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.)
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.
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)