I did not live until today

[jawnbc]

As I move further and further into my dotage--like today's little threshold of "gee this one floor flight of stairs is hard"--I find myself gaining patience where there was none. And it evaporating where it resided en masse. 

Once a week my pals Winnie, toneyvr  and I have BNO (Boys' Night Out). It's a rollicking time of food, conversation, and food. Par-tay. We're all nerds, but all hawt at the same time, and we're all pretty passionate and motivated guys. And hawt, in case I didn't mention that.

Anyway, the topic of Vancouver came up this week, or rather I presented the working hypothesis "we the people of Lotus Land™ have let Vancouver go to shit." In what ways? My whinges legitimate concerns largely centre on homelessness, mental illness, substance misuse (including alcohol) and ascendent litter. No, make that garbage.

I'm right, of course.

Ten years ago I would have argued--narrow-mindedly, ideologically, and snarkily--for the rights of poor people. I've not lost my commitment to them, but I no longer can countenance any argument that rationalizes the status quo. Yes, these folks have been hard done by. Yes they almost always have medical conditions (like addiction or mental illness) that mitigate their actions. But Vancouver wasn't this grotty in 1990, and the correlation with the increase in overall population (and concomitant homelessness numbers) isn't there: if we have 4x the homeless, we have 20x the grot.

I'm no NIMBY; in fact I support more programmes and services for these folks in my neighbourhood (next door to me is fine too). But I no longer accept any social justice argument for the quality of life of everyone in Vancouver to degrade this much. And certainly not any further. In fact, we need to get it back up to where it was (at least) 10 years ago. 

How? Jaysus I've no tidy answers. But I do believe (believe, not know) that part of it is holding everyone to some standards of behaviour. When I moved to Vancouver you would be ticketed for having an open beer in public (excluding restos and cafés with patios, along with private property. Of course). That's no longer enforced and now we have people toking everywhere--and people smoking rock or shooting up in plain view. Doesn't strike me as a human right issue to tell people "you can't drink, smoke dope, do crystal or any other intoxicants out here."

Conversely, I have a fairly shockingly surprise reserve of compassion for that minority of religious persons who are panicked about us queers bringing the end of civilization. Also I also want to shake them and say "dude, you want End of Days and we're just doing our part. Nice arse, by the way."

In other news, I'm buried at work, but still feel valued and respected and supported. I'll be teaching this summer, and the extra income should help pay down some pesky debts.

And querrelle  is building us a new kitchen! 

Comments

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

I love you and I think you're brilliant.

[jawnbc]

I know you are, but what am I?

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

My theory is that wealth attracts poverty. The solution to VC becoming less soiled is to become less yuppie. But with 2010 and the geographical nature of the town I figure it's a perfect storm for boom/bust.

I like your idea of better enforcement of a standard of behaviour regarding substance use in public. But really I fear that's another enforcement gulag that once entered becomes mighty sticky mighty quickly.

[jawnbc]

I agree significantly...but it's not that simple either. Vancouver's always has a minority of filthy rich and similar amount of filthy poor. It's not yuppy so much as fortuitous circumstance: if your parents emigrated from Scotland in the 1920s-40s and you got their house on the West Side, your net worth is literally 500x what theirs was, assuming you've not wholly borrowed against the equity. Most everyone else came later, got in later (if at all), and are mortgaged up the pooper.

I don't accept "it could be difficult to operationalize" as a reason not to try either. That's exactly the problem.

Ever been out here?

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Let me clarify in saying that I don't think enforcement of community by-laws is wrong because it's hard. It's just hard! And expensive.

Also as an Ontario resident it is my duty to stereotype all Vancouverites as yoga-mat toting do-gooders. I've not been yet but with the bro in Calgary I plan on making it out the west coast soon.

Unreasonably rich people always make and break towns. I just hope for VC's sake things can be sustainable. VC's poverty plays really well on the news here. Safe injection, affordable housing and first-nations poverty articles in particular. I often wonder how much that's exaggerated by jealous Torontonians?

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I think if people really *were* into social justice they wouldn't accept that grot was a human rights issue. I think they'd be concerned that homeless people didn't have access to basic human rights things like adequate bathrooms, showers, healthcare (including mental), etc. You get a lot of those kinds of "liberals" down here, too. You're right. it is a glorified NIMBY.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, things are weird. When I first moved here and saw the people wandering around the streets I chalked it up to things being so right wing in B.C. that there's no support for folks. Now that I've been here for awhile I hold the same view of it's cause but no longer care about the people that are the most affected by it. Even in the worst of the poverty that I've had in my life I was still nice to others.
A friend of mine wanted to get off some drug and there was an 18 month wait for a program. Add to that the dealers who hang around the detox centres giving out free samples to the ex-addicts who have just spent a lot of time getting off something.
I'm wary of any hard handed ideas of just getting rid of them because what's to stop them from putting me on the list? There are plenty of folks who think I'm bad for society too. Also plenty of folks who live on the street who don't do drugs or steal and just simply collect cans to make a living.
Just a theory but maybe it's intentionally being allowed to get worse so that some "hero" politician can gain power by having a solution to it. If there had been help all along then things wouldn't be so bad and then noone can do rise to power so easily.

And it's not the end of civilization, it's the end of religious civilization. Everyone else will continue on quite nicely thanks.

[beverly-sutphin.livejournal.com]

sellout.

;)