Few more people died.

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Mark died. He was known as "kayak Mark," or "cookie Mark." He had a bunch of kayaks he used to bring to the beach a lot and let people use them. He also baked countless weed cookies and sold them by the dozen and supplied dispenaries. He sold a bunch of other hippy drugs, too. He was also a carpenter and handyman. Most recently he was busy busy selling drugs around the clock to save enough money to buy a small island property and build some cabins and run a little airbnb place as a retirement business - but a brain aneurysm did him in early. He was very well liked by everyone, a very generous happy go lucky hippy type vs. the stereotype of some thug life gangster drug dealer. He decided to become a career drug dealer back in the 80's after he was pinched for having a 1/2 gram of personal use cocaine on him as a young man.. got a criminal record for it and decided F y'all I'm gonna go full tilt then. Told me back in the 80's there was a stretch of time when he was turning over 10 grand/day of cocaine. Wild times & stories. While he never did get around to his little island airbnb plans, he did make it over to Thailand for a couple vacations And one of the last times I saw him, maybe it was the last I'm not sure, he told me that he had things setup so that if anything ever happened to him that his sister and her son would be taken care of and so would the couple little old ladies that helped him do his baking. He was very good at thinking about others that way. And from what I heard, over the last couple year he'd amassed a small fortune - as he was on pace to have his $1M in capital by the end of this year. Or so the stories go, anyways. I think he was in his late 50's, not quite 60. He'll be missed dearly by everyone who knew him. Kinda sucks he spent so much time working day and night the last couple years instead of going to the beach, but at least he had a whole lot of fun along the way with kayak trips and going to wild parties with everyone instead of all work and no play.


Jumbo died. I didn't really know him well but with all the Facebook posts it seems a LOT of people knew him from a variety of circles. He was a bouncer at some gay warehouse parties I went to a handful of years ago. Big Indigenous man, very kind, very stoic, very protective, super chill. I'm not sure how he died. He was well known in East Vancouver as a tagger and had connections to the hiphop community as well as club/party/festival scene as a doorman. He was also one of the most Native of Natives. I remember he told me once he didn't have a bank account or social insurance number, maybe didn't have a birth certificate either - said his people didn't subscribe to any of our colonial systems they never needed. Dude was super solid that way and could not be persuaded by anyone or anything to conform to the white man's world - I respected that about him. He was obviously very well loved considering the dozens of posts in his fb memorial group. There was a funeral procession last week that drove his ashes up to Lillooet, the traditional territory his family is from, and there's another funeral service in the city this coming weekend. I also learned in the facebook group that his nickname (I never knew his real name until the group) secretly was an acronym for "James Unifying Many Brothers and Others," but what he'd tell people was that he was called Jumbo because people would need a ladder to try to cover up his tags. The graffiti community obviously had love for him, too, as there are a couple memorial graffs I've seen photos of - one of them done by one of Vancouver's most (in)famous graffiti artists, Smokey D. Anyways, Jumbo was always a kick-ass bouncer and a pleasure to have a conversation with - always made everyone feel they were super safe at parties, which is key to have at the door in order for gay warehouse parties to have their "other worldly vibe," inside. He's the only bouncer I ever tipped more than the bartenders because he deserved it just for his presence at the door. I think he was in his late 40's and I have no idea what the cause of death was.


I think Bam Bam might have died. I was watching a fb live video posted by a girl named Angel Gates who was a DTES (downtown east side) advocate for safe drug supplies and housing etc that was shared a day after her death. (from tainted drugs, I assume.) I'm a member of that fb group because of my friend/fwb/sort of bf that's unfortunately an addict and spends time staying down there. Anyways, the video clip was one she made for "drug awareness day," a few days ago and in it she rattled off a list of big strong men that had all died before her/others as soldiers in the drug war, and in her list she mentioned someone named "Bam Bam." I kinda doubt that there was Another guy in their community that went by that specific nickname, so it was probably the same one I knew. He was a homeless drug dealer that lived in the forest at the beach for at least a Summer around 5 years ago. Had the nickname Bam Bam because apparently he was violent and was known to thump people - but in my own personal experience I never once saw him lose his cool with anyone and any conversations I ever had with the guy were pretty chill. He was one of the coolest examples of homeless people you'd ever meet. He had a couple of kayaks and would load all his gear into a couple drybags and onto his tow-kayak and then hop in the main one and paddle off into the sunset somewhere to spend the nights sleeping on some nearby island because there weren't any racoons there to bother him at night - slick - and then he'd paddle back to the beach in the morning and setup his little spot to hangout for the day and sell weed and mushroom chocolates etc. Then if he had enough money he'd rent some s**t hole apartment on the DTES for the Winter, rinse and repeat. Then he was kinda suddenly gone from the beach and I heard it was a combination of things.. I heard he was confronted by some regulars that had had enough of his s**t being aggressive/thumping people and selling chemical drugs on the beach (big no no! harmless hippy stuff people turn a blind eye to.) And apparently his girlfriend had a baby girl so he dipped out from beach livin' to be home with the wifey and kiddo. Sounds like he died sometime in the last handful of years, though. I guess when you play with fire eventually you're gonna get burned.


It's gotta be something like 25 people I've known have died in the last few years. My twin brother says it's because I know so many people. He's not wrong, I suppose.

Sweet Pea hugs

Yep....death sucks!

Think the queen might be next..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-62834633

Seems you're right. I just saw a death announcement on Facebook for her that seems legit.

Maybe whomever takes over the monarchy can begin to right the wrongs of previous generations conquering, colonization, and the extraction of wealth from natural resources away from the Indigenous peoples of the world. If I were that King, I'd make a start by liquidating the family wealth in order to fund the most rapid tree planting efforts the world has ever seen. Several Billion trees in the ground would be a good start to healing the world.

It seems Angel Gates was a lot more influential member of the DTES community than posting some Facebook lives. Here’s an article written about her life and work:

https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/09/08/Reme ... e-Warrior/

It also paints a bit of a picture of what life is like in Canada’s poorest postal code. Rates of homelessness, drug use, and good old fashioned ultra violence are through the roof.

This is the neighborhood where my brother in law was raised as a young child before he and his siblings were packed off to foster homes. This is also the neighborhood the guy I’m kinda seeing is a member of the community of. It’s hard not to feel for these people, but it’s Also hard to do much of anything to help them and feel like you’ve made an impact without completely draining yourself.

IMO, the poverty and addiction are byproducts of systemic problems and the solutions need to be crafted and implemented by government. Some of the stupidity of government contributes to the problems perpetuating instead of being solved. Some of the solutions are very simple, too, but there are too many stakeholders making too much money out of maintaining the status quo.