It’s an oddly disconcerting experience to read an outsider’s impression of your city. In the days leading up to the Olympics, there’s been plenty of opportunity to do just that, as international reporters have descended upon Vancouver to file reports on the state of the Games’ host city.
What’s very encouraging is that these journalists, rather than simply relying on pro-Olympics stories, have made an effort to explore the complex issues of poverty and homelessness that plague Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Less encouraging has been the quality of journalism from those same reporters. Disappointingly, many have resorted to two-dimensional portrayals of the people living in the neighbourhood, unfairly depicting them as little more than thieves, addicts, and degenerates.
A recent New York Times story described “junkies from the Downtown Eastside sometimes run through there [the alleys], sometimes naked, at all hours”; an L.A. Times writer referred to the neighbourhood as “a netherworld of open-air drug-dealing, makeshift sidewalk shelters, public drunkenness, and prostitution”; and a BBC story describing the area as “teeming with pushers, pimps and prostitutes.”
And so the Downtown Eastside streets have turned into a parade route for foreign journalists on the prowl for a cheap quote or iconic photograph, all too willing to rely on a single voice or image to speak to the experiences and opinions of the entire community.
There’s no denying that Vancouver has a homeless crisis. There are real and serious problems here that need to be confronted. But there is far too much lazy journalism abound—too little research and too little care. The news is full of images and stories that are exploitative and self-righteous, a tsk-tsking at Vancouver’s homelessness and poverty, but they do little to add to the public discourse on solving the very serious issues faced by this neighbourhood.
There’s a truth in this neighbourhood that people are ignoring. Go beyond the surface, dig just a little deeper. If you take time to listen to the people that are building and supporting this community—creating opportunities, building partnerships, working to lift one another up— you’ll see a neighbourhood that is full of spirit, determination, and compassion.
Megaphone Magazine tries to do just that. As Vancouver’s street paper, Megaphone provides a voice for homeless and low income vendors and the communities they live in. Knowing that the Olympics would draw global attention to the Downtown Eastside, Megaphone published a special issue, entitled “Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: A People’s History”, with the intention of dispelling the many negative perceptions. It’s not about whitewashing the problems, it’s about truthfully reporting without resorting to hyperbole. The stories are about the Downtown Eastside, by the Downtown Eastside.
The issues of homelessness, poverty, addiction, and illness facing this community need to be reported. Badly. But it requires thoughtful, balanced, and truthful journalism, because long after those newspapers have been sold and the Games have come and gone, the problems and the people will still be here.
