VANCOUVER: POVERTY, CONTROVERSY & OLYMPICS

In this urban oasis widely considered one of the most livable places in the world, the Downtown Eastside is about 15 square blocks of something else. At the corner of Main and Hastings, residents of the poorest postal code in Canada passed a recent Tuesday afternoon. One man lighted a crack pipe, inhaling deeply. Another urinated on a wall. Another burned a book of matches, muttering at the flame. Two men started fighting. One brandished a bicycle seat, the other a salad that spilled onto the sidewalk. “All that over drugs,” a passer-by said. “Welcome to the Downtown Eastside.” That scene unfolded five blocks from the site of the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics, scheduled for next Friday, and a five-minute drive from the athletes’ village. By bidding for the Olympics, Vancouver invited the world to visit. Now city officials are trying to redirect the international news media spotlight from this blighted neighborhood in the shadows of the picturesque North Shore Mountains. View a slideshow. (NY Times)