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It's Friday November the 3 around 5:02PM and

Why hide these gems of the inner core?

Olympic cities always get faced with the dilemma of where to put X number of ugly homeless people. Do we hire the Pied Crack Piper to lead them into the inlet to drown. No because that's a horrific idea. Charter some buses and haul them out of town like Atlanta did? Rent a warehouse and stash them in there for 3 weeks like they did in Salt Lake?

Here are my top five cheaper ideas for how best to deal with these little gems for three weeks, all without hiding them:

1. Can you say 5,000 Street mimes? I can, it's easy, say it with me!

2. DTES For A Day Tours. Rent one of our 5,000 experienced guides to show you the safer parts of Oppenheimer and the best places in the Square to score good meth for oral sex, or vice versa.

3. Did I mention 5,000 street mimes? That would get us in Guinness maybe? Is this not the same thing as teaching a man to fish or what?

4. 5,000 IV's + 5,000 cans of charcoal grey spray paint + 5,000 cement boots = 5,000 statues surrounding the city which further equals photo's and postcards galore! I can only imagine a tourist talking to themselves about the statue that smelled like vomit. As if the rest didn't.

5. Squatters Story Time and Foot Rub Down. Huddle up with our 5,000 story tellers to hear ephemeral stories of good times gone bad and get your painful stubbly's rubbed by one of our gloved derelicts.

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Comments

Posted by: dirk

November 4, 2006 02:41 AM

'O' your just so "funny" ha,ha
If you had a clue "lady",you would know most of those in the downtown east-side are ordinary people ,who by circumstance etc have found themselves poor and in poverty.Its not a choice,despite what ever your WASP suburban up bringing might have instilled in you.
Unfortunately once one gets that low its hard to get out.Mostly its due to other peoples judgments and ignorance.And the 'O'so common tendency of middle-class people to blame the suffering of others on themselves.You know Judeo-christian original sin,the victorian work ethic and assorted other nonsense...

Posted by: Dan Nedelko

November 6, 2006 05:25 PM

Left wing ramblings in the post above. My house was broken into and I had a couple of thousand of dollars ripped off from me.

As I have since found out - there has been a rash of break-ins downtown due to an increase of crystal meth usage throughout the downtown core.

So Dirk, next time you want to say how lovely and nice some of these people are, how about you wait until your place is ransacked.

My solution involves a 12 gauge shotgun, a really pissed off doberman and some 9" nails. Don't ask.

PS My sensitivity training classes don't kick in until next week.

Posted by: dirk

November 7, 2006 10:13 PM

Left wing ramblings????
Dan perhaps you should ditch your judgmental attitude and actually get to know the community in the DTES.
I wrote the above,from experience having actually lived down there.
When one becomes unemployed,with no income its quit easy to end up in the DTES.
After the UI runs out all one can afford is a room.Most such rooms are located in the DTES,one has little choice as to where one can live,should one find ones self in such dire circumstances.I have lived in one of those so called single occupancy residential hotel,I quickly learned things are not as simplistic or black and white as you seem to think.But I can tell you one thing living down there has a way of effecting ones soul in a very negative way.I have seen people get totally demoralized,having to live(exist)in such poverty.Some find relief with drugs or drink,others kill themselves.
Most of the people down there are decent people even those with addiction problems.Scum can be found in all the various social categories,regardless of their economic standing.
I have been the victim of property crime,but I don't blame all poor people or the people of the DTES for the crime committed against me.I will leave that to middle-class suburban types who seem to have a need to judge others.

Posted by: Simpler Ringtone

May 12, 2007 06:27 AM

Drivers who run red lights should be punished severly

Posted by: assault free sleep

May 18, 2007 02:13 AM

I've just been letting everything wash over me. I've pretty much been doing nothing. I've just been sitting around not getting anything done.

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May 21, 2007 11:10 PM

Cigarette ads do influence, don't influence starting to smoke