West hastings

whattheshit

whattheshit

Active member
got back from a trip to the west coast.

came into vancouver on hastings street because i missed the turn off on the lions gate.

i couldn't believe the shit i saw, it started as suddenly as it stopped. fucking insane.

 
uh, you saw men in business suits, bookstores, vintage stores?

East hastings is what you mean, and it is supposedly worse than anywhere in canada (in terms of drug abuse, because it's really not a dangerous place to be, you just can't trust junkies...)
 
It's insane. Haha, I dunno what the hell I'm doing up at 3am, but wat the hell.

some crackheads there are nice, but seriously, the cops just sit back and watch em deal, inject, etc. the city has a hard time moving them all (i dont know much about our city, so i'm guessing here).. i wonder what they'll do for the olympics.

i drove through there at like 2am once coming back from port moody, they're just lying and dancing on the street and shit
 
no, there is a small section right after main street where east becomes west all the way till abbott street is where its really bad. once you pass the delta hotel then its all business men and vintage stores.
 
meh, we just call it skid row, or east side, saves you enough trouble that way.

It's crazy over there, we have to watch this movie the cops made called Through a Blue Lens. They just filmed the shit goin down over there, then one of the addicts came to our school and talked to us. Clean now, but for about 20 years he was a heroine addict. He still looks mangled, and his leg nearly rotted off.

Scary shit... scary shit...
 
Haha, I remember having to watch "through a blue lens" for Capp 11 by correspondence. Pretty fucked up.
 
when i first moved out west, my friend and i were walking to his studio one morning, which is on some street off hastings. it was like 10:30 in the morning and there is some guy sitting on a bench smoking crack...i was in complete and utter disbelief.

then, like two hours later, we are on our way back and homie has a girl sitting next to him, shooting up.

this all before lunch time!

it's fucking crazy!

all you people who grew up here don't realize how much of a smack across the face this is to people who have grown up in a much milder environment. all the homeless folks in ottawa are just fucked up on listerine. SIZZURP!
 
Vancouver, sigh. Surrey, indians. Richmond, asians. Downtown eastside, hobos. West end, gays. we're so diverse
 
i heard if you are coming from north van. and you take the sea bus, if you go to the right you're fine, but you don't want to go left which i guess is east granville
 
I don't consider hastings particularly dangerous, just shanty. And it's quite contained. I mean you can walk for 5-10 minutes from main and hastings to howe after purchasing your crack from said dude in trenchcoat, stroll through the doors of Holt's and pay three hundred dollars for a tie. Vancouver's kind of fucked up.
 
Dude, Hastings is pinner compared to where i just got back from. I think brian said it, i can't remember, but "developping" countries are so much worse. I just got back from India and i've seen some of the worst shit there in the villages and even big cities like Dhubai and Chennai, even the biggest city Mumbai (bombai) has so much poverty and nastyness...

don't complain dude, it's always going to be worse somewhere else. Hastings was almost welcoming..
 
^true, i saw crazy disturbing, sad things in Thailand, but Hastings is only an hour drive away.
 
my friend came down for a couple days to film some skatin, and he was so shocked at all the drugs and shit. How are we supposed to look good during the olympics with all that crap? seriously.
 
hmmm, maybe put them in some corner somewhere. Maybe the cops will get more strict for the olympics, cuz right now they don't give a shit.
 
the cops will get more strict on the people with mental health disabilities that were booted out of all the asylums buy gordon campbells awesome government?
 
theres nothing the cops can really do about it because they cant arrest all the hobos and put them in jail cuase that is just way to meny people and they would be out on the streets again in under 2 years so what they do instead is they do their best to make sure that they dont get hurt and try to hlep them out when they do.
 
its your climate that attracts them.

crackheads don't like cold, so eastern and central canada is off the hobo list.
 
Yeah, Hastings isn't that bad, to be honest.

Yeah, Vancuver is kinda fucked up. And we can't really do much about Hastings
 
There's no law that says the mentally ill can't roam around the east side because the government got rid of the facilities that were looking after them.

That's only speaking for some of the population, of course some addicts are there by choice, they're perfectly sane and just made some poor choices.

The mentally ill can't really be blamed, without anyone looking after them or buying their medication and giving it to them however many times a day they need it, they can't really be at fault. Try telling a schizo they're sick, and NEED to take medication, yeah right.
 
It's never gonna change (not soon, anyway). Vancouver always promises a lot but nothing ever really happens, or it takes a friggin' long time.

Like, they still haven't come up with a solution for the traffic problems that will arouse in 2010. Lion's Gate Bridge is bad enough at rush hour (5/6pm), even at other times its terrible. Makking the Sea to Sky a lane or two bigger won't make it that much better?
 
I love how its two or three lanes til function. Then BAM one lane each way. Christmas is a fucking nightmare trying to get ANYWHERE. One of my friends was working in creekside living in Brio and it took 45 minutes each way sometimes she was telling me. Times like that make me happy I live in Alpine and ski Blackcomb mostly.

Seriously, they need to do something about traffic in the village too, at LEAST village-creekside. Lionsgate bridge is a fucking joke.. just imagine if we get jumpers on the bridge during 2010, or accidents. Traffic already gets backed up to Howe on Georgia on fridays, now increase that with everyone trying to get to Whistler/Cypress for events. Tourists, media, officials, volunteers. We're fucked.
 
what? there is no east or 'bad' part of granville. i meant i would

rather deal with the drug addicts and homeless folk than the bar star

jocks along granville.

 
we were talking to a homeless person the other day about the garbage strike. before the strike he used to collect about $100/day in bottles. now hes taking in around $300/day. hes planning on buying an electric scooter with a wagon for increased efficiency. im in the wrong business
 
That's some random shop owner's opinion who lives in VICTORIA.

I thought we were talking about Vancouver, specifically hastings. Some random dude's opinion has nothing to do with fact.

And I'm sure weed isn't the major problem either.

"Men and women of all description squat on dirt and rocks and inject drugs: combinations of heroin, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, prescription tablets ground into powder and then mixed with water. Others smoke crack cocaine and crystal meth. Trash lies everywhere."
 
nah its actually a kid named Codty Gray that said that. read that part again.

its not like there are different breeds of drug addicts where you go. its not like victoria addicts are any different from an addict in vancouver is there?

im just tired of people defending them that they don't have any programs to help themselves. its a crock of shit. stop feeling sorry for these people. id like to help a drug addict when they show the initiative to get better not to have it handed to them on a silver platter garnished with our tax dollars. fuck that.

and who said anything about weed
 
The mental hospitals in Greater Vancouver were shut down, which meant releasing hundreds of patients onto the streets. The type of "hobo" you're going to find in Vancouver will differ from Victoria. From what I know from family that live there, and read in the papers Victoria has a bigger meth problem with younger crowds on the streets, not as many mentally ill people like Vancouver. This doesn't mean that Vancouver doesn't have its fair share of idiots who went down the wrong path in life..

So yes, it is different.
 
The drug addict mental health problem is so much more of a deal than the Lions Gate Bridge. That's not a problem at all. If we're talking bridge issues, look at the Port Mann.

Oh and as side note, the new Sea to Sky highway will be closed during the Olympics, sorry to get your hopes up. You need to be a resident of one of the communities along the highway or Whistler to get a pass, otherwise you're stuck to the bus or train.
 
i know how to solve the port mann problem... stop the police from responding to gang action... then everyone in surrey dies and all those cars getting on at the bridge go away!
 
its not just the mental hospitals getting closed that created the homeless and addict problems and you (teamcuervo) keep saying it like it is the only reason that there are homeless people.. vancouver is a very mild climate and we rarely get snow and cold weather so hobos choose to come here so that they can sleep outside all year.

and J.D. there are alot of laws that hobos and especialy addicts break everyday on the street
 
I'm well aware of that, why do you think Calgary/Edmonton don't have these problems? Might have something to do with it being like -30 for half the year during the night.

It just played a large part in the sudden surge of addicts in the downtown east-side from 92' onwards.

In Whistler we just have that guitar guy who sits around all night making up songs about the skanky chicks walking by.

"foxy lady wearing no panties walkin by..."

The guy is a riot. He's been here since forever too.
 
yeah you walk around and talk to them and 90% of them are not from Vancouver. 

Its wierd though there are all sorts fo little pockets of homeless peeps throughout Vanc, hastings just gets to most attention.    There is a bunch of em out in richmond on the main strip behind the buildings, new west, surrey, a little crew  in kits, and then the good ol' alternative lifestylers at wreck. 
 
I just moved to downtown Calgary. Apparently I live next to the sketchiest corner in the city. So far I've seen about 6 homeless people. I don't get it. I feel a hell of a lot safer walking around here at night than in Vancouver on Granville, Hastings, even lower Lonsdale. The bums all migrate west because they can't handle the cold.

But at the same time, there are places a lot worse. In Cape Town we couldn't even go downtown at night in a car, or walk around alone at any time of day. You take one wrong turn there and you're gonna get into a lot more trouble than some homeless guy asking you for change. I grew up in Vancouver and I definitely got shocked by what I saw in South Africa.
 
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