Slums and Canada were never a natural pairing. They are now.
This year an incredibly nasty slum popped up on Hastings St. just one block from China Town, a popular tourist attraction.
Ragged tents and blue tarps line six city blocks making passing on the sidewalk near impossible. The stench of urine is overwhelming. Feces on the pathways and alleys create truly insidious obstacles for passersby.
Shootings occur regularly but are seldom given press. Not all attacks are targeted.
I know of people who have been stabbed for no reason. I myself was threatened yesterday for just walking down the street. It was a unsettling experience to someone who assumed that if you mind your own business no crazed thug will bother you.
‘I am sick of people like you!’, the large angry addict yelled towering over me after cutting me off with his bike.
I was dumbfounded. I had never seen the guy in my life. Knowing that one powerful crack addict and their friends can ruin your life on the Lower East Side, I wisely kept my mouth shut and quickly exited the area.
My near miss left me uttering the words random and senseless, words that will become ever more common as this drug epidemic does more and more harm.
Whatever they are putting in the ‘jib’, ‘side’ and ‘down’ make one senseless.
You just have to observe the behaviour of addicts in the slum to conclude they are no longer rational human beings.
They are more like rabid dogs. And they need biscuits.
If they don’t get them, they become unpleasant or violent.
It’s not only in Vancouver’s slum where you have to deal with angry crack addicts.
There is a maniac on every corner in this city. Even the upscale areas downtown.
On my walk to the library just now I saw a crack addict screaming bloody murder on Robson. Nobody did a thing.
On my way back, there was another being kicked off the bus by the transit cops.
Back home I saw the festering slum that the city is responsible for but does nothing about.
The city is out of ideas. And so they do nothing.
Tents are put up at will in front of stores, on the sidewalks and in front of apartment buildings.
Garbage piles up to be cleaned only to be right back an hour later.
The shootings, the stabbings and the shitting in the streets go on.
There is no solution to this madness! That is what the outgoing mayor wanted you to believe.
There is hope the new mayor Ken Sim will finally do something. But Sim is probably as clueless as the last guy.
So Mr. Sim let me give you the solution to the slum in one word: buses.
Pick a date. Book the buses. Ship them out.
Depending on their situation they will be going to one of the following: A. The Looney Bin B. Jail or C. Makeshift Housing