Visit Dundas and Sherbourne if you want a taste of home

I drive past it several times a week. :)

Is the area still supposed to be shady now?

I pretty much do stuff in that area on a weekly basis -- there is a Hong Kong-style bakery there with crazy good egg tarts, and their bor law bau (pineapple buns) are pretty good too. And of course I shop at T&T as well. The vietnamese restaurant right at Kingsway and Victoria is also a place I go to -- more for the vibe instead of the food LOL~ so I walk all around in that area pretty frequently, and it doesn't seem particularly shady to me -- at least not during day time.

In general, no. But if you live in the area, you'll notice addicts roaming about. most of them keep to themselves and do their own thing. They stay off the main commercial areas and tend to veer into small pockets of residential. There's just more of it now.

Harvey, I think you're giving Sim too much credit for a glorified reshuffling of the cards when it comes to the DTES. Sure, he's had the goon squad come out on some random days to clear some people out, only for them to come back the next day, or move somewhere else within the area.

I was just down there on Friday for a comedy show, to me it looks largely the same, the only difference being is the poverty is more spread out into Granville and Yaletown, Kingsway, Olympic Village, further into Strathcona, and funnily enough, now even Burnaby. I've lived in Burnaby for decades now and rarely would see homeless drug addicts in the Brentwood area, now you see them all the time.

I have friends that live up near Barnett/North Burnaby and they're getting break-ins and homeless encampments in the parks along the water in that area. That was never a thing a decade ago. Everything is just more spread out now.

Is that a win? Hardly, in my opinion.

Try the mcdonalds beside it. I feel sorry for the franchise owner and the staff

If I was Prime Minister of Canada and wanted to piss of Trump and win the trade war, I would:

1. Invite President Xi to Canada to workout a free trade agreement between Canada & China with the input of CPTPP countries.
2. Tell Trump he is correct Canada doesn't pay the 2% NATO share and we don't plan on ever doing it as we are exiting NATO. We will increase military exercises with People's Liberation Army.
3. Recognize China's ownership claims in the South China Sea while mentioning Taiwan is a rogue province of China and they need to get rid of US weapons ASAP.
4. Remind them that Dominion Voting Systems is a Canadian company and we(China, indirectly) essentially choose who the next President is.

I am just getting started :)

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-...tion-army.html

Is that due to the shuffling though or just the explosion of homelessness and poverty?

Wait till the homeless count numbers come out. It’s gonna be huge compared to the last count.

The numbers have certainly gone up, guaranteed in fact.

No one wants to address why that has happened. The cold hard truths are harder to swallow, and the needs to fix it are far too burdensome for governments and by extension our societies to undertake.

Most of us are comfortable and able to ignore the problem while it gets worse and worse.

I don't think we're even close to the apex point yet.

^^ it's the fact that everything is human rights, it's not human rights if you don't contribute to society and only take advantage of it. That's why we can't get anything done. I guess wait a bit more till the economy goes to shit, all the social workers advocates gets fired maybe we can get something done.

I think Days Inn is the one beside McDonald's on Victoria and Kingsway. Nanaimo & Kingsways - there is the Eldorado Condo tower ... not too too bad there.

I've often wondered if homelessness explodes in Van during the winter...it came to mind again in Calgary... I do see homeless people in downtown Calgary but nowhere near the same amount and I haven't explored the area in depth yet... but I can't imagine staying here in the winter outside, I'd be on a bus or whatever to Vancouver to stay the winter if that was me... most hospitable climate we have in Canada.

I don't see people in downtown Calgary in general.

That place is a ghost town :lol

And Victoria.

aka the Ralph Klein technique. He offered bus tickets to Kelowna and Vancouver to Albertan homeless people back in the 90s. It's why we'll never solve homelessness by working on it at a municipal or provincial level, it'll have to be federal.

The former Pho Bich?

At this rate Demolition Man is gonna be more a possibility than just science fiction.

I've actually bought stuff from that McDonald's several weeks ago. It isn't the cleanest / brightest, and I think there were 2 homeless dudes inside at the time. But they were just minding their own business, so it didn't bother me. I almost wanted to use the washroom there, but didn't end up doing so. It can't possibly be worse than a Chinese restaurant's washroom though, can it?

I dunno what its old name was called -- I just thought it was always the same one.

The vibe there is just awesome -- it is exactly how I have always pictured the stereotypical Vietnamese pho restaurant is LOL~

downtown core is mostly offices, thus being a ghost town outside of bankers hours with little/no retail/entertainment

i don't know how TD square survives tbh.

If it's the one literally at the corner of Kingsway and Victoria, that used to be the old Pho Bich Nga, which I recall Jay Leno made famous. The pho there was alright, but nothing special.

Now, it's called Pho Duy. I haven't been but I heard it's great.

If you cross the street north on Nanaimo at the corner store and bus stop, that has become the sketchy corner. :ahwow:

^ you mean where Badhobz goes for a 'massage'?

Their downtown is...different. Some active areas but overall, just a large business district. Steven Ave is not bad.

I went to Greta Bar though and it's pretty neat. I went on a Friday and it was packed by the time I left. Those twice fried tater tots :sweetjesus:

The more happening areas are:

17th Avenue

Kensington

Inglewood

Clean & quiet too!

And tons of construction all day everyday! DansGame

Growing up in that area was funsane. The stories from Gladstone were legendary and mythical. You avoided it like Mordor.

The students would spill over into that McDs and I remember there being a ketchup fight while I was harmlessly having an early dinner with my dad. Suddenly, those Gladstone kids weren't mythical :lol

And Eldorado put the Ho in Hotel based on what I saw outside.

I'd even go to the B&K @ 34th!

And I stayed at the 2400! My parents barred me from going outside during the night. It was also where I drank coffee! One of the 5 only times in my life :ahwow:

I was speaking to a local today, came into Van for a conference and pitch, and he was telling me that Calgary is a lot more about clusters or pockets of "something happening" all about the outskirts of downtown, hence the ghost town past 5pm.

Interestingly, energy drives a lot of the economy in Alberta and there's a cloud center in Calgary. Per capita, Calgary has the most big business/fintech headquarters in Canada. The government being pro-business is a big pro here, to the extent to tax credits for being there (aka Amazon etc). He said Calgary is CLEAN. Wow, I haven't heard that description in awhile.

Also, business grants in Quebec (SRED) cover 90% of eligbile expenses but 30% in BC.. smfh. Apparently why a lot of companies have their HQ in Quebec cause of the tax credits were so good.