That's the Downtown Eastside, it's always been a shithole. Known as Skid Row.
"East Hastings' is an upscale part of North Burnaby, nothing like that. Grew up there, insulted to see that name used.
Here's a story - in the early 1970s Mom asked me to take her and my aunt for a cruise through that part of Vancouver. Aut was a lawyer for the Senate visiting from Ottawa. Stopped at a light at Main & Hastings, two cops frog marched a 500 lb drunk native woman out of the bar and she stood there pissing herself screaming obscenities about these fucking pigs! Autie was quite proper lady and she simply turned to my Mom and said "Hasn't changed much since the war has it?"