Campbell not a ‘saviour’ but a much-needed conduit for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

By Brenna Owen and Wolfgang Depner Former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell said his appointment as British Columbia’s new point-person to improve quality of life for people living in the city’s Downtown Eastside doesn’t mean he’s a “czar” or saviour of the beleaguered neighbourhood. Campbell said the saviours are those who work every day in the community, which is an epicentre for the deadly toxic drug crisis, poverty, homelessness and crime. But Campbell said he hopes to work with the community to find a process through which they can move forward and create change in a more co-ordinated manner with support from all three levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal. “There’s so much that’s gone on down there, and is going on, that’s good. But it doesn’t seem to be…

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