For everyone not from Vancouver, BC the DownTown East Side (DTES) is the slum of Vancouver.
A recent UN report on urban density profiled five cities including Vancouver with urban areas "providing unique examples of urban development." The report has a major focus on city planning for the poor in order to maintain basic human rights - Vancouver was chosen for a reason.
The famous DTES shocks tourists every day. Not too long ago, we had 3 cruise ships show up at once to our port delivering 6000 unwary tourists into the area. With not nearly enough cabs in the entire city to transport all of these people, some hardy souls struck out on their own.
It wasn't long until they came to the real life version of Night of the Living Dead. (It actually looks like that, our office is in the middle of it and when we work late it sounds like it too.) This was embarrassing.
Well, our site is supposed to give people the truth about a city as posted by users. Think TripAdvisor with more pictures and a wider focus. Now someone is using it for just that.
No one wants to see pictures of people shooting up or the graphic video of someone protesting the 2010 olympics. This picture of a guy handing out needles is, for me, particularly a bad representation of the area.
Our position is that it doesn't violate our terms of use so it stays up. I'm sure that there are millions of pictures of people having a good time around Vancouver and that those will cover these few bad ones in an avalanche of "feel good".
Even then, this is why the map-based user contributed tourist site is the future. When you're browsing around Vancouver you'll know where not to go.
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