Vancouver's got an "urban blight": UN

by Kaitlin | June 28, 2007 at 10:27 am
1679 views | 19 Recommendations | 3 comments

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downtown eastside, vancouver

downtown eastside, vancouver

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Whatever you think about the UN and its usefulness as a body capable of effecting change, there is no question that they are good at pointing at world problems and saying "That's bad!" The latest in these Captain Obvious moments is a statement about Vancouver's Downtown Eastside:

"It's one of the worst areas of urban blight that I've ever seen and I've travelled all over the world," said Patricia Leidl, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Population Fund.
The statement itself isn't that interesting to me (although it's not
surprising to hear that we're woefully ignorant of how bad things are
here, I will admit it's a bit shocking to hear "one of the worst in the world").
What I do find most interesting is how quickly the Mayor's office
scrambled to say, "Um, but...we get ranked really highly as a city! For real!"
"Vancouver is a great city. It's constantly rated near the top on a whole bunch of rankings that are done. I think looking at Vancouver on a whole we have a great quality of life," said David Hurford, director of communications for Mayor Sam Sullivan.
Okay guys, seriously. It's not like you're fooling anyone anymore. When the UN is on to us, the last thing you want to do is the old sleight-of-hand parlour trick. They've seen it before, and they'll...oh, nevermind, they're not going to do anything about it, anyway. Keep up the magic trick, Sammy.


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ryan
ryan
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:51 on June 28th, 2007

Kaitlin, this is good stuff. I think the reaction of the Mayor's office, and perhaps the general attitude in Vancouver, reflects a wider trend in western society to hide our problems behind our successes. I hope that the message from the UN is heeded by those that can help and by those that are just ignorant of the extent of the problems the downtown east side faces. Perhaps the best way to tackle the issue is by tackling ignorance first.

Jordan Yerman
Jordan Yerman
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:54 on June 28th, 2007

Ever day at dawn I walk through this neighborhood to get to NowPublic Global HQ. One starts to recognize faces and then worry if a "regular" isn't hanging around one day. Vancouver wrings its hands over whether or not it's a "world class city", but it definitely has world-class poverty and drug-addiction issues.

kaizadbhamgara
kaizadbhamgara
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:29 on June 28th, 2007

Kaitlin, you've written something quite genuinely interesting here. It's also quite true. Ryan has put it extremely well in the comments section as well. Good stuff.

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First Flagged at 10:51 AM, Jun 28, 2007 by ryan
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