Take a stroll with me down Hastings Street...

Carnegie Centre/Health Contact Centre
This is a popular spot for milling about and meeting people. Our semi-weekly street van parked there for 2 1/2 hours to share food and prayer and relationship with the hundred or more people that showed up. Lots of people choose this alley to 'use' in and there are enough dumpsters there to hide someone from nosy vehicular onlookers and intrusive eyes of police. This is one of the most rat-infested alleys we have.

The Safe Injection Site

www.cbc.ca: "Vancouver's supervised drug injection site is making its Downtown Eastside a better place to live, according to a new study.



More than 500 addicts use the clinic every day.

The Radio Station Cafe is a definite hangout in the 'hood. It's about a 3 minute walk from the Empress Hotel and a great place to stop on the way to class in the morning for a small coffee and muffin ($2!) There is never a shortage of folks milling around on that corner (Main & Columbia) buying, selling and shooting the breeze. Inside the cafe, you can sit as long as you like and make use of free internet access. It was one of my favourite spots, because the coffee is drinkable, the muffin was warm, the internet was free (no time limit unless someone is waiting) and there are big windows so you can see all the action outdoors. The only other place where I saw more friends shoot up or smoke up than here was at Hastings and Abbott.

Pigeon Park
Not the kind of park to take the kids to - unless you've got a Warrior Academy. This is a congregating spot for folks in the neighbourhood to go on the nod, shoot up together, yak the afternoon away or take a load off on one of the benches. Death and Glory held our open air meetings here, marching from the Empress Hotel, down Cordova (past Harbourlight), down Carrall back up to Hastings with the Blood and Fire flag out front, cornet right behind and djimbe in the rear. As many of us that were soldiers wore uniforms, and the rest wore the Red Shield and we were manned with songbooks, testimonies and Gospel shots. Oh, and chocolate covered digestive cookies - God bless Family Services!) This is where I met Shelley, a street tough drug dealer in her early 40's with a hard-core attitude and great hugs.

The Bottle Depot
In Vancouver, you can collect a deposit on bottles and cans and return them for cash. Many of my neighbours made that their full-time job -scavenging in dumpsters, public garbages,food courts etc. My dear friend Ken runs the "United We Can" bottle depot. He has a beautiful heart to help people and gives many work opportunities to those who need it - even if they missed coming in last week because they were high.
I went to my first AA meeting here in October of 2003 and made it my home group for the next year and a half.
You'll know when you're close, because the bottle depot emanates a pungent odor of rancid beer and pop as well as a steady stream of hunters shouldering their garbage bags or pushing their grocery cart full of bottles and cans.

Hastings and Abbott
I grew to love this intersection even more than Main and Hastings. Definetly the darker of the two, if not the more notorious, this was where the Death and Glory session of The War College spent the majority of our time, either in class, or in Re:Cre8, the evening coffee bar we hosted for our neighbours. This is an interesting shot, because it gives the impression that everyone on that crowded corner is on their way somewhere. Truthfully, most people we found there moved from that corner to the alley and back, at a constant frenzied pace seeing who's buying, who's selling and who's sharing.
I made some of my best friends here - except I'm thousands of miles away, and they remain...and unless they respond to the touch of Jesus Christ, in 2 years I'd be able to return and unless they're dead, know exactly where to find them.