by Sean Orr | From a local magazine start-up called Hush: “Every Vancouverite knows the deal with East Hastings and Main: it’s fucked. Plain and simple. Typical reasons to be in this neighborhood [sic] probably include: crack, sex and a possible death wish.” Wait…what? A lot of people live on the DTES, and the reasons are neither “typcial” nor “plain and simple”. They have more to do with systemic neglect of our native population; a history of land speculation that left Strathcona isolated; the transition from tram-serviced neighbourhoods to an inner-city created by sprawl; the banks abandoning the intersection; the migration of City Hall to the geographic centre of the city; the war on drugs which actually started in Chinatown (when William Lyon Mackenzie King institued the country’s first drug law targeting the Asian population’s longtime use of opium); the decimation of the fishing and logging industries; police violence from the Gastown Riots to shooting mentally ill people in the head; the incredibly high cost of living; the cancellation of the Canada Assistance Plan; the emergence of slumlords; the ragtag system of SRO housing; and finally, the perpetuation of lazy stereotypes about the downtrodden by a broken media. So maybe – for the good of Vancouver – you should take the name of your publication very literally and just Hush the fuck up.
Our country sucks, Part 899: Image of Asian-looking woman removed from new $100 bills after complaints. Yeah, I mean…why didn’t they just chose a neutral colour like, oh I don’t know, white?
Kelowna sucks, Part 1321: Kelowna city hall considers flying ‘pro-life’ flag. Hey, guess what? Yours is a shitty little hick-town of strip malls and zealots. Good luck with it.
Cruise ships sail back into Vancouver port. Oh, we’ve noticed. They are everywhere, and they travel in packs.
In spite of the throngs of tourists, shitty small-time gangs shooting each other, our history of racism, our bored teenagers, our high cost of housing and traffic, we’re still the most livable place on earth? I suppose now that The Province has decided all of a sudden to be critical of the Livability Index, I’m going to go ahead and embrace it. Go us!
NDP hypocrites over Black’s refinery proposal. Money quote: “It’s like trying to nail jello to the wall”.
Good thing those government waste-hating tories are in power: Ottawa seeks agency to collect millions in unpaid fines. “Federal government owed a total of $129 million from more than 22,000 people”. Interestingly enough, $129 million is exactly how much money it will cost to operate the agency.
When will the seawall obstruction in Coal Harbour be removed? Maybe when Vancouver is completed.
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Re: Hush Magazine – Christine Redmond
Never trust a “journalist” that can’t spell bourbon.
Haha slam dunk! You’re quickly becoming the only journalist I will trust to give me news about Vancouver.
I live a couple of blocks from Hastings and Main and you know what? It is fucked. I’m sick of assholes who piss and shit in public, shoot up and/or smoke crack in public, expect me to give them money for drugs and booze, and call cheque issue day “payday”. What the hell do they think they’re being paid for? Gracing society with their existence? I worked my ass off in a job I disliked for nearly 40 years and am trying to live a decent life on a pension down here. But no-one wants to know about people like me, just the so-called “victims of the drug-wars”. What a load of crap.
Yo Eleanor.
why. in the FUCK. did you do a job you dislike for 40 years?
but you’re right about how gross it is down here. dis block need a air freshner girl.
I’m tired of the hipster dip shits pretending to care about the DES. Put your money where your mouth is. The article is ignorant but the hypocrisy from the majority of those criticizing it, is laughable.
That’s cute George, what hypocrisy would you be speaking of exactly? I’m working down there 4 days a week, 10 hours a day for years in DTES. What do you do? Be specific now.
exactly. i get called a hypocrite because my parents bought me a loft (i;m a dishwasher/writer with manic deperssion) but I talk about the DTES like it’s worse somehow to care about where you live and not fit the stereotypical home owner in the area. yeah boo me criticizing The Province who have literally called for the DTES to be bombed.
Robbie: It was a good job with benefits and I had a child to raise. My blue-collar parents raised me to be self-reliant and not to expect help or hand-outs from anyone. What I see in the DTES is a poverty-industry that encourages people to see themselves as victims and entitled to endless handouts. There are lots of decent people down here working hard and living hand-to -mouth , but they seem to be invisible to the activists and the media.
Cinblk, the only reason you would be offended by my comment or feel the need to defend yourself is if you identify with the title of a hipster dip shit, no? So before you get your knickers in a wad, I’m talking about a specific subculture of entitled brats who don’t practice what they preach. Good on you for getting your hands dirty and helping out. As for what I do without getting into specifics and bringing my employer into the mix, I work with housing/shelter in the DTES. Thanks for coming out.
And Sean Orr maybe your parents should not have bought you loft and invested more in your education, so you could respond coherently and make sense.
Funny how the whole “I’m better equipped to advocate” on account of what I do, where I live, how I dress schtick still persists. Seems more pointless than trite.
Respond coherently to ad hominem? Respond coherently to incoherence? Respond coherently to your inchoate, ersatz, logic? Don’t practice what I preach? Never mind that for years I’ve been dissecting bias, anti-intellectualism run rampant in our corporate media, never mind that live and work here, never mind that I have my own mental health issues, why, exactly, should I qualify myself to you?
I just want to give Eleanor props for her comments. My parents worked in positions that were far from there dream jobs and it gave me the opportunity to do what I love and have more freedom in my life choices.
I don’t know what all the bickering is about, but I think this article is informative. It gives me a better context for understanding the conditions of DTES.