Getting to Know the Community

We met Bernie and Doug at the UBC Learning Exchange Trek Program volunteer orientation today. They both lived in the Downtown Eastside Strathcona Community for a long time. It is always sad and sometimes scary to be around that notorious part of town. So it was something special to talk with them, hear the real stories, and know the people there. I didn’t know DTES was the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver. I didn’t know the ongoing condominium construction and gentrification of this area, which poses potential threat to push low income class to further east of Vancouver and continuing destroying the neighbourhood. Three quotes from Bernie and Doug may sum up what we learned from the discussion:

“We should stop treating poverty as criminals.”
“Downtown Eastside used to be called ‘skid road’. They chanced the name to DTES, but it’s still a skid road.”
“You don’t see criminals in those rich communities, such as Kitsilano or Kerrisdale, because they have enough money to cover it.”

Bernie also talked about he personally believes legalizing of drugs with limited amount of doses will reduce the health and safety problems. He used InSite as an example, saying although drug addicts can inject safely at InSite, they still need to go to hidden places to purchase the drugs.

After the session, Bernie came back to me and tapped my shoulder: “If you want to hear what people here are talking about, feel free to go to Carnegie Centre, just go inside, you’ll see some people sitting around and having discussions. You don’t need to talk to them, just sit there and listen. Well, those people use that F word a lot and swear all the time, f*ck this, f*** that. But you’ll be surprised by the topic they are discussing about. Right now, I believe they are talking about the GST.” I was so grateful that he recognize the fact that we were there wanting to help. Bernie, don’t worry, we all use that word and f*** this f*** that all the time. I look forward to a chance to be there and listen to them. I can’t wait to get to know this community more and prove that it’s not the government who solve problems, it’s the people in the community who help each other through times of ups and downs in life.