Vancouver: an interesting personality

Well despite another day of snow and a few evil Starbucks customers, I will in fact miss Vancouver for a month. In addition to great friends, co-workers, and my hippie regulars, Vancouver is amazing city to live in. Where else does a city's skyline include a breathtaking view of ocean and snow-covered mountains? For those of you here, you will understand what I mean if you take the #22 bus ride through kits along Cornwall street. That view always makes me feel better about Vancouver after literally months without sunshine (sometimes I take that bus just for the hell of it). That being said, those in the know about the #22 are aware that after a brief jaunt through the downtown core, it also winds its way through the lively downtown eastside and Chinatown. My Dad lives there in the heart of East Hastings and loves to regale me with stories of addicts, the mentally ill, and the fact that he's met multiple people now with pet rats. Anyways, I recently read an article in the Walrus about one homeless person's encounter with that community. It totally reminded me of my first bus ride through there with my Dad...the picture is, no exaggeration, a mirror image of what I saw.

Favourite quote from the article:

"Hastings and Main:

Friday afternoon, and the sidewalk is crammed with addicts sucking on lollipops. A preacher has come and gone with a sack of candy and prayer pamphlets, and now the pamphlets are underfoot and the candy drips from dozens of gaping mouths. At this busy crossroads, a block away from police headquarters and before thousands of passing eyes, stands a know of addicts so think pedestrians are forced onto the street. An orchestra of blackened pipes fills the air with acrid sweetness..."

Vancouver is both beautiful and ugly in its personality...much like all of us.