In spite of Douglas Coupland's take on Vancouver, we shouldn't be afraid of the inevitable rocks that will be thrown by international media in the coming weeks.

I tend to agree with Jack Knox of the Victoria Times Columnist in his assessment of the kinds of press the City of Vancouver is going to receive for anything and everything during the Games.

So, based on that expectation, I am not exactly convinced that the joint effort by the city and the province to set up an information centre about the Downtown Eastside is going to do anything to shift that course.

Yes, I understand – Communications 101 dictates that you tell your own story…you stet the agenda…before others set it for you.

And like Minister Rich Coleman said in the press conference yesterday to open the centre, there has been a lot of progress made in the neighbourhood with regards to harm reduction, addiction treatment, housing and business and residential development popping up in the area.

That being said, the evolution of a troubled neighbourhood doesn’t sell as many newspapers as images of people shooting up in an alley – never has, and never will.

So while our media have grown up over the past 15-20 years in their coverage of the area, we can expect the same kind of pedestrian, introductory stories about social decay, open air drug markets, addiction, etc. from our international visitors looking for something to cover with a little more teeth than the curling finals.

The bad also comes with the good, however.  I as an example like stories about how Canadians are stepping up and challenging the world for podium finishes.

So kudos for at least making information about the area easily accessible – but not so much for the transparent way that the centre’s opening was almost begging for some kind of positive coverage.

Like I have said before, a mature city understands that utopia – the typical perception of the left coast – is not the only thing that we need to try and display to the world.

Remember – every city has its problems.

Let them cover what they’re going to cover…our positives far outweigh our negatives.