Pigeon Park to be upgraded
 

One of Vancouver’s grittiest corners is set for a facelift.

The Vancouver parks board wants to turn Pigeon Park — a homeless hangout on the Downtown Eastside — into an updated, gentrified park space with new benches and tables, a washroom, drinking fountain and brighter lighting.

A proposal would see $187,000 spent at the corner of Hastings and Carrall as part of the ambitious Carrall Greenway project that’s slowly transforming one of the area’s most troubled thoroughfares into a tree-lined showpiece complete with bike lanes and interlocking pavers.

A visit to Carrall Street Wednesday proved there’s still much to be done.

Two homeless women huddled in a doorway just metres north of Pigeon Park, hiding behind the shopping carts that held their worldly possessions. Across the street, a huddle of drug dealers ran for cover when a Province photographer trained his lens on them. Down the alley, dozens of dealers and users carried on their business transactions away from prying eyes.

On one of the park’s derelict benches a befuddled man in a blue hoodie drank from a mouthwash bottle — a Skid Row drink of choice for a cheap alcohol buzz. Asked “How are you doing today?” the man had a one-word reply — “Alive.”

Passersby welcomed any attempt to clean up the park.

“I don’t sit in the park — there are too many drug deals and funny stuff going on,” said Jorma Kauppila, 65, a retired union labourer who first moved to the Downtown Eastside in 1968 and now visits for a few beers with his pals.

If the plan is approved, the park and the adjacent 300-block Carrall Street between Hastings and Cordova will be beautified this summer just in time for tens of thousands of Olympic visitors.
© Copyright (c) The Province

I remember Pigeon Park back when it wasn't a druggie hangout. Would go to Woodwards with my parents, buy some ice cream at one of the convenience stores just off of Pigeon Park and then go hang out on the benches until we finished eating.

I'm curious how they think this is going to work. They need to reestablish the surrounding neighbourhood before beautifying the park.

What the DTES needs is
http://www.shoemoney.com/images/nuke.jpg

shiiiiiit....now wherem i gone go buy my heroin at 2am when i wander out of modern drunk as a skunk..

seriously though....hate the fuckin place...ive had homeless ppl literally jump infront of my car trying to get hit....ive found myself drunk and all dressed up in nice clothing comming out of modern and we made our way there....thought i was gonna die...everyone just looks at you and it gives you this instant sober feeling of like "oh shit...how the fuck did i get here..."

DTES needs riverview back

they can't expect re-imaging the area will get rid of the problem..... i remember when reports of the homeless getting driven out was occuring i saw a vast increase of homeless in areas like Maple Ridge, the majority of those people aren't around anymore but downtown seems to have replenished its homeless population

what im getting at is no they can't shovel the situation under a carpet and expect it to a) go away b) stay there

QFMFT.

Increased social support almost always provides for a general reduction in social issues related to drug addiction, crime, and associated activities.

Canada really needs to learn some lessons from Western and Northern Europe.

most of the people in the DTES have a sort of mental issue (addiction also being a mental health issue) they have no support. with riverview back at least it would let these people have somewhere to go and make the streets safer with them off it

You guys completely missed the point. The reason behind it is to give the renovation contract to their frds. The gov't couldnt care less about the homeless & drug activities.

DTES is the excuse to spend money without being accountable. On other projects, people demand the gov't to show what they've done with the money. With DTES, no one expects any improvement, so they can spend as much as they want and no 1 will ask a single question.

river + cement blocks

read in the paper a few weeks back that in the past 5 years (might have been 10, can't remember) the gov't has spent 1 billion dollars trying to "fix" the DTES, and nothing to show for it, in fact, it has gotten worse.

They were saying how can so much money be dumped into it with nothing to show for it - and a decline in the quality of the environment.

The reason the government can't fix the DTES is because no one has the balls to forcefully lock the mentally ill and drug addicted into treatment centers against their will.

The poor BUT capable you can deal with through economic and educational rehabilitation, but those that don't recognize they need help are a different problem. This is a problem that is never going to be solved unless someone infringes upon their rights.

Too bad this city and province is full of bleeding heart liberals who would never allow this to happen in our democratic society.

like i said, death penalty for all drug dealers. we'd be worlds #1 city again.

waste of taxpayers money

"And I can't understand why something
good's got to die before we miss it
Mumbled talk through pigeon park
And Hastings is wasting away
religiously they seem to sin"

The Vancouver parks board wants to turn Pigeon Park — a homeless hangout on the Downtown Eastside — into an updated, gentrified park space with new benches and tables, a washroom, drinking fountain and brighter lighting.


i lol'd

haha mouthwash. they keep listerine behind the glass counter at army and navy :lol

they painted the wall white and the graffit on there were gone , 2 days later.. new drawing ..LOL

they should shoot or taser the people who does it .. : D

Amen.

Forget it. I'm not seeing my tax money pissed away on a bunch of society's table scraps because they don't have the willpower to keep a glass pipe out of their mouth or a needle out of their arm. Blah blah blah, its an illness. Blah blah blah, some people have real problems.. mental illness, etc.

There are far too many unused social programs already. These people have been coddled long enough and refuse to take the cookie that they're being offered. Instead they're content to scurry in alleys like rats. For the very few who do clean themselves up, well welcome back to society. For the rest, enjoy soaking yourself in piss with a rubber hose wrapped around your bicep in some back alley.

Drug costs would skyrocket
Drug dealers would shoot it out with the police
We'd have rivers of blood on Vancouver streets


Welcome to the Juarez, Mexico, of the north.


You can't fight drugs and win.

Best approach would be to open up Riverview again, supply people with drugs, and slowly ween them off. Then have some sort of educational program setup to help place them with jobs in rural areas all across B.C. and Canada. Move them out of that neighborhood long enough to tear down those buildings and develop the area. Once the area looks like another Yaletown and nobody can afford to live there, they will know they are not welcome there.


As is right now, the place looks like a giant asshole. What comes out of an asshole? shit.

What were you doing in Army & Navy???

Why the hell should we have to help people who don't even want to help themselves. Talk about a lost cause

The place could use a nice cleanup. Unfortunately, a) it'll just spread the bums around to surrounding blocks, and b) unless there's a higher popo presence or some sort of community supervision, the place will be a mess again in a year or two.

I know the family that owns the building where Insite is located. They made an absolute killing from the BC government :D They are so glad they converted that space (it used to be a sub shop :lol)