Public Disorder & the Decline of Vancouver's Livability

[Vin]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

But your "information" is objectively wrong. Demand for residential and commercial space downtown is as high as ever. There's no reason to think visitors won't return when our border restrictions are back to normal.

Sure, and do you have Statscan figures to support you this time? Again BIV used the word "hollowing out". Feel free to dispute them, not me.

Comparing the early 1900s East Hastings when it was a still vibrant commercial street, I'm sure DTES today is still attracting and retaining lots of residents: an influx of the homeless, intoxicated, addicts, street yahoos, etc. Perhaps that's what you and Changing_City are referring to? Do you see lots of businesses setting up there?

If we let the disorderliness and crime continue to get worse in the rest of downtown, what is stopping other major commercial streets today to turn into another East Hastings? Short-sightedness will lead us nowhere.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Vin

Sure, and do you have Statscan figures to support you this time? Again BIV used the word "hollowing out". Feel free to dispute them, not me.

So BIV, like you, has an agenda to push, and isn't concerned with facts.

The initial article you jumped on is very short, and the author was too cowardly to put their name to it. Perhaps it was you?

[GenWhy?]

This week is downtown:

1) The whole peninsula
2) The peninsula minus the West End and Coal Harbour
3) The peninsula minus the West End + Chinatown
4) The CBD
5) The CBD + DTES
6) The CBD + DTES + Granville
7) All of the above are hollowed out

[Vin]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

So BIV, like you, has an agenda to push, and isn't concerned with facts.

The initial article you jumped on is very short, and the author was too cowardly to put their name to it. Perhaps it was you?

What agenda? You got all the facts facing you everyday: the DTES, Chinatown, Granville Street, etc. Try eradicating the issues there before babbling that there is "an agenda". Soon enough even your neighbourhood is turning shady when shops remain closed along Main Street at OV, months and years after the buildings are completed.

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

This week is downtown:

1) The whole peninsula
2) The peninsula minus the West End and Coal Harbour
3) The peninsula minus the West End + Chinatown
4) The CBD
5) The CBD + DTES
6) The CBD + DTES + Granville
7) All of the above are hollowed out

I'm sure back in 1900 if you were to tell a resident living along East Hastings what the future would hold for their neighbourhood, he would probably sneer at you like what Warren_C12 is doing now.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Vin

I'm sure back in 1900 if you were to tell a resident living along East Hastings what the future would hold for their neighbourhood, he would probably sneer at you like what Warren_C12 is doing now.

Well, there weren't many residents because there were almost no residential buildings until past Dunlevy, and the area you have issues with were all hotels, theatres, and other retail or restaurant businesses.

The very few residents you might find were living across the lane (called Market Alley) from Dupont Street, which today we call East Pender. In 1900 there were three (legal) opium processing plants and a lot of Chinese merchants, some with opium dens and others with illegal gambling rooms in the back.

[1905 street directory]

The 100 block of Dupont had a lot of residents, some like Kitty and Blanche Martin on Market Alley. The 1901 census shows they were mostly female, many came from the USA but some were French, Belgian, Dutch, German and Irish. The census clerk initially wrote 'sport' for their occupation, then crossed it out, but many of the owners had prosecutions for owning a house used for prostitution. The police of the day would carry out raids, but were wary of patrolling the area.

Once opium production was made illegal in 1908, it didn't disappear. The Irving Hotel in the 100 block of E Hastings was known as a source of narcotics in the 1920s. In 1921 the Vancouver's Sun's reporter was able to buy 'dope' openly A young drug addicted woman introduced Wilson to bandleader LC Fernandez, who then sold Wilson $7 worth of cocaine. The detectives later pinched Fernandez, who still had $2 in marked bills on him and claimed the other five went to “higher-ups.”

It hadn't changed in the 1950s "Police Magistrate Oscar Orr was quoted that “It is just as easy to buy drugs at this hotel as it is for a child to buy candy at a store.”

[SpongeG]

heard a quick report on the radio this morning on my commute, there were 60 assaults reported over the 4 days of the weekend. 22 of them were Stranger Assaults. One of them involved a couple walking by Emery Barnes park when some random guy walked up to them and punched the guy for no reason.

here's a report:
https://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/vanc...e,that%20occurred%20over%20the%20weekend.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Well, there weren't many residents because there were almost no residential buildings until past Dunlevy, and the area you have issues with were all hotels, theatres, and other retail or restaurant businesses.

The very few residents you might find were living across the lane (called Market Alley) from Dupont Street, which today we call East Pender. In 1900 there were three (legal) opium processing plants and a lot of Chinese merchants, some with opium dens and others with illegal gambling rooms in the back.

[1905 street directory]

The 100 block of Dupont had a lot of residents, some like Kitty and Blanche Martin on Market Alley. The 1901 census shows they were mostly female, many came from the USA but some were French, Belgian, Dutch, German and Irish. The census clerk initially wrote 'sport' for their occupation, then crossed it out, but many of the owners had prosecutions for owning a house used for prostitution. The police of the day would carry out raids, but were wary of patrolling the area.

Once opium production was made illegal in 1908, it didn't disappear. The Irving Hotel in the 100 block of E Hastings was known as a source of narcotics in the 1920s. In 1921 the Vancouver's Sun's reporter was able to buy 'dope' openly A young drug addicted woman introduced Wilson to bandleader LC Fernandez, who then sold Wilson $7 worth of cocaine. The detectives later pinched Fernandez, who still had $2 in marked bills on him and claimed the other five went to “higher-ups.”

It hadn't changed in the 1950s "Police Magistrate Oscar Orr was quoted that “It is just as easy to buy drugs at this hotel as it is for a child to buy candy at a store.”

Love history tid bits like this. Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[SpongeG]

Letter: I’ve been swarmed and punched in Burnaby’s Metrotown and so I’m moving
Another Metrotown resident steps forward with complaints about crime
Contributed
about 4 hours ago

https://www.burnabynow.com/opinion/lette...Y_Fk2NKXfP00geefHb4c0kHjsG1-CUzMKj2fDtP4

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Letter: I’ve been swarmed and punched in Burnaby’s Metrotown and so I’m moving
Another Metrotown resident steps forward with complaints about crime
Contributed
about 4 hours ago

https://www.burnabynow.com/opinion/lette...Y_Fk2NKXfP00geefHb4c0kHjsG1-CUzMKj2fDtP4

Klazu is that you?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Letter: I’ve been swarmed and punched in Burnaby’s Metrotown and so I’m moving
Another Metrotown resident steps forward with complaints about crime
Contributed
about 4 hours ago

https://www.burnabynow.com/opinion/lette...Y_Fk2NKXfP00geefHb4c0kHjsG1-CUzMKj2fDtP4

Can't even think of the last time i went near HetroTown mall. Place is gross and full of douchebags.

[officedweller]

At Emery Barnes Park:

Vancouver Yaletown swarming attack caught on video
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2022/02/25/vancouver-yaletown-swarming/

[Zepfancouver]

'Vancouver Yaletown swarming attack caught on video' This makes my blood boil
This deserved 5 years, but first...Get both side of the story (blame the victim)
Attackers were under the influence
Attackers have no record
The sentence is probation.

[whatnext]

Emery Barnes Park has become such a dump, literally. A couple weeks ago I went to a movie at VIFF and there was a guy who dropped his pants and shat in one of the garden areas just a few metres from the playground.

[EastVanMark]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Emery Barnes Park has become such a dump, literally. A couple weeks ago I went to a movie at VIFF and there was a guy who dropped his pants and shat in one of the garden areas just a few metres from the playground.

Pictures, or it didn't happen

[logan5]

Originally Posted by Zepfancouver

'Vancouver Yaletown swarming attack caught on video' This makes my blood boil
This deserved 5 years, but first...Get both side of the story (blame the victim)
Attackers were under the influence
Attackers have no record
The sentence is probation.

The worst part was the girl in the offending group filming it. Even when the thugs walked away, she was standing over his unconscious body filming him. And the other person filming from a distance could have called the police. In an incident like this downtown, they can be there in a minute or 2.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

heard a quick report on the radio this morning on my commute, there were 60 assaults reported over the 4 days of the weekend. 22 of them were Stranger Assaults. One of them involved a couple walking by Emery Barnes park when some random guy walked up to them and punched the guy for no reason.

Those are crazy numbers. Completely random stranger violence is totally out of control in Vancouver. Only a fraction of incidents is getting reported due to police inactivity. Some of those crazies seem to be really plaguing Downtown grocery stores. Yikes

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Klazu is that you?

Not sure if you even read what you are commenting on, as there is a name at the end of the opinion piece?

Who am I kidding, of course you did not. But it is indeed sad that filth is overflowing into the good city of Burnaby from neighbouring municipalities.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Anybody who's ever been near the north entrance by the McDonald's any time in the last twenty years (and hence seen its various vagrants, paramedic calls and/or arrests) can testify that Burnaby has never been entirely safe nor entirely good.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by EastVanMark

Pictures, or it didn't happen

[jollyburger]

At least he wasn't slashing people with a knife.

40 minutes of terror: Women chased, assaulted in another Vancouver stranger attack

Vancouver police allege a man chased, attacked and terrorized at least five women and caused major property damage during a chaotic 40 minutes in the Fairview neighbourhood Saturday.

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Police say a 38-year-old man has been arrested after the “unprovoked” and “terrifying” crime spree.

VPD responded to 911 calls at about noon Saturday. Witnesses said a possibly psychotic man was smashing glass and damaging property at Vancouver General Hospital at Oak Street near West Broadway.

“The suspect allegedly approached a 40-year-old woman in her car, made shooting gestures, banged on the vehicle, and tried to open the car door,” said spokeswoman Const. Tania Visintin in a news release.

The woman drove away as the suspect gave chase.

About half an hour later, the suspect chased joggers near the entrance to an apartment building. The joggers, who haven’t been identified by investigators, took refuge inside the building but the suspect smashed the front door trying to get at them.

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“A woman who witnessed that incident was then accosted by the suspect, who allegedly cornered her and demanded her phone,” said Visintin.

The suspect then approached a 25-year-old woman walking along Oak, grabbed her hair and punched her.

She broke free with help from a bystander and “fled to a building with a number of other frightened people, but the suspect allegedly pursued them through the hallways and stairwells of the building while threatening them and brandishing a large piece of broken glass.”

Officers from all over the city swarmed the area and found a suspect near Oak Street and West 10th Avenue. He was arrested after a short struggle and taken to hospital to get treated for glass cuts, “and because officers believed he was in psychosis.”

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He has since been taken to jail.

“Once again, these attacks appear completely unprovoked, and they must have been terrifying for everyone involved,” said Visintin.

She said investigators think there are more victims, some of whom may have “fled in fear” before officers arrived, and likely dozens of witnesses who have information or cellphone footage that could be useful.

Visintin said no one was injured during the “frightening incidents,” but victim services are helping anyone who may have experienced emotional trauma.

Saturday’s mayhem was the latest in a string of unprovoked assaults in Vancouver in recent months.

Three strangers were attacked by a man in downtown Vancouver earlier this month, including a man who was stabbed in the face while sitting in a restaurant. Another stranger stabbing at a downtown coffee shop in January nearly killed a man who had recently arrived in the city from Mexico.

Anyone who saw or was victimized by the most recent violence between noon and 12:45 p.m. Saturday is asked to call the VPD at 604-717-4021.

https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/vancouver-stranger-attack-women-chased-assaulted-fairview