They really need to OD in cold, dank alleyway while rats eat their eyes.

My wife's boss decided to move her production company to new office space, located on the top floor of a 4-story walk-up a block away from Hastings and Main - and if anybody knows Vancouver you'll know that's ground zero for the junkies and the streetpeople. So after 3 days of moving equipment and shit - and (of course) just before the alarm system got installed - last night some fuckers broke in through the roof, then tunneled through the gyproc walls into each office. The place is a total mess, every shelf/closet/file has been ransacked, and the dumbfucks only took 2 computers and a DV recorder.

I warned the boss to just assume they'll be back tonight for the rest of the shit - but they don't know how effectively they'll be able to patch up the ceiling in that time. I say keep it open and stretch a grid of razor wire across it - and pick up their cubed leftovers in the morning.

Anyway, you would not believe the amount of junkies around this place. It's a mix of heroin/crack/meth addicts, and they come into the back alley in waves. It's like Dawn of the Dead. 8 or more of the fuckers at a time. There are discarded needles littered like cigarette butts. And one of these bastids starts trying to break into my car WHILE I'M STANDING THERE. Shit man. What an eye opener. And I thought my eyes were open.

So, um, just wanted to vent. Guess I'll be driving the wife to and from work from now on.

damn dude. my wife and i actually considered moving there a while ago.

is there a small area of town where they all hang out, or are they spread all over the place?

Shitballs. The rent better be cheap.

This is why America's gun laws are "lax"

In Alabama, all you'd have to do is sit and wait for em

Yeh, we call it the war zone. The intersection of Hastings and Main is the epicenter. It stretches for about 5 or 6 city blocks, and most of the storefronts are boarded up and vacant. They just roam the street, stepping out into traffic whenever they feel like it. There are no rules in that area.

We've had friends from American and European cities come here and be absolutely shocked by it. And you wanna see it on Welfare Wednesdays - when they all cash their gov'mint checks and spend the whole wad on dope in a matter of hours. It's just fucking unbelievable.

Which reminds me. Yesterday was Welfare Wednesday.

Wow, Rads, that's terrible. I knew there were a few junkies in Vancouver, but that's pretty scary. Why in the hell would your wife's boss move to that particular location?

I wondered the same thing when I first heard about the move. Her old office space got new owners and they jacked the rent up 300% - and she got this new place (an entire floor of an office building + another huge office w/ fireplace downstairs) for $1500/month.

Doubt it's worth it, though. I was talking to the Impark security guy and he told me not to park my car in his lot 'cuz it'll get broken into within a couple hours. He also said make sure to wear thick-soled shoes unless I want an HIV infected needle stuck in my foot.

That sounds goddamn horrible. The Dawn of the Dead metaphor is probably more than a little true, god only knows what toxins would seep in lest you sustain a bite.

Yeh, we call it the war zone. The intersection of Hastings and Main is the epicenter. It stretches for about 5 or 6 city blocks, and most of the storefronts are boarded up and vacant. They just roam the street, stepping out into traffic whenever they feel like it. There are no rules in that area.
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Sounds like "Hampsterdam" from The Wire.

I've always heard Vancouver had a ton of junkies. And a lax attitude toward enforcement of drug laws.

they probably make some of your favourite music

I quote Cypress Hill: "SAWED OFF SHOTGUN, HAND ON THE PUMP!!"

I bet the whole place would have a cool ass rundown/bohemian feel to it if those gotdamn junkies could be cleared out.

Is this place some kind of "Hamsterdam" ala The Wire -- i.e. an open air drug zone where it's de facto legal?

Yeh - that's the other notable building a block away from Hastings and Main: the police station.

Damn, I didn't see Bloor's post when I was typing mine.

The New Dumb thinkk alike...

1 in a 100 Glaswegians are on the official methadone scheme, including 60 primary school age children (under 12's).

Yeah for Glasgow!

When I was a postman I had a reasonable decent area to deliver to but in some of the bad areas, people would be waiting for their giro check and if the postman didn't have it there was big trouble.

Ye gotta stay thin, if you want the boys to like ye.

My wife and I love Vancouver and it is only about 2.5 hours away - but the drug/crime problem is BAD and that has kept us away a bit - our car got broken into and a bunch of stuff stolen one of the last times we were there - it was really maddenning.....