By Elecia Chrunik
Photo by Christopher Bevacqua-Fink

The line-up outside the two-storey building grows until the doors open to let in a rush of people pushing shopping carts, garbage bins and make-shift carrying devices. The walls are lined with dampened, sticky tables and a long countertop cuts down the middle. It’s orderly but noisy as people yell over the sound of glass bottles and aluminum cans crashing on to the tables.

By Amy Juschka
Photo by Jay Black

While February 14 is a day of romance for most people, it is a day of remembrance and mourning in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Every Valentine’s Day for the past 18 years, men and women have gathered at the corner of Main and Hastings streets for the Women’s Memorial March.

The march, which began after a woman was found brutally murdered on Powell Street in 1992, is a chance for Downtown Eastside residents, and the rest of the city, to honour and remember the lives of Vancouver’s murdered and missing women.

Interview by Kevin Hollett
Photo by Jay Black

Named of the UTNE Reader's “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,” Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for The Nation and EdgeOfSports.com. He is also the host of Edge of Sports Radio and has been called “the best sportswriter in the United States.”

By Ron McGrath

I recently wrote an article about living with environmental illness (“Vendor Voices”, Megaphone #43, November 27, 2009) and the feedback from my customers has been overwhelming. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the condition, environmental illness is basically an extreme sensitivity to the environment around me, especially when it comes to fragrance and scent.

Story by Tavis Dodds
Photos by MoDot

Author’s Note: A short essay like this one. writing like this one about a week’s work at a day labouring agency is long overdue. Unlike similar investigations by George Orwell or Barbara Ehrenreich, there will be no long-winded explanations or apologies for dressing down or impersonating poverty to document it. I was broke, and like the thousands of others that line up for work at these agencies across the continent, I was drawn by the company logo: ‘Work Today, Paid Today’.

Story by Jackie Wong
Photos by John Donne

It’s just past noon on a rainy Friday in November, and the southwest corner of Main and Hastings is buzzing with activity. People gather in motley groups around the crowded front steps of the Carnegie Community Centre. They’re talking, smoking, hanging out with friends. A few young men in puffy parkas snap to attention when they see a new-model Ford F-150 pickup truck roll around the corner—likely a dealer checking on his charges.

By Bob
Photo by Stephen Dyrgas

Despite Chief Jim Chu’s recent apology for how police officers treated people in the Downtown Eastside during the 1990s under chiefs Canuel, Blythe and Graham, the same treatment continues today.

To members of the Vancouver Police Department: You are paid to protect.

You’ve been given a badge—use it, show compassion.

Serve and protect, don’t harass.

By Andrew Pask

When talking about Olympic legacies, the question of public spaces—streets, sidewalks and gathering places—becomes an important one. What will March 2010 hold in store, once the last athletes and IOC officials have left town? Here are three ideas and opportunities that bear thinking about: