By Aryan Chambyal, Megaphone Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
“Gastown has beautiful Victorian buildings with chic eateries and souvenir stores. Don’t wander into the Downtown Eastside though. It’s dangerous and full of druggies.”
I came across this Reddit comment while looking for sightseeing spots in Vancouver. It was my introduction to the Downtown Eastside (DTES).
Continue reading ‘I thought the DTES was broken. I was wrong.’
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Amy Romer, works as a mentor for Megaphone’s peer newsroom called The Shift in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.The Shift is made up of a diverse group of individuals with lived experience of poverty, who are reporting from the DTES instead of being reported on
Story by Jules Chapman, Michael Geilen and Amy Romer, Megaphone Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative
When one first arrives for Plenty of Plates outside of the iconic Save On Meats at 43 W. Hastings St., there are already people lined up wearing smiles and drinking hot chocolate.
Some have little tickets in hand. They’re the most excited because they’re guaranteed to be served a delicious and nutritious three-course, sit-down dining experience with all the coffee, Shirley Temples and sodas they could ever want. Those without tickets cross their fingers and hope there’s space.
It’s a new system created by Ash MacLeod, executive director of A Better Life Foundation and the creator of Plenty Of Plates, in response to the meals’ popularity. MacLeod is on a first-name basis with most of his patrons, and as a way of encouraging new faces, he’s begun distributing tickets, valid for specific days, to targeted organizations in the Downtown Eastside (DTES).
Continue reading From pessimism to hope in a three-course mealBy Amy Romer, Megaphone Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
For anyone who spends any time in the Downtown Eastside, or sadly any community in B.C. these days, you’ve likely walked past someone in public who looks unconscious, as though they might need your help. But as each step brings you closer to this person in need, you soon find yourself looking back at them, already convinced they’re just sleeping something off, that this person surely isn’t overdosing. Before long, something distracts you, your phone probably, and your day carries on. Until the next person. And so it continues.
Every few months, members of 312 Main in the Downtown Eastsie are privileged to receive naloxone training from Trey Helten, former manager at the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS). Naloxone (brand name Narcan) is a fast-acting medication that temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
Continue reading Tips For Saving A Life From A Former Manager of Vancouver’s Overdose Prevention SocietyBy Amy Romer, Megaphone Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The City of Vancouver has built its reputation on ambitious environmental goals, aiming to become one of the greenest cities in the world. Yet, the rise of the green economy has brought unforeseen challenges for street vendors who rely on the trade of second-hand goods.
The Binners Project is a Vancouver-based social and circular-economic initiative that supports marginalized people who collect and return recyclable materials, otherwise known as “binners.” For the past two years, the project has operated a low-barrier street market, currently at 305 Main St. in the heart of the Downtown Eastside.
Binners Project Director Sean Miles says he’s witnessed the harm of policies such as the city’s twice-daily street sweeps that blaze through East Hastings seven days a week.
Continue reading Green Goals, Hidden Harms
By Kayla MacInnis, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
In February of 2023, Melanie Mark stood before the “B.C.” legislature, visibly shaken, as she read out her resignation speech.
“This place felt like a torture chamber,” she said, holding an eagle feather and wearing her grandfather’s beaded moosehide fringe jacket.
A descendant of the Nisg̱a’a and Gitxsan people on her mom’s side and Cree, Ojibway, French, and Scottish on her father’s side, Mark was the first First Nations woman to serve on the cabinet of “British Columbia” from February 2016 until April 2023.
Continue reading Joan Phillip, the second First Nations woman in the ‘B.C.’ cabinet, is patient but unrelenting
