Homeless in Vancouver

Homeless in Vancouver: Looking on the sunny side this morning (all three of them)

by Stanley Q. Woodvine on January 29th, 2019 at 6:39 PM
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      This morning (January 28th) a sunrise briefly painted the city of Vancouver with a glorious palette of hot pinks, incandescent yellows, and every admixture in between.

      While it lasted, east-facing building glass burbled with the colour of fire and the high ceiling of knotted grey cloud took on the luminous look of hot coals, or bubbling lava.

      This was actually the second time in four days that Vancouverites had gotten a sunny break from their winter doldrums.

      On Friday (January 25th) a jaw-dropping sunset—the likes of which hasn’t been seen for months—broke with dazzling effect through the interminable cloud cover.

      Looking directly east from the same alley at 7:38 a.m.
      Stanley Q. Woodvine

      Few people who saw the sunset will forget the sight, for the simple reason that, like me, they probably all took a photo of it with their smartphones.

      Can’t you already feel the spring in your step?

      Looking west from the same alley at 7:35 a.m., with the sunrise reflecting in the curtain wall of a South Granville office building.
      Stanley Q. Woodvine

      Legally, it won’t be spring in Vancouver for another seven weeks but as far as I’m concerned it hasn’t been winter here either, for at least two weeks.

      A possible explanation for this can be seen in news footage out of southern Ontario, where it is very definitely winter.

      As I write, the City of Toronto, Ontario, is being buried under more than 15 centimetres of blowing snow and the temperature there is a brisk -8° C. (It feels like -17° C with the windchill.)

      The overnight low is expected to rise to a mere -3° C/-11° C, with snow and snowsqualls leading to still more blowing snow tomorrow.

      Winter may have directed such an excess of its cold fury at Central Canada that it has very little left over for the South Coast of British Columbia.

      This is clearly unfair. And it goes without saying that Vancouver residents would prefer to help out Torontonians by shouldering our fair share of Canadian winter. But what can we do?

      In this limbo between winter and spring where nature has left us, we have our hands full just figuring out what to wear from one day to the next—long pants or cargo shorts; T-shirt or sweater; windbreaker, hoody, or parka?

      It’s not easy being Vancouver.

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