The 100 block of Vancouver's West Hastings Street is the gateway to one of the most contested and controversial inner-city neighbourhoods in North America - Vancouber's unfamous and impoverished Dowtown Eastside. The decline of the area is a subject of ongoing debate, and is often spoken of in tandem with the numerous social problems of its residents. Surprisingly, a link between the geography of the Downtown Eastside and a shifting consensus of those deemed socially marginal has been a consistent theme in Vancouver since the city's inception over a century ago.