even media is starting to call the entire Downtown peninsula crime-ridden. They even found Mayor Nowhere-to-be-found to comment on this!

And just to think that it was only earlier this year that some clowns were calling for defunding Police. Oh, how times have changed.

Now, if only someone could find a correlation with certain business transactions by the city and the spike in crime in particular in West End and Yaletown... That would blow everyone's mind.

For those who call for the defunding or disbanding of the police, should they become victims of crime, they should be ignored when they dial 911. Just saying.

With that said, remember when VPD said they would increase their presence downtown? Well, I still don't see them around much. And I NEVER see them doing foot patrols on the streets. So that begs the question of how efficiently they are using police funds. Perhaps most of them go into retirements, benefits and little go into police work per se.

Just like Mr Moonbeam, Mr Kennedy is another lame duck. Somehow we always get the worst of the worst here.

[Vin]

More craziness downtown. At least there were some arrests, but would these suspects be turned loose right away? As per the article, some of them are already known to police.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/gastown-nightclub-burglarized

Gastown nightclub burglarized three nights in a row: VPD

A prolific property-crime offender has been arrested by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) after one Gastown nightclub was allegedly burglarized by him three nights in a row.

VPD officers were called three times this weekend to a nightclub located near Abbott and West Cordova, after someone reportedly smashed a window, entered the building, and stole liquor bottles in the early morning hours.

The man was arrested on Sunday morning after he was seen breaking a window to get inside the club.

According to the VPD, the incidents at the nightclub caused thousands of dollars in damages and losses.

“Since April, VPD officers have responded to 82 violent crimes and 259 property crimes in Gastown, including 32 commercial break and enters. But VPD believes that’s just a small portion of the crimes that are actually occurring, because so many still go unreported,” said the VPD in a statement.

“An alert witness called 911 after seeing the suspect break the window,” said VPD Sergeant Steve Addison.

“This allowed our officers to discreetly enter the area, make observations, and arrest the suspect before he was able to flee.”

VPD has identified the man as 37-year-old Kevin Willard, and he is being charged with one count of break and enter in relation to Sunday’s incident while the VPD investigates the other two break and enters.

This wasn’t the only crime that took place over the weekend.

On Friday, someone entered a store on West Cordova and Richards Street and stole more than $10,000 in clothing, jewellery, and accessories. VPD later recovered $2,800 of the stolen merchandise from someone who was attempting to sell it in the Downtown Eastside.

On Sunday evening, a business employee near Abbott and West Cordova confronted an unmasked shopper. The man allegedly uttered racial slurs at the Asian employee and began behaving aggressively. VPD officers are looking for the suspect.

Also on Sunday, a 42-year-old man was stabbed in the neck, abdomen, and shoulder at a social housing building on Water Street. He was bleeding heavily when officers arrived on the scene. The victim told police that the person who stabbed him was a stranger.

The suspect was known to police and was arrested a short time later.

[whatnext]

Interestingly, I was at two separate, small gatherings this weekend where there were Vancouver-dwelling women in their Fifties. One lived in Kits and one in the West End and both said they no longer feel safe alone in downtown.

Before a male SSPer says it is just perception, let me note both were from personal experiences. One had been harassed by a creeper as she got off the bus. The other had a coworker who was lunged at and chased by one of the homeless on the downtown streets. These incidents just capped off a host of observations. Both had lived in Vancouver for decades.

[Acajack]

Interesting thread. I think many cities are facing or will be facing these issues in the future. Including many that have never faced them before. Or haven't for a very long time.

[dreambrother808]

There was an increased policing push recently, correct? My experience working downtown is that there has been a corresponding reduction in issues. The sidewalk seating outside of A&W on Granville is no longer full of people using drugs, high AF, for example. I haven't been seeing the usual alleyway shenanigans that ramped up during the pandemic either, which had previously been more DTES than downtown.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

There was an increased policing push recently, correct? My experience working downtown is that there has been a corresponding reduction in issues. The sidewalk seating outside of A&W on Granville is no longer full of people using drugs, high AF, for example. I haven't been seeing the usual alleyway shenanigans that ramped up during the pandemic either, which had previously been more DTES than downtown.

Doesn’t that “push” only go back a week or two? Doubt we would see much permanent in such a short time.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Doesn’t that “push” only go back a week or two? Doubt we would see much permanent in such a short time.

That timing does coincide with the changes I mentioned though. Basically, all they had to do was make them leave those areas through regular patrolling and enforcement.

[Klazu]

Torrential rain is more to thank for the temporary improvement than anything the city has done. They will all be back soon again to enrich people's lives.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

That timing does coincide with the changes I mentioned though. Basically, all they had to do was make them leave those areas through regular patrolling and enforcement.

You speak too soon.....

Herschel in Gastown latest victim of vandalism in downtown Vancouver
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vandalism-herschel-gastown-vancouver

Three people in hospital after series of stabbings on Downtown Eastside
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stabbings-downtown-eastside-vancouver

Man left with fractured jaw after being attacked by stranger in West End: VPD
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/man-fractured-jaw-attacked-stranger-west-end

I do agree that there needs to be a lot more aggressive law enforcement, and stiff punishment.

[NewfBC]

"Please don't trash my windows": Vancouver businesses beg for relief (PHOTOS)
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouve...6ENV5j3-HiOYY3coSfA2R4_oZS9mj2x7kvOz51uo

Ron.

[jollyburger]

Just install massive steel shutters

[SpongeG]

does anyone remember the patrol that used to patrol Davie street back in the 90's I think they were called the pink panthers, they wore pink berets and just kept an eye on things as they walked up and down Davie street at night. Are they no longer allowed to have that kind of volunteer group do that?

[Conrad Yablonski]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

does anyone remember the patrol that used to patrol Davie street back in the 90's I think they were called the pink panthers, they wore pink berets and just kept an eye on things as they walked up and down Davie street at night. Are they no longer allowed to have that kind of volunteer group do that?

Anyone can patrol anything what they can't do is represent themselves as law enforcement authority-I ran into one such 'neighbourhood patrol' in distant Delta one winter night and was impressed.

Of course all they can do is shine flashlights & call the cops but sometime that's enough.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

does anyone remember the patrol that used to patrol Davie street back in the 90's I think they were called the pink panthers, they wore pink berets and just kept an eye on things as they walked up and down Davie street at night. Are they no longer allowed to have that kind of volunteer group do that?

I think that's part of the death of community in Vancouver.

Everyone has an expectation that there will be a third party to take of "that" what ever "that" may be.

There is low civic engagement, because people are not committed to staying put and investing in their communities with their actual time.

I put in a couple years and got burned out too, I think a lot of well meaning folks are in the same boat.

Hard to actually community organize and put the work in when you feel the whole machine is against you and worse, you aren't invested yourself in dedicating your life to the City anymore.

There is also a ginormous bystander effect in place in Vancouver. Where it always has to be some government agency, or pseudo-government, private/public partnership to accomplish something.
It cant be me and my group of friends; this is a horrible view that many hold, we are the people to make change not the NDP or Liberals or Con's.

All it really takes is a few motivated people that don't want windows smashed in their neighborhood calling out shitty people committing shitty behaviors.
But past that, you need the machine to back the people, and right now the good Samaritans are likely to get an equal scolding for community watch as the perps breaking the windows.

Until that changes, or at least until perception around these issues changes we will continue down this path.

[MIPS]

Here's an interesting one that ViA published today.

'Robbed, vandalized, peed on, yelled at': Former Gastown restaurant owners detail neighbourhood conditions to Vancouver mayor
Located at the corner of Cordova and Carrall streets in the heart of Gastown, Bauhaus opened in early 2015 and was a fine-dining German restaurant. Ongoing disputes with the landlord forced Bauhaus to close at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. The location has since re-opened and is now a Ukrainian restaurant.

Recently, the Gastown BIA sent out an email about the city's new public safety motion; the motion aims to (among other things) engage local business communities in public safety issues.

Filmmaker and former restaurateur Uwe Boll, the man behind Bauhaus (along with films like Bloodrayne, Blubberella and Rampage: President Down) responded with a letter to local politicians about what he and his wife (co-owner of Bauhaus and fellow producer) experienced while owning a business in the popular neighbourhood.

...

The letter goes on to suggest that people addicted to drugs are treated better by the city than "anybody else."

"Vancouver is going to shit and Gastown is the epicentre of the disaster," Boll writes.

He goes on to demand the city gets people in the Downtown Eastside community off the street.

"I know you will not because you are unable to HURT THE FEELINGS of the supporters of that shit show," he continues. "You are scared that you get a negative Twitter Storm against you."

While he wants the city to get people off the streets, Boll also alleges that charities housing people are overflowing with money.

"And there is so much money to make with the charities, housing, drugs and policing - that there are maybe 500 to 1000 people living very good from that situation," he claims.

In a response from the city, city official Laurie MacLean notes some of the housing and policing initiatives the city has worked on, along with policy decisions voted on recently.

Boll, in another Facebook post, indicates he is not happy with the City of Vancouver's response.
- https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local...od-conditions-to-vancouver-mayor-4527162

The article is longer but basically he calls out the city for running or funding programs that are otherwise dysfunctional and they would rather not push anything in fear of upsetting voters.
Also I am aware that Uwe Boll is not an outspoken person himself. He has a reputation and while he is a film director he has a knack for making really awful movies, so keep in mind he is being a little over-dramatic.

[Klazu]

Damn, that's some straight talk - good! While a character, he is 100% correct here. It is ridiculous that authorities are afraid of a Twitter storm that is nothing to go by. Twitter is a sinking echo chamber and has never been a public forum, let alone now that you have to register to even read it. I give Twitter fools 0% weight in anything, regardless of topic.