[ssiguy]

Vancouver has definitely improved in many ways.

It's transit expansion in the last 30 years has been the best in the country and has done a good job on TOD. It has tried, and with decent success, to rein in urban sprawl, and it has created some interesting new neighbourhoods such as Yaletown.

As for this "welcoming of all people", only if you have money. BC has gone from one of the most egalitarian provinces to the nation's most unequal in just a generation. As for the excuse people use for the DTES being what it is because of "easterners', that is absolute crap. BC has the LOWEST income assistance rates in the nation and the only province which requires a 2 week "waiting period" for benefits to begin regardless if you are living on the street.

I worked for Social services years ago and in 1991 the single rate for the month was $550.....today it's $600.......a 10% increase in a quarter century. This, and a lack of support for children, has left the province with the largest gap between the rich and the poor in the country as well as the highest general poverty and child poverty rate.

Also your idea of the DTES only being "a small part of the city" is indicative of what I am saying. Because these people are poor does that mean they are not "real" citizens of the city? There is NO excuse for this and would be intolerable in any other city in the country.

Vancouver still has a bit of edginess which is appealing but the city has this desire to become a resort and in the process has lost much of her soul. The people who are most distraught about the change in the city are those who have lived here the longest especially pre-1990. The overwhelming majority of people who knew the city before that time lament the loss of the city's easy going nature, non-materialistic profile, and casual way of life.

I guess old time Vancouverites just loved their city when it was just good old Vancouver and not trying to be "the best place on earth" or some other childish ranking system. I guess they loved Vancouver for itself and not for it's image.