Ep 09: Unclogging catch basins with Em
A diabolical zigzag through Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES)
It's surprising how quickly I've found myself sauntering with another. Just yesterday, Rick and I were getting snowed on at the West End. Now, here I was searching for Hastings and Carrall Street to meet a new walking buddy.
Google Maps swore it’d only be a 10-minute walk from the station, but I was 15 minutes in and still a few blocks away from our meeting spot. To be fair, I took my time. I’d never seen this part of town and wanted to take it all in.
All, in this case, being the dimming Vancouver sky, the historic buildings, and the mix of snow, ice and water carpeting the sidewalks—add vapour from the breaths of hurried passersby and you’d have all three states of water present.
I kept walking until I saw who might have been my co-saunterer for the evening. “Em?”, I approached, unsure. She acknowledged with a nod and smile. Yess. We shared a long warm hug, and suddenly it wasn’t so cold outside. “You ready?” She nodded and threw the invitation right back, “You?”. “Yeah! Let’s gooo!” And off we went on what Em called a ‘diabolical zigzag path’.
As we began our adventure, I couldn’t help but marvel at how perfectly everything had fallen into place. It had all started a week ago. While reviewing my map of previous walks, I realized I hadn’t explored much of the eastern parts of Downtown. That’s when I remembered Em mentioning she lived in this area during our brief chat at a Christmas party last year.
Taking a chance, I reached out over text, unsure of what her response might be (we had just met once), but her reply got me excited and grateful I risked it.
You know that feeling that something’s just meant to be? Yeah, I got that. She responded with much more enthusiasm than I’d started with! I was curious about this path she mentioned and even more excited to walk and talk with her.
And now, here we were, embarking on an adventure. As we set off from our meeting spot, Em pulled up the sketch of the path on her phone. Oh was it diabolical! This 10 kilometres of walking was essentially a labyrinthine path that hit most of the streets in the Downtown Eastside (brilliant!), ultimately connecting to the waterfront where we'd call it a day.
Em walked briskly, and I don’t think it was out of fear (despite Hastings Street’s infamous history), she just seemed like the kind of person who walked with vigour. While she trudged ahead sharing stories of her childhood moving around different countries, I focused on not slipping on the icy sidewalks. My arms swung frantically as I tried to maintain balance, and I couldn't help but wonder if this exaggerated caution was to avoid a repeat of my recent tumbling.
We passed the giant Vancouver Chinatown Millennium Gate on Pender Street. I was curious what its engravings meant, but—“Left!”, Em muttered suddenly, interrupting her own story about adapting to Canadian English classes.
I raised an eyebrow as we turned towards East Hastings. Em’s nod quickly cleared my confusion. Of course—the zigzag path meant we’d cycle through parts of many streets, never walking one entirely in a stretch. Our route mirrored our conversation, bouncing between stories from Accra and Calgary.
Navigating the dimly lit streets, we jumped over puddles and occasionally stomped through larger ones (the ones that covered greater parts of road banks). My suede New Balances protested these impromptu baptisms, unlike Em’s unfazed Blundstones. “Only 5km left”, I reassured my shoes, making Em laugh.
At an intersection, Em surprised me by kicking at a snowbank. “What are you doing?”, I asked, concerned. The woman kept at it, sweeping her foot back and forth until metallic grates peeked through the snow. “These are catch basins”, she explained, still sweeping. “The snowbanks block them, causing those large puddles. By clearing this, we’re basically ‘unflooding’ the street”
“So cool!” I marvelled, newly appreciative of city design. We turned this into a game, uncovering as many catch basins as we could throughout the DTES. Between unclogging drains, Em shared tidbits about urban drainage, turning our walk into an unexpectedly educational adventure*
Our path took us through historically rich areas like Railtown, and not-so-hidden ‘hidden gems’ like the popular Ask for Luigi restaurant. In Crab Park, shin-deep in snow, we admired the harbour view and snuck our way underneath Canada Place. We finally emerged onto the waterfront seawall, gazing at North and West Vancouver through a veil of clouds and light rain.
Exhausted but exhilarated, we ended our adventure at a local pub, marvelling at our zigzag creation on the map over an over-priced dinner. It was a great night of exploration, getting to know each other, and impromptu fun civil service. After 10km of sauntering, a bond was undeniable—we were definitely friends.
As always, Gogomi caught up later and shared some notifications.
Footnotes
*After this walk, a friend shared this cool website where you can adopt a catch basin to take care of. Check it out, some of the names are hilarious!