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Being homeless isn't illegal -- yet, but there's already a fine line between living on the street, and breaking the law. Florida Pete crossed that line yesterday in a park near Kingsgate Mall, at Broadway Avenue, and Main Street. Police issued him with a $115 CDN fine for -- Pete insists -- smoking a cigarette in the park, though the ticket lists the offense as being intoxicated in public. Pete's on the far end of alcoholism, where a person needs alcohol just to function, so, technically, he's a walking by-law infraction. Pete explained to me that the same offense on a city street is a $165 fine. and that he got off cheap because he was in a park. if Pete had any intentions of paying the ticket -- that's something like 2300 pop cans -- the police miss-spelled his last name.

Speaking of police issuing tickets to the poor, and homeless ...

After it was revealed in the spring that the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) were issuing most of their fines for jaywalking to people in the Downtown Eastside, the so-called poorest postal code in Canada, I wrote a post suggesting we make the DTES a car-free zone. Fortunately, the Pivot Legal Society, and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), took a less trivial approach, and filed a complaint with the Vancouver police board, chaired by the city's mayor, Gregor Robertson. The complaint, based on the VPD's own data, alleged 95 per cent of tickets for illegal street vendors and 75 per cent for jaywalking were issued in the Downtown Eastside. The Province newspaper this morning is reporting that the police board have dismissed the ticket-target complaint. Click the images to enlarge them.

[caption id="attachment_2034" align="alignnone" width="497"] 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.