The above link is to Wikipedia, which I feel accurately descibes the Downtown East Side (DTES). I've included the DTES on the map because you should be aware of it if you are visiting nearby Gastown or Chinatown. The DTES has recently been known as the home to North America's only safe injection site, and infamous for the Robert Pickton trial. The DTES is an area long plagued by social and drug problems. Leading up to and following Expo '86 Vancouver experienced a boom in population and development. Many areas became "gentrified" and pushed the lower income into the DTES. Today, Vancouver again is seeing a boom in development and low income housing is quickly disappearing. It has been predicted that homelessness could triple by the 2010 Winter Olympics.