Just ten blocks long and five blocks wide, the Downtown Eastside is a place that has transformed over the years. Once a transportation hub with a Canadian Pacific Railway station and streetcars lining Hasting St, it wasn't always Skid Road. Though mainly populated with Japanese and Chinese immigrants and labourers wanting to work in saw mills or fisheries, it was still a family-oriented area where parents worked hard and children went to school. But then people stopped coming, the streetcars stopped running and the low-income housing was decreased. The banks, theatres and hotels that were once cultural staples of Vancouver would eventually blend in to the grime of the district and the once popular Carnegie Library reopened in the 80's as a community centre after years of abandonment. It opened up as a response to the increasing drug abuse and crime that the area was facing.
Carnegie Library
Up & Down: Downtown Eastside Architecture - Arni HaraldssonSo why did this once fluorishing place become Skid Road?
The area had always been a place for beer parlours but since most weren't well regulated, many people drank too much too often and over time would become enslaved to their alcoholism. As years progressed, the area would become a hub for drinkers. However, in the 80's with the introduction of cheaper and more potent heroin, locals had a new drug to get their fix off. With heroin being very addictive, a new generation of addicts was spawned. As well as the fact that many patients at Riverview Hospital who still suffered from mental illnesses were essentially being dumped in the area since they could afford to live there, the Downtown Eastside we know off had been birthed.
Insite opened as a response to Vancouver having the highest rate of HIV/AIDS transmission in North America. Intended to combat the adverse health effects associated with drug abuse, it has done much more to help the people in the community by offering addicts simple health care and a second chance. The city had adopted a "four pillars" drug strategy (prevention, reduction, harm prevention, enforcement) but more focus was being put on prevention, reduction and enforcement. Insite became the harm reduction component of this strategy and has become a success story on how much it has done for the community.
Front door of Insite
For some historic photos of the Downtown Eastside, check out this gallery.
It was really interesting to learn about the history of the Downtown Eastside. Its hard to imagine it in "better times" but your depiction was very clear. I like how you tied Insite into the four pillars strategy. What other businesses or organizations are involved in this strategy?
ReplyDeleteWow, it was really interesting to hear about what the Downtown Eastside was like at a different time. There has always been a negative stigma attached to it, do you think that the introduction of Insite is helping to change peoples' perceptions of the Downtown Eastside?
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