Ep. 432: Solving a Wicked Problem
Guest: Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun
In his book, “White Angel,” John MacLachlan Gray describes the Vancouver of the 1920s as “a dirty, smelly, corrupt hellhole.”
Anyone who passes through the Downtown Eastside of the city today might wonder if he was referring to 2020 – an unfortunate consideration because, in 2008, then-mayor Gregor Robertson promised to end homelessness.
When Robertson left office, the Vancouver Sun reported that “tent-city organizers said that they ‘savour Gregor’s resignation and the humiliating end of Vision Vancouver.” When he left office, there were 2,181 homeless people in Vancouver. Today, it is difficult to know the exact number because for the second year in a row, the City of Vancouver cancelled its homeless count. No matter the number, the situation is worse.
As Douglas Todd, a senior Vancouver Sun journalist, wrote in a recent opinion piece, “It’s impossible to find someone who doesn’t feel compassion for the residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.” With that said, the situation gets worse year over year. Todd asks, “Why has so much philanthropy and community activism – and arguably billions of dollars of government and charitable money – had such minimal effect? Why does compassion appear to be failing?”
We invited Douglas Todd to join us for a Conversation That Matters about how we got to now in the Downtown Eastside and how to figure out where to go.
