In Vancouver there is a street called East Hastings, it is the hub of the homeless community that inhabits East Van. It is very visually depressing complete with drugs, poverty, and, what the outside communities refer to as the shopping cart mall. While expensive boutiques and studio apartments push the inhabitants of East Van further into a concentrated area, other members of Vancouver try to go into the community of East Van and 'make a change'. The issue is that the outsiders don’t understand that word ‘community’ in relation to East Van. I loved hearing the LAPD talk about Skid Row as what it is, a community, and to hear them talk about helping the community through being part of the community. Learning about the members of the community and hearing their stories and how being part of Skid Row is what saved them rather that led to a certain ‘demise’ of their well being. I was touched by the individual stories of hopes, dreams, and aspirations (desires?), some of the responses were very simple and made me think about what it is we want from our lives, the stories I heard last Wednesday were a true reminder about how our aspirations and desires consist of anything that gives us joy, this is often mistaken for fame and fortune. It was a wonderful, and grounding experience to get to visit the LAPD.