Downtown Eastside - DTES Issues

[240glt]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

but it's erroneous to post-rationalize it as a Chinese-led process.

yes you are right, I typed in haste. I agree it was capitalized in HK, but it's not only fair but true to say that the process was led by the backers of that company, in this case a Canadian company financed by capital from Hong Kong.

The rest of what I wrote stands.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by 240glt

^ ITts well documented. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not true.

It's that age old question: does the end justify the means ? Was it worth it to create all the problems that exist in the DTES by negotiating an extremely questionable and unethical land deal between the province and a Chinese company (with the city of Vancouver complicit) From what I've heard someone should probably have gone to jail for how that all went down. And it's a testament to how we treat people as a society. In this case, push the undesirables north of the Gerogia viaduct so that real estate developers could create the west coast urban utopia that exists there today. The Expo/ Yaletown development is a paradox: it's brought out both the very best and very worst of the city. And yes it comes down to money. And everyone knows where that money went.

Are you saying that the people living in DTES once lived in the present day Yaletown? I suppose they must've been groundhogs since the Expo lands were mostly cleared after Expo 86 was over. Most of the Concord towers were built on cleared Expo lands. I implore you to please come up with something better next time OK?

[Vin]

DTES is byond the Third World. Saw this article and it's worth a read:



What I saw in a day on the Downtown Eastside shocked me
How have we let things go so wrong for Canada’s roughest neighbourhood?
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...de-shocked-me/

MARCUS GEE
VANCOUVER
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 9, 2018
UPDATED NOVEMBER 9, 2018

It’s just another day on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

A young man sits on the wet sidewalk, his legs spread wide, sucking the smoke from a burning fragment of dope with a plastic tube. A man with lank black hair is slumped against a wall, bent over double like a limp marionette, his dangling arm twitching at his side. A woman in skinny jeans, leaning on a storefront, pulls the plunger of a syringe carefully up and down, getting ready to give herself a hit. An open package of dainty cookies lies by her side.

Canada’s opioids crisis has swept like a wildfire from the West Coast to the cities and towns of the East. But in the place where the match first dropped, the fire is still burning hard.

Scores are being killed by the poison in their drugs – their respiration slowing to a halt in an alleyway, a toilet stall or a lonely room. Eleven people died of overdoses in Vancouver in the space of just one awful week this past summer. On a single day, July 24, paramedics responded to 130 suspected-overdose calls. Of the nearly 8,000 such calls last year, about 5,000 were from the Downtown Eastside.

To get a sense for what the crisis looks like at ground zero, I spent a day there last week. This was a rough neighbourhood when I worked briefly at the local courthouse for a Vancouver newspaper in the 1970s, with alcoholics spilling out of the seedy bars, drug-dealing in the alleyways and hundreds of hard-up men living in flophouses. It is far, far worse now.

In the heart of one of the world’s most “livable” cities, just next to the boutiques and bistros of Gastown, shocking scenes of human degradation unfold every day. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it – not in Mumbai or Manila, not in inner-city Detroit or the South Side of Chicago.

On the morning that I arrived, throngs of weathered, wounded people were out on the rain-soaked sidewalks of East Hastings Street, the neighbourhood’s broad central avenue. Some sold pathetic trinkets on the sidewalk. Others huddled in doorways to stay dry. Still others pushed overflowing carts full of belongings. Many were taking their drugs openly on the street.

Trey Helten helped show me around. A towering 35-year-old wearing a biker jacket over a hoodie, he was an addict himself for seven years. He lived the last stretch on the street, homeless, scrounging for the next hit. Now he helps run the Overdose Prevention Society on Hastings.

Users come there to take their drugs under the watchful eyes of OPS staff, who hand out clean syringes and stand ready to intervene with oxygen and the emergency drug naloxone. Mr. Helten wears an oximeter on a lanyard around his neck so he can measure the pulse and oxygen level of visitors who show signs of going under.

The place opens at 8 in the morning, is full by 10 and stays busy till closing at 9. It gets 300 to 400 visitors a day and there are several others like it, including the pioneering Insite just across the street. Are you smokin’ or pokin’? – inhaling or injecting – the staff ask visitors who come to use the lighted cubicles in the society’s outdoor tent. Some do both.

At a second set of cubicles inside, a burly French-Canadian with tattoos up and down his thick arms asked a pal to insert the needle straight into the jugular vein in his neck for a better rush. Before he used, he tested his supply at a new device that uses infrared light to search drugs for additives. It often detects powdered caffeine, sweetener and even drywall dust, used by dealers to bulk up their product.

The site does its best to keep people safe, but many are still succumbing to drugs laced with fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid. Despite its risks – a few grains can be deadly – fentanyl remains a popular drug because it’s so strong. Mr. Helten says some are ecstatic when tests find it in their dose. “It’s what they’re looking for.”

He took me out into the back alley, known as a favourite place to smoke crack-cocaine. A new wall mural shows a weeping angel carrying the Christ-like body of an overdose victim. On it, people have scrawled the names and nicknames of their dead pals: Russian Bobby, Sideshow, Buster, Tito, Fatal, Yaya. Just about everyone down here has lost a friend.

Yet the band plays on. At Hastings and Main, the neighbourhood’s historic heart, a corner man called out “drugs, hard drugs.” A few steps away in “Piss Alley,” named for its notorious stench, a couple of dozen men stood in the rain among the dumpsters and litter – buying, selling, using.

My visit left me reeling. How can it be that, instead of improving in the four decades since I first saw it, this neighbourhood has declined so dramatically? How have so many people come to live in such desolation? How can such a place exist in a country such as Canada?

It’s easy to despair of the Downtown Eastside. It has been so wretched for so long that it is tempting to think it will never change. Before the overdose crisis came the murder of local prostitutes by pig farmer Robert Pickton and the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, many of whom ended up vulnerable and homeless on local streets.

Governments have spent hundreds of millions trying to “fix” the area. Vancouver’s new mayor, Kennedy Stewart, has promised to set up an emergency task force, a gesture that makes those who know the place roll their eyes. The problems here are as complex as they get. The proffered answers – more money for social housing, better education about drugs and their dangers – often seem simplistic.

And yet, giving up on the Downtown Eastside would be an awful mistake. All of the failures of this fortunate, thriving, caring country are on display on these streets: its failure to grapple with the crisis of mental health, its failure to tame the epidemic of drug overdoses, its failure to improve the condition of many Indigenous people, its failure to put a roof over the heads of its neediest citizens.

The suffering of this neighbourhood and its people should weigh on us all.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by 240glt

yes you are right, I typed in haste. I agree it was capitalized in HK, but it's not only fair but true to say that the process was led by the backers of that company, in this case a Canadian company financed by capital from Hong Kong.

The rest of what I wrote stands.

I understand that there were negative impacts on the Downtown Eastside as a result of deciding to hold the World Fair (Expo 86). Those are well documented, especially the evictions of tenants from SRO Hotels, and the unwillingness of the Province to prevent them (despite objections from Vancouver City Council and its Mayor at the time, Mike Harcourt). I don't understand how the subsequent 1988 decision to sell the site to Concord Pacific had any direct impact on the area.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by Vin

Are you saying that the people living in DTES once lived in the present day Yaletown? I suppose they must've been groundhogs since the Expo lands were mostly cleared after Expo 86 was over. Most of the Concord towers were built on cleared Expo lands. I implore you to please come up with something better next time OK?

Just for your own information, because you don’t know much about Vancouver history, Yaletown was a warehouse district where prostitutes use to work. Both male and female.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Vin

Like creating awareness and picking a government that takes more responsibility? Obviously the previous efforts are not working and failing. I already outlined what can be done before, please scroll up to read.

Also, I don't believe in giving out free drugs as meted out by many politicians and NGOs, as this will not solve anything, but delaying the imminent.

Pretty much all you've come up with is forced detox and harsher sentences for dealers. That's going to barely make a dent in the problems of the DTES.

How about some redevelopment so there's more affordable housing in the area? Oh wait except as soon as the word 'redevelopment' comes up a whole bunch of people start protesting, thinking they're going to be pushed out of the area.

You'll notice the other cities in the region don't have one 'big' ghetto area. There are still homeless people and drug problems - they're just in smaller locations spread throughout those cities.

That's just one aspect of undoubtedly many that need to be dealt with. It doesn't help that people in the DTES want change, but they don't want to make a change (see the protesting comment above).

Btw fentanyl is only the current killer drug of choice. I remember clearly when heroin was killing a lot of people in the 90's.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Vin

Are you saying that the people living in DTES once lived in the present day Yaletown? I suppose they must've been groundhogs since the Expo lands were mostly cleared after Expo 86 was over. Most of the Concord towers were built on cleared Expo lands. I implore you to please come up with something better next time OK?

You weren’t around at the time were you ? Clearly not. The whole area east of Hastings was home to those people in a lot of buildings that are no longer there and a lot of buildings that remain. It’s no secret that there was a concentrated effort to move people north of the viaduct in order for what you see now to take place.

I love Vancouver, It’s a spectacular city but things have happened (and are still happening) that have had both been incredibly positive for the city and rather unfortunate, unfair and unjust to Vancouverites. If you don’t recognize that then you’re part of the problem.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Pretty much all you've come up with is forced detox and harsher sentences for dealers. That's going to barely make a dent in the problems of the DTES.

How about some redevelopment so there's more affordable housing in the area? Oh wait except as soon as the word 'redevelopment' comes up a whole bunch of people start protesting, thinking they're going to be pushed out of the area.

You'll notice the other cities in the region don't have one 'big' ghetto area. There are still homeless people and drug problems - they're just in smaller locations spread throughout those cities.

That's just one aspect of undoubtedly many that need to be dealt with. It doesn't help that people in the DTES want change, but they don't want to make a change (see the protesting comment above).

Btw fentanyl is only the current killer drug of choice. I remember clearly when heroin was killing a lot of people in the 90's.

I do agree with more affordable housing development, but that is very expensive, and without forced detox, more would choose to be in the state of being taken care of by the welfare system while under the influence. Why choose a better path when everything else is provided for free by the state? So I say, everything has to be implemented at the same time: modular housing, forced detox, strict enforcement, etc. You can't do one without the other, as history has shown that that will fail.

Heroin kills but not as fast as what is killing addicts now. It is more shocking when people are dropping like flies sprayed with insecticides.

If people don't want change and drag down the neighbourhood and society with them, then big brother needs to step in and set things right. Being tolerant with something as bad as this is just asking for more trouble in the future.

I agree that in other Canadian cities, things are spread out more, but you need to also notice that we are the champion when it comes to death rates of DTES and Vancouver as a whole. So, what's wrong with us Westcoasters, and why can't we solve the lingering problem of DTES? Have people even reflected on this before?


Reddit comments on DTES:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/c...town_eastside/

[Vin]

Originally Posted by 240glt

You weren’t around at the time were you ? Clearly not. The whole area east of Hastings was home to those people in a lot of buildings that are no longer there and a lot of buildings that remain. It’s no secret that there was a concentrated effort to move people north of the viaduct in order for what you see now to take place.

I love Vancouver, It’s a spectacular city but things have happened (and are still happening) that have had both been incredibly positive for the city and rather unfortunate, unfair and unjust to Vancouverites. If you don’t recognize that then you’re part of the problem.

People were evicted from cheap hotels in DTES back then had nothing to do with Concord Pacific building Yaletown like you said it. Tenants were evicted to host the tourists coming in for the Expo. Without the government providing housing for them, naturally many had to be forced out. So what does that have to do with Yaletown, an industrial neighbourhood at the time?

Before the onset of mass immigration, BC's economy was in the doldrums during the 80s. Is that also because of the fault of the Chinese that the government of the day (possibly elected by you) had to take the desperate measure to bring in foreign revenue to this province? What could you have done to be part of the solution then?

DTES is a plague of the present. Blaming the past is not going to make it go away.

Originally Posted by logan5

Just for your own information, because you don’t know much about Vancouver history, Yaletown was a warehouse district where prostitutes use to work. Both male and female.

So since you know so much about Vancouver's history: Did all the prostitutes working from the warehouses live in Yaletown and had to be forced to DTES after a deal was made by the Van der Zalm government and Chinese-backed Concord Pacific as per allegations by 240glt? How many people actually lived in those warehouses and had to be forced out?

[Vin]

HOW DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER’S EASTSIDE BECAME WHAT IT IS TODAY
https://604now.com/vancouver-downtown-eastside/
Aliya Hussein | @aliyazhussein | April 10, 2018

Vancouver is often labelled as one of the best cities in the world, or one with the highest quality of living. But what doesn’t get talked about as much is the city’s dark secret: the Downtown Eastside.

It’s a common stereotype that East Hastings street in Vancouver is filled with narcotics and homelessness, but how did it come to be like that?


The Beginnings

While Downtown Eastside technically refers to all of Chinatown, Gastown, Strathcona, and east of the main business district in the downtown area, it’s usually referred to as the stretch of land that goes about 10 blocks, East Hastings onwards.

It was Vancouver’s first urban area, holding some of the most important buildings to this day, including City Hall and what we now know as the Carnegie Centre. The Downtown Eastside was originally the central hub for everything cultural and political – the sawmills that were in Gastown helped build a commercial sector.

There were banks, theatres, head offices, and hotels, and more. One of the more noteworthy buildings was Woodward’s, the iconic department store.

During the initial settlers arrival and during the Depression, there was a large immigration influx from China and Japan, creating a ‘Japantown’ in the Eastside.

According to an article from the Vancouver Sun, Japantown was often referred to as Little Tokyo. There was still a lot of racism going on within the area, with the early 1900’s breaking out in Anti-Asian riots.

“The police on the scene were utterly unable to cope with the mass of struggling, cursing, shouting (rioters who) surged back and forth under the glare of the street arc lights.”

At the time, Downtown Eastside was known as ‘Skid Row’, another name for an impoverished area – making it affordable for anyone to live. In addition to being the cultural and entertainment hub, it also harboured a multitude of brothels and bars.

Due to the Japanese internment camps that the Canadian government enforced during World War II, a majority of the Japanese population were forced out of the area.


The Development Of Downtown Eastside

Business shifted Westwards towards Granville and Coal Harbour after World War II, especially after the Electric Railway shut down. Its main stop was at the corner of Carrall and Hastings.

Not only that, but the construction of the courthouse in 1906 on Georgia Street was a giant factor in the shift in business. The library, one of the well-known buildings in the area, was moved to the corner of Burrard and Robson, and offices started following suit.

There was still an abundance of people in the Downtown Eastside, but over time, the Eastside started to decline. More and more people started arriving in the area due to the affordable, low-income housing.

While still relatively stable, the 1980’s were what really caused the East Hastings area to start deteriorating.

Expo 86 was one of the most monumental events to happen in Vancouver, which was when the gentrification of Downtown Eastside began. An influx of tourists meant eviction of locals living in the Downtown Eastside residential hotels, to make room for possible business.

An article from CBC cited that “probably from February 1986 through March and in the beginning of April – that’s when 800 to 1,000 evictions happened, and they happened very fast.”

High tourist traffic meant that it was the optimum time for drug traffic. Dealers were producing cocaine and heroine faster than ever, which meant a higher intake from users. And, the police focused on trying to catch the dealers instead of of users.

Not only that, but the de-institutionization of psychiatric hospitals from lack of public funding in the 1970’s forced them out of their living quarters and into the Downtown Eastside, which contained an abundance of low-income housing.

“It was just chaotic. People would come in and say, ‘I’ve been told I have to get out of my place. I’m not sure where I should go. Where should I sleep tonight?'”


The 1990’s

The drug problem worsened in the 90’s, with more and more cocaine appearing the Eastside midway through the 1990s.

The retail and entertainment hub was no longer, due to storefronts being shut down. Also, a lack of low-income housing being switched out for higher-end condominiums and hotels.

In 1993, the Woodward’s on Hastings Street went out of business. This caused a domino effect, resulting in multiple shopping fronts to close as well.

In 1997, a public health emergency was declared in the Downtown Eastside. The drug problem had grown worse than ever. HIV started to spread, needle-sharing became more prominent, and approximately 1000 people died of drug overdose.


Present Day

Today, the drug problem still exists in the Eastside.

There are several programs in effect right now to try and decrease drug usage; they hope to ensure that users are being safe about their products. According to a report, needles can hold up to 20 blood-borne diseases, including HIV and Hepatitis C.

For example, a program called InSite, got introduced to the Eastside. It’s a legal way to inject heroin. Nurses offer free, clean syringes with an in-house rehab centre for those who want to try and get clean.

Not only that, but there are several initiatives being put in place to try and revitalize the Downtown Eastside and increase a positive outlook towards the area.

The site where Woodward’s used to be has now been turned into a multi-complex space, used for market and non-market housing, the Simon Fraser University for Contemporary Arts, retail, and community space.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Article confirms 240's argument. Hastings has been bad for years, it's just only gotten worse and worse recently. First comment on the Reddit link: "It's been like this for as long as I can remember - not sure why it's news now."

Many homeless are already clean, or they would like to quit or get a job if they could find a home, or they're trying to quit right now and need enough places for that. Characterizing ALL of them as violent, antisocial moochers is just as irresponsible as the opposite.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Vin

People were evicted from cheap hotels in DTES back then had nothing to do with Concord Pacific building Yaletown like you said it. Tenants were evicted to host the tourists coming in for the Expo. Without the government providing housing for them, naturally many had to be forced out. So what does that have to do with Yaletown, an industrial neighbourhood at the time?

That's not true. From the west edge of the Expo site all the way up to Granville was occupied, either with warehouses, SRO's, parking lots and commercial buildings while Expo was going on. the concerted effort to push the "undesirables" north came after Expo was done and the vision for what is current Yaletown had already been decided. I was there during that time, I saw it first hand.

Before the onset of mass immigration, BC's economy was in the doldrums during the 80s.

I've got news for you champ, BC's economy was never all that great. It's been that way for decades.

Is that also because of the fault of the Chinese that the government of the day (possibly elected by you) had to take the desperate measure to bring in foreign revenue to this province? What could you have done to be part of the solution then?

LOL. wow you're crazy

DTES is a plague of the present. Blaming the past is not going to make it go away.

People who ignore history are bound to repeat it.

DTES right now is a plague. It didn't just become like that overnight. There were a variety of factors that made it this way. One of those factors is how the entrenched population was compressed there due to surrounding development, mainly from the south. If you can't acknowledge that then there is no reasoning with you because you refuse to accept the truth

[Migrant_Coconut]

Question: how much of Hogan's Alley ended up on Hastings?

[Vin]

Are we going through the same problem as Seattle? This is certainly a North American scourge, and has affected Vancouver much more than any other Canadian cities.

• Video Link

Sobering, isn't it?

[Vin]

Sobering indeed.

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Chinatown store owner says the Downtown Eastside has 'broken him'

BY JONATHAN SZEKERES AND LASIA KRETZEL
Posted Apr 8, 2019 9:11 pm PDT Last Updated Apr 9, 2019

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A store owner in Chinatown says his shop has been under constant attack since it opened a year and a half ago, and the Downtown Eastside has “broken him.”

Kevin Williams says he’s had to break up drug deals and drug use on his door-step and he’s been called racist and homophobic names. He’s even seen an elderly woman spit on.

“No one stopped, no one did anything,” Williams said. “Obviously she was affected by it and she was angry, but she just walked away. She didn’t want to call the police, she didn’t want to do anything.”

His store has been hit with vandalism, theft, and apathy.

“I’ve had five windows smashed, I’ve had my sandwich board smashed,” he said. “Someone tried to steal it the other day.”

He says he understands many in the area are facing issues like poverty, or drug addiction, but he’s running out of patience.

“I’ve had people try and steal, walking in the store and steal, I’ve had people throw punches at me.”

...

https://www.citynews1130.com/2019/04...as-broken-him/

I guess if we don't get tough with this problem, it won't stop. In fact, will get worse and keep spreading to other areas. Kind reminds me of what is happening to once peaceful Maple Ridge:

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/home...le-ridge-mayor

Homelessness and addiction 'raping and pillaging' his city says Metro Vancouver mayor

The mayor of a city in Metro Vancouver isn’t mincing words when it comes to speaking about the issue of homelessness and drug addiction in his community.

“People are dying and this is not working well,” he said. “Tent cities are extremely dangerous environments; there’s a lot of crime that’s generated.”

The mayor noted that in Maple Ridge’s tent city alone, “there’s over 800 crime files that have been generated in less than two years, and police are in there at least once a day.”

In an interview on YouTube, Morden said the issue is beyond just people simply needing a place to live, though – it’s about untreated issues around severe addictions and mental health.

“I would say that the numbers are fairly clear,” said Morden. “We’re talking about 80% of the population that’s out there on the streets is addicted to fentanyl.”

And it’s the drug addiction issue that has led to the seemingly endless cycle of homelessness, rising crime rates, and a tent city that seems to be entrenched in the community.

“I see us becoming, for some reason, a hot spot in the Lower Mainland for people coming here, to carry on doing drugs and basically raping and pillaging all of our community and our businesses and that’s got to stop,” he said. “People do not have to put up with that. They didn’t come to a community like this in order to raise a family and have to worry about needles everywhere and all the crime.”

Morden said the fact of the matter “is that there’s an awful lot of Kool-Aid being fed down to some people that are in a serious predicament in their lives.”

In turn, “everyone’s being preyed upon by a criminal network in order to keep people in a state of addiction, and we need to continually offer a way out for people; they need those options.”

Morden said the people of his community have been clear.

“We’re caring, we want to solve the problem, but we will do so in a way that’s going to work for us and deliver good end results for us and the people.”

Housing First model “doesn’t work”
Morden’s comments come in the middle of a standoff between the BC government and the city council, following a decision by the province to approve another low-barrier shelter in a neighbourhood close to a daycare and senior centre.

The shelter model, dubbed “Housing First,” simply doesn’t work without all four support pillars in place, said Morden.

“We’re housing people behind four walls and a door, and we’re expecting them to get better,” he said. “In trying to solve this problem, it’s clearly not happening when we look into other communities, as well as our own stats; we aren’t seeing people move their way out a drug problem.”

Morden said the city currently has three facilities operating under this model, and “all-in-all we’re doing an awful lot of our share in the region, and we feel that we’ve done more than our share.”

Still, he said, “people keep coming to our community and we just can’t seem to be able to keep on top of it, which again, is largely an addictions problem.”

In the case of his city’s current shelters, “crime numbers are through the roof, there are arrests and people are continuing to be in a state of addiction.”

The bottom line, he added, is that people are dying, and “in order to get people the help that they need and advance them forward, we need all the pieces working together.”

And while Morden said he’s “happy to support people that are in our community and assist them into services,” he noted that a lot of information has suggested that people are coming to the community from out of town, which has compounded the homelessness problem and addictions issue.

“I’m not sure why we’re a magnet for this problem, but we are,” he said.

[Vin]

How often do we see the VPD cops doing beat patrols on the streets all over the DTES? And is the judicial system being too lenient on our criminal elements?


https://www.citynews1130.com/2019/04...as-broken-him/


Chinatown store owner says the Downtown Eastside has 'broken him'

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A store owner in Chinatown says his shop has been under constant attack since it opened a year and a half ago, and the Downtown Eastside has “broken him.”

Kevin Williams says he’s had to break up drug deals and drug use on his door-step and he’s been called racist and homophobic names. He’s even seen an elderly woman spit on.

“No one stopped, no one did anything,” Williams said. “Obviously she was affected by it and she was angry, but she just walked away. She didn’t want to call the police, she didn’t want to do anything.”

His store has been hit with vandalism, theft, and apathy.

“I’ve had five windows smashed, I’ve had my sandwich board smashed,” he said. “Someone tried to steal it the other day.”

He says he understands many in the area are facing issues like poverty, or drug addiction, but he’s running out of patience.

“I’ve had people try and steal, walking in the store and steal, I’ve had people throw punches at me.”

Williams posted his plea to reddit, where it quickly went viral. He’s hoping the City of Vancouver or the police department can do more to try and protect people like himself. He’s also planning to speak with other business owners in the area to see if they can come up with a plan together.

The VPD says the Downtown Eastside is a “very complex environment” and there are “unique public safety challenges.”

The department acknowledges there are high levels of poverty, addiction, and mental health issues in the neighbourhood, as well as a lot of property crime and “street disorder.”

It says dedicated officers have been in the area for several years on foot.

“They provide a visible presence and work hard to proactively address issues around property crime, street disorder and violence,” said Sgt. Jason Robillard.

He says while officers reach out to homeless people or those living with mental illness and addictions, they also keep in touch with the business community.

“We are concerned about the challenges faced by the store owner in the social media post and encourage him to reach out to us so we can help. We have also provided the post to our front line officers for follow up.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comments from the Vancouver Police Department.

[Vin]

This has got to stop....


https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/sawu...vancouver-2019

Thousands of dollars stolen from Ugandan children's choir visiting Vancouver

A crowdfunding campaign has been started for a children’s choir from Uganda who were robbed while visiting Vancouver this weekend to raise money for healthcare and education.

The Sawuti Children’s Choir travelled all the way from Uganda to raise money for Seven Wells, an organization that sponsors children and builds schools in Africa, as well as providing healthcare and discipleship.

The group will be touring for six months across Canada and their Vancouver show was their first stop.


On Saturday after the show, their truck was broken into while parked at the corner of West Pender and Abbott streets in Gastown, with the thief taking thousands of dollars that they had already raised, along with the computers storing all their music.

Vancouver Police are investigating the incident, which they say happened just before 1 p.m. Saturday.

No arrests have been made.

[WarrenC12]

There's a stage of apathy by law enforcement (or politicians) where vigilantes begin to act. I wonder how far we are from that.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

There's a stage of apathy by law enforcement (or politicians) where vigilantes begin to act. I wonder how far we are from that.

Even my most progressive and liberal of friends are finally starting to come around to the idea that maybe after 30 years of trying one way, its time to try another, slightly more "tough love" approach.

I suspect if this doesn't get handled on a political level in the next couple of years, it will start to be handled by neighbourhood groups with a little bit more hands on approach to local policing.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

There's a stage of apathy by law enforcement (or politicians) where vigilantes begin to act. I wonder how far we are from that.

Sad, really. I'm compiling a bunch of busted windows and doors boarded by plywood that I see while walking around downtown so far this year, and have about ten of them. I'm thinking if I should send them all over to Dailyhive so that they can publish them for all to see and ponder what is really happening downtown.

I totally support vigilante groups.

Would Block Watch sanctioned by the VPD and City Hall be considered as one?

https://vancouver.ca/police/communit...tch/index.html