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The Downtown Eastside. Jewel in Vancouver's crown, or pain in the arse?[/caption]
I'd like to suggest we, the City of Vancouver, seriously consider making the Downtown Eastside a car-free zone. If you think this is a wacky a proposal, like Dr. Stu's idea for a one-cent deposit on cigarette butts, think again.
There is already a recognition that the area is a magnet for a diverse range of people marginalized, and challenged at every turn -- economically, physically, legally, and chemically. These men and women, from across Canada are, by degrees, emotionally-wounded, often almost traumatized by their past experiences, distracted, and not all so law-abiding. This area is now very much about supporting, treating, and healing this influx of walking-wounded. This is a kind of Emergency ward; cars just get in the way.
The Downtown Eastside is a small area in downtown Vancouver, less than 20-square blocks, with a population estimated at 4,956 ►. There is now some gentrification, but most of the living accommodations are Single Room Occupancy Hotels -- what used to be called rooming houses. The residents of these hotels do not drive cars (one DTES resident I talked to about this said, "unless they steal them"), they walk. Generally speaking they are not rule-oriented, so crosswalks, and traffic lights, seem like urban decorations, which they ignore.
According to news reports, like the one in The Province newspaper ►, The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) have issued 2,050 jaywalking tickets to the, less than 5,000, people living in the Downtown Eastside over the past four years.
The statistics were revealed to the public by two DTES advocacy groups, the Pivot Legal Society, and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). By contrast, they pointed to two upscale Vancouver neighbourhoods -- Kerrisdale, and Dunbar/Southlands -- where no jaywalking tickets were issued in the same four year period. Pivot and VANDU want the VPD to explain the disparity.
Naughty advocacy groups! Trying to compare STDs to SUVs. The well-off, to plain wealthy, families who live in the sprawling neighbourhoods of mostly single-family residences, don't have to walk. They play in their yards, in their tidy lanes, and they pile into their luxury SUVs to drive to the "corner store," which is a supermarket or mall five-to-fifteen kilometres away. They live decent, law-abiding lives, which they protect with hedges, cameras, and big dogs. They probably teach their children not to jaywalk, and they probably try to lead by example. Any ways, there are rarely police up there to see what they do -- the police are all downtown.
1. DTES: 4,956 ►
When I moved to Vancouver in 1980, the downtown core had a few car-free zones: several blocks of Granville Street, a part of Robson Street -- called "Robsonstrasse" -- and Gastown, the historic original Vancouver. I vividly recall how relaxed, and comfortable these areas were -- comfortable, and safe. By the belt-tightening of the 1990s, downtown businesses argued they couldn't afford the luxury of feeling European; car-free zones were bad for business, so the cars were again given the run of the downtown core.
Economics isn't such an issue in the Downtown Eastside. The biggest businesses serving it, are along it's edges. Within the boundaries of the DTES, legitimate business activity is quite low compared to the rest of the downtown core.
The businesses which try to take root in the DTES have, for the most part, been aimed at a young, boho, alternative market. The tourist-trap, Gastown -- adjacent to the DTES -- has always featured a number of very upscale shops. Back in the 1980s, this boundary area was a hot spot for music promotion companies. Don't know if it still is -- by the mid-1990s these poor promoters were experiencing ludicrously-high break-in rates.
From my experience, working in a little bookstore on Cambie, in the DTES, just after I became homeless, in 2004, the area almost entirely shuts down at six o'clock -- so disconcertingly at-odds with the rest of downtown Vancouver.
Pivot and VANDU have looked at the ridiculous number of jaywalking tickets, and suggested it's evidence of discrimination and harassment. I'd also suggest it's evidence that the DTES has a long-entrenched pedestrian culture, and that possibly the car traffic is the sort of through-traffic that is known to do more harm than good to neighbourhoods.
In the 1980s I watched the very dense downtown West End neighbourhood (Population approx. 44,543, 2011 ►), where I lived, struggle with the damage of through-traffic. West End activists successfully pushed for the city to adopt traffic calming, and diversion methods that are commonplace throughout most of Vancouver.
In the case of the Downtown Eastside, everything's in walking distance, I say ban the car, reduce the stress, and, poof -- eliminate the jaywalking problem, and the wasted expense of issuing tickets the very poor can't pay. People can use bikes, skateboards, Rollerblades, and, because it's the DTES, they'll probably also use drugs; I don't know if they can get a ticket for that.
The Downtown Eastside. Jewel in Vancouver's crown, or pain in the arse?[/caption]I'd like to suggest we, the City of Vancouver, seriously consider making the Downtown Eastside a car-free zone. If you think this is a wacky a proposal, like Dr. Stu's idea for a one-cent deposit on cigarette butts, think again.
There is already a recognition that the area is a magnet for a diverse range of people marginalized, and challenged at every turn -- economically, physically, legally, and chemically. These men and women, from across Canada are, by degrees, emotionally-wounded, often almost traumatized by their past experiences, distracted, and not all so law-abiding. This area is now very much about supporting, treating, and healing this influx of walking-wounded. This is a kind of Emergency ward; cars just get in the way.
The Downtown Eastside is a small area in downtown Vancouver, less than 20-square blocks, with a population estimated at 4,956 ►. There is now some gentrification, but most of the living accommodations are Single Room Occupancy Hotels -- what used to be called rooming houses. The residents of these hotels do not drive cars (one DTES resident I talked to about this said, "unless they steal them"), they walk. Generally speaking they are not rule-oriented, so crosswalks, and traffic lights, seem like urban decorations, which they ignore.
2000+ jaywalking tickets!
According to news reports, like the one in The Province newspaper ►, The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) have issued 2,050 jaywalking tickets to the, less than 5,000, people living in the Downtown Eastside over the past four years.
The statistics were revealed to the public by two DTES advocacy groups, the Pivot Legal Society, and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). By contrast, they pointed to two upscale Vancouver neighbourhoods -- Kerrisdale, and Dunbar/Southlands -- where no jaywalking tickets were issued in the same four year period. Pivot and VANDU want the VPD to explain the disparity.
Naughty advocacy groups! Trying to compare STDs to SUVs. The well-off, to plain wealthy, families who live in the sprawling neighbourhoods of mostly single-family residences, don't have to walk. They play in their yards, in their tidy lanes, and they pile into their luxury SUVs to drive to the "corner store," which is a supermarket or mall five-to-fifteen kilometres away. They live decent, law-abiding lives, which they protect with hedges, cameras, and big dogs. They probably teach their children not to jaywalk, and they probably try to lead by example. Any ways, there are rarely police up there to see what they do -- the police are all downtown.
Population, approx. (2011):
1. DTES: 4,956 ►
2. Dunbar: 21,754 ►
3. Kerrisdale: 14,732 ►
4. Fairview: 31,432 ►
Fairview is where I spend the majority of my time, but Kerrisdale and parts of Dunbar are part of my binning area.
Remove the cars. Remove the problem
When I moved to Vancouver in 1980, the downtown core had a few car-free zones: several blocks of Granville Street, a part of Robson Street -- called "Robsonstrasse" -- and Gastown, the historic original Vancouver. I vividly recall how relaxed, and comfortable these areas were -- comfortable, and safe. By the belt-tightening of the 1990s, downtown businesses argued they couldn't afford the luxury of feeling European; car-free zones were bad for business, so the cars were again given the run of the downtown core.
Economics isn't such an issue in the Downtown Eastside. The biggest businesses serving it, are along it's edges. Within the boundaries of the DTES, legitimate business activity is quite low compared to the rest of the downtown core.
The businesses which try to take root in the DTES have, for the most part, been aimed at a young, boho, alternative market. The tourist-trap, Gastown -- adjacent to the DTES -- has always featured a number of very upscale shops. Back in the 1980s, this boundary area was a hot spot for music promotion companies. Don't know if it still is -- by the mid-1990s these poor promoters were experiencing ludicrously-high break-in rates.
From my experience, working in a little bookstore on Cambie, in the DTES, just after I became homeless, in 2004, the area almost entirely shuts down at six o'clock -- so disconcertingly at-odds with the rest of downtown Vancouver.
Pivot and VANDU have looked at the ridiculous number of jaywalking tickets, and suggested it's evidence of discrimination and harassment. I'd also suggest it's evidence that the DTES has a long-entrenched pedestrian culture, and that possibly the car traffic is the sort of through-traffic that is known to do more harm than good to neighbourhoods.
In the 1980s I watched the very dense downtown West End neighbourhood (Population approx. 44,543, 2011 ►), where I lived, struggle with the damage of through-traffic. West End activists successfully pushed for the city to adopt traffic calming, and diversion methods that are commonplace throughout most of Vancouver.
In the case of the Downtown Eastside, everything's in walking distance, I say ban the car, reduce the stress, and, poof -- eliminate the jaywalking problem, and the wasted expense of issuing tickets the very poor can't pay. People can use bikes, skateboards, Rollerblades, and, because it's the DTES, they'll probably also use drugs; I don't know if they can get a ticket for that.
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Very very good idea. I'd like to see our little Antipodean San Francisco Lite go the same way.