Anti-Olympic activists ramped up their rhetoric Thursday in hopes of attracting the attention of members of the world's press, who are in Vancouver this week for a briefing on the 2010 Winter Games. But their cries fell on local ears only.

A news conference held by the Olympic Resistance Network was well-attended by local media, but it appeared not one of the more than 200 members of the international media in the city for the official press briefing showed up.

That didn't stop activists from threatening to take whatever steps necessary to tell what they say is the other side of Vancouver's Olympic story.

'It is pushing people into poverty. There is more violence. There is more destruction of land.'— Carol Martin, worker in Downtown Eastside

First Nations will throw up blockades if their traditional ways of life are disrupted by the Games, said Seis'Lom of the Stlatlimx band.

He said he is worried that security measures could prevent traditional activities, like hunting.

"Are they basically going to shut everything down just because the Olympics are here?" he asked. "We're saying that doesn't happen on Indian land."

Concerns also cover the social and environmental destruction activists say is wrought by the Games.

"The [positive] impact of the Olympics is not as great as they say it is," said Carol Martin, an aboriginal woman who works in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"It is pushing people into poverty. There is more violence. There is more destruction of land. Are we not looking and watching the news that we are disturbing the animals out there when the bears come out and they blame you for not looking after your garbage?"

One major concern to some local residents is the impact on housing.

Since the bid was awarded, it is estimated that more than 1,300 beds of low-income housing have been lost as developers seek to flip low-income spaces into more profitable tourist or student accommodations in advance of the Games.

To try and live up to its pledge that no one will be made homeless by the Olympics, the Vancouver Organizing Committee has funded additional beds in a local shelter and still has another $250,000 in its budget for other housing initiatives.

The province and local governments have also taken over several low-income housing projects and have promised to have more beds available by 2010.

Opposition to the Games comes from all corners of Vancouver's vibrant activist community.

The Olympic Resistance Network is a blend of poverty, aboriginal and social justice groups who have come together under the banner of No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.