Intro.

Begin at the beginning. Gastown, the original hastings townsite, the chosen location for the CPR Terminus, now home to one of the original six Starbucks locations in Vancouver and a towering nouveau-art-nouveau tourist trap called The Transcontinental. Some cities would define this bustling transit hub as part of their identity; Grand Central Station, Victoria Station, the Gare du Nord, et al. The terminus itself so important in the city's development, not just that it moved the terminus from Port Moody to the burgeoning Granville Townsite, but that the deal that brought it here involved a groupd of Victoria investors selling most of the downtown peninsula to the CPR, while this so called syndicate of gentlemen sought Strathcona to be the centre of town. But CPR built the Hotel Vancouver and an Opera House and soon enough the post office was downtown as real estate speculators carved up the new the peninsula into lots. The tension between east and west that is so palpable today can be read from the history of the built environment.

Instead Waterfront Station is a lonely ruin; a jumble of shops without even the courtesy of public washrooms. Once you squeeze out of the two single doors onto Cordova you're immediately presented with a crumbling parkade on one side, and a seemingly never ending trench carving up Granville. Go east past the gauntlet of panhandlers vying for a piece of the tourist payload until you come to Homer. Turn down the curious little wedge shaped alley known as Trounce Alley, where Terry Gilliam chose to shoot a scene from his upcoming tribute to Heath Ledger. At least once a day you'll find some boyband or couple posing for engagement snaps in an attempt to appear gritty and edgy.

The alley then doglegs to the right where you'll find the colorful walkways of the Storyeum Parkade, and site of SpaceAgency's public art installation FrontierSpace On a much smaller scale, someone has planted basil in the decorative planters that line the parkade. Wether or not this was done inadvertently or not is moot, the subtlety it lends to the sharp geometry and coloured concrete is what is really important. Perhaps this alley can be viewed as the future of alleys in this city, as its noticeable dearth of dumpsters, and therefore dumpster divers, gives it an slick, ominous, urban mood. The building's broad shoulders open up the sky and that particular Gastown light filters in, reddened from brick and green from history's young maples.

The next alley over is the infamous Blood Alley, with its many myths. In the throes of gentrification, one can see clearly the divisions inherent in Vancouver society. On one side is the trendy tasting bar, Salt, with its unfinished concrete and glass minimalism. On the other side is the site of NAOMI Study; where the local population of junkies and prostitutes gather on the steps, the first of a thousand such congregations to strike you as you delve eastwards. Take time, watch how they move, how they communicate with each other. How much pain behind those tired eyes? Then smack! One of the most minimalist stores in Vancouver, Hunt and Gather, shakes you out of your weary romanticism. You are on Carrall, look alive. This is the great convergence of hipsterdom, wankerdom, tourism, and poverty all rolled into one.

Turn Right.>>>

The stark black menu board of Boneta contrasts with the old Prime Time Chicken spot, an ever-changing graffitti/paste-up gallery. Then, onward to Pigeon Park, the semiotic epi-centre of the DTES, slated for "re-design". This is the place that pops up in people's minds when they think of the DTES, those car trips downtown along Hastings etched into your psyche (lock the doors!) Last summer I broke into the one of the buildings overlooking the square, a moss soaked mix of ancient molding paint, sweetgrass, and urine; the floor covered in broken cds, orange needle caps, and the ubiquitous baby blue water capsules; plastic trailings from metal scroungers and a blood red mud made of rain and broken brick. Next to this building, accesible from the crumbling firescape, was the notorious Backpackers. I was led here on a frantic mission during a state of hypo-mania one night last August. Picture a setting similar to a combination of the movies Seven, Requiem For a Dream, and Repo Man, the cast of Vancouver's usual suspects, directed by Martin Scorsese on a five day ether binge, scored by Gorgio Moroder. There were bodies everywhere...

To be continued.