Vancouver welcomes the world
You know how when company is coming you shove everything into closets and close the door, pretending that the mess doesn’t exist? Well some busybodies have been opening up our closed doors instead of just enjoying the fruit punch:
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Five blocks away from the venue for Vancouver’s Olympic opening ceremonies, four grizzled addicts huddle in the rain, injecting themselves with heroin behind a trash bin.
Welcome to Downtown Eastside. Here, life is gritty, volatile and the slightest misstep can invite brutal retaliation.
“It’s a jungle,” said Glen, a 49-year-old heroin addict who goes by the street name Trouble. “You want to get out of here.”
That’s from an article over at MSNBC, and it doesn’t really improve after that:
As Vancouver prepares for the Olympics and the descent of the world’s media, the Downtown Eastside remains a huge problem — 15 square blocks of despair, squalid rooming houses and alleys populated by thousands of addicts, the homeless, the mentally ill and the drug dealers who prey on them.
This neighborhood is the most concentrated drug and poverty ghetto in North America, with high use of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, according to criminologist Benedikt Fischer of Simon Fraser University. It’s also the only place in North America where drug addicts can shoot heroin into their veins at an officially sanctioned injection site.
Now why would a US news outlet want to make our city look bad? I have a theory. MSNBC is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC. I suspect that Bill Gates is jealous of our property values, particularly since the Seattle market has dropped so much, and he’s pulling some strings to make us look bad. Everyone who lives here knows you don’t go down to Main and Hastings unless you want to score some junk or catch a hot new disease, so what’s the big deal?
Well that theory explains the yanks anyways, but what’s with the British? They’re taking their potshots too, and we’re supposed to be on the same side! We’re part of the commonwealth! We’ve got the queen on our currency!
Conservative estimates now speculate that the games will cost upwards of $6bn, with little chance of a return. This titanic act of fiscal malfeasance includes a security force that was originally budgeted at $175m, but has since inflated to $900m. With more than 15,000 members, it’s the largest military presence seen in western Canada since the end of the second world war, an appropriate measure only if one imagines al-Qaida are set to descend from the slopes on C2-strapped snowboards. With a police officer on every corner and military helicopters buzzing overhead, Vancouver looks more like post-war Berlin than an Olympic wonderland.
That’s from the Guardian article Vancouver’s Olympics are heading for disaster. You know what I think? I think everybody is just jealous.
Thanks to G and jjss for the links!
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:18 am
I should add, the CMHC is actually nearly 65 years old (maybe that's the problem, it's going prematurely senile?) it's just the CMHC backed mortgages that are 25 years old.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 am
@patriotz:
I think he's referring to the introduction of Mortgage insurance by the CMHC, which does go back 25 years and he's suggesting the last 40 years as a total graph to look at so there's some stable period before, then a very noticeable uptick in prices about 25 years ago. That's how I read it anyhow.
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:21 am
@domus:
40 years ago single income households were still the norm. The rise of dual income households since that time is a fundamental support for higher real house prices.
I think you're on more solid ground if you go back 25 years, since dual income households have been the norm for new homeowners since the boomers started working.
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:09 am
@Boombust:
But you see license plates in DC that say "America's Last Colony" (on the plate holder actually, it's a statement from the residents), not "The Best Place on Earth".
And I don't think you'd see the residents of DC voting 2/3 to host the Olympics any time soon.
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:02 am
@ReductiMat (quoting poverty advocate):
What did I tell you? But everyone knows that the farmworkers (who make less than minimum wage), the people working at McD's, etc, all have somewhere to live.
And we know that real rents are lower than a generation ago, when there was far less homelessness. And that supply of shelter is growing faster than demand.
Address the real problems.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:12 am
Fuk u dikwad 53 u not be me. I neva go down, just like Vacover house price.
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 am
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/22868-…
"They'll tell you homelessness is about addictions and mental illness, but that's not true. It's about housing supply, not enough homes for low-income people," explains Pedersen.
Sounds like Wendy Pedersen has the answer. All they need is homes on the East Side of Vancouver and all their problems dissapear.
Please note, we must supply with them with shelter on the East Side of Vancouver.
Also note, I must be supplied with one Red Ferrari.
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:19 am
The Nazi Mayor of seatsniffery & Vision Vancouver Party has announced that the CCTV cameras that were first announced as 'temporary security for the Olympics' have been announced today as permanent.
Greggy Robertson and his flouncing followers fancy dress thier way to total power. Zieg Heil Greggy Roberts, Obergrupenfurher of the foo-foo bee-cee-clettes seatless post riders brigade. Zieg Heil Vision Vanshithole.
What was that other syphlitic cabal that took over when the sheeple were sleeping?
If you voted for any of these clowns you should consider ending it.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:57 pm
@FORREST: and all,
I know you guys are in sort of bubbly chord and then I start screwing up your brains.
Sorry for bothering you for last few days.
Best Regard
Informer 10 gone forever.
bye! bye.
Dave,ThePope,Drachen,Patriotz,,Sofia,BDK,Supraboy,Browntown.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Informer 10:
Take some ESL classes. Jeez, wtf are you trying to say?
February 1st, 2010 at 11:35 pm
@VRENGD: Interest rates can only move up to form a line with economy progress,there is no provision to form sepration without re-installation.
When economy goes up it will definitley increase the inflation rates and Banks must act to control inflation.
The only situations that can ever arise without gauge of economy recovery is that if for some reason consumer goods are hard to receive for example: limited excess to the area where consumers lives,disatour area where no help is reachable,Where government have no control to nab down prices,If storage centre is empty and can't be fill up due to restriction of supply for consumer goods,Import restrictions or conflicts etc.
Unless or otherwise
Model A
Economy down
Employment down
Inflation down
Interest rates down
Model B
Economy UP
Employment UP
Inflation UP
Interest rates UP