White Caps Stadium somehow pulls off deal with Port of Vancouver (isn't the port ultimately responsible to public??)

I worked on the downtown eastside. It got so bad i couldn't wait to leave. I can't wait for this stadium. Hopefully it will turn around that hell hole cuz it can't possibly get any worse with the stadium there.

You're a nimby

You see the situation correctly:  this area of our city is extremely disturbing, and replete with human misery.  So having recognized that fact, the question is, what do we do?

Nothing?

Become moralistic, assume/argue that the homeless/addicts/mentally ill/impoverished brought this on themselves, and therefore should pull themselves up by the bootstrap?

Try to alleviate the misery, if for no other reason than for our own increased feel-good factor about Vancouver?

If we opt for this, in what way will the stadium help?

Will it 'clean up' the area, like some people say?  What does "clean up" mean - sweep up and put in the garbage bin? Sweep it away to somewhere else?

If something more meaningful ... well... WHAT exactly will a  stadium do to provide genuine help?  Given it's plunking itself right into a community, I would think a first priority would be to find out about the community, and find out how it can be a positive factor.

Will it provide jobs?  If so, the kinds of jobs that allow people to get off social assistance, or just part-time McJobs that look good for stats, but have no real value?

Will it  contribute food for the hungry?  Beds for the addicts who want to get clean? Homes for the mentally ill?  I've yet to hear even a murmer of this.

I have had enough.. time to tell it like it is.

I am amazed at how people think a stadium is what Vancouver needs on its waterfront. Stadiums are about looking inward not out. Why are we even wasting our time thinking about this proposal?

Here we have one ultra-rich man who wants the public waterfront as his personal playground. Let us not forget this is a guy who built a massive indoor ice rink on his Whistler property in violation of many city bylaws and zoning regulations. Hell, even Greggie’s best buddy, Peter ladner, mentions on his website how Greggie felt "burnt" over the ice rink - jezzus... "ya broke the law Greggie".

Let us not cry for poor Greggy..he is a good business man.. the man will make money out of this deal regardless if the stadium is built or not. One thing he is attempting to do is to diversify his holdings. That is why he is also buying up property in downtown Vancouver... and the stadium is part of the plan. Dare you to ask the Whitecaps if they plan on building anything else on their waterfront land. They will use terms such as "not at this time" or my fav. "we do not see any development in the next year or two". They never, ever will say "NO" -cause of the pants-on-fire thing.

The supporters of the stadium cry how this is so good for a community to have a stadium... funny, if it is that good why are they not fighting tooth-and-nail to have it in their local park?

Councilor Susan Anton drools over a new stadium because it is so good for vancouver... would she dare to place it in her rich supporters neigbourhood? Never! Why does not Greg Kerfoot who lives in West Vancouver put it there? The answer - they would run him out of town. Can you see the folks in WestVan putting up with loud open air rock concerts most summer nights?

Lets face it. The stadium comes down to a vanity project for one rich guy and a few city politicos who will likely have their election fund topped up if it goes through. The cost to the public - our waterfront, congestion, noise,....

Shame for selling out a neigbourhood!!!

Nimby.

Yet another person who thinks its fine to perpetuate the misery in the DTES. As long as people like you make it acceptable for someone to be homeless or an addict, these people you say you care about will never get help.

The stadium has nothing to do with this. But it really ticks me off when people claim they "own" part of a city, so it's okay if it decays until it becomes an eyesore or dangerous to "outsiders". All of Vancouver is paying dearly for your "privilege" of living in a "gritty" neighbourhood. The sooner it changes, the sooner we can get real help for these unfortunate souls.

Yes, Were Does the City Get Their Brains From?....they have been destroying very good buildings, like The Gomez Place, just because it was full of shitheads....
When my toilet get's full of shit, I just flush the toilet, not smash the hell out of it, like the City Does...
The Lookout Society has taken a lot of buildings and converted them to a homeless and backpackers lair...
When The HAMC were more up front heavily involved with the DTES, things were humming even better than what it is now, but the City Gave the HAMC a lot of money they didn't earn, they were grossly overpaid for their housing investments....and are still lurking in the financial backrounds....
BC Housing has adopted a habit of buying these buildings and gutting out the basements because some Homeless ppl might like live in a basement suite like they do all over the Suburban areas....
The GVRD has taken a lot of foreign money for the olympics, and a re now finding there is a loophole in a lot of bogus cheques, and legal requirements of usage of these revenues.
The city is moving at a police state of madness with excuses that would make a 10 year old puke with disgust to the outright LIES they spewed on a lot of activities they endorsed in the name of communism.
All in all, I am existing, with a few caveats, but only the future in Dec 21, 2012 will tell were it went to.

Bob