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As a born and raised Vancouverite, I feel compelled to weigh in on the author's rather rosy viewpoint. I love my city and am very proud about its many merits. However, we possess one of the most degenerate inner city cores I have ever seen. The Downtown Eastside can look like a scene from "Night of the Living Dead", with crowds of wasted away junkies milling about on street corners, opening doing deals, prostituting themselves, wandering aimlessly into busy traffic, shooting up, or scouring the sidewalk for tiny rocks of crack.
Although we are a relatively progressive community, in that we have a functioning and well organized safe-injection site, to state that we have "halted a drug epidemic" is laughable. The city is awash with panhandlers and property crime (auto theft and home break ins are rampant). Some of the reasons for this are our moderate climate (the mildest in Canada and acceptable for sleeping rough), and the large volume of cheap drugs flowing through the area; however, the local "bleeding heart" activist groups, underfunded police and lax judiciary only exacerbate the problem.
With the Olympics visiting in 2010, addressing this situation has become ever more critical. Frankly, it is an embarassment. In addition to safe injection sites and creating more rehabilition spaces, the city needs to devote more money to policing, and the judges need to get real about sentences (no more five tries you're out).
