After night of heavy drinking in Gastown at one of my favorite clubs in Vancouver The Modern, I ended up losing my buddies and trying to find my way to a bus stop to go home. I know the city very well and can find my way around pretty easily, but on this night I was too intoxicated to find my way home. Walking a couple blocks up I stumbled upon the heart of the infamous East Hastings Street. If any of you are from or know Vancouver, you know East Hastings (Downtown Eastside) is not the best street to get lost on as it’s one of the poorest and dirtiest areas in North America and is full of homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes, and diseases.
Once I hit the street even in my drunken state, I knew I was on East Hastings and thinking to myself that I should probably find myself onto a safe street ASAP. I’ve driven through the area a couple times before but when your outside walking the streets what once was the most prominent streets in Vancouver it’s surreal. It was like I was walking through hell, seeing crack addicts shooting up before my eyes, people begging me for money, women trying to sell themselves and all the historical buildings and former businesses abandoned or used as drug fronts. It was just like what you see in movies and documentaries but worst.
After getting myself off that street and somewhere I felt safe I was thinking to myself about how an area like that can exist in such a beautiful city and country? How could an area with such a rich and colorful history be so poor and dark? Some of these people have chosen this path of drugs and homelessness some have been put through a rough life and haven’t had much of a choice. I don’t know what all is being done to clean this area up, but I know housing prices are only getting higher and the homeless rate seems to be increasing as well, so the city isn’t helping very much. I know the city is a major reason this area is the way it is, and the people with it. But I have heard there are steps to preserving some of the historical buildings and groups of dedicated people trying to fix this problem and to clean this area up.
I went online a couple months before this drunken night to studied and researched this area’s history, and after a few hours (crazy how much time you can spend on Wikipedia) I was immensely intrigued. The Downtown Eastside is one of the oldest neighborhoods, the most prominent and was once the core shopping district in Vancouver which centered around Woodward’s department store. The courthouse and the Carnegie Library were all located on this former cultural and entertainment district. As the city center moved more West, and suburban shoppers took advantage of local malls the Downtown Eastside began to deteriorate as pedestrians and traffic in the area quickly decreased. The city in the 1970’s de-institutionalized thousands of psychiatric patients and most were forced to live on the streets. Many businesses moved elsewhere in the city or closed down and into the 1990’s the Woodwards department store closed and with cheaper housing all of the crack addicts and homeless people made there way to East Hastings, which is now a city of itself full of thousands of these people and surrounded with empty buildings.
The empty buildings which seem to be deteriorating are some of the cities oldest and historical buildings with many great stories and memories in all of them. One of them is the Pantages Theatre built in 1908 and is the oldest surviving one in North America, it headlined some legendary acts such as Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Jack Dempsey and Babe Ruth. Of course there is also Woodwards, some of the building has been demolished but the main part of the building is intact and is currently being renovated to my knowledge and being used for something in the future. Another used to be a public library, mueseum and city hall, called the Carnagie which is now a community centre and place for people to go eat and do various activities.
This area has an interesting history behind it and after that drunken night walking on “ground zero” of Downtown Eastside it makes me want to see this area and cleaned up and restored one day and it also makes me realize how lucky most of us Vancouverites are.
I have included videos I have found on Youtube which have interested me and I’m sure will interest you. One is a documentary style video, and the other two videos show an actual addict talking about his life and how it has ruined it, it’s pretty compelling because the guy seems like a pretty decent and smart guy.
Tragic Story of a Junkie on Hastings Part 1:
Tragic Story of a Junkie on Hastings Part 2:
Quick Documentary of Hastings:
[...] THE BURGAR POINT Dan says, “After night of heavy drinking in Gastown at one of my favorite clubs in Vancouver The Modern, I ended up losing my buddies and trying to find my way to a bus stop to go home. I know the city very well and can find my way around pretty easily, but on this night I was too intoxicated to find my way home. Walking a couple blocks up I stumbled upon the heart of the infamous East Hastings Street. If any of you are from or know Vancouver, you know East Hastings (Downtown Eastside) is not the best street to get lost on as it’s one of the poorest and dirtiest areas in North America and is full of homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes, and diseases.” Read All>> [...]
Hey … I grew up on the downtown eastside.
The area was not always like this. It went progressively downhills after expo 86. And no thanks to the idiots trying to govern our City, it has gone down the sewer.
I still head down and visit the downtown eastside, not for drugs or anything, but for sight seeing safaris with tourists… welcome to vancouver, eh.
strange how one stumbles upon things that are on your mind at the moment.Thanks for the posting.Very apt.I had spent two days on these blocks researching for a documentary i was thinking of doing on how the oldest parts of a city just seem to slowly decay and go down the dark road to oblivion.but for now history is happening in front of our eyes.I’am really curious about how this came to be…….
these junkies didnt “choose”" their lives circumstances happen you be gratefull you werent raped and beaten repeatedly in your childhood signed a clean and sober junkie 14 years clean and still helping others maybe you should try and put your energy into something a little better than being sooooo better than and judgemental gladys evoy
Wow settle down Gladys I wasn’t being so judgmental, I was just saying what the reality is out there and how it used to be such a prominent part of the city now people are scared to even go near it. I think many of these junkies didn’t choose their life as it is now it’s the drugs that obviously hurt their lives.
My wife and I visited Vancouver last week for the first time. We figured we would have a drink and appetizer in Gastown and walk over to Chinatown for dinner. Needless to say, we tripped across the Eastside and did not leave with a favorable impression of Vancouver. Both of these areas are promoted on the tourist maps. You’d think the Chamber of Commerce or Dept. of Tourism or whatever would take more of an interest in this area.
East Van
SHout outs To my MOms
Yes the dtes has an obvious open drug market and poverty, however tousands of middle-class and upper-middle class people have issues with substances, only difference our addictions happen behind closed doors. The dtes is more then a “dirty, disease ridden, place” as you qualify it. It is a vibrant community filled with children, elders, young people from all walks of life. It is a place of beauty, where life happens. It is the one place in Vancouver where you can walk down the streets and peeple will actually say hello and talk to you. Furthermore, the dtes has the highest rate of volunteerism per capita then any other area in the city. People there may be in large part materially poor, but that doesn’t mean they are not rich in other ways . The media do a solid job of only focussing on the horror stories, of emphasizing certain things. What effect do you think that has? It dehuminizes the people who actually live in, and value this place. In terms of “cleaning up” the dtes, the governement needs to step it up and provide services (instead of cutting them), as well as low income housing. The whole rhetoric of “redevelopment” that accompagnies the 2010 Olympics is double speak for destroying the nucleous of the community, and what justifies the destruction of the community is the dehuminizing way it is emphasized by media, politiciens, and people who walk in with their cameras (or give tourists tours of these “four blocks of hell”).
One more thing, what is the difference between a “night of heavy drinking in gastown” and a “night of doing crack in blood alley”?
I agree completely with Wallfly. There is a disturbing rhetoric about “cleaning up” the area that really translates into one thing: gentrification. It’s not surprising considering the cut throat real estate market here. Developers would love nothing better that to buy a chunk of cheap dtes real estate, turn it into some fancy condos and sell it back to the middle and upper class urbanites for $750,000.
I went to school in the dtes for about 5 years. I’m an SFU grad with my BFA in Visual Arts, and the visual arts studio is on Princess and Alexander street. Every year we had the same discussion; new students would come to the campus with their heads filled with the dehuminizing rhetoric of drug addicts, prostitutes and horror stories. Then we get a visit from the Vancouver police to talk about safety at our campus. Those students who want practical solutions are quickly disappointed as the police always focus on the fact that the people living in this community are people, some with homes and families, and all participating in a lively community where people know each other’s names and where neighbours are friends. The police then tell us their own “horror” story, where a white, middle class male finds himself in the dtes, walking behind someone he believes to be a prostitute and her male companion. He believes the dtes is dirty, a black mark against the beautiful facade of Vancouver and that these people are to blame for that and their own circumstances. The man begins to yell derrogatory remarks at the woman, calling her a “whore” and names much worse. Her male companion tries to pull the woman to the other side of the street to avoid confrontation. The middle class man and the woman end up fighting, and the police attend. It turns out the “prostitute” is the sister of her companion and they were walking after dinner. Neither were currently drug addicts, neither had drugs in their possession and neither were in the sex trade. This man, and his stigma, harassed a perfectly nice pair enjoying some family time.
We need to help the people in the dtes that need it, and help to preserve the lively community that exists there.
In 2001, 43% of the people who live in the DTES are immigrants.
Hmmmmmmm.
I think Vancouver needs to start loading those boats back up and shipping them back where they came from.
Our history is buried deep in the streets of that dump and needs to revitalized with the destruction of the scum that currently inhabit them.
I am also a recovering addict/alcoholic but you know….I don`t have pity for slime and those historic streets are crawling with it. Load up those sorry asses, drop them off on some island somewhere, quit being so goddamn politically correct and beautify that area once again.