Certain streets in my city, like most cities, have been bad for a long time. My city makes empty promises and sometimes they don’t even bother doing that. There’s some solace in not being lied to, at the very least. Cleaning up those streets has been a promise for a very long time.

The Whalley Strip has been home to the homeless for years, the family grows but the dwelling stays the same. Lately, the population has grown so much its been hard to keep this nightmare oasis a secret.

The strip is an eye sore for the city. An even bigger one for humanity. But no one cares about that. That’s old news. It’s not even news, come to think of it, it just is.

Those people on that strip are responsible for their failures. That’s what citizens tell themselves, that’s how they comfort themselves, how they reassure themselves their successes belong solely to them and that the failed humans on the street failed because they’re failures. There can be no other explanation when you’re on the right side of the equation.

Of course, its all a lie. When has that ever stopped a thing from being a thing? It works. It’s a necessary lie for a city to continue operating.

The strip is neatly tucked a block away from the busiest street in the city. You only have to make a wrong turn once to know you’ve found it. And then you’ll never forget.

The strip gives the Downtown Eastside a run for its money as far as poverty goes. Except the Downtown Eastside is safe. If you think Whalley is safe, maybe you’ve been using whatever it is they’re selling down there.

Someone found the strip by accident one day, not too long ago. He drove down it slowly, recording everything. His video and his live commentary went viral. His shock was matched only by the viewers’s shock. So many people didn’t know my city’s dirty secret slyly hidden a block away from view. So many people drove right by it and didn’t suspect a thing.

When the media paid a little more attention to it each week it became something my city wanted to deal with. Not because it was a good thing to do, but because it was a bad thing to have so much publicity about.

It didn’t hurt that a massive hotel and conference centre opened up in April. The tower is in the strip’s backyard but the tower believes the strip is in its backyard. And the tower wants a clean backyard. The tower doesn’t want eye sores and failures in view when you’re standing in its $300+ per night room and looking out the window.

The city managed to hide the homeless in modular units and passed its shame off for help. It’s like you or I or anyone that way. It can be proud of the good it’s done. So long as we don’t acknowledge the man behind the curtain. So long as we play our part in the lie.

The city needs a new slogan. A more honest slogan.

It used to be: Surrey, City of Parks.

But we paved over those to make roadways to ease traffic congestion for construction of a transit system nobody wants but developer-friends of city councillors expect. And when their bellies itch our money scratches.

The new slogan: City of Surrey, Open for Business, Closed for Everyone Else.