Excerpts from the Peanut Gallery

What is poverty in Vancouver?

I will create a mental photo for you because today my camera was too far down in my backpack and i was driving a motor vehicle so taking a real one was a bit too tricky for me, at this novice stage of my photographical career.
I am sitting alone in my car. I am the first car in a long line stopped at the intersection of commercial drive and east 12th in vancouver. I am facing east on 12th. A sky train slides south just above the stoplight across the intersection with bright yellow and royal blue advertisements on its side. Three young guys pull up in a white acura next to me, its pretty old though. A man who looks to be filipino starts walking out in the crosswalk on our side of the street, dressed in old camo pants and an old stretched white t-shirt. He is carrying two grocery bags that look uncomfortably weighed down and about to snap. He is walking quickly, with a get-home gait. A young immigrant student with an old backpack starts out crossing a bit after him. The dinginess of the graffiti on the chinese-food restauant and skytrain pillars sticks out in my mind's eye, but I like that the yellow on the train and that of the worn-out, dust covered sign of the restaurant match. David Crowder's "Wholly Yours" is playing and it hits the chorus, then the photo is snapped in my head.
I begin to think about what this poverty means here in Canada. I am doing a research project currently on poverty in Canada. I drive though the east end of Vancouver with slightly new eyes. I am attracted to its urban kitsch, the alternativeness of it all, that people make distinct choices about where they shop, how they get around, and so on. And for me, this is a possibility. I can move to East Vancouver, sell my car (or give it to my parents, about which I am sure they would be thrilled) and choose only to get around by public transit because it is more economical, environmentally friendly and simple. I can shop only organic and fair trade (but I will be shopping considerably less). This is all my choice.
But there are many even here in Vancouver- perhaps we should say it again- there are many here in Vancouver for whom public transit is not a choice. Walking home with the groceries is the only way to get that food home- the food that you can afford. And the area they live in? wherever they can afford and hopefully there is someone who can speak their language.
Its not their choice. Its their only option.
Second photo: On Monday, I passed a man downtown near Burrard and Hastings holding a cardboard sign that said "HIV+ and hungry." He was leaning forward, tottering as he held out his sign. As I drove on my heart tottered on the brink of breaking. I cannot understand why a man like this is hungry in Vancouver, in Vancouver. but he is.
I am not taking these pictures just to depress and scream outrage at this city. I love this city, but now I am starting to understand a new side of it. And this new side, its poor, is something that is rooting deeper for me. The resilience of the people in this situation that I have just been exposed to is perhaps one of the greatest sights in the city, as beautiful as the view from the lion's gate. Its true, as someone said, there is a sparkle in their eye when they talk about dreams. it reminds me of the lights from the top of Cypress. But we can't leave them out in the cold. We have got to care for them, let them into the city.

posted by Kiki @ 7:36 p.m.