Infamous intersection in Vancouver where anything can be gotten for a price. Many of the best and brightest end up here, scrabbling for another fix. Epitomizes the Downtown Eastside.

Coincidentally the site of the most car accidents in Canada as well, to add insult to injury.

Frequently rhymed in street poetry with Wastings and Pain.

I arrived here by accident today. I was on my way to John's Jukes using the public transit system, when I decided to stop on Hastings to grab a bite to eat. Not thinking quite straight, after I was finished, I took a bus along Hastings with the idea that I'd get off at Hastings and Main, transfering to a bus which travels down Main to my ultimate destination.

Oops.

No sooner did I step off of the bus, I realized my mistake. Each corner of the intersection had some poor homeless guy holding out his hat for spare change. On one corner, there was a mob of maybe two dozen people, most of them looking very doped up on something, although I wasn't quite sure what. Not very many could walk straight. The bus stop where I had to catch my bus was right in the thick of this mob, so when I crossed the street, I was greeted with various people shouting random nonsense in my face. I think I remember a prostitute or two.

I don't remember anything about the condition of the sidewalks, although I doubt I would want to. Interestingly, I was surprised that this intersection was in the heart of Vancouver's chinatown (although I should not have been). When my bus came around, the driver was pretty snappy with closing the door immediately after I had boarded. Needless to say, that's a mini-adventure I won't be repeating :P

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