Hi Vancouver folks, what is up with really scary East Hastings/Chinatown?

[MyUncle]

I was in Vancouver July 17-19 with my family. Twins 10, 6 year old, wife and me. We wanted to go to the Pink Pearl for Dim Sum. I'd read a bunch of good reviews. Since cabs for 5 are rare, we took the bus. I must say when I told the driver where I wanted to go, he said not to take the family there, drugs, junkies, etc.

Now I've been to over 100 Dead shows, grew up in New York and have been to lots of majore cites in U.S. and Europe. So I am thinking, how bad could it be?

As we got closer to East Hastings Street on Main, I thought I had been dropped in the middle of Hell's rejects. I mean hundreds if not more hard core junkies just roaming around. Not homeless but really scary people smoking ICE in the open. We turned around, got on the next bus and headed back to the west side. All the stores but a few were closed for the day 6 PM.

I can't imagine what it is like when the sun goes down.

Is this the result of decrimilization? What is going on over there?

I do not think I was over reacting - it was scary!!!

I used to be be very drug tollerant, but now, I don't think so.

[Megahurtz]

1. Lol! I know that area well!

It's been like that for awhile. The last time I was there was in May 1998.

[MyUncle]

2. Was I being a wimp or is it as really bad as it looked.

I felt like a very bad dad after going over there.

[pretzel4gore]

3. if you see them, then they no hurt you....

there's a genuine toleration/liberalism in vancouver (i recall in the 90's a couple street police officers who made videos of their job - and the stars were the junkies!)...the result is the night people aren't afraid to come out, and be seen.....as BC's main city, Vancouver attracts nightpeople from all over. The main thing is though that your fears are based upon misinfo - the nightpeople have ALOT more to fear from people like you then you do of them! i'm not being mean, just being honest. Never judge a book by its cover.

[MyUncle]

4. Hmmmm, I guess I was armed with being hungry?

IF you have seen what I saw, we have a difference of opinion. If you are speculating on me being needlessly frightend for my family, then I suggest you go down there and walk around for 10 minutes and let me know if you feel the same way.

[pretzel4gore]

7. nono...don't go to the eastside!

esp. with the family. just like there are parts of new york you wouldn't go, or east st louis etc. Vancouver's a big city; lotsa places for you to go, either alone or en famile! but stay away from downtown eastside. :)

[shadowknows69]

20. I'll bet if one of the "nightpeople"

really needed money for that next hit then we might have a little more to fear from them.

[sueragingroz]

5. The only time that I have ever truly been scared in a city

Was in the lower east side of Vancouver at night.

[MyUncle]

6. When was it, what happened?

I really want to find out if I was not over reacting. I hate to think of myself as a scared person.

[sueragingroz]

10. It was 1993

Christmas time.

Some Context: I'm gay and I was with my partner (it was our first Christmas together) and we were looking for a gay bar. I can't remember exactly what street I was on, but I know that we weren't that far from Gastown..

A fight broke out, shots were fired, we hailed a cab and decided that maybe we'd spend the evening elsewhere...

We didn't have the presence of mind to call the cops, but we did hear sirens as we were leaving...

[MyUncle]

11. I have a feeling it is a lot worse now.

Still, sorry to hear that story. Being genuinely afraid of a moment has to rank among the worst feelings in our existence.

[High Plains]

8. The Downtown Eastside holds tens of thousands of seriously

messed up people--people with physical disabilities, mental disabilities, alcholics, drug addicts, and sometimes all of the above. They live in the kind of Single Room Occupancy (SR0) hotels that used to cater to Skid Row types all across the US.

The Downtown Eastside is the largest open air drug market I've ever seen--and I've been around! It is not as crazy now as a few years ago. Back in, oh, 2002-2003, you could go to the corner of Main and Hastings any hour of the day and see literally hundreds of people shooting up, smoking up, doing deals, milling about. Then the cops cracked down somewhat and managed to scatter the scene into the surrounding areas and the downtown core. Last week, Vancouver policy announced a draft of a new policy where they will not arrest drug users minding their own business anymore.

Drugs are not decriminalized in Vancouver--not officially, anyway. But Vancouver embraces the "four pillars" approach to drug policy: Prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and law enforcement. It is the third pillar, harm reduction, that has the city providing a safe injection site for drug users, involved in a heroin maintenance program for hard-core junkies, and trying very hard to refer these folks to counseling and treatment. The city is taking a holistic approach to the problems of the Downtown Eastside.

It's probably not a place you want to take your young children, but I have spent more than a few nights walking its streets and have never felt unsafe. And Chinatown, while only a block away, is a world of difference.

[MyUncle]

9. I think I might be getting it now.

At the time there was no way I was going to process all that and not bail with the family. It was too much of a shock to see it. I'm now wondering if the Vancouver approach is working or if people are going down there to get high and then die or is it becoming a somewhat safe haven for those of the ilk? It is truly one of the most "differnet" scenes I have ever experienced.

Again, I thought I'd seen a lot...

[MrPrax]

12. I am confused...

You were so scared of what you saw from the bus, that you got right off the bus, crossed the street among 'Hell's rejects', went to the other side of the street and --waited?--for the bus back uptown?

Pink Pearl isn't in the DES? It's closer to the Drive on Hastings St. I don't get it...there is a few blocks around 'wasting and pain' (Hastings and Main) that have a lot of street people. But stretches of Hastings are simply economically depressed.

Right next to where you were was Chinatown on Pender--ONE STREET OVER south. World Famous Gastown is TWO BLOCKS north? Thousands of tourists. But you only saw:

I mean hundreds if not more hard core junkies just roaming around. Not homeless but really scary people smoking ICE in the open. We turned around, got on the next bus and headed back to the west side. All the stores but a few were closed for the day 6 PM.

You could tell all of this from a trolley bus with a bunch of kids?

That is funny...why do I think you are less than honest as to why you posted this?

Is there something ELSE you wanted to comment upon perhaps? Something that is currently in the news, perhaps? Something that is controversial? hmmm.....

[MyUncle]

15. We took the bus Mr. Prax. I am not lying as you imply.

We went from near Stanley Park and got off by main street, one block south of Hastings. We walked up to East Hastings which is where I had an address for the Pink Pearl. Once we got close we turned around and walked the other way about 2-3 blocks, more into Chinatown where we waited for the same bus going back the other direction.

It might have been the # 9. No hidden meanings here, no lies. So put your cynicism back in your pocket and take it for what it was.

[MyUncle]

16. Just curious Mr. Prax, what did you think I was trying to get at?

I live on Oahu, and am not connected at all to B.C. or Canadian politics. But I do love Vancouver that is why we stayed there. What is going on that you thought I was undermining or surreptitiously criticizing?

No hostility, just curious.

[MyUncle]

17. Just curious Mr. Prax, what did you think I was trying to get at?

I live on Oahu, and am not connected at all to B.C. or Canadian politics. But I do love Vancouver that is why we stayed there. What is going on that you thought I was undermining or surreptitiously criticizing?

No hostility, just curious.

[distantearlywarning]

13. My parents ended up driving through there on a recent vacation

Said it was one of the worst areas they've ever been in in the world, and they've traveled to a lot of different places.

[tuvor]

14. Vancouver is the most temperate metropolis in Canada.

If you were a Canadian drug addict without a home, wouldn't you choose to live in the warmest large city possible?

Like all Vancouverites, a significant proportion of the population was not born there.

Sidebar: A few years ago my wife's bus route to work took her right through the same intersection you're talking about. I was far more concerned about what it would do to her psyche than any physical harm that might come to her. (Which, after a couple of years of weekdays, is to say none.)

Sorry to hear you missed out on the Pink Pearl.

[glarius]

18. Since Vancouver was recently declared the # 1 liveable city in the world

it can't be all that bad! I read this recently...don't remember the particulars, but I'm sure there will be others who have heard it or read it too. Vancouver was number one most liveable, ahead of all the European, American and other Canadian cities. I'm sure you could find areas that were as bad as or worse than East Hastings/Chinatown in Vancouver in any other large city in the world.

[anewdeal]

19. I made the mistake of of going there once

Now I know that while Vancouver is a beautiful city, it has its problems too. Any other street is much more suitable for a tourist and family.