tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15565398134506908112009-11-07T11:43:16.706-08:00News and Opinions from Vancouver's Downtown Eastsidereliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.comBlogger433125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-15745935732770383092009-11-01T13:46:00.001-08:002009-11-02T14:50:23.443-08:00

On Halloween, a homeless man was sitting in Burger King on Main at 1st Ave. with his full-to-the-brim shopping cart. A man about 40 years old with dark hair, well dressed, wearing a Yankees cap, arrived with his wife. On the way out, he walked up behind the homeless man and said, "Can I give you this?" He handed him a twenty dollar bill and said, "You enjoy your Halloween."The homeless man

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-11659405893491100002009-10-28T18:54:00.000-07:002009-10-31T16:33:57.922-07:00

U2 is in Vancouver, playing GM Place tonight.U2's lead singer, Bono, is probably as well known for trotting around the globe pushing a 'Make Poverty History" agendaRex Murphy, a CBC commentator and author, was being interviewed on CFUN radio earlier this week and mentioned Bono coming to Vancouver. Bono likes to go to gatherings of world leaders, Murphy said, and he likes to get his photo taken

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-19936430919356026172009-10-20T15:17:00.000-07:002009-10-25T15:18:00.550-07:00

BC is in the second stage of the H1N1 flu epidemic but staff at the Downtown Clinic near Oppenheimer Park don't seem serious about curbing it. That's the impression a Downtown Eastside resident got when she went to that clinic today with flu symptoms. "I walked out without even being diagnosed", she told me later from Canada Place where she was having tea at the Food Floor.Yes, she was having

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-22018401246761363012009-10-11T15:45:00.001-07:002009-11-03T17:29:08.887-08:00

Photo: This photo was taken when a swarm of police officers on motorbikes stopped on Main St. What was the incident? They had to pick up their order from the SUBmarine sandwich shop. Two officers put the boxes of food in the trunk of a police car travelling with the motorcycles.Vancouver Police have decided not to fund raise for United Way this year.Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-46747126233328448332009-10-01T17:45:00.000-07:002009-10-01T17:48:29.459-07:00

Thornton Park, Sept. 30, 2009

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-17515797055297637312009-10-01T17:01:00.000-07:002009-10-11T16:07:58.009-07:00

Don Jackson's galpal Linda came in on the skytrain from the group home where she now lives in Langley, and had one last coffee at the Main & Terminal Mcdonalds as they know it.The next morning, Monday, Mcdonalds restaurant and outdoor patio were ripped apart for three months of renovations. It will have a new look for the Olympics.The customers will look the same.A construction site security

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-84965228721882856112009-09-29T23:03:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:35:06.849-07:00

I stopped by the Farmers' Market on the lawn of Pacific Central Station, a magnet for people making an effort to follow the Hundred Mile Diet. I bought an organic Macintosh apple to snack on as I walked home. It was $1.09, an expensive apple it seemed to me. I bit into it, expecting it to taste especially delicious. It tasted like a perfectly ordinary Macintosh apple.This wasn’t the first time

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-64342070322310722342009-09-19T17:32:00.000-07:002009-09-20T16:56:48.799-07:00

You would think Bill Vander Zalm was a movie star, the way people reacted to him at this afternoon’s Anti-HST rally at Canada Place in Vancouver, crowding around him afterwards to take his photo or get theirs taken with him. Now in his seventies, the former premier of British Columbia who’s leading-man-looks have faded a little but his charisma not at all, took to the stage three times to

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-60445192308067415432009-09-15T19:50:00.000-07:002009-09-16T15:49:27.110-07:00

Have you noticed the new expression that is as popular with twenty-somethings as a new tattoo?"No worries." It's Australian slang, meaning "no problem", but it has caught on in Canada. Sometimes it doesn't quite ring right. Like when the host of Good Morning America thanked twenty year old Alena Jenkins of Vancouver for agreeing to appear on the show to discuss her brother Ryan Jenkins, who

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-89122130697151329552009-09-09T02:20:00.000-07:002009-09-10T16:12:49.589-07:00

Photo: Aramic store on Main St., 2009 (Ignore the date on the photo; the date stamp on my camera wasn't working.) What do you do if you have a store with no customers? You expand.That's what happened at Aramic, a men's wear store that opened on Main St. near National about three years ago. I walked by there everyday and only once saw a customer. I saw a man standing at the cash register.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-35536733605525254592009-08-30T22:10:00.000-07:002009-08-31T00:13:02.979-07:00

At roughly 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, there was a collision involving three vehicles -- two red and one blue in the photo above -- on Main St. at 1st Avenue just past Burger King. (The date stamp on my camera wasn't set so the date on the photos is wrong.)There did not appear to be life-threatening injuries.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-44868895769068736652009-08-30T22:08:00.000-07:002009-09-28T16:21:11.047-07:00

Tonight Art Bell guest hosted the late night radio show Coast to Coast, a show which has a loyal following amongst the unemployed on the Downtown Eastside who don't have to get up in the morning. The retired Bell, who has a bit of a cult following, hosted from his home radio studio in the Philippines. [He is fascinated, he said on a previous show, that technology actually allows him to broadcast

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-35147886333044296192009-08-19T11:38:00.000-07:002009-08-23T19:00:12.569-07:00

Above photo: a homeless man sleeps in the sun this morning in front of Mcdonald's restaurant at Main & Terminal.Mcdonald's restaurant deserves a humanitarian award for the tolerance they have shown for the homeless. At one point an older manager, a Chinese guy with his head shaved bald, did start insisting that the homeless move their shopping carts away from the front door. "We can't have

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-88659297278706507552009-08-18T21:24:00.000-07:002009-08-22T20:18:45.545-07:00

Kingsway at BroadwayAfter the heat wave, it was cool for a few days. I thought summer was over.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-51608893322216261742009-08-11T01:56:00.000-07:002009-08-11T02:09:13.006-07:00

Photo: William Simpson, a homeless man punished by City of Vancouver for being linked to this blogWhen agreeing to sponsor Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics, Acer, a marketer of laptop and netbook computers,would have been aware of well publicized complaints against the City of Vancouver of human rights abuses targeting computer users and bloggers. Acer has therefore been asked to pull out as a

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-30693816516701276112009-08-03T22:55:00.000-07:002009-08-04T00:40:41.411-07:00

The Gay Pride parade was this weekend. Pride goeth before a fall. At a time when it looks like gay rights are so alive, they are on the brink of being murdered. Look at the demographics.Gays, and the liberals who support gay rights, are not reproducing. To sustain itself, a culture must have 2.11 children per family. History shows that cultures with a fertility rate below that die out. In 31

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-24413021558469855802009-08-02T01:24:00.000-07:002009-08-02T01:40:15.593-07:00

In July, I was listening to the Bill Good show and he was talking, along with his panelists Bill Tielman and Norm Ruff, about the dangers of bicyclists on the sidewalk.Good said "a colleague" of his was severely injured when, as a pedestrian, she was hit by a cyclist.I was glad he brought it up. I've been criticized for blogging about bicyclists on the sidewalk. One commenter asked if I'd

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-86030581764985296172009-07-27T01:16:00.003-07:002009-07-27T01:52:03.754-07:00

Garrett used to be homeless, going through McDonald's garbage cans for food. But he never had the ragged, dirty, down and out look.It was during Garrett's homeless period that he discovered that you could drop into the St. Vincent de Paul store on Main St. on a Monday and they would give you one of the bags of canned food that they kept in the back. They had some sort of food bank operation going

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-7528943695715023522009-07-20T01:40:00.001-07:002009-07-29T02:02:26.257-07:00

Photo: George stands in front of the UBC Learning Exchange. He asked a Downtown Eastsider with a camera to take this photo; I think it was taken in early 2009 but I haven't had a chance to talk to the photographer. George was wearing his Alaska t-shirt but did not yet have his Sarah Palin glasses.I asked Dale, a homeless guy with a shopping cart who hangs out in front of McDonalds restaurant

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-74656667854097064782009-07-16T00:16:00.000-07:002009-07-16T01:27:04.623-07:00

Remember the hippopotamus who used to prance across the tv screen in Telus commercials, the one who eventually ended up dead due to poor treatment. That's my neighbour. I warned her not to order internet from Telus. But she went ahead, saying they were cheaper than Shaw, and besides she'd had a Telus telephone land line for 20 years.But after ordering internet service from Telus, she couldn't

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-135612985031881592009-07-07T14:21:00.000-07:002009-07-08T12:46:03.239-07:00

Photo: Opening of the Community Court in 2008. Judge Thomas Gove stands on the far right of the photo taken in the internal courtyard. It's not easy getting volunteers to work alongside well paid union members in the Carnegie kitchen for 80 cents an hour in food stamps. Now the kitchen has started to take "volunteers" who are sentenced to community service by the new Community Court. A

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-12348481147026887222009-07-07T14:20:00.000-07:002009-07-08T12:50:40.424-07:00

I walked by Pigeon Park this morning and there was a cluster of people sitting on park benches in the drizzle watching Michael Jackson's memorial. They were watching it on a television parked on the sidewalk in front of the second hand store.I stopped and the words, "I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" appeared on a red strip across the bottom of the screen. A native guy standing up close to

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-36799759009420488552009-06-26T05:22:00.000-07:002009-07-06T23:02:44.662-07:00

"The way you make me feel ... you knock me off of my feet." That's one of my favorite songs. When I hear it, I feel like dancing.I'll never forget where I was when I learned that Michael Jackson was dead. I was at home yesterday listening to CBC when Carol Off mentioned in a disinterested tone of voice that Michael Jackson had died of "cardiac arrest".Last night at the Metropole hotel on the

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-19373122474964974922009-06-22T00:52:00.001-07:002009-06-24T21:53:55.360-07:00

Shelagh Flaherty, Director of the Vancouver Public Library, has been asked to stop allowing Carnegie library staff to call "security" to repress freedom of expression. "I'm calling security" is a shortcut regularly taken by Carnegie staff unwilling to communicate effectively with the low income people they are well paid to work with, preferring instead to turn assertive people over to security

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-72434758367512996482009-06-17T22:04:00.000-07:002009-06-18T16:41:52.368-07:00

Just when the VPD finally did something to deter bicycling on the sidewalk, Downtown Eastside activists are lobbying the VPD to cancel tickets for that and other "nuisance" offences such as jaywalking and illegal street vending. Activists claim the VPD unfairly targeted the Downtown Eastside last winter for ticketing. They're probably right. I had never seen a bicylist on the sidewalk ticketed

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com6