shelley fralic, one of the caring and sensitive editorialists at the vancouver sun, has particularly hateful pearls of wisdom to share with us about the downtown eastside and the recent plans to redevelop the woodward's building. in retrospection on her youth in vancouver almost half a century ago, and how the social landscape appears today, she has this to say:

It was downtrodden, to be sure, home to a generation of mostly harmless old men, victims of industrial accidents, failed marriages and faltering resource industries, who gravitated to the area for the cheap single rooms and like-minded company in hotel beer parlous.

But that was then, and this is now.

Now, most of the drunks are gone, long dead, their rooms and bar stools overtaken by violent, opportunistic crackheads, hookers and junkies who have turned Hastings street into a dangerous, lawless war zone.
...
Because while everyone is busy congratulating themselves for custom-fitting the Downtown Eastside in a classy new designer suit, no one seems to want to talk about scrubbing it clean first.

that's the kind of hyperbolic piss and vinegar that i hardly expect on the front page of a purportedly non-tabloid newspaper. what i find stunning is fralic's lack of connection between the drunks of years-gone-by and the addicts of today. she recognizes that the drunks come from troubled backgrounds, but prefers to wash over that in her intellectually stunning and intensely constructive assessment of the area's current social problems. is the section editor on holiday, either mentally or physically?

fralic is confusing her idealized memories from nearly 50 years ago with the reality of urban development. she's also mistaking her half-cooked, quasi-journalistic meanderings for social criticism.

cc: patricia graham, editor-in-chief