Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd discusses the book he’s co-authored with Larry Campbell and Lori Culbert, A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its Future (Greystone, 2009), with Joseph Planta.

A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its Future by Larry Campbell, Neil Boyd, and Lori Culbert. (Greystone, 2009) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: A Thousand Dreams

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line. This is THECOMMENTARY.CA.

In A Thousand Dreams, a new book, there’s a photograph from September 1901 of crowds assembling around Hastings and Cambie awaiting amongst others, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. This week, we’re expecting in Canada, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. They’ll be at SFU on Saturday, on West Hastings, but I doubt Charles and Camilla will venture eastward into the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Neil Boyd joins me now. The noted Simon Fraser University criminologist is the co-author of a fascinating new book, that’s part history, part analysis and prescription of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The beginning of the book is an astonishingly good history of the country’s poorest neighbourhood, one that’s home to many Vancouverites at risk due to addiction and homelessness. It’s also instructive to other urban centres in North America. The authors call for the decriminalisation of prostitution and drugs, the continuing of Insite, the safe injection site, more social housing, and the transfer of addiction services to the Health Ministry. The book is called A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its Future. It’s published by Greystone, and co-authored by Neil Boyd, Senator and former mayor Larry Campbell and the Vancouver Sun’s Lori Culbert. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Neil Boyd; Good morning, Professor Boyd.

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