July 17th, 2006

Filed under:
Sports, Vancouver
2 Comments »

Four Years of Global Scrutiny

That, I think, is what Vancouver’s in for now that we’re getting serious about the 2010 Winter Olympics. Here’s an early sample from The Economist (daypass or subscription required):

But it is the once-pleasant downtown that causes most alarm. Homeless panhandlers yell at theatre-goers, while young addicts deal drugs on street corners. They spill out from the Downtown East Side, an area of decrepit boarding houses, sleazy bars and boarded-up shops infamous for the country’s highest rates of poverty and drug addiction. Its ills have resisted decades of expensive government effort.

Unless they want to see homeless folks and drug addicts paraded across the Olympic broadcasts (”but there’s another, darker side to this Pacific Northwest emerald…”), the city is going to have to get its house in order. I wish it were different, but you can expect to see a lot of bandaid solutions to these issues

Comments: 2 Responses so far

Todd
July 17th, 2006
11:01 am

Sadly, quick fixes are in short supply for these types of problems, and I think band-aid solution will really mean some rough shoving and containing of the more unsightly denizens. I think it was in Atlanta where I heard about panhandlers being bussed out of town prior to the games, and I’m sure similar things have happened in all Olympic venues. Hopefully the scrutiny will look at how we deal with the problems as carefully as it notes that the problems exist.

On another note, one would suspect from the quote that the writers for the Economist have not seen many cities for as shocked as they are by the DTE.

[Reply]

Kirsten
July 17th, 2006
11:22 am

Reminds me of the Spirit of the West song, “The Profiteer”, about how Vancouver dealt with the SAME problem during Expo ‘86:

there’s a cold wind blowin’ through the old east side
it cuts with the devil’s curse
they’re turning our people into the streets, while
the landlords line their purse
with the greenback dollar of the tourist trade
there’s a fortune to be had
make way for the out-of-towners, for
the tenants it’s just too bad

this appears to be their attitude.
kick ‘em until they’re down
they’re only welfare cases and
pensioners and they’re easily pushed around
we’ve invited the world to come and stay
and celebrate the fair
i wonder if the world will understand
the homeless walkin’ there.

i’m alright jack, and how ’bout you?
i’m gonna catch this wave that’s rollin’ through
and turn a trick or two
i’m alright jack, no flies on me!
i’m within my rights, my conscience is clear
i am the profiteer

[Reply]

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