I ran into this fellow near Gore and Hastings Street this week, and while talking to him I noticed he had a bunch of strange scars on his hands. They looked like cigarette burns. He pulled up his jeans to reveal another bizarre cluster of pockmarks up and down his legs. He seems to think it’s a side-effect of bad heroin and said there are posters up everywhere around town.
After getting word of another heroin overdose, I headed over to Insite to find out if there was a batch of bad dope (as if there’s such a thing as good dope). I also wanted to find out the cause of the strange wounds on the man’s legs. I knew there had been a warning about bad heroin a few weeks ago, but staff at Insite had nothing new to offer. They did have this warning tacked up inside the front door.
Crime isn’t funny, but I had to laugh (and stop for some photos) when I saw what used to be a bicycle near Main and Keefer Street. Goes to show that no matter how big and sturdy your bike lock, opportunistic thieves will literally take anything that’s not tied down or locked up. Bike parts are often stolen and sold on the streets, and some are taken to bike chop shops where they are mixed-and-matched for re-sale online. A few weeks ago I found someone sleeping on East Hastings Street while clutching a handle bar that he’d fashioned into a baton, complete with grips at one end.
Vancouver politicians voted in July to lower the speed limit along East Hastings Street from 50 kph to 30 kph. The decision came following a number of accidents in which pedestrians were struck and killed while jaywalking in the Downtown Eastside. A few years back we tried to correct jaywalking on Hastings Street by beefing up enforcement and ticketing people who ignored lights and traffic. A number of activists challenged us, and suggested we were picking on the poor and marginalized. As a result, many of us toned down our enforcement. It seems that despite lowering the speed limit along Hastings, pedestrians continue to play chicken in six lanes of traffic.
Earlier this year I was first on scene at a fatality in which a jaywalker darted into traffic and went through a windshield. This week I found myself at another accident, after a pedestrian stepped out while not paying attention. While paramedics worked on the pedestrian, I tried to console the traumatized driver in the back of my patrol car.
The fellow who owns the chair pictured below stopped to chat with my partner. I took the opportunity to snap a picture of his set-up. Panhandling is increasingly problematic in Gastown and Chinatown, which borders the Downtown Eastside. Because these areas attract plenty of tourists, panhandlers flood there to take advantage of their sympathies and generosity. Most panhandlers are mentally ill, physically sick and drug addicted. We’ve stepped up enforcement against the most aggressive panhandlers this summer to drive them out of the area. Maybe it’s the giant stuffed frog hanging off the back, but this guy seemed pretty tame.
As a retired DTES paramedic I attended many of those ped struck events, most of them brought on by the victims inane desire to get a fix from some source they suddenly see across the street. They dart out and NEVER even think about looking at traffic, the desire to fix is so strong!
One time many years ago your members actually had to use their weapons to keep an angry crowd at bay in the 100 block East Hastings after one of the residents jay walked for the last time and was run over by a bus. The crowd was incensed when we stopped working on “their friend” who, at that time was past saving. They automatically presumed we didn’t care. If they only knew . . . my partner of 8 years, who rarely got upset by a call cried after that one and needed CISD intervention before coming back to work.
Jesus Jeff, that’s harsh. I am sorry that you and your partner had to go thru that. Thank you for sharing your story.
We were driving down Hastings a couple weeks ago and I slowed as I came to the 30 zone. People were still darting out in front of my car, which freaks me out because I would be so upset if I hit someone, even if I knew it wasn’t my fault. I wondered why the city didn’t put a metal barrier divider type fence up the centre of that street, but then I realized it would mean that the police couldn’t pull a u-turn in an emergency. *sigh*
What happens to drivers who strike someone who has darted out, crossing illegally? Are they held responsible and charged or is the pedestrian responsible? Often you never see them coming, especially when it’s dark and raining. No one wants to acidentally hurt or kill someone and I think it would be a terrible thing to have to go through.
Sounds like what is needed is a ‘safe street crossing site’.
I wonder if the workers at Insite remind their ‘clients’ about the danger of crossing the street without looking. If the problem is even half as bad as you describe, the Insite workers should make a point to mention such reminders.
Speaking of Insite, one thing I would have added to their poster about the black tar heroin would have been something like “This is another reason to strongly consider kicking. People who don’t use never have to worry about this stuff. Think about it.”
Does the ‘spare tire’ that the frog is clinging to on the back of the wheelchair perhaps come from the bike in the photo above it?!
There’s lots of intersections in the city where pedestrian crossing between two corners is prohibited and physically encumbered by a short metal fence (like 3 feet tall) around the corner. Couldn’t some fencing like that be applied? It’d be easy enough to jump over in emergencies on foot and even though people would still be able to jaywalk, it’d be a deterrent and give drivers more time to react since it’d take more time to jump over it into the street. (Even a whole second would probably have saved some of those lives.) Is it because of on-street parking that it’d be a problem?
So many issues and problems in the area and now traffic has become a new intense one. The last thing anyone should have to worry about is traffic moving so fast.I lived in Vancouver all of my life until I moved up North here 16 years ago. I did alot of driving around and went through the Main and Hastings core many times, and at that time it was very busy there too and many people out and about the area, I drove slower than required just becuase of the amount of people running across the street and cars everywhere. It was a given for me. wasn’t rocket science. I hope the new speed limit really helps cut down the accidents!!!
A place for everything and everything in its place