Vancouver: Paradise City Blighted By Urban Misery

<blockquote> UN report calls Vancouver a 'paradise' city blighted by urban misery of Downtown Eastside </blockquote> I think there is much to be said about <b>sub</b>-urban blight as well........but because we all aspire to be suburbanites, not much is being said about the coming "hell in paradise" we call suburbia.<p>And what is this "drug-drenched" reference? It implies no one else in our society uses drugs. Is this just another precursor to ramping up the so-called War on Drugs.....?</p> <p>---<br>"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." <br />
-Max Planck<br />
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What is the point of this story and whay was it offered?

it is only out of Curiosity I ask.

Skid row has been a part of Vancouver damned near from its conception and so that is not the news, is it?
And in all these decades of misery there where have been the social services to address the poverty?
Or the alcoholism ?
Or heroin abuse?
And what of those who live off the people in the Lower Eastside, the drug stores that in the early 1950’s and before that sold ‘outfits’ to the junkies?
Or Agnes Kripps’ the Socred whose hubby sold cut , jelly caps, and other paraphernalia where to be had at their Granville St “drug” store.

Which political regime was it that closed Colony farms and abandoned the mentally ill that ended up in the lower Eastside?
Blame the victims!


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I gazed at every mirror on the planet, not one gave back my reflection - Jorge Luis Borges

Yep interesting timing indeed for releasing this story. The surface skin story of Vancouver is very pretty but hides many ills once starting to scratch through the surface as in LA. No wonder the movie industry has done well here too.

I figured that the amount of money laundering occuring in Vancouver to afford the place and all of those that join the folly are unreal. That much money has got to let some big scars somewhere. I often feel that Vancouver is sucking up all the money on this planet keeping the illusion of the unburstable bubble alive.

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"We are all in this together somehow, some more than others somehow"

Will Campbell's government bus the homeless out for the Olympics? So far the plan don't included them. Some had housing but that housing is considered too important for the games. The petty cash for dinning and wining by the various committees, would be enough to accommodate those wanting shelter. A wealthy city with a wealthy provincial government, see's no merit in assisting those without money. Some facade will be created when the crowds arrive.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

Besides..........Lorne Mayencourt has the answer:<br />
<a href="http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/letters/story.html?id=7ca18098-1fdb-47ac-94f6-0378271c2ff0">http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/letters/story.html?id=7ca18098-1fdb-47ac-94f6-0378271c2ff0</a><p>---<br>"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." <br />
-Max Planck<br />
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