Public Disorder & the Decline of Vancouver's Livability

[whatnext]

Since we have some sensitive cartographic souls who cannot stomach discussing anything in the DTES thread that doesn't fall with in strict boundaries it seems another thread on the growing street disorder and its impact on livability is required. Today's entry:

Vancouver driver hurt in 'violent and unprovoked assault'
BY HANA MAE NAS
Posted Aug 20, 2021

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A driver in Vancouver was hurt in what’s being described by police as a “violent and unprovoked assault by a panhandler.”

It happened on Aug. 6 around 1 p.m. along West Georgia Street by the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Police say the 25-year-old was driving west when a man approached the front of the car on foot.

Video shows the incident unfolding, with the suspect, who police repeatedly refer to as a “panhandler,” standing in front of the vehicle in the middle of the road, not letting the driver move forward. The man is then seen yelling, becoming increasingly agitated. Police say he was asking for money when he starting acting erratically.

“The driver managed to manoeuver away. That’s when the suspect allegedly hurled a bottle through the driver’s window and struck him in the head,” said VPD Sgt. Steve Addison.....

https://www.citynews1130.com/2021/08...-hurt-assault/

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Since we have some sensitive cartographic souls who cannot stomach discussing anything in the DTES thread that doesn't fall with in strict boundaries it seems another thread on the growing street disorder and its impact on livability is required. Today's entry:

It's not unreasonable that a thread about the DTES should be about that and not about things that happen in other areas.

[Vin]

There goes our historic Chinatown.

With the DTES just right next door, chauvinistic NGOs and Nimbys not wanting change in Chinatown, and the City not enforcing its own laws and bylaws, that's what we get. I seriously saw shell-shocked visitors, presumably from other parts of Canada, walk back from Chinatown with aghast faces when I was in the International Village area a couple of weeks ago.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/l...-dying-3882162

[rofina]

This will be a good one.

I look forward to documenting the monumental amount of crime in DT only to have the usual crowd here tell me its not only no worse, but better or the same as always.

Lol. Yah. Right.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by rofina

This will be a good one.

I look forward to documenting the monumental amount of crime in DT only to have the usual crowd here tell me its not only no worse, but better or the same as always.

Lol. Yah. Right.

Yeah. Dumb pride wouldn't help here because the municipal government will only take action if there is a huge public outcry regarding the current situation. The meek gets nothing.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by rofina

This will be a good one.

I look forward to documenting the monumental amount of crime in DT only to have the usual crowd here tell me its not only no worse, but better or the same as always.

Lol. Yah. Right.

Well second year in a row (2020 latest stats) that Vancouver is second in crime severity index in Metro Vancouver, second only to City of Langley (not township). Violent crime seems to be pretty high compared to other cities in the region (and in BC in general). Heck even the coyotes are biting people these days in Vancouver...

The dangerous suburbs are for the most part considerably lower CSI wise than Vancouver. Heck even Surrey for multiple years in a row has lower crime rates in all three categories (overall, violent, and non-violent) despite people's perception, and it ranks about middle of the pack too if you take all of Canada into account.

[rofina]

And again, to no ones surprise, the tragedy continues to unfold. NOT SAFE FOR WORK IMAGES.

https://twitter.com/JayeeSofi/status...82649149546506

[Vin]

Originally Posted by rofina

And again, to no ones surprise, the tragedy continues to unfold. NOT SAFE FOR WORK IMAGES.

https://twitter.com/JayeeSofi/status...82649149546506

People are commenting that the Overdose Prevention Centre is making Yaletown very unsafe.

The City and staff can't even control what goes on outside their premises. There are often addicts passing out, faeces, strewn used needles, garbage, tents, etc. littered around the OPS building. The laneway attracts addicts shooting up as well. You get children playing with the parents, as well as dogs running around in the dog park just across the street at Emily Barnes. What were they thinking when they decided to locate the centre here?

I propose to have this place shut down until authorities can guarantee all these bad elements are removed. DTES is already bad enough and those clowns are thinking of exporting the rot and decay to the the highest density enclaves of the city. Why don't they just have it located outside City Hall?

[whatnext]

The rot in Kennedy Stewart's Vancouver continues:


Mike Klassen
@MikeKlassen
Here’s what John from @MarquisWineCell arrived to find at dawn this morning. Apparently several windows on the block got the same treatment. Unreal.

https://twitter.com/MikeKlassen/stat...38825142493190

[rofina]

Originally Posted by whatnext

The rot in Kennedy Stewart's Vancouver continues:


Mike Klassen
@MikeKlassen
Here’s what John from @MarquisWineCell arrived to find at dawn this morning. Apparently several windows on the block got the same treatment. Unreal.

https://twitter.com/MikeKlassen/stat...38825142493190

Follow up article from Daily Hive;

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/stor...obbed-west-end

And a Tweet from George Affleck echoing what so many of us on this forum have been saying, only to be ridiculed by a few regulars here who continue to claim all is not only great, but better than ever.

George Affleck;

I’ve lived downtown for 30 of the last 35 years. I can say with certainty the last 3 years has seen the steepest decline in all areas in every corner of Vancouver’s downtown. #vanpoli

https://twitter.com/george_affleck/s...obbed-west-end

We now have a decade of decline, and instead of getting together to do better for all, were still debating if things are in decline. Absurd, embarrassing, and frankly painfully disappointing for us as a whole.

All of you covering for this, and the poverty pimps in particular, I hope karma rolls right over you.

This is a problem in the making since long before Covid, but like everything else, Covid has been an accelerant, but it cannot serve as an excuse, the decisions that are leading to this outcome long predate Covid.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by whatnext

The rot in Kennedy Stewart's Vancouver continues:


Mike Klassen
@MikeKlassen
Here’s what John from @MarquisWineCell arrived to find at dawn this morning. Apparently several windows on the block got the same treatment. Unreal.

https://twitter.com/MikeKlassen/stat...38825142493190

Hi there, neighbour. As a relatively recent returnee to Canada from 22 years overseas, and arrival back in Vancouver itself just this year, I'm a total neophyte as much as I ever was.
The emoticons, therefore, are not contradictive, but rather simply question marks. What the cause of whom, and why, under what policies?? Honest, I don't know. If someone could provide a background narrative, that'd be super for me and probably appreciated by the forum !!

[rofina]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Hi there, neighbour. As a relatively recent returnee to Canada from 22 years overseas, and arrival back in Vancouver itself just this year, I'm a total neophyte as much as I ever was.
The emoticons, therefore, are not contradictive, but rather simply question marks. What the cause of whom, and why, under what policies?? Honest, I don't know. If someone could provide a background narrative, that'd be super for me and probably appreciated by the forum !!

It could start with a relatively simple problem, with a simple solution.

There is a percentage of the homeless or unhoused population that is criminal.

If I'm guessing it a low single digit percentage, meaning that a few dozen individuals are responsible for a disproportionately large amount of crime in the City.

These people thanks to places like Pivot Legal Society and others continue to be released after committing crimes, over and over again. No shortage of folks being detained for the 20, 30, 40th time.

These are career criminals who know how to game the system to continue on in their ways.

First step; incarcerate these people.

I want to reiterate for clarity; this is not a blanket solution. The vast majority of DTES folks need a solution that goes far beyond prison. But a non zero population require to be locked up.

This one action alone would prevent millions in property damage, prevent wasted police time, and provide an invaluably positive service to the community and city as a whole.

[s211]

Originally Posted by rofina

First step; incarcerate these people.

100%

Why should the VAST majority of the citizenry watch their city turn to shit, and accept some crack addict's supposed right to make the world worse for the rest of us? Pivot Legal is just one of the cancers rotting our city away.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by rofina

There is a percentage of the homeless or unhoused population that is criminal. If I'm guessing it a low single digit percentage, meaning that a few dozen individuals are responsible for a disproportionately large amount of crime in the City.

I think you are being very, very generous with your guesstimate.

It boggles my mind how afraid of few poverty activist idiots everyone is being to not dare speak truth about the problem. Hundreds of billions have been invested in Downtown in the past 30 years and it is all turning to shit and FAST.

If rich people and construction companies are as influential as everyone always claim them being, how the heck are they letting this happen to their home and massive investments?!? We also have a large and affluent Asian population, of which the majority is not being woke. How are these groups not putting a lot of pressure and donation money behind ousting every single clown at the City Hall?

[SpongeG]

there was less than 40% voter turnout in the last municipal election, people must not care.

[Vin]

Most people could care less as long as they have their own nice clean and quiet NIMBY zones to live in. The extremely loud NIMBYs will elect puppet clowns to represent the city because they can push forward their agenda of not letting more people come into their communities. For example, IMHO the Viewcone policy is only a pretext to limit the number of newcomers residing in Vancouver proper. These mostly wealthy privileged yahoos and geezers just need to sell their ideas (viewcones, shadowing, traffic impact, congestions, etc.) to simpletons and then nobody else gets in their way, because, you know, they know better. What's worse is that they make the City clowns concentrate the worst of Vancouver (or even the province) in the downtown area so that their own neighbourhoods are always pristine. NIMBYs know that if these areas are allowed to be densified, ie. to let downtown expand, the middle class and even underprivileged will be distributed to their neighbourhoods too. Ever wondered why there are no subsidized housing modular containers in Shaughnessey or Point Grey (Kitsilano)?

Time to change all that.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Vin

Most people could care less as long as they have their own nice clean and quiet NIMBY zones to live in. The extremely loud NIMBYs will elect puppet clowns to represent the city because they can push forward their agenda of not letting more people come into their communities. For example, IMHO the Viewcone policy is only a pretext to limit the number of newcomers residing in Vancouver proper. These mostly wealthy privileged yahoos and geezers just need to sell their ideas (viewcones, shadowing, traffic impact, congestions, etc.) to simpletons and then nobody else gets in their way, because, you know, they know better. What's worse is that they make the City clowns concentrate the worst of Vancouver (or even the province) in the downtown area so that their own neighbourhoods are always pristine.

Time to change that.

LOL pretty sure "newcomers" have been buying up whatever they like.

25-year-old internal memo to Canada Revenue Agency predicted foreign money distorting housing market
MIKE HAGER, VANCOUVER
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

An internal Canada Revenue Agency audit concluded 25 years ago that wealthy new immigrants were buying up most of the priciest houses taken from a sample in and around Vancouver while declaring poverty on their tax returns. But the report was not made public until a five-year access-to-information battle concluded recently.

Housing and immigration academics say the study could have warned the public about the scale of foreign money being parked in Metro Vancouver’s residential real estate – decades before the provincial government began taking meaningful action to slow this trend...

The audit focused on 328 higher-end sales in the suburbs Burnaby and Coquitlam, but the study also analyzed a random sample of 6,060 sales from Vancouver and neighbouring Richmond and discovered “similar demographic results.”

Of the 46 houses bought in Burnaby, staff found 72 per cent were purchased by new arrivals to Vancouver who reported an average total family income of just $16,000. In contrast, the CRA’s chart from the audit showed four buyers who were long-term residents reported average family incomes that were tens of thousands of dollars higher....

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...icted-foreign/

[Vin]

Originally Posted by whatnext

LOL pretty sure "newcomers" have been buying up whatever they like.

25-year-old internal memo to Canada Revenue Agency predicted foreign money distorting housing market
MIKE HAGER, VANCOUVER
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

An internal Canada Revenue Agency audit concluded 25 years ago that wealthy new immigrants were buying up most of the priciest houses taken from a sample in and around Vancouver while declaring poverty on their tax returns. But the report was not made public until a five-year access-to-information battle concluded recently.

Housing and immigration academics say the study could have warned the public about the scale of foreign money being parked in Metro Vancouver’s residential real estate – decades before the provincial government began taking meaningful action to slow this trend...

The audit focused on 328 higher-end sales in the suburbs Burnaby and Coquitlam, but the study also analyzed a random sample of 6,060 sales from Vancouver and neighbouring Richmond and discovered “similar demographic results.”

Of the 46 houses bought in Burnaby, staff found 72 per cent were purchased by new arrivals to Vancouver who reported an average total family income of just $16,000. In contrast, the CRA’s chart from the audit showed four buyers who were long-term residents reported average family incomes that were tens of thousands of dollars higher....

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...icted-foreign/

Oh, but of course there are others who love the wealthy newcomers to purchase homes in their area. They can sell their own houses passed down through generations and make a huge profit! Why not?

As per my previous posting, I don't mean wealthy newcomers, but the working class and underprivileged who are unable to come live here. Hence Vancouver West is filled with mostly rich immigrants, and almost no other categories of newcomers. By letting the rich come in, many ex-residents are able to retire comfortably elsewhere. Many of those who choose to stay, like yourself, are hostile to any change: good or bad. Don't worry, in due time, the wealthy "newcomers" will eventually turn into NIMBYs too, and they will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with yourself.

[SpongeG]

how does a very small percentage of the population get to live without laws or rules or being a better member of society? who funds pivot legal etc?

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

how does a very small percentage of the population get to live without laws or rules or being a better member of society? who funds pivot legal etc?

Do we really think a non-profit that represents people who can't pay for legal counsel is part of the problem? Everyone deserves a lawyer who fights on their behalf. Everyone in Canada has the right to a fair trial. It's not like the lawyers at Pivot are getting rich on their "clients" who can't afford to pay the legal fees?