I used to volunteer at the community centre on Main and Hastings while attending Uni in Burnaby back in 2006. And friends and I would go drink in dive bars around there on the downtown east side. Wouldn’t even think of doing either of those things now. Main and Hastings was always homeless central, but now it’s a complete mess and super sketchy as far as that goes.
All the same it’s nowhere near as bad as the poor/rough parts of major American cities, nor are the violent crime levels even close.
It’s also a little tiny part of the GVRD, so just like
@Bjerknes said, it’s easy to visit any of these major cities and not see any of this stuff. Doesn’t make it less fucked up, but does make it very easy to avoid.