Otter's Journal: Night out in Vancouver

9:50 pm -- Burnaby: I escape a business dinner and head back to the hotel to change and go out for the night. Notice a banner on an overpass reading "Paying A Child Or Youth For Sex Is A Crime". Not unreasonable, but that seems like an odd place to put it. The taxi continues past a park with groups of slutty looking 14-year-old girls walking out of the trees -- OK, now I get why the banner is there.

10:30 pm -- Skytrain: A group of Indian girls writes "fuck u white people" in marker on the inside wall, triggering a back-and-forth of shouted racial abuse between them and some white kids.

12:45 am -- Gastown: As I'm walking down the sidewalk, something flies past my head. I look down and see a syringe with a needle, look up and see a giggling junkie on a balcony.

1:10 am -- Skytrain: One of those kids that you know is a total scumbag but whose exuberance is charming anyway is shouting into his cellphone about how he's calling it a night after his friend got arrested and locked up for carrying a knife into the movie theater.

That's quite a city they have there. The scenery makes up for it, I guess.

Maybe

[damm0]

It's true, Vancouver is turning into a real city.

I've lived in Vancouver basically all my life, and never seen this stuff myself. Perhaps I've developed a kind of "city blindness". Then again, what the heck were you doing in Gastown at 1am? It is kind of a shame that the "tourist" area is only 1 block away from the poorest postal code in Canada.

Your conclusion though, is basically sound. The attraction is the variety of local environments, the many things to do if you are an active individual, and t

Re:Maybe

[Otter]

Yup, that's always how it is in your own city. I'm sitting at home, eating chili, watching basketball and posting here -- the chances of witnessing drama are a lot higher for someone out of town, spending time on the streets and in public places than they are in my living room.

Re:Maybe

[damm0]

You don't spend time outside in your own town? Think back - you've never seen this stuff in your own city?

Maybe it is because living in your own town, you instinctively know where to avoid and where to avoid looking. People who are up to no good know where the public will be, and aren't there. People who are visiting are confused and so wander off the beaten path.

Photography is a hobby of mine, so yes, I've wandered off the beaten path and I've seen desperation, poverty and addiction. I've seen drug

Wow!

[RevMike]

And I thought that Canada was a perfect liberal utopia! Like an outpost of Europe put forth to bring into stark contrast everything wrong with the USofA. I'm glad I live in New York.