even biking home exposed the depth of the situation.

biking through a residential neighbourhood on a saturday afternoon, all you can smell from every direction, is smoke. every house has somebody out smoking.

it's unscientific, but it seems like the smoking rates in the downtown core of this city are approaching 80%.

you can't understand it until you've experienced it.

maybe it's just the simple fact that so many people have left, leaving the most hopeless people behind.

like i say: i came here expecting collapse. this just isn't the form i hoped it would take.