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