Day 43: Eye-Opening... and Nerve-Wracking

Oh boy.

Okay. I didn't go to church this morning after all; instead I went down Marine Drive to have a look-see. I googlemapped it, but skipped the first bus and figured out my own route (I mostly use google maps because it tells me which busses go where; from there I can figure out how much of it is walkable and where I want to actually catch the bus).

So I wandered for a while ($3 tank top!) and decided to go to the library. Most of the libraries are closed on Sunday, but two of the branches downtown are open, so I took a bus up Main Street and got off near Hastings.

Let me just say this: stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I wouldn't call Main & Hastings a shady location, per se. I wouldn't call it a dangerous location, either (though at night I would, no question). Depressing might be a good word for it. Undesireable. I wouldn't call it violent; it's not run by gangs or anything like that (if Vancouver has gang-dominated areas, I hope that I never figure out where they are - or that, if I do, I can stay away from them).

It's just... decrepit. Run-down. There were a couple of blocks where I didn't see a single person who was noticeably not homeless. By looking in people's faces - which I tried not to do; I was wearing a sundress and very clearly did not belong there, and did not want to attract any kind of attention - it was obvious that many, many of them were addicted to drugs of one sort or another. I mean... I see people who are homeless all over Vancouver. I've seen people who are homeless in every city I've ever visited or lived in. But - this isn't a person or two begging for change or sleeping in a doorway. This is dozens of people, hundreds of people, thronging the sidewalks. Drug dealers, prostitutes, beggars, addicts - it's not pretty.

In a way I'm glad that I saw it. It was eye-opening, to say the least. I just... wish that I'd seen it wearing jeans and a heavy sweatshirt, not carrying a bag, not standing out quite so much. Or perhaps I wish there'd been somebody else along. I don't know.

It's not that I felt, at any time, that I was in danger - nervous, yes, but mostly because I was so completely out of my element - just that it's really not a nice area. Not somewhere to get lost, or to look lost (I wanted to pull out my map and find an alternate route - but I also didn't want to stop or look like a tourist. And... since I was there, I sort of figured that it wouldn't harm me to have my eyes opened a bit), or, hell, do anything other than try to avoid attention. So I was very glad indeed when I eventually got out of there, and even more glad to get to the main branch of the library.

On another note entirely, I came home to find Alicia showing a potential tenant around; she might be moving out in the next couple of weeks. John will take over the lease if she does, so I'm not at all worried there, but it's... kind of exasperating and mildly stressful to think that I might have to get used to another new person.