#1Oct 15th, 2011
I say mixed because although the trips were to pick up a trailer & boat to sportfish the offshore banks off Ucluelet I first had to find the right address and in doing so venture deep into the decrepit demoralising slum known as South Nanaimo.
The first time it was my partner driving and he got the directions wrong and we waited on the wrong street-smaller older homes with weedy lots interspersed with a number of seemingly abandoned houses that were completely boarded up.
I noted that someone had done quite a decent job of cutting plywood to size and carefully fitting it over windows and doors-I assume to keep out homeless squatters.Later someone told me those had been drug dens that were now in legal limbo and I was stunned at how many there were on different streets.
The second time was easier I knew exactly where to go and while negotiating narrow back lanes comes with the territory back yards full of huge snarling mixed breed dogs leave a poor impression overall.
The owner of the house where we picked up the boat said that the neighbour's snapping behemoths actually guarded his house/yard as well so there's always a silver lining if you look hard enough.
The boat isn't kept on site though-the owner said that would be beyond foolish as neighbourhood thugs monitored his comings & goings-he uses a fenced/barricaded lot outside town that is manned by on site security 24/7.His own house resembles a mini fortress with a number of layers of security including barred windows-it was a relief to put the truck in gear and head toward the highway.
And what a change once a person gets north of downtown-left behind are the skulking gangsters the shambling bewildered natives and the drugged out juvenile punks-instead sweeping yards, well kept lawns, and prosperous busting malls litter the landscape.
So if you read about different views of the same place that's why-posters here have the dosh to live in the right neighourhoods and can deny that the other place even exists-because there's no need for them to ever visit the place.
It's all of a piece with the way this whole country is heading-the less fortunate are seen to be at fault and putting them behind fences of steel or just buying up wherever they live/bulldozing everything flat and putting up high end high rise condos even locking them up is seen to be good for everyone.
