the dilemma of vancouver's eastside

Infamous. Desperate. Derelict. A chronic out-of-control very visible condition of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, the city's oldest neighbourhood.......... poverty, homelessness, street crime, prostitution, open drug-dealing, public drug use (the most common being heroin, crack cocaine & crystal meth). Some didn't think I should go there. But I went anyway. I was shocked. Even having read news articles and seen documentary film coverage over the years, in reality the condition is staggering. Swarms of people... hanging out in alleyways, dealing in doorways, hunkering en masse on street corners & sidewalks. I instictively knew to be furtive if I was going to take photos, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, holding the camera at waist level, using the flexible screen. But not inconspicuous enough. Twice females from the street approached to warn me what could happen. "They'll throw beer cans at you" said the first. "They get offended when people take photos...they'll grab your camera & smash it. You don't want that to happen, do you?" said the second. After the second warning I felt I was pushing my luck and stopped shooting. The city of Vancouver had high hopes of cleaning up the area before international journalists & millions of visitors arrive for the 2010 Olympics and see all.... but just 4 weeks away from the games' opening it is obvious that whatever plans the city had have failed miserably. Rumours have been rampant that all the sad lost souls on the streets of the eastside were to be rounded up and hidden away somewhere til the games were over. Draconian measures, indeed. Not realistic. Or just. Where could they put them? They are many. Jail? Shelters? Rehab? Housing would have been a solution but it seems that is not a doable option. It remains to be seen what if anything is in fact put in place in an attempt to hide from the world this desperate state of being that exists in what is considered Canada's most beautiful city.