Bus Kills Pedestrian at Main & Hastings

A "Top Class Limousine" tour bus was at the bottom of it's class tonight when it had a pedestrian under it's wheel. The 68 year old pedestrian was struck by the bus shortly before 9 p.m. as it turned north off Hastings onto Main St., by the Pathways Job Search Center. A witness who passed by shortly after the accident, said, "They had to take him out from under the wheel." (The pedestrian can be seen lying under a white sheet at the left of the photo above.)

The bus appeared empty of passengers.

At least one security guard came to help from the Carnegie Community Center across the street. The pedestrian still had a pulse but as a police officer entering the Carnegie Center said, "It doesn't look good." He died shortly afterwards at the scene. He did not die enroute to hospital as CTV television reported. He was put into a wine colored body bag at the scene and loaded into the coroner's van.

A bearded VPD Constable wearing a turban (on right of photo above) stood behind the yellow tape across the street from the accident to make sure nobody violated that boundry. But his skills as a community-friendly cop were less than stellar; he was defensive and snooty when a local resident politely asked him if he could walk on the Main Street sidewalk to get home. That same Constable was standing by the yellow tape at the Cambie Hotel on February 15th, the night Steve Seymour was shot to death.

Carnegie Locks Poor Out of Computer Room this Afternoon

This afternoon, the computer room at Carnegie Center was closed. Low income people arriving to use computers found the door locked and the place in darkness.

Carnegie's Director, Ethel Whitty, has an office just meters away. But she seems to do little to ensure that this taxpayer funded service remains open at all times.

Dr. Laura Blames Spitzer's Wife for his Prostitute Spree

On her radio show today, Dr. Laura Schlessinger was laughing. On the topic of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer being caught using a high-priced hooker service, The Today Show had interviewed a call girl to ask why husbands go to prostitutes. Dr. Laura was thrilled to learn that this "whore" gave the same advice she had been giving. It was advice Dr. Laura says she has been relentlessly attacked on blogs for daring to give.

According to Dr. Laura, the call girl said that if a woman doesn't want her guy to go to a prostitute, she should "put more energy into the relationship". The theme of Dr. Laura's book, "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands", is that the modern women is neglecting her husband and may live to regret it.

Dr. Laura loves to give air time to anybody who antecdotally supports her book's thesis. Several times a week, she reads an email from a man who says he left his wife because she wasn't treating him like he had much value, and from a wife who says she regrets treating her husband like he was an afterthought, now that he has left.

Dr. Laura was giddy throughout her show today.

Dr. Laura and the call girl may have part of the truth, but only part in my opinion. I think there are a multitude of reasons why men use prostitutes, not the least of which is that men have trouble with monogomy because they're not hard-wired for it.

I was once told by a guy who himself used prostitutes that guys go to hookers because hookers will do things their wives are not into, like S&M. I thought of him when the media spoke to one of the call girls at the service Spitzer was using and she revealed that the boss had told them that "Client 9", Spitzer, could expect them to do things that were not always "safe."

Judging from the Reuters photo above of Spitzer standing with his wife Silda Wall Spitzer, the onus is now on him to put some energy into the relationship.

UPDATE: On Friday morning, Sue Davis, who has worked as an escort/prostitute in Vancouver for 22 years, was interviewed on CFUN radio by Shannon Nelson. Davis said, "Men who are happily married and are exploring sex with their wives don't come to sex workers."

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Read about the ring of Vancouver professors who sought sex behind the backs of their spouses: Simon Fraser University Asked to Disclose Sexual Harassment Ring to Donors

Another Abuse Story from Pathways

Carol Madson, Manager of Pathways Employment Center on the Downtown Eastside, recently irked Downtown Eastsiders when she told the Vancouver Sun that job searchers at Pathways have major "self-esteem" and "anger" issues. Madson knows the buzz words that keep her funding coming, but the way she runs Pathways, it is difficult to go there on a regular basis without feeling angry or that their self-esteem had been eroded.

Today a woman around 40 years old was working on a resume when a guy about 22 years old got up from his computer and, according to her, "roughly" brushed by her. A dangling strap from his pack sack slapped her on the side of the face, over her eye. She said, "Hey, you hit me!" He said he had not. She said he had.

Then he began loudly telling his friends that he had "offended" the "little old lady". He was laughing and talking loudly so that she could hear. I believed what she told me because I have seen this ritual of demeaning commentary and laughter used by young guys in Pathways when I have dropped in there to talk to Bill Simpson (who has been barred from Carnegie across the street for free speech).

This verbal abuse is provided courtesy of the federal government. During today's incident, the woman told me, Pathways staff said nothing. It wasn't as though they didn't hear what was going on, she said, the guy had moved closer to them than to her when he was making his loud comments.

Ultimately the Manager, Carol Madson, is the problem. People know what will happen if they complaint to her; they will be seen as just another client with "issues"... anger, self esteem, mental health. Previously, the DTES Enquirer reported that a woman who was verbally abused at Pathways was dismissed by Madson who told her in a supercilious tone, "Have a nice day" -- a male witness corroborated her account. Madson, was busy with her kids at the time -- she still brings her kids to work although she hides them in her office now -- and did not want to be hassled with the realities of managing Pathways, the job she is being paid to do.

The Downtown Eastside Enquirer asked residents how the situation could be improved at Pathways. One regular user of Pathways says one solution would be to have the computer room supervisor, a guy around sixty years old, sit inside the room or closer to the door so that he is in a position to actually supervise. That would prevent other problems too, such as computers meant for job searches being occupied by people playing video games. But of course if punks couldn't play video games and poker, they wouldn't sign into Pathways and the numbers needed to justify funding would go down. And Madson has figured that out.

But what she and her federal government co-workers don't seem to have figured out is that verbal abuse is not an employable skill.

Taxpayer Rip-off at Carnegie Center Continues

Carnegie staff got the big raise CUPE insisted they deserved, but they are still not doing their jobs on a steady basis. Services at Carnegie are too often hit and miss.

Last Friday evening and the Sunday evening before that, Carnegie staff locked Downtown Eastside residents out of the computer room which contains much-in-demand public access computers. That's two four hour shifts, a total of eight hours of computer services, lost. Sunday evenings are the busiest time for the computer room with people preparing to start the new week. This evening the room was open.

There is no excuse for those responsible for keeping the computer room open -- Colleen Gorrie and Sindi, along with Director Ethel Whitty -- to be operating by the seat of their pants. When they lock people out of services, they always have the same excuse: "No volunteer showed up." They have a multi-million dollar budget but they can't function without a volunteer. Why can't Colleen or Ethel sit in the computer room themselves? After all, they're getting a pay cheque to keep those services open. There are surprisingly few services at Carnegie considering the millions that the taxpayer sinks into that place. The third floor has only a computer room and a Learning Center, the latter being co-operated by Capilano College. The second floor has a gym which is generally deserted except for a volleyball game once or twice a week, and a cafeteria which gets a lot of traffic.

Even the cafeteria has a performance problem, although it is still one of the most reliable services in the building. It often has good soups and recently I was told they had a good roast beef dinner. But there have been times in recent weeks when the cupboards have been bare. I went in one evening after the dinner hour and all they had to feed the line up of people was breakfast cereal and a few pastries. No soups. No sandwiches. Then they ran out of cereal!

A friend of mine went into the cafeteria today to buy a muffin for fifty cents but they were out, so she bought a piece of chocolate cake for eighty cents. It was so stale, she couldn't eat it. I tasted it too. Deadly stale.

That is not to say there are not people working tirelessly behind the scenes at Carnegie. The Board of Directors recently arranged a secret meeting for which minutes, if they exist at all, are unavailable. And Board members won't say what the topic of the meeting was. Either the Carnegie Director or Assistant Director would have attended this on camera meeting, as a City representative attends all meetings involving Carnegie Board members.

Speculation is that the meeting was about Rachel Davis, a Board member who was not able to attend, but has irked Carnegie Board members and management by speaking up on behalf of low income Carnegie members who elected her. Davis has been ostracized for speaking up in defense of Bill Simpson when he was banned from this City building, accused of doing what we are doing here, tattletaling to the taxpayer via a blog about services that are paid for but not delivered.

TD Bank in Chinatown Robbed

Last Wednesday evening around 5:30, the TD Canada Trust at the corner of Main & Pender in Chinatown was robbed.

A Downtown Eastside resident heard sirens and went over. There was a sign on the door saying that the bank was closed due to an "Emergency". A guy in a suit standing inside the door was telling customers they could not enter. The Downtown Eastside resident asked, "Was there a robbery?" "Yes", the man in the suit responded, "But we got the guy."

There were two police ghost cars there at the time the Downtown Eastside resident arrived. Police officers were inside.