Down Some Lonesome Street
This morning I had a telephone conversation in which I was made to feel that I was crazy. After it concluded I was left with a very empty feeling inside, even though the person on the other end of the phone doesn’t really known me anymore. There is a disconnect in our society between the perception of maturity and actual maturity, one that, as I get older, I begin to recognize more and more. Rod and I were talking last night about people’s character and how, for some strange reason, many have allowed themselves to become so thin and flexible. The truth is that I am somewhat crazy, I don’t think there’s any questioning that at all. But in saying that, I would rather be crazy than pacified by whatever it is that passes for personal ethics these days. I recall a time in which talk was straight and people said what they meant. Of late, I have struggled to understand the new language employed by many that relies on diversion and the alteration of character on the fly to suit different scenarios. Maybe, in the end, the truth is that with a crazy person you always know where you stand. Simply because they haven’t the time for bullshit.
I don’t know how they run the corner shop across the street. They must be saints. Crack is peddled at their front door (and from every door for a block east of them), drunk idiots from the burbs leaving local clubs stumble in and out verbally attacking the homeless people inside using nickels and dimes to buy bags of cheap peanuts and chips, and yet the shops proprietors still have the decency to display manners to those that commonly fill the doorways of this slowly gentrifying neighbourhood on a nightly basis.
You have to live in Vancouver’s Lower East Side to truly understand how completely disconnected it is from the rest of the city, even though it’s literally no more than a five minute drive from the city’s most illustrious and pompous neighbourhood. Once more, that the only reason that trendy eateries and shops are now surfacing around here is because the price of Vancouver real estate is so extreme that transforming hovels into posh eateries has become the pastime of venture capitalists that, for the most part, could care less about what transpires down here on a daily basis or where the inhabitants of this part of town are ultimately pushed out to. It is impossible to describe the juxtaposition of the poverty and wealth that now exists simultaneously in this neighbourhood, and one wonders how long it will be before these streets are completely transformed into something totally unrecognizable.
At a recent City Council meeting, members voted to look into the issue of low income housing. They then voted themselves a pay raise. It’s about as shocking as the BC legislature’s pizza delivery bill, which is in the tens of thousands, and that’s not even taking into account things like spa treatments. Meanwhile, the doorways in this part of town are still routinely filled every nigh by the dispossessed, Canadian citizens that are ushered off of Water Street by a private security firm hired by the local business association to ensure that tourists coming off of the cruise ships at Canada Place don’t have to be confronted by the sight of them, let alone being asked for spare change. I was under the impression that the rights of every citizen of this country were the same, and that they could not be shuffled out of certain areas to protect the interests of tourist shops that sell Maple Syrup and freeze dried smoked salmon to foreigners who have ventured into Gastown to have their picture taken next to a steam clock that was erected in the 1970’s, not the 1800’s.
Drugs, and drug users, are prevalent in this part of town, there’s no denying that, just as there is no denying that many of those that find themselves on the streets down here are victims of a severely under funded mental welfare system. Looking to dispel their demons, many of them unfortunately turn to the only alternative left them – drugs. Because in comparison to the monthly cost of proper medication, which is, in truth, considerable (I can attest to that first hand), the price of street drugs is significantly less. And while not everyone that suffers from substance abuse problems in this neighbourhood is mentally ill, it doesn’t alter the fact that they are, in the end, human beings that, for whatever tragic reason, have found themselves here, lost in this perplexing maze of slum lorded hovels. It is also from here that women have disappeared on a routine basis for decades, their names and faces forgotten, their stories never told, their fates commonly never discovered. Yet were the same thing to happen in some quaint suburb or in Yaletown, it would be front page news.
Every morning at 4 or 5am, expensive SUV’s and cars piloted by members of Vancouver’s predominant organized crime regime pull up to re-supply the dealers across the street and collect their take. Meanwhile, Vancouver City Police headquarters is a block away, and it all transpires without so much as a peep.
I realize that there are going to be those of you out there that, because of your current comfort, might find it easy to condemn such people, to suggest that they simply get jobs and become productive members of society, or that they have brought it all on themselves and don’t deserve pity. I suppose I could attempt to run through the gamut of reasons why people end up down here, from sexual and physical abuse in their past to the ghettoization of Aboriginals and the impact of more than a century of disregard, but what would it ultimately matter? Many people choose to see the dispossessed in a singular light rather than those that, when extended a helping hand, or even afforded a smile in passing and the chance to pet some dogs, light up as if they have won the lottery simply because someone has bothered to afford them a little respect as a human being rather than the representation of a problem.
Standing at the corner of Main and Hastings at rush hour you’ll commonly see frightened commuters with their windows rolled up and car doors locked when they’re at the stop light as if they fear they will be set upon by groups of ravenous, drug-crazed, wolves. Such behaviour speaks directly to why the problems down here rarely get addressed, and why those that live in other parts of the city often complain when their tax dollars are used in an attempt to fund programs for such people. And yet we can spend billions of dollars hosting the Winter Games in 2010, an event that will line the pockets of the already wealthy while, just as it did during Expo 86, see the inhabitants of this neighbourhood pushed east down the Hastings corridor so as to keep them out of sight, allowing those that now own and run some of Vancouver’s most notorious slum hotels to slap on new coats of paint and buy cheap linens at Army & Navy so as to transform their establishments into something altogether unrecognizable to those that have traveled here from countries all over the world.
The hypocrisy of Vancouver society is enough to make the likes of Tommy Douglas spin in their graves. And yet, as long as it continues to grow upwards, those glass and steel monoliths dominating its skyline in ever increasing numbers, the plight of those that live down here will continue to be disregarded. In the end, this is a city that has come to represent the bottom line, and is replete with individuals that view it as little more than an urban playground. To them, what remains out of sight remains out of mind. And when they are faced with the realities of parts of the city that disagree with them, they take comfort in the fact that they can retreat to those areas that have come to exemplify what Vancouver is, to them, supposed to be about.
The building in which I live was built in 1908 and was recently transformed into lofts. When I first moved in they weren’t completed and a myriad of problems presented themselves that spoke directly to the sort of opportunism that this neighbourhood now provides those with a desire to hurriedly cash in on the urban-living boom. In truth, this building should have been condemned until the asbestos in the rafters was properly taken care of, but it wasn’t until well after tenets had moved in that the problem was addressed. And even then, it was secured primarily by using ordinary caulking to seal it in. But just like other buildings in the area that have been transformed, this is one that is secured like Fort Knox to ensure that ‘undesirables’ don’t get too close to those that have moved here looking to secure their own little piece of Vancouver’s urban utopia. My main reason for choosing this place was because it’s located directly across the street from where I recorded my last album, and because it’s zoned as a split commercial/residential building that would allow me to demo at home in a capacity that I was not able to enjoy in previous locations. But to be perfectly honest with you, it has been an experience that has caused me a great deal of humiliation. Because every time I walk out of the front gate the realities of this neighbourhood, and the disregard for its inhabitants, is so overwhelmingly prevalent that it makes me sick to my stomach with guilt.
When my lease is up I will, no doubt, move. For while there have been conversations had with other residents and local business owners about ensuring that the gentrification of the neighbourhood does not result in the further disregard of those that have, for decades, been down here, the reality is that it’s just that – talk. In the end, everyone simply wants a piece of the new Vancouver lifestyle pie.
Looking out my window, the only difference between me and some of those that are currently sitting bewildered on the pavement below is that I have the luxury of affording medication to deal with my illness. Were that not the case, I could very well be right there with them. That is something that is not lost on me on a daily basis, and certainly something that significantly alters my willingness to interact with those that many would otherwise ignore.
‘Crazy’ does that to you from time to time.
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June 1st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
This post makes me feel so ashamed to live in Yaletown…and I don’t know quite what to do with that…
I work at a criminal law firm on Robson, and I deal with many of the people you have mentioned in your post. Previously, I lived a sheltered life in Richmond, I barely had any experience with those on the street. And now I speak with them on a daily basis.
My employer, an extremely respected criminal lawyer, does so much to help these people. He is part of, or helped start so many boards and committees to help, and insists I treat every single person, regardless of their legal aid status, or where they’re calling from as if they are the highest paying private client.
And I do.
But then I go home to my probably hideously overpriced Yaletown studio, and I feel like I’ve done nothing. Because I probably haven’t.
And I have no idea what to do…
June 1st, 2007 at 1:33 pm
My sister-in-law is well aware of the problem regarding affordable medications for those with mental illnesses. A man who is schizophrenic was barred from her pharmacy when he came in once, obviously not on his meds. He is perfectly fine on his medication, and wants to be on them, but since he cannot afford to keep up his prescription (whichever job he has at the time runs out whenever his pills do, given the nature of his illness, & not at the job long enough to be afforded benefits) and then he’s back at square one. She was on her break and saw him outside her work, so she bought him a coffee and spent time with him. It breaks her heart to see so many people without their meds.
You guys do have a bit of a fortress-like set-up. Given the other buildings I walked by in the neighbourhood, I was a bit surprised. It kinda stuck out.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
[...] like this piece, though - it’s about the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. I agree with some of his ponderings [...]
June 1st, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Well written piece - nicely said.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:48 pm
That’s a pretty wild situation that I myself am starting to witness here in Nashville.
I’ve been in my current apartment about 6 years now (I moved in the same month Audio Of Being came out) and there has been a recent apartment-to-condo boom in my part of the city, the southern rim of it. I found out about a month ago that my building will in fact be converted into new condos and got a letter today confirming this. My current lease is up in 3 months and I’m looking into possibly buying one, as I’m 29 and considering it as an investment and also love living downtown, as this neighborhood has a real great vibe to it, a “real” vibe, as I like to say.
This is a part of Nashville that has these pockets, if you will, of rich and poor. I’ll see brand new Escalades parked at a corner store while someone is looking for handouts at the interstate exit ramp a few hundred feet away.
Across the street from my building is a bread company that has a huge open grass lot behind one, and every afternoon, without fail, a man I believe is named Willie lays in the grass. It could be 85 degrees, it could be 25; he’s out there. He’s perfectly harmless but I know it would freak out some of the richer folk who may move into this complex.
I’ve talked to him a few times in the walking I’ve done along the main strip down the road, one littered with the usual fast food joints and such. He’s certainly missing a little bit, but again, he’s harmless and it would be a total shame if those new tenants started to give him shit for something he’s been doing for much longer than the 6 years I’ve witnessed, something that always seems to make his day….all because those with more money seem to wanna be rid of it.
My hope is that they understand such things as homeless and the mentally ill are part of this area, and I’d hate to see them try to push out that “real” feel. I grew up in total Suburbia and refuse to go back for exactly that, the processed feel to it….the lack of anything real.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
When I was younger, I never used to pay that much attention to the problem. I live in the suburbs of Calgary, and rarely venture into the Downtown core. I remember seeing a George Carlin tape once, and he made a good point that has stuck with me ever since: everybody clucks their tongues and says ‘gee, something should really be done….but not in my backyard.’ This really became apparent this past winter when there were no more beds at the existing shelters, and they wanted to house the homeless in a newly vacated retail store a few blocks out of downtown, to which the area residents stood up and united against the action.
Unfortunately, this seems to be a growing problem in most of the cities in this country now. It’s not just limited to the bigger urban centres anymore…
June 1st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
This post hit home for me, as I’ve been on both sides of the fence, and now I just consider myself lucky enough to be able to afford my meds, I dont think its fair to dog on people who are down on their luck nor do i think its fair to shun them altogether. I personally think that most of these people are probably alot smarter and alot less fake than most of us, simply because of the fact that they’ve walked to hell and back on broken glass. When i see someone laying on a park bench, I give em a smile or stop to talk for a while, ive met alot of pretty cool people and most of them dont even have a warm bed to go to at night. Its just fucking ridiculous. I wish people would just care enough to do something more. I think our mental health care system is shit, nobody wants to help a crazy person, they just sweep us under the rug and hope the situation will resolve itself. The truth is this problem will continue to linger until someone has the balls to do something about it.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I don’t think it really matters where you live in this city — you see it everywhere.. I’m on the other side of downtown, and while walking down by the seawall last night, I saw people peddling drugs and a few others unrolling their sleeping bags on a park bench for another night living outside. This city is unaffordable. I have no idea how single income people with “normal” jobs can afford to live here, let alone people who are struggling or have huge medical bills each month.
The only reason I live here where I do at all is because after splitting with my girlfriend, I spent about 3 weeks bouncing between Chilliwack and Vancouver, from couch to couch, desperately trying to find some place to live. Every place in the paper or on Craigslist was gone in a matter of hours. When I showed up to view this place, there was a line up of about seven people waiting to see it, even though the ad just went up in the morning. I lucked out because the guy renting it just had the same relationship events occur to him (which is why he was moving), and I’m pretty sure he gave it to me out of pity.
I’ve thought about moving many times, but unfortunately every place I look at is substantially more money than where I currently am, despite being is “less-trendy” neighbourhoods.
Before our company moved into the downtown core, we were located in the Sun Tower, which is right on the border of the same part of town you live in. One day I walked out at lunch to get some subway in Tinseltown, only to see a young girl, obviously high, dripping blood from both hands, walking down the street. Every person walking by noticed, was appalled, but did nothing to help her — instead they gathered around, from a distance, to watch, as if it were some small segment in a reality TV show. We called the ambulance, and to this day I still can’t fathom how people could just stand around and watch that without acting.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Interesting.
crazy is as crazy does…..*grin* but Seriously. Think about that.
‘ghettoization ‘, interesting word to use with respect to First Nations people.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:54 pm
The other day while at lunch, I was outside having a cigarette with my girlfriend in a public park, and a homeless person was sleeping on a nearby bench. Two police officers came over and woke him up, and they began asking him questions “Do you have any ID?” “Any current address?” “Any past criminal charges?”… as I gave them cut eye, they explained to the man that “the reason we’re here is because people are trying to enjoy their lunch here, and you can’t be here”. I was disgusted. He wasn’t disturbing anyone- he’s just a guy trying to sleep on a bench in a world that’s forgotten him! They kept asking him why he didn’t go to a shelter, but as someone who’s seen shelters around town, I understand why. They line up, fill out forms, and then sleep in rooms with many other homeless people, often with the same fears one would expect to have in jail. By going to shelters, they often put themselves more at risk than sleeping in bank lobbies.
But it was a public park, and the guy wasn’t asking for anything but a place to BE. I wanted to speak out, but before I could muster up the nerve, the homeless man submitted and wandered off.
I found out it’s part of a new “campaign” that Toronto has launched to get homeless people out of sight. Of course, it’s not really accompanied by any increased funds for shelters. But businesses have been complaining, and so the fate of the poor is decided by the rich politicians.
DISGUSTING. Makes me so fucking sick.
Here’s a couple articles:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070529.PANHANDLING29/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007486477
So it looks like instead of just banning panhandling, they’re just going to harass the homeless by “assessment”.
June 1st, 2007 at 4:05 pm
This is an issue in smaller areas too. I live in a city of about 30,000 people and, while there are not a lot of homeless people, we do have a few, and our homeless population will probably grow very soon since a health care facility here for physically and mentally disabled people will be closing in a couple years. Many of the people who live in this facility were placed there so that their families could hide these people who were not “normal” and totally forget they even existed. So now these people will be forced to leave probably the only home they’ve ever known, and many of them probably do not have the support of their families so where can they turn? There are just no resources here for them so inevitably, they’ll end up on the streets, and unable to afford their meds….but of course, the high school kids will be more than happy to sell them drugs.
I used to work in this coffee shop downtown and we had customers from all walks of life. There would be business execs making six figure salaries who would walk in with not even a smile on their face and treating us employees like we were lower than the ground they walk on. And then there were the few homeless people who just wanted someone to talk to. Everyday I saw how society shunned this one young man in particular. If he was in the coffee shop, other people would not come in, if he was walking towards someone on the street, that person would immediately turn the other way like they thought they would be mugged or something. Even my boss told him to not come around during the summer so that tourists would not have to see him. I think the saddest part of his story was that he was part of one of the most affluent families in the city and his own family refused to acknowledge him.
This makes me very thankful for the support of my family because I’m a young, single mother who is also attending university. I cannot imagine where I would be without that support, there are just not enough government programs in place, and for the programs that are there, you have to jump through hoops and then wait 6 months to 1 year for the application to be processed, for some people, by then it’s too late. The last time I talked to my homeless friend he was going to Winnipeg to try selling drugs there, that was 3 years ago so who knows what’s happened to him now.
June 1st, 2007 at 4:10 pm
My dear Matt, you inspire me to a great deal to see the deeper meaning of everything, and even thought I’m only 16 years old, with everyday I live, everything I experiance, every person I meet, I realize a little more that I’m indeed slightly on the crazy side as well. Though if it weren’t for the crazy in the world, there would be nothing to compare sane to, and I know life wouldn’t be half as much fun unless I was crazy to an extent. Sometimes it’s sucks to get the whole picture and realize how cruel and cold this world actually is, and that there really is no perfection, but that’s where crazy comes in to comfort you or. (or atleast take your mind of things temporarily)
June 1st, 2007 at 4:31 pm
The problem is over-exposure. When i first moved from a smaller city, to a bigger one, i was shocked by the buskers, homeless, and threadbare. I felt bad when i didn’t have at least a little change to give, and took to carrying some at all times. But after about four years, as i struggled through Univsersity, i became more cold. Wheras, at one point, i would have used debit to help, now i find it hard to want to.
But society is like that. It’s easier to spend $500.00 on an XBOX 360 than carry .50 cents to help someone out on the street.
It saw something that blew me away yesterday. While walking down a popular street here in Calgary (just moved here, so a little unfamiliar), my buddy and i walked past a little convenience store. They had placed some bannanas outside on a milk crate. There were two bannanas, and when a homeless guy walked by, he only grabbed one. He left the other one for someone else, and it made me think: the least i can do is carry some change in my pocket. There is of course more to be done, but its the least. Show someone that someone cares enough.
June 1st, 2007 at 4:57 pm
This reminds me of something that happened, I think, two months back. They had a Mental Hospital close down, and instead of actually finding another one, or some sort of place to relocate the patients, they instead, fill three busses full, and shipped em off to different cities and just dropped them off.
The whole thing still pisses me off.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:03 pm
It’s funny… people always say (or used to say) things such as, “Yeah, I met Matt Good. He’s a prick.” Just like this one guy I know who played alongside you at some concert years ago. His band would only play cover versions of songs. They either didn’t have or didn’t play any of their own music. You came up to the guy after the show and told him to cut the shit and actually start writing his own stuff. Of course that wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He didn’t actually take the time and be honest with himself about it. All you did was state the truth, and because of that you were made out to look like the bad guy. Now, perhaps you were a prick and I have it wrong completely, but the way I see it is that because you have the balls to speak the truth, you are the one that gets made to look like an ass, when really, you are just trying to make them see something that they don’t.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:35 pm
That post brought me to tears. I couldn’t agree more with every single word. I want every person I’ve ever had a discussion about this subject with to read this.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:43 pm
During my twenty-seven-and-some-odd years on this planet, I’ve learned but one thing: very few people have any desire to give a fuck about anything relevant. The automatons of the middle class need to snap out of their collective trance, not just for the sake of the down-trodden whom they conveniently sweep under their area rugs, but for their own sake as well. They need to be hit in the face with the fact that their dream existence is funded by borrowed money and the bubble is about to burst, else they will find themselves shoulder to shoulder with the so-called “riff-raff” they can’t bear to see, desperately begging for alms while lamenting over a life that once was, yet will never be again.
I hate to be the one to say “I told you so.” Perhaps the stress from the anxiety and depression will kill me before that time cones.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:47 pm
“to hell and back on broken glass”
Yeah.
Matt, I know you’re right about this stuff. I married a guy who was living on the street for the first few years of our friendship (mental illness and drug addiction are awfully sexy when they come wrapped up in youthful rebellion). This is a conversation I could have for days - so many stories about things I have seen (for better and worse) and things I have learned (ditto).
For me it comes down to trying to negotiate how to enact basic human decency in a world where a) we’re all struggling, and b) even charity is a commodity. Main and Hastings never ceases to shock me, and it’s places like that where I feel most deeply a desperate inability to reconcile my middle-class tastes/expectations with a reality that I have come to know exists (or completely doesn’t) for many people on various levels. The best I have come up with so far is that it is totally within my power to attempt to honest and respectful and kind to every human being who crosses my path. The truth is that I can’t usually make it through a day, which says to me that it’s a worthwhile pursuit.
Sometimes crazy makes a lot of sense, and sometimes it’s just crazy. Sometimes it’s hard to read the difference, and it’s work to recognize it, let alone understand. That said, we never know when we’re going to stumble upon an epiphany - it’s probably a good idea for all of us to keep our eyes and ears and hearts open and alert, and for all of us to commit to speaking up for our beliefs when we think there’s a chance that someone else might be willing to listen.
June 1st, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Just wondering what you think one should do about these problems?
I mean I feel really bad for people on the street, I know something pushed them to end up there or they just had some very bad luck, no one chooses to be on the street. I, myself, have lived in the country all my life and do not know what it is like to see this poverty everyday.
And I know what you mean about the medication. I don’t know where I’d be if I couldn’t afford mine.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Sometimes it seems like a curse to feel things right down to the goddamn cellular level that other people don’t even begin to see, let alone internalize. I’ve lived my whole life feeling like a misfit: like I feel too much, like I empathize too much, and that it’s clearly not normal to feel what I do and to the depths that I feel it.
I’ve often thought what it would be like to be one of The Others - the ones who swan through their lives without a care, who can walk right past - over, through - the despair that is all around them to get to where THEY need to go.
I don’t even begin to understand how it is to live so…numbed.
If I happen to watch the news, I will inevitably find myself crying, often times bawling. I’ve surrounded myself with a family of friends who understand this about me, but as a child, I was mocked for my sensitivity. You’d think that would have knocked it out of me, but it hasn’t. It hits me in everyday life around this city, and it follows me wherever I go. As inequitable as things are here, some of the places I’ve traveled to have really driven home the larger, global picture, and as bad as it is here, it’s far worse in so many other places.
And I ask the universe: how is it that I have so much (relatively speaking) and so much of the world has so little? How is that just? What can I do to correct the imbalance? What could all of us do to correct the balance if we had the intention to do it? (It’s never a matter of there being too little to go around: it’s just a distribution problem.) Help me, Universe, to know what it is I am meant to do.
Whatever that is, it still hurts that as much as I do, I can never, ever give enough, do enough or be enough to alleviate all the pain and suffering I see.
And so much of the time, I feel very alone for feeling far, far more than I should.
Maybe that’s the curse of a crazy person.
Or maybe it’s just the curse of a sensitive person.
It’s the sensitive people who FEEL things enough to want to turn things upside down to make them right. Behind every revolution is the evolution of a sensitive person who got fucking fed up enough to change what they could. Behind every revolution is someone who let themselves feel someone else’s owee and tried to kiss it better with their whole heart. I’m convinced of that.
And I’m convinced that sensitivity is not a liability: it’s a catalyst for change in the world.
I hope you take comfort in knowing you’re not the only one on Lonesome Street who is seeing and feeling altogether too much. They can call us crazy, but one day us crazy fuckers will make a difference.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:34 pm
dlogan: Sorry friend, it’s not a “new” campaign. It was almost 20 years ago that Toronto cops were doing the same things to my friends on a daily basis.
A Girl Named Boris:
We need to start a club - oh wait, this kind of is one. Well spoken, thank you.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:50 pm
i hear ya matt
Mumbled talk through pigeon park and hastings is wasting away…
June 1st, 2007 at 11:49 pm
An Elder once told me that if one of fails, we all fail because we haven’t done our job in lifting up our relations who need help. He also pointed out his alternative definition of ignorence. “If you don’t know and DON’T WANT to know then you’re ignorent. If you don’t know and WANT to know then how can that be ignorent?” I think we’ve all (at one time or another) been “that” person who drives through the intersection of Main & Hastings and neglets to think twice about what’s going on there. It’s easy to do so. Why? Because, generally to no fault of their own, people have become desensitized to it.
This could be seen as working both ways though. Having close relatives living in Vancouver’s downtown eastside it wasn’t uncommon to go with my mom down and walk around Oppenheimer or Pigeon Park or pop in for a bite at The Only (RAD by the way!). It was a real treat when I got to go to Army & Navy because I thought it was the BEST THING EVER that I had to walk outside and ACROSS THE ALLEY to get to the shoe department! It wasn’t until after living in the suburbs for a while and bringing a friend with me to Vancouver that I learned that this type of thing was “weird” and “not safe” and “scary”. It came as a total shock to me! Meeting new people downtown was one of my favourite things as a kid because I found it SO cool (& a little bizarre at first) that, walking down Hastings, everyone knew me already from stories my relatives told!! I got a lot of “You must be Tina” and it was from some of the absolute nicest people I had ever met. Every once in a while after meeting someone new they’d want to give me a $10 or $20 bill so I could go buy something new. I would always try to refuse it but then after much chatting, and a well timed glare from my mom (it’s insulting in some Aboriginal cultures to not accept a gift) I would graciously accept it. I didn’t know how significant that was at the time. Someone who has next to nothing (material-wise) wanted to give ME a gift? Perhaps it was because they saw me as their grandchild or neice or daughter and really, I was.
What I don’t think people understand is just how tight these communities are. My relatives have had many opportunities to leave and “better themselves” as one person actually had the audacity to say. They don’t. They won’t. Why? Because they take care of each other. Who else will do it? The nurse in the ICU of St Paul’s who referred to my relative as “these people” right to my face? I don’t think so. They take care of each other becuase they have to.
Sorry about the lack of “chipper” in that but I’ll leave you with this. Is it not just a wee bit odd that there are many Aboriginal people getting shoved aside as to not “bother” the tourists when in fact, the whole “Aboriginal” deal is such a draw for visitors? Hmm. Aaaaaanyways….
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:36 am
Ever thought about leaving Vancouver altogether? The central interior is a very beautiful place to live, it’s cheap in comparison, and you don’t have all that Vancouver bullshit.
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:43 am
As a teacher the hardest question that I ever had to answer was when we took our 6th graders to the Wash. D.C. . We all thought that the Holocoust Mus. would be hard on them. What was hard was seeing the homeless. They could not understand why these people had to live where they did. The district that I teach in is upper middle working class so these kids have never seen anything like this before. The questions they asked us we couldn’t answer.
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:27 am
I was just going to mention DC. The part of town that Matt will see where XM is located sounds so much like the Vancouver situation. You’ve got wealthy suburban commuters who drive through this stretch of DC every day that is filled with poor and hopeless people. The contrast is depressing. Gated, secured corporations are set amongst run down houses and overgrown abandoned lots. Mental illness is of course a big factor with our homeless as well.
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:05 am
“I recall a time in which talk was straight and people said what they meant. Of late, I have struggled to understand the new language employed by many that relies on diversion and the alteration of character on the fly to suit different scenarios.”
I still live in that time, and get burnt for it constantly. But you know what? fuck it.
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:26 am
I also think the art of talking straight and having an opinion was killed off because someone became afraid to “hurt” anothers feelings. We dont want to call things what they are because the truth is blinding painful.
For example, in special education, we don’t say that someone has metal retardation, we call it Cogintive Disability. But before CD we called it Developmentally Handicapped. We hide behind words because it makes people feel better about themselves. The parents had no clue what all these new words meant. They just knew that their child was going to have a hard road in life.
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:38 am
Uh.. as for the rest of what you typed… it’s really disgusting to hear about what’s going on there. But it kind of echoes what’s going on in a lot of other places.
What can be done when the folks that make the key decisions care more about economic factors and personal power and influence than making sure everybody has the opportunity to get the help they need?
I just don’t know.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:10 am
Hey Matt, longtime listener, first time caller.
I appreciate that as an artist you delve deeply into things. I admire your ability to really vent a spleen in your writing. Must take a lot out of you.
Anyhoo, when I think about Vancouver and its dichotomy I’m always reminded of a line from Atlantic City by Bruce Springsteen (as a singer/songwriter yourself you would probably agree with me that most of life’s problems can be summed by a lyric from The Boss):
“Down here there’s just winners and losers and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line.”
Keep up the writing and recording and I hope you find a new living/working space that’s agreeable.
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:27 am
you wanna watch your life waste away?
Move to boomtown, ab
Medicine hat
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:39 am
Why are you still talking to people that make you feel like you are crazy?
Don’t ever allow yourself to be subjected to someone’s idea of what crazy is.
Besides - how many of the truly genius artists in the world are sane? Not many. Having a talent comes with side effects. Embrace them.
On that note- Placebo ‘Meds’!!!
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
a couple of personal comments:
at the height of my craziness, the monthly cost of daily prescriptions of an antidepressant, antipsychotic, sedative and mood-stabilizer came to over $300. i was turned down for pharmacare, based on the fact that the year before i had made enough income to owe MSP a year’s worth of monthly dues. i could only maintain that cocktail for about 3 months, by living with my father and paying all of the extra money that came from the medical claim i was on to his bills. he was battling cancer at the same time and racking up upwards of $1200 a month in prescriptions - though he was receiving welfare and so had them covered. i was soon unmedicated, bipolar and living with a dying father. not a good combination.
one of my sisters is an on-again, off-again, crystal-meth addict. which means she is often an on-again, off-again (self-proclaimed) “street rat.” she’s 17, and still part of the alternative punk scene that was trendy a decade and three ago - she has a mohawk, wears gothy clothes, carries a long board, has piercings and stretched earlobes…it’s amazing the differing ways that she can be treated, just by being in my company, on the street with a group of “riffraff” or when she’s clean and sober and trying to clean up her life - again.
it angers me everytime that when she comes to the west end to see me, for example, i see a taxi driver waiting with her a half foot away while he buzzes me to come pay for her fare. as soon as i’m down the stairs and taking her bags from her and handing over the money, he’s all smiles and knows everything’s great and it’s obviously a case of misunderstanding. the worst thing about it is that my sweet sister is one of the most humble, gracious people you’ll ever meet. she’s not a fan of taking charity and like me, even has a problem not paying for an extra zone on public transport. but you know, since she’s not wearing LV or talking on her cell-phone about her most recent and future hook-ups, as is much of the young female population in vancouver, she must be a lying thief, right? i mean, that’s all that the people who “choose to live on the streets” are…
sometimes, i really hate this city.
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:29 pm
i know the system very well for pharamcare and msp….it truly is almost a nightmare to deal with unless you know what you can try to do in order to get what you need….ie prescriptions…
there are ways…income reviews for example to try and help cut the costs of meds…i know it is difficult…..i know of a great pharmacist on the “East Side” who will do whatever he can to make sure the residents of east side get what they need no matter what..it is people like him that make me stop for a moment and think maybe the world isnt such a bad place……a few exceptional people who are willing to listen, advocate and remember we are all someones child, brother, sister, mother, truly makes a difference….shouldnt we all try and remember that..???
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:44 am
a recent program exposing hospital dumping was a lovely reminder at how the world revolves around the almighty dollar…some US hospital discharged and left a homeless parapalegic (who was living in his car) on the street WITHOUT EVEN HIS WHEELCHAIR b/c they couldnt be bothered to deal with him properly.
I dont have answers but I agree wholeheartedly that $ for spas and pizza needs to be diverted to things that actually MATTER.
June 3rd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Didnt we speak friday morn. ?
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:44 pm
[quote comment="15108"]More attention must be paid to social and mental welfare services in this country. Rod worked for years basically taking patients out of River View and bringing them down here to hotels where attempts were made to integrate them ‘back into the system’ simply because the facility was being largely shut down. There are people that need long term care and out patient support programs, and they should be bolstered, not abandoned.
The reality is that we live in a society in which the principles of gain are bred into us and yet we have social programs that adhere to the ethic of buying into the common good. Thus, you have people who enjoy low healthcare costs but complain when their taxes are raised, especially the wealthy and the corporate sector. Canadians need to realize that this isn’t the United States and their tax dollars go towards funding these programs. That is not to say that the system itself does not need attention and that there aren’t problems, because there are. But in the end, we must either decide to actively participate in the idea of socialized programs or abandon them for alternatives that are more self serving.[/quote]
Thanks for the reply Matthew. I agree. Personally, I know nothing about the mental services in my own area(s) let alone in the country that are available to me when I need them. Everyone definitely need to pay more attention to them.
And about Canadians realizing this is not the United States, I just had a conversation about that with my boyfriend. He seriously thinks a lot of things in Canada are the same as in the United States, or thinks it should be the same as the United States. I like that our taxes go to funding many programs, especially healthcare. It helps out a lot of people in the long run, whether it’s for yourself or not.
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I couldn’t sgree more. You can’t seem to afford to tell the truth anymore.
June 5th, 2007 at 8:27 am
There was a time not so long ago that I would have been one of these aforementioned drug users. I bought crystal meth where I could find it and I snorted lines in the bathrooms of whoever would allow the use.
It’s somewhat off topic, but it’s a place I might still be today if I hadn’t sent an email to you. You talked me down and for that I am forever grateful.
Back on topic though, The government are all crooks. I want to know why some of us have trouble figuring out where our next meal is going to come from, and others are getting spa treatments and private flights across country on our dime.
It’s a sore spot for me.