Tenants in 'Pandora's boxes' face mountain of troubles

SHANNON RUPP
Special to the Globe and Mail
November 27, 2007

Parkview Apartments, the nondescript four-storey walk-up at 2255 Pandora Street in Vancouver looks fine from the outside, but it's the sort of building where cockroaches aren't nervous.

Certainly there is an insect or two lingering on the walls of the halls where bare, mildew-streaked floorboards have been waiting, and waiting, for carpets. Tenants tell of stray hypodermic needles in the halls, and screaming neighbours who punch holes all over the building and keep pit bulls behind doors with beware-of-dog signs. Bedbugs are a given. Then there's a weird gas-like smell in that hangs in the air near some suites and those who know the building's reputation say that's likely due to someone cooking crack or meth. One stairwell reeks of urine; another has the odd toxic smell of heavy duty cleanser.

"There was a [property use] inspector here last week," says Andrew Piontkovsky, explaining why the graffiti and the people who had inhabited the stairwell, were all gone.

Mr. Piontkovsky, a painter by trade, is providing a tour of the building he is about to vacate to give people a glimpse of what market rent - $750 a month for a studio suite - buys in dilapidated buildings on Pandora, near Nanaimo Street. On his arrival six months ago, he was robbed by the previous tenant who still had a key to the suite. Then he changed suites, only to find new problems.

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