When you see Granville Street today, from Hastings to Drake, it’s hard to believe how far downhill it has has declined.
I remember.
I remember when there was not just the Hudson Bay store at Granville and Georgia, but Henry Birks and Eaton’s stores kitty-corner and more recently Sears, Nordstrom’s too; a Future Shop, the Castle Pub, Theater Row, White Lunch, Mr. Mike’s, Shepherd’s Shoes, and Tom Lee Music … all part of a vibrant retail, dining, entertainment scene … day and night.
And then came the transit mall … no cars, no parking, no easy access all the way from Hastings to Nelson … wider sidewalks and bench areas theoretically turning Granville into a “people” place to stroll, shop and relax.
Not!
Instead, the decline of Granville began: it became more and more a hangout for homeless youth, panhandlers and fewer and fewer serous shoppers/diners … many of whom moved to Pacific Centre underground or to Robson and Davie Streets.
Still, Granville was not dangerous: being poor is not a crime; the homeless youth hanging out on the mall were a sad sight but not threatening; the panhandlers were not violent … and although retail shifted away, the restaurant/bar scene struggled/adjusted and survived.
Until the BC NDP government delivered an almost fatal blow … or, actually, a series of fatal stabs right to the heart of the downtown Granville area!
Displaying what would turn out to be the ultimate in governmental ignorance or incompetence, the province took advantage of the economic downtown of the Covid era and started buy up struggling budget/tourist class hotels … on Granville Street.
Not to protect/preserve the city’s mid-range hotel stock, but to house more than 600 homeless, drug-users and mentally ill … some of them quite severely impaired … right there in the midst of Vancouver’s prime downtown core retail, dining, entertainment core!
Incredible, irrational, irresponsible.
And, of course, to service these new “residents” the BC NDP government spent millions more to open up/staff in the surrounding area ancillary services for them: a needle exchange, mental and social services/agencies.
Apparently it didn’t occur to these geniuses … exercising ideological blindness … that people who are homeless, drugged up, mentally ill don’t stay in their rooms, but actually leave them each day… to languish on the sidewalks, do drug deals or fence stolen goods in the laneways nearby, shoot up in doorways (urinate and defecate too) or approach passersby for money (sometimes quite aggressively), act out their mental psychoses … sometimes at the top of their lungs, damage property, steal from local shops, and threaten, assault, stab (and occasionally even murder) innocent passersby … a degree of savagery that turned Granville and the surrounding streets today into a “no go” area for many.
News reports regularly tell of the woes faced by local businesses that have not moved out … and the terrible crises the NDP’s SRO residences have created:
“The Luugat, a former Howard Johnson Hotel, was purchased by the province in June 2020 and converted into supportive housing. Since January that year, the facility on Granville Street has been the subject of 906 call-outs, including 375 medical incidents, 334 alarms, 43 fires and 12 rescue or hazard events, according to Vancouver fire service,” the Vancouver Sun reported. (Red the full story here: https://vancouversun.com/news/after-900-emergency-calls-43-fires-bc-vows-to-move-granville-street-supportive-housing.
One retail store on Granville revealed it had spent $300,000 on security anti-theft measures in just one year. (https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/there-needs-to-be-changes-downtown-vancouver-store-fed-up-after-spending-300k-to-fight-constant-crime/)
Readers of this blog know how often I sounded the alarm about all this when the government bought its first hotel on Granville for social housing … to be pooh-poohed by those so politically biased in favour of the NDP or who could not see the reality of these stupid decisions/moves by the government.
Now, finally, amidst all the rubble, Vancouver has announced a 20-year multi-billion-dollar plan to “revitalise” … I say “recivilize” … Granville Street. (Read about it here: https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vancouver-council-approves-20-year-plan-granville-thrive.)
And the BC government has finally agreed to relocate the SRO housing residents to other areas away from the shopping/entertainment core. (Where and when is still to be determined.)
Private developers will finance/build much of the property redevelopment.
However, I believe the provincial government OWES it to the citizens of Vancouver to pay a MAJOR share of the public cost of restoring Granville Street. (And provide similar funding to other cities as well where the provincial government destroyed downtown shopping areas by buying up and housing the hard to house).
After all, it was the NDP’s decision to inflict its fatal decision-making mistakes on Granville Street.
It’s time for the province to own up … and agree to pay up as well!
Harv Oberfeld
(Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE First Alerts of new postings on this Blog.)
having an other political party in office isn’t going to change anything. The fent. crisis started when Christy was in office. People aren’t born drug addicts or crazy. It happens along the way. All the addicts were once cute little kids starting grade one and then one day they’re addicts, dealers, criminals, etc. As many children grow up they do encounter problems and some don’t recover. By the time people are enshrined on Granville St or its equivalent around the province its usually to late for recovery. Society and government might be a lot better off if they focused on children so they become happy individuals and don’t feel a need to take the drugs which kill them.
Violent people need to be taken out of circulation for a bit. The catch and release system isn’t working but don’t expect changes because that means people have to stay in jail or hospital and that is costly and taxpayers aren;t interested in paying more taxes.
the reparations suggestion is silly. the money ought to be spent on ensuring children don’t turn into drug addicts. When I drive some areas I see human beings sitting on side walks, in clothes which no human or animal should be in contact with, their hair and bodies are a health hazard. Now if I left one of my dogs or cats in that condition I’d be arrested for endangering my pet but if its a human nothing is done.
So here we are all talking about the issue but has any one asked those living on the street what would help? Ya I know, no one has and that is the problem. all these housed, feed, middle class people are never going to be able to “solve” the problems
(Response: I agree priority should be given to younger people infected by drugs or even so severely mentally ill they cannot function in society. The problem is there aren’t anywhere near the in-house resources to take care of those and restrain those violent offenders who are inflicting harm on so many people. And then there are the laws …or lack of them … to get/keep them off the streets. Shame on the federal politicians for failing to deal with that, provincial politicians for failing to direct Crown counsel to seek longer sentences, and the judges for failing to take advantage of their discretionary powers to keep dangerous offenders locked up for more than just a few months …or hours! Ho)
Now BC dispicable Housing crazies are causing an uproar against Abbotsford citizens by wanting to build supportive housing near a school and park. Supportive housing is okay but what these BC Housimg imbeciles are doing is reprehensible. They obviously think they are above everyone and don’t have the slightest care or respect for the local.citizens orveven the safety of children. We know what supportive housing can really be. Many variations and sometimes not good. But to.not even considers children’s safety is an outrage. These BC Housing and Eby clan are disgusting. Oh I hope pushback comes hard and strong as time goes on.
(Response: Sometimes I wonder if the ghost of Madame Defarge is secretly working behind the scenes with BC’s Minister responsible for BC Housing. NDP provincial governments and their extreme left allies on city councils seem to delight in “sticking it” to those who have built up businesses for years or worked hard to buy homes in nice neighbourhoods by placing social housing right in their midst. It started with putting social housing in Olympic Village, right close to the waterfront … an area most of us with jobs could not afford to buy or rent! Then there was talk of placing social housing in Shaughnessy … no doubt a deliberate attempt to demean, disrupt and punish the successful; then came the ridiculous plan to build 12-storey public housing project, complete with druggies, on Arbutus at 8th Ave next to a school and a park; then they destroyed Granville Street; and, most recently, another proposed social housing project not “near” a park but right IN it … and close to a school. Madame Defarge is definitely in the wings, giggling as she knits the names of areas the NDP wants to screw into her quilt. Ho)
Absolutely Harvey. But the negligence involving schools and parks in close proximity is beyond the pale. When the government throws the safety of children out the window because of their stinking rotten extreme nasty politics and warped ideologies, then it’s almost like, or is child abuse and negligence of duty of care as a government for children’s and families safety. Oooh its sick and disgusting. Shame on them to hell I say.
During my seed sewing years of 1962 through 1975, I spent many a night exploring Granville Street, Howe, Hornby, Hastings, Carrol and Cordova. I have fond memories of The Only, White lunch, Scotts, Oil Can’s, Baceda’s, the Cave, Isy’s and several others of greater or lesser repute.
A child rearing decade or so, kept me in the burbs, until the boys moved out and in 1995 I became a resident of Vancouver living within a few blocks either side of Granville for the next 20 years, with both sons also down there for most of those years, repeating what I had done 20 years earlier.at time.
During that time, 1995 to 2015, Granville was almost always a part of my walking routes between Coal Harbour, False Creek, the West End, Gastown and Chinatown.
I knew most of the panhandlers by sight, some by name, many of whom by the way, actually lived in a home somewhere outside the downtown. All was cool.
Until 2010. 2010!
You should all know what that year was. Like the leadup to FIFA, 2009-2010 saw the innocent enough panhandlers hidden away from visiting Olympic Prima Donnas and easily offended hob nobs.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Between 2012 and 2015, when I came to feel less safe the decline was evident on a monthly basis. From the new London Drugs on Hastings, to Costco on Expo Blvd, down Robson, up Davey and all along Granville, I needed to preplan my routes to avoid confrontation, spit, and or human waste, as it spread like the pine beatle.
I began to plan my next and hopeful last move, which was accelerated in 2014, when the owner of Reckless Bikes was shot outside Starbucks in Yaletown, mere doors away from my nice high-rise overlooking the marina.
I left Yaletown, Vancouver and the Lower Mainland in 2015.
Harvey, the crumbling of Granville and much of downtown Vancouver began right after the last bobsled descended the mountain, on Feb 28, 2010.
Harvey, from 2001 to 2017, first Gordon Campbell, then Christy Clark held the mace in Victoria. Both Liberals.
There is enough blame to go around, unless one has a bias against the NDP and salivates for fresh reasons to blame them for everything going back to the great fire.
King’s pawn to fourth rank…
(Response: Fascinating reminisces. Thanks. Yes, I remember the Only too … great seafood at cheap prices and it never bothered me to park around the corner or on Pender and walk over …when I didn’t opt instead for Ming’s or the Ho Inn. I agree there is a lot of blame (provincially, federally, muncipally … all parties)to go all around for Vancouver’s crisis of dangerously mentally ill, druggies, homeless currently impacting the city. However, it was NDP ideologues, NDP politicians and NDP bureaucrats who came up with the idiotic idea of housing more than 600 of these unfortunate people on/adjacent to Granville Street, and of course, establish social and health services there too to serve them. Imagine just one case: “former Howard Johnson Hotel …. has been the subject of 906 call-outs, including 375 medical incidents, 334 alarms, 43 fires and 12 rescue or hazard events”. That’s just incompetent government planning and policy …blind ideology … that resulted in many similar problems at other “residences” on Granville …. hard-to-house sad cases deliberately placed there by the NDP provincial government. That’s not a partisan criticism …just the hard truth … keeping it real! It was the death blow to Granville as a shopping/eating/strolling place … that will take billions of dollars to resurrect/restore and the province should share a MAJOR part of the cost. Ho)
Just to be clear, Harvey, in your response to me you defended your use of NDP government. I wasn’t questioning you on that. Opponents and supporters always have identified governments with the name of the party in power. What I was questioning was your statement “the NDP government should pay for this”.
Maybe I am nitpicking. But when you say pay I am assuming that you are talking money. So ultimately it is the BC government, that happens to be NDP at this moment,
that should pay. Had the the Conservatives won last October, you wouldn’t be saying the BC Conservatives should pay for this. It is BC taxpayers from all over the province you are asking to pay for this long simmering Vancouver problem,
Now if you want to say the BC NDP should “pay” for their incompetence by losing in the next election, that is fine. But, you have been trumpeting this issue in the past including last election. How much of an issue was it? I don’t follow Vancouver closely enough but, by my count, the BC NDP won 11 of the 12, seats in Vancouver. Sounds like an endorsement. But in the civic election 2 years ago, the left leaning council was trounced. The people of Vancouver have spoken. They were mad at the civic politicians who paid a price but not at all upset at the provincial NDP who took 11/12 seats.
So my question? Why should people in Terrace, Quesnel, Fort St. John, Kelowna even NDP stongholds in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island have their provincial tax dollars spent on Vancouver’s problem? That doesn’t mean provincial and federal governments can’t help Vancouver with specific programs moving forward like they might support other communities. Maybe more clarity on what you mean by pay would help me.
(Response: Yes, the NDP did well in Vancouver in the last election. That shows voters preferred them overall to the other parties fielding candidates in that area: but doesn’t absolve them or excuse their incompetence, blind ideological stupidity that destroyed the Granville Street downtown core … anymore than Donald Trump/Republicans can be absolved of responsibility for the damage incompetence, blind ideological stupidity we are now witnessing and suffering under just because more voters chose then in the US election! As for your question “Why should people in Terrace, Quesnel, Fort St. John, Kelowna even NDP strongholds in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island have their provincial tax dollars spent on Vancouver’s problem?” … it’s not a good idea to go there! The people of the Lower Mainland, through their massive provincial taxes, subsidize GREATLY the huge costs of providing provincial services (highways, schools, hospitals, social services) in those smaller towns/communities. And since it was the NDP provincial government that deliberately placed more than 600 homeless, druggies, mentally ill … many of them severely damaged … right in heart of the Granville Street area, destroying any ability for businesses (and sadly, people too) there to thrive/survive … surely it would be only fair for the NDP provincial government to pay the public costs for the area’s rehabilitation! Ho)
Just a thought, the James Webb telescope has completely overturned the concept and theories of the universe, so much, that some scientists are theorizing that we live inside a massive black hole (with the chaos around Granville St. maybe we are!).
I digress.
Maybe we need a similiar “James Webb” event for our treatment of the mentally ill, the addicted or the habitually poor who live in the downtown, because current theories and actions are not working and doing the same thing over again and expecting different results is a fools game.
Tarting up Granville Street for the World Cup is not a solution, rather it is a reaction of politicians and bureaucrats who live in a tax and spend “Black Hole”.
Until we cure the problem, the problem just multiplies and worsens.
(Response: If governments really cared about the seriously ill acting out on our streets, at serious to the public and even themselves, they COULD find the funds to house/treat them. After all, they always find the money for things like $600 million for FIFA, bike lanes, road reconstruction and traffic restrictions all over the place, hugely inflated executive salaries/bonuses/buyouts, scrapping/replanning/redesigning the Massey Tunnel project (now estimated at $4 Billion … and still counting!), and a $100 million BCeSIS education system critics say ended up as useless. But not enough money for serious mental health treatment, to make city streets safe? Ho)
That’s it right on the mark Harvey. The no good immoral hypocrites don’t care. How can they. You stuck it to them really good there. What you stated is the absolute truth and nothing but the truth. I love it when I see that raw truth about those lousy louts in this government and the pig trough they keep filled to the brim for those big project bottom feeders at the top. No need for further comment. You nailed it.
The Granville Street and Mall area…as long as I could remember…was a sewer then… …when I first came and stayed at the Hotel Vancouver in 1974..
MIND YOU ..IT HAS IMPROVED…FROM BAD TO WORSE.
BLAME TO ALL THE HEADS OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS…MAYORS .
SMALL THINKERS…UNABLE TO SEE BEYOND THEIR NOSES.
NO WONDER RIFF RAFF FOSTERS THIS AREA.
(Response: It took more than just municipal government to bring Granville Street to its knees. Sure, they started it with ill-thought-out out plans to turn it into a European-style pedestrian mall …with buses running down the middle. But it was when the NDP provincial government decided to import/house more than 600 homeless, druggies and crazies right there that the death warrant for shoppers, businesses was signed. Time now for the NDP provincial government to pay reparations to the victims of their crimes! Ho)
A quick note: European style pedestrian malls succeed because the have trams running on them not buses. Trams are extremely user friendly, but Vancouver is allergic to trams, so a pedestrian mall will not succeed. Any future attempt to rehabilitate Granville will fail.
The same thing was pointed out in the 1970’s, when the first attempt of the ruination of Granville St.
Excellent topic Harvey. I totally agree with your comments. I just hope the NDP and the City of Vancouver can get their act together and get moving on this important project.
Lots of complaints about past expensive government mistakes many of which I agree with but let’s try and look forward.
D.M.Johnston struck a chord when he mentioned how his two boys would not venture down Granville Street. My wife and I are both retired and live downtown so a lot of our local travels, errands and such are done by walking or transit. I used to take my morning walks which sometimes took me to the city core but that finished when the news reported how one man got killed and another had his hand lopped off by some maniac wielding a machete. No more going by Canada Place or further south towards the beaches to make my way back home. I am not a feeble old man who has trouble getting around but why tempt fate?
It’s at the point now that when walking and I don’t feel comfortable if someone is following too close behind me I stop to let them pass.
Just because I have a roof over my head doesn’t mean I should consider myself lucky but then be afraid to step outside? Sorry but I refuse to do that.
This kind of behaviour we are surrounded by is NOT NORMAL. I really hope the area can be salvaged and redeveloped for everyone who works, lives and plays in Vancouver.
(Response: Today I went to visit someone in St Paul’s Hospital and I parked on Howe Street near Helmcken. I had no problem making it the one block up to Burrard, but on the way back down, I did spot a couple of homeless (or druggies?) hanging around in the laneway off Helmcken as I passed … and saw another strange character on the sidewalk ahead on Helmcken, east of Howe … so I just hurried right back to my car. None of them bothered me at all … but, as a senior, I felt uncomfortable, so there was no way I would have continued down to Granville (as I often did before) to grab lunch at my favorite, Harvey’s Hamburgers, near Nelson (which is no longer there anyway!) … but that’s what the NDP government did to the area, and they should pay to help restore it! Ho)
I grew up in Vancouver but left in 1974. I made short annual trips to see my parents, but since their passing I haven’t been to Vancouver since 2014 except for connecting flights elsewhere. So, I don’t have a whole lot of insight into Vancouver, especially downtown. Except… hasn’t Granville Street been in decline for years? Maybe buying up hotels to house the homeless wasn’t the best of ideas, maybe it’s the tipping point, but the decline started as long ago as the 60s.
As a kid we would take the bus and head to theatre row on Saturday to watch a double feature of westerns at the Lyric for a quarter. My much older brother always warned us to stay clear of the blocks nearer the bridge.
My mum always took the bus to get to downtown for $1.49 Day and such. But by the end of the 60s, Oakridge Brentwood Park Royal and Lougheed malls had sucked customers away from downtown. The Pacific Centre Mall was an attempt to compete but who would want to drive into downtown when much more convenient malls were closer to home.
When I visited my parents in the 80s and 90s, if I wanted to shop or see a movie, the last place I wanted to go was Granville Street.
The rise of homelessness and their leaving the DTES for Granville certainly didn’t help. And that brings us to today. Hopefully the plan they are working on will improve Granville Street. But I will leave that to smarter people.
What struck me most was your headline, I know you used NDP government as you blame them and that’s ok but it is still the BC government, the taxpayers of BC, that will pay for this, not the NDP if you had your way.
Shouldn’t the people of Vancouver be held responsible? Blame the NDP if you want, but without Vancouver’s support of the NDP, would the NDP have had enough seats to form government? And what about the mayors and councils that allowed this to happen. Weren’t they voted in by the people of Vancouver. Why should people in Terrace, Kelowna, Quesnel, Fort St. John etc. have their hard earned tax dollars spent on Vancouver. Sorry Salmon Arm, you’ll have to wait for that new school while we help rebuild Granville Street.
I have lived in the north for 50 years with no regrets even without all the amenities that Vancouver has. Check in with some of your other readers who live beyond the Lower Mainland. How many are thinking “poor hard done by Vancouver. We should all chip in to help them fix up their downtown while our downtown remains empty.”
And having said that I have no reason to doubt that Vancouver will get plenty of support from the provincial government anyway. It’s where the votes are.
(Response: Yes, as I mentioned, Granville had started to decline significantly after the transit mall began, before the NDP took power provincially. However, the homeless hanging around were mostly disaffected young people who didn’t really bother people; and even the panhandlers were not dangerous … and many businesses/restaurants/bars continued to serve their clients. But the NDP provincial government went extreme … literally buying up the tourist class hotels there and packing more than 600 hard to house homeless, seriously mentally ill (some prone to violence) and many hard-drug-using sad souls … many of them willing to shoplift, mug and rob people and businesses to finance their habits. How could they not expect that would destroy Granville, and even make surrounding streets a “no-go” area for many? Total incompetence … I believe driven by blind socialist ideologues in the provincial government and at BC Housing. As for my referring to “the NDP provincial government” … when Christy Clark and Gordon Campbell were in power, NDP politicians and supporters and even media often referred to “the Liberal provincial government” (which it was) , so I figure what was good then is good now … “the NDP provincial government” (which it is). Ho)
Oh man do I ever agree on every darn word there Harvey. The incompetent blind socialist ideologues in the Provincial Government and in BC Housing is fitting. That absolutely hits it hard but hits it right. The damage these people can cause over a few more years is to hard to contemplate. I really hope a wave of pushback builds sooner than later. Nothing is decent,sacred or worthy of respect to these creatures at all. Nothing. They came close to being finished off last election, so I’ll hope the job gets finished next time. But right we can’t let our guard up.
(Response: I remember the way the NDP government and BC Housing fought tooth and nail to build a 129-unit social housing tower on Arbutus Street, right next to a park and an elementary school …and to hell with local residents and their objections. Well, those residents went to Court and WON …the project was tossed. Did BC Housing learn? Apparently not: now they want to build a modular supportive housing facility right INSIDE a park and close to a school in Abbotsford. Read about that here: https://globalnews.ca/news/11282376/abbotsford-residents-push-back-supportive-housing-project/.) NDP politicians/bureaucrats should set aside their revolutionary socialist ideological desires to “stick it to those who have” and find more realistic locations for these facilities in commercial warehouse or commercial areas, away from schools, parks and prime shopping areas!!! Ho)
Sorry Harvey, I missed stating that the 2019 Casino revenue handout deal was done with First Nations. I imagine you probably already know that anyways, but for anyone who may not know about it. I probably missed that being a tad bit angry while posting. Makes my blood a little warmer. My apologies.
don’t think that is going to work. we elected them to “lead” and they have. You just all didn’t think it was in the direction they took things. Ever since the Mayor back in the day, Art Philips, decided it would be a good idea to remove traffic and set Granville St. up as more of a European system. Even back then I knew it wasn’t going to work as did the parental units who were from Europe. First we were not Europe. Second we are a car centered society, no foot traffic and bikes, three there were already social problem in the area and no one was addressing them. Harvey may remember The Black Stone, not because he hung out there but because he was a reporter. The Austin was a step up. I think one bar/hotel was named the St. Helen’s. So as the city muddled along and the number of people who congregated there increased it was all going down hill. then fent. hit. Christy Clark was premier and she did shit all. She wouldn’t even ban pill presses. During her and Campbell’s “leadership” homelessness became worse as did treatment of the disabled.
An election was called and viola we have John Horgan. Just about everyone liked him and then he was gone and Eby took over. Now most people didn’t like where he was taking things, but at lest he was trying.
The issues we see in downtown Vancouver, much like the lack of doctors in the province were not problems that started when Eby became Premier. These problems have been around since I was a kid, yes 70 years ago I think the big changes came because the increase in property values and then the growing number of homeless people with fent problems and before that crack, meth. etc. More drug addicts and not enough beds or therapy to help people. Not enough places for people to live a semi normal life, no body wanted to pay more taxes. Its much like the lack of doctors. It wasn’t a problem which started over night. It was already a thing some of us saw coming back in the 1990s. What did B.C. do? NOTHING. Just kept accepting Saudi Medical students instead of Canadians. The other issue was the refusal of the medical associations to admit foreign trained doctors and it is still very difficult. The province still isn’t educating enough doctors and why is that? because no one want to pay for it. So please don’t complain about downtown vancouver or the lack of doctors we did it to our selves. In some of the countries which are highly rated for quality of life and have great social systems, check their tax rates. As the Uncle used to say, you Canadians don’t know what taxes are. Come to Europe and I’ll show you. Yes, but look what they got in exchnge for those high taxes.
The money which will be spent taking all of this to court is going to take probably a decade and a ton of money. and you’ll loose at the Supreme Court of Canada. It will be a waste of time and money. The only reason people are now upset is because its impacting them and their property values and the reality of the world It would seem the current line of thinking is ware house the disabled, poor, drug addicted people in large buildings and hope they stay there. You want to create more problems sure put people stacked in rabit warrens in large buildings with a hundred or more people in the same situation as they are. In 20 years some will still be complaining none of it worked out.. By that time I’ll be 95 and still be writing about this on some one’s blog
Give it a rest there on the reparations. for the damage they have done??>?? O.K. what are the damages? Can’t reallly see any given the increase in property values. Quality of life, well move if you don’t like the area. Don’t want to move, then shut up about the neighbourhood. This reparations b.s. makes most of you sound like snivelling little west side brats. all of you and I have roofs over our heads, have sufficient income to pay rent/mortgages go on a vacation from time to time. All you do is complain about the homeless and the drug addicted having a negative impact on your life. You really don’t know negative impact on your life. Try living on the streets with insufficient food, clothing, showers, etc.
(Response: I don’t think most British Columbians object to efforts to house the homeless, the mentally ill or even the druggies. But the NDP government, more driven by ideology than reality or practicality , seem to have a penchant for “in your face” decision-making, proposing to build homes/facilities for these unfortunates right in the heart of business districts, family residential areas and, worse, next to schools and parks! That is just stupid, being deliberately mean and nasty! Ideology run amok! Where should these facilities be? They would certainly fit better into warehouse, light industry areas, where not just housing but service agencies could also be accommodated without ruining shopping, dining, entertainment and residential neighbourhoods. Ho)
Exactly Harvey. In a nutshell about the big picture I believe the NDP in its extreme ideology wants or doesn’t give damn about middle class or the contributors to society. You know hard work, toil, sweat, elbow grease, keeping the family business running, doing all the things you and your family believe in and is the right thing to do to keep the roof from collapsing and pay off that house. But this off the rails wacko mixed bag Socialist maybe even a bit Communist big brother in your face wasters and wackos only want a top and a bottom and no middle. You are to be lumped in together as one. Maybe you are not to own anything eventually. What you have is not really yours. So… I’m not talking about the poor souls that truly fell through the cracks and crevices of life and the ones that don’t want to be there and many not of their doing for what reasons and want to or try to get a leg up. They should get the help. The ones that want help. A shelter a roof over their head, food and the sustinances for life. But the hard working contributors should not be thrown in as an eqaul with the lazy, the entitled, the troublemaking, self serving, violent, extremecactist nutters who don’t want you to have the gifts and rights of your hard labour. This is what I see taking place if the mean nasty and disrespectful ideologues are allowed to continue. Its central power to control and distibute. To take and give to their crazy ideologically driven whims. So no we shouldn’t shut up and put up. I wont. If anything we should be shouting louder to protect our values and our families acquirement earned by the fruits of our labour. Not one step back. That would be immoral and unacceptable, seeing what it really is we are protecting. I feel as a Canadian and British Columbian that I am obligated to stand against the ones who want and don’t care about tearing it down . Some don’t really clue in to how serious this is andcwhat it’s about . I myself and wife and family have all worked hard and contributed and came from tough times but pushed through. I personally know what tough times are as I’m sure many do but I never felt entitled. I never walked around in pygamas with a coffee and cell phone and waiting for the mana from heaven to drop at any time either. Even served my country so I’ll be damned if I sit and take it or sit quite thinking its okay to contribute to coddle the lazy and entitled and bums who just want suck off the system forever. Thanks for the moment to steam.
(Response: Wow! I could almost see the steam coming off those remarks! There are indeed some people who could work, but won’t: preferring to live off those who do … demanding we provide them free housing (in a nice area, please, close to downtown shopping or better yet, near the waterfront), free groceries, free transit, free drugs/health services, and, more generous social assistance. Many of them even journey to Vancouver and Victoria from elsewhere in the province or across Canada and then demand taxpayers here house/fund them! I suspect most would suggest the NDP provincial government is much easier/sympathetic/generous to deal with than the Liberals were, or the Conservatives would be. The government should get tougher those freeloaders to try to get them to work ..or at least, volunteer! However, there are also lots of those incapable of taking care of themselves, and I believe (hope) the majority of taxpayers want the government to provide them the assistance they need. Ho)
The current social polices, which are just rehash of past social policies ave completely failed and the government just doubles down doing the same thing over again, hoping for different results.
Granville Street is a nightmare and even my two boys (both current and former rugby players) give Granville Street a pass. Too ****ing dangerous!
Not only has the government let the homeless, the addicted, the mentally ill (oh sorry neurodivergent) take over the city streets, political hubris is such that the police just sweep up the mess after.
The provincial government and not just the NDP have washed their hands of the problem and the City of Vancouver just looks the other way, as their big politcal prize is towers, towers, towers! Towers will cure all.
What is needed is not done because the province has run out of cash and the voter, especially in an almost minority government situation is allergic to tax increases. The BC government will probably spend more than a $$ billion $$ dollars to hoist a few world cup football games, in a desperate attempt to boost their image, money that would have been better spent dealing with the Granville Street saga. But no, sporting events for the masses is more important than dealing with the human detritus from past failed social programs.
The provincial government should pay the full shot for the rehabilitation of Granville, but I am not holding my breathe because what ever the CoV does it will fail, because the politcal policies that created this fiasco have not been dealt with, nor will they be dealt with.
Anyways, it seems the ABC types on council, you know the “What – Me Worry” types have their free tickets to watch games that I cannot even afford to pay for parking, let alone tickets to watch.
If you think 2025 is bad, just wait for 2027.
(Response: Well, the province had better find somewhere and the money to move those openly shooting up, those screaming at their demons or passersby or, worse, smashing store windows/doors or assaulting/slashing people well away from Granville (Robson, Davie, Hornby, Seymour too) before the hordes of FIFA fans and media descend on the downtown core! Imagine the stories/images of Vancouver that will be shown the world … if they don’t! Ho)
The province under extreme activist Eby is not concerned with the regular hardworking middle class contributors and small businesses, because their to busy trying to take and waste homeowners money such as another new tax grab called the so called flipping tax, but hidden under the guise of the lie of a title called the Homes for People Plan. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlons big big scam for his master Eby. Watch out people these nuts are slowly making inroads to take more from the regular citizens homes. I call it the the Governments Home Invasion Plan. What’s next ??? All I know is they won’t stop there if people don’t speak up more and protect their sacred bastions, they’ve worked hard for and need for their retirement supplement or handing oney down to thier hardworking kids that can help them get a home. WhatbEby and Kahlon have done is just going cause more bigger headache, and it’s not going to change anything at all. It’s all tax grabs.
I wonder how many people know this dispicable behind closed doors backroom dealing NDP in 2019 made a deal and agreement to give a gauranteed 7 % giveaway of casino revenues over 25 years and they can divy it up and use the money in which ever way they like and see fit. One of those secret giveaway deals. But that’s on top of what they get and what the NDP will try to implement again a give billions under their parallel governance and insane equal power sharing program they want to continue on with trying to implement it full as long as they are in power. This is one of the policies that I think actully lost them big votes last election. I loved it when Nathan Cullen got the big boot. Anyways, I’ve always maintained agreeing with the reconciliation and come together as one for all model, but this has gone completely south and people should be just outraged. This is just not right. I mean, not at all. But just these couple newer outrages implemented by these lousy no good bums does take away billions ojf all of our tax dollars and put those dollars to a much smaller minority of special interests when we should all be eqaul and special interests as one. No wonder so many are falling between the cracks and there isn’t enough money to go around or to fix the so many other issues at hand that really should haven’t gone so bad in the first place. And if people are thinking the province is running out of money or theres never enough to go around then look at the waste, the lies, the fancy pleasant sounding titles they use as a guise to rip us off of more taxes only to giveaway in their after midnight backroom deals where the regular citizens are asleep. Watch out, Ebys thugs are coming into the common peoples homes to steal more for their special little group and interests forbthe entitled and stealing away their democratic voting rights that supposed to see them governed by only one government for all and they won’t stop. I do hope more people wipe the sleep from their eyes and stop them.
Problem is new age sensitivity and outragoues correctness of the new times gets in the way of necessary courageous tough minded decision making. It just isn’t there anymore. Media is basically toast as far as anything worthy of a spine. Meanwhile the Eby clan keeps upping the ante, pushing the boundaries of more tax grabbing from wherever corner they can from the regular working citizens to implement their reckless ideologically driven policies. My god do we not have a strong opposition in parliament. I just dont see it. That’s where a more forceful push back needs to come from, but they seem to be having a problem finding themselves still. Just to think our hundreds of millions in taxes to pay the bums on both sides of the isle good wages and pensions for being spineless in opposition and selfish nutty extremist activist ideologues in charge, and the public is in between geting screwed by the lousy and the lousy. No bang for our buck. What deal we got for our votes. What a deal. As far as push back from media and council of the city is concerned, thats pretty much the joke of the times in general. How can one be optimistic. I can’t. But that’s me.
I can remember when a guy was getting married you had a stag, you eventually tied him to the Birks Clock….is that clock still there? And my favourite hideout or place to visit and buy things was Crack-A-Joke, and how about Foncie taking photos on Granville.
I can’t believe what has happened to Granville Street
Right on HO
(Response: Somewhere in my photo albums there’s a photo of me walking down Granville with a friend in the 1970s! And I believe the Birks Clock still exists, works … but it’s across the street from its original location at Georgia/Granville. Ho)
They should re-locate the drug addicted, the homeless, the mentally unstable, the criminals….to an old, abandoned mining town.
Cassiar?
Tungsten?
Or (my personal favorite)
Kitsault?
No roads in or out.
You stay there until the caregivers decide you are worthy of “freedom”.
The cost?
If you factor in the cost of arresting, court, incarceration and the endless victims of their crimes…..
It’s a win win.
Crime and punishment (banishment?).
Nothing else the social workers have recommended has worked.
(Response: Oooh! That’s harsh. We need new facilities to house the homeless, more in-patient hospitals to treat druggies … but only those with severe mental issues who are a danger to society and themselves should be involuntarily detained/isolated. But NONE of these facilities should be in the heart of established business/residential core neighbourhoods. In Vancouver, there are plenty of alternative sites for homeless housing … on the streets behind/off off Terminal Ave from Main to Clark or north of Hastings, from Main east to Commercial; drug treatment and mental health facilities have no need to be in the city, period. Ho)
No way the NIMBY activists would want that in their back yard….and can you blame them.
Even Riverview Hospital is a tough sell ..unless it’s run like a prison.
Patients have to EARN their privileges.
This vast social experiment has been an epic, decades long, FAILURE.
Take the gloves off and jail them.
For weeks, months, years….whatever it takes.
JAIL them.
Victims have had enough.
(Response: Being mentally ill or drug-infested is not in itself a crime …so society can’t just jail people for being sick. However, I would agree that when those people act out, commit crimes …then incarcerating them for a meaningful amount of time so they can get help could be one way of achieving cures … or at least keep the rest of us safe for a decent period. Ho)
It’s not “jail” for the mentally disturbed or the addicted.
It’s a Psych evaluation or detox….
Many different ways to “hold” people if they want to.
The govt just doesnt want to.
It costs too much.
Until the voter outrage is unavoidable.
Time for voters to voice their outrage?
At the municipal, provincial and federal levels?
(Response: No doubt we need more psychiatric and drug treatment facilities, but I do agree with Eby that the federal government must step up too … and I’d say not just enable, but require, judges to hold people in jail (not bail!) if accused of a violent crime if they have a previous criminal conviction. Ho)
It is truly the most messed upmand disgusting ideologically driven behavoiur by the NDP that drove Granville in the ground, just as they have caused utter mayhem elsewhere, and have thrown a heavy lead weight onto the backs of British Columbians by hurting and stifling small businesses, making inroads into try tax grabbing more from working struggling contributing working families house assets for to pay for their insane nowhere housing and affordability programs for the entitled ,the dregs, druggies and lazy of society. They’re obsessed in their day to day business constantly trying to give away more and more of our revenues to First Nations and bowing to their every demand of eqaul governance and veto power over the interests of all with all of our crown lands resources, projects and revenues. I’ve always believed in the Reconciliation theme and policies, but not what this government is up to.
If we think the BC Liberals had their scandalous issues concerning BC Casinos, I think the NDP beats them because they just take and take more and more or in a way steal from the general revenue kitty and divert to their warped ideologically driven programs and the special interests of the me,me,me and me to generation. The NDP even dealt in more First Nations partnership and revenue sharing from what I found out and could tell. It seems to be that’s what’s happened. At least under the Liberals the money was still going to its proper distribution in society until these NDP bums got their dirty mitts on it. I wonder how much more the bums and freeloaders at the top are making now atbthe BCLC. Then of course there are the so many other NDP messes that have been touched upon, and you mention the ideological side. You are right though, to mention the word, because everything about the NDP stinks to high heaven of being ideologically driven blindness, thats completely ruining everything good and dear to the interests of all, especially the working middleclass and small business people. The complete disrespect and disregard to the common interest theme is reprehensible, and shameful. I will do everything I can in my day to day conversations and business that hopefully will see Eby and his band of clowns ousted next election. It was close this round, but maybe the next will be it. A better and more efficient and grounded opposition would be nice and helpful.
(Response: Maybe the City should demand compensation as part of a “Reconciliation” package for the terrible damages inflicted on the people of Vancouver under the NDP’s Granville “residential” housing scheme that negatively impacted thousands of people (area residents, business owners, shoppers, tourists .. and the suffering endured by family members of those victims mugged, stabbed or killed. Ho)
I’m in total agreement with that.
Harv you nailed it again!!!
(Response: Hopefully the media … and the city councillors …will start pushing for “reparations” from the province for the damage they have done! Let’s call it “reconciliation” between the NDP and the citizens of Vancouver, who have been so harmed by the government’s policies. Ho)