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B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell vowed Tuesday that the world will see a different Downtown Eastside when it arrives for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“I believe we will see significant improvements,” Mr. Campbell said of the notorious urban blight in the centre of the city, riddled with drug addicts, the homeless, the mentally ill, grim rooming houses and boarded-up storefronts.

“I think we are already seeing some improvements. I think we will see more. … [And] I think people who come from outside Vancouver will see communities striving to be even better.”

The Premier was responding to reporters' questions, moments after unveiling plans for a compact media centre at Robson Square in downtown Vancouver for visiting journalists not accredited by the International Olympic Committee to cover the actual events of the Winter Games.

In his prepared remarks, Mr. Campbell said that the several thousand unaccredited journalists expected to show up will play an important role describing Vancouver and British Columbia “to all corners of the globe.

“There's no better way to promote all [we] have to offer than through the eyes of journalists drawn here by the Games,” the Premier said.

But afterwards, reporters wanted to know what international journalists would think if they happen on the Downtown Eastside, not far from the site of the Games' opening and closing ceremonies, the hockey showdowns, and both media centres.

Mr. Campbell, while not denying the problems associated with Canada's poorest postal zone, said the government is working hard to make things better.

He mentioned the large Woodward's project currently under construction that will have several hundred social housing units, a dozen sites being developed specifically for social housing, government outreach programs and funds to spruce up the neighbouring areas of Gastown, Chinatown and Strathcona.

“I believe we are making some significant steps to improve the lives of those [in the Downtown Eastside],” Mr. Campbell said. “I don't see this as an area of problems. I see this as an area of possibilities.”

Earlier, Mr. Campbell had been questioned by a reporter from the state-owned China Daily, who seemed unusually conversant on Vancouver issues.

The reporter asked whether the Premier was concerned about the recent rockslide on the Sea to Sky Highway, and whether he was also worried that anti-Olympic activists from the Anti-Poverty Coalition will try to block “the road” during the Games.

Mr. Campbell said he anticipates no problem on the Sea to Sky Highway. “The rockslide was a 200-year event … and there will be contingencies in place to make sure we can move people [on the highway].”

As for the possibilities of protests disrupting the Olympics, the Premier told the Chinese reporter that there will be “open opportunities for people to express whatever views they have.

“There will not be opportunities to break the law, obviously, [but] we will make sure there is a free flow of goods, people and expression during the 2010 Olympic Games.”

The Premier seemed nettled that so many of the questions he faced concerned provincial issues far from Beijing, when he was intent on welcoming “the world” to the 2010 Winter Games.

Asked whether he was surprised by having to deal with domestic matters, Mr. Campbell said: “I've got three domestic reporters who are asking all the questions.”

The 2010 International Media Centre, to be located at centrally-located Robson Square, will cost about $2.5-million. Most of the money will come from the provincial government, with some contributed by sponsorships and supplier partnerships.

“Just as Beijing has rolled out the red carpet, so will Vancouver in 2010 welcome the world,” Mr. Campbell said. “We expect to be opening the doors in a way that will be unprecedented in our history.”

The Premier said the state-of-the-art facility will be first “green certified” international media centre ever at the Olympics, pointing to its anticipated carbon-neutral emissions and zero carbon footprint.