[mike474]

Vancouver's DTES is interesting in that it is super concentrated (two blocks either way and you're in Gastown or Chinatown) and continuing to shrink with gentrification creeping in from the west. It is super gritty and can look like a zombie apocalypse at night, but not really dangerous. Walking around Tenderloin seemed way more sketchy to me, but maybe that's just because I was more familiar with the DTES.

Before the 86 World's Fair and the massive capital investments from Hong Kong in the 1990s Vancouver had some serious industrial grit along False Creek and Coal Harbour. It was the polar opposite of the sterile glass you see today and a rather amazing transformation in such a short time.