Takes skytrain to downtown: “There’s homeless people here! Disgusting Liberals!”

Rents car in Portugal to drive between ocean views AirBnB and winery: “No homeless people in this paradise, must be a Conservative government…. Right? Right?”

(Portugal is run by a coalition of Liberal, Green and Socialist parties that toppled the Conservative government many years ago)

Yeap. And they actually have effective policies to deal with addiction and poverty.

The very same policies Canada and BC tried to copy in the absolute most half assed way imaginable and to no one’s surprise, it was an utter failure.

Spent more than a month in Portugal with a car going to 7-8 different towns, spending days and nights walking around both urban and rural centres, and in all that time I didn’t see as many homeless as you would walking down commercial drive.

A half ass approach with zero funding and zero support failed? That’s crazy bro.

My main beef is that this underlying concept that the liberals, at least as they currently are constructed, are somehow this virtuous champion of social issues. That’s a total fallacy and we’ve seen this very clearly over the last decade. On top of all the social disorder, addiction, poverty, the main social policies which have been enacted and actually had effect were all driven by the NDP.

To think another liberal govt. is the answer here is asking a tiger to change its stripes, they are who we all know they are.

Affordability isn't going to help these people, it's long past that. Affordability isn't bringing $400 rent back. You could cut living expenses in half and that wouldn't help most of these people in the slightest.
Recovery beds are a great plan, but also like the safe supply failure, will be one item in a convoluted system that doesn't have the support to be effective.
As for stepping over homeless people to go to work, I remember doing the same back in 2010 and also having a knife pulled on me.
Harper was in office back then, but somehow I still knew that it wasn't him that created that problem. That was well before the opioid epidemic (Purdue's fault along with the FDA corruption) and probably aligns with the riverview closures (BC liberals fault)

Obviously as someone who works downtown you have seen it get infinitely worse than before.

My wife works right around the corner from your restaurant, her and I went there a few weeks back after work and two guys were smoking crack on the kitty corner. It’s 1000 times worse than it was in 2010.

If nothing else, it’s time to try a different approach. Whether that will happen or not who knows and I’m not really holding my breathe either way. The most likely scenario is everything gets worse.

ah yes the monty robinson strategy!

again you ignore the entire context of his post. it was about gas companies profiteering by surging the gas prices before the tax got axed, not about whether or not the carbon tax would drop the gas prices by 16c or whatever.

ive been to chile and peru and in both of them houses have big iron gates with shattered glass on top of them used as barbed wire lol. yeah super safe and no crime going on there!

It's not new. I saw that shit too and I haven't set foot there in 20 years. It might be worse, but everywhere in the world is worse. A LOT worse in some places, away from your view.

And it's everywhere. You just don't see if when you go to your fancy tourist spots

When’s the last time you’ve been to Canada?

Surely you know much better than I who’ve lived in Vancouver this entire time.

My only point is it's not new, I saw that shit there 20 years ago. It's part of why I left. Not that where I am is perfect - no place is. It's probably worse now, because everywhere on earth is worse now. And it will continue to get worse, because there's no turning back on the climate. Oh we're just getting started.

Which is the point you keep missing because you'd rather be pissed off.

Because they want you to be pissed off; it's how dumb cunts like PP and Trump get into power.

They rely on your ignorance and anger. You post all those crime reports every day. Well the crime can get even worse than it is now, because no matter how many more police those people are promising you, if an even higher percentage of the population are broke and hopeless, it can only get worse.

What I'm about to say isn't based on numbers, it's purely observational, but the last 4-6 months seem to have been an improvement. I've worked DT the whole time and I don't think anything was markedly different until 2021. Covid exacerbated drug use and mental health crisis as well as isolation that definitely drove more people down there. I can't tell you why there's been an improvement, but likely due to them walking back the "free drugs" initiatives and maybe because that useless piece of shit Adam Palmer retired?

lmfao blud hasn't even lived in Canada for decades

The point he was trying to make was that the liberals have a terrible track record of ending homelessness and rampant drug usage. We tried their ideas and it didn't work. It is time to try new ideas and have completely new leadership.

I feel that any change in the DT is probably related to municipal than Provincial? Certainly less so federal. So if there are visible changes, politics aside, is it Sims harder approach?

To me, I feel the general direction of most centrists here on RS would be something like this as a start. Stop giving free clean drugs, whatever money (or more) was marked for that, put it into effective detox & recovery beds programs. Let's try to really help and give ways to those who want to get off addiction. This group (who are wanting and willing for recovery) would be the 'low hanging fruit'.

Maybe your East Van house value should return to 1995 levels for the good of society if affordability is such a concern…. Sound good?

Your requirements for society going forward are diametrically opposed to the benefits you enjoy from that same society having been created.

Less taxes! More services!

Real estate is all relative. If my house was worth what it was in 1995 then I could buy in west van for 20% more? I could buy a rec property for 1995 prices? Sure

What my house is worth is irrelevant it’s not like I’m so rich from the paper value of my home. I have a 13 old car I’m so wealthy I should be spreading my wealth to others! :facepalm:

Nice diversion though. Completely irrelevant to the discussion. If that’s what it took so there aren’t homeless people everywhere, absolutely. It would have zero effect on me living in my home. It’s a home not a bank

lol the climate? What?

Again, when was the last time you were in Vancouver.

You're only able to write it off as relative because of your age and position in life and the fact you comfortably own a home that's probably tripled in value since you bought it.

It's not just "relative" for anyone younger than you man. You don't have to battle in the trenches... if you don't like it enough, you can pull the golden parachute this society you hate so much has provided you and say so long suckers!

And its not a diversion, you said you want things to return to where they came, which is a common theme for Conservatives... but that doesn't come without sacrificing lots of shit you have unless NIMBY becomes more than a literal concept and transitions to being a concept without boundaries that can be applied to any space.

Why are you blindly assuming the Cons won't just make things worse when you have zero clue what they're actually going to do?

The reason I think it needs to be a mix of all three levels of government is that if only one city (or province) ramps up their detox and recovery programs they're just going to end up overwhelmed by an influx of people from other areas that don't have the same level of support. Say Sims does what you say and puts maximum effort towards that. He even gets the other GVRD mayors on board so the whole area is doing great. How long until Daniel Smith pulls a Ralph Klein and ships every Albertan homeless person to you?

Conservatives Lead as Best Party to Deal with Economic Issues

Affordability and the cost of living remain Canadians’ top concerns, with the Conservatives gaining an edge on key economic issues amid shifting national priorities

https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/conserva...conomic-issues

*goes to a literal former narco-state inundated with refugees from a failed state next door*

NO way, Hastings St. is worse!

If my home was worth nothing, my investments and savings would get me to retirement. That’s what planning does.

I’m not some boomer who did nothing other than own a home and glide into retirement.

Even if I was to sacrifice all of that, do you actually think anyone in govt. would be competent enough to take that and fix these issues?

Sacrifice personal property for the sake of fixing societal issues which are largely caused by the govt. and now I’m suppose to trust them to fix them? lol come on.

I guarantee you under Escobar there weren’t strung out crack heads everywhere :lol

Steps over homeless to get to work

Hondaracer - Can we not be like this?

WHAT ARE THE CONS GONNA DO?!?!!

:lol for fuck sakes man..

People want change, if you're fine with the status quo continue to vote Liberals

change can actually be for the worse, thats what we're afraid of here.
look at what's going on in the states. people didnt want the status quo so they voted for the leopard and now they're wondering why the leopard is eating their faces.