Carnegie Community Action Project
401 Main Street, Vancouver, V6A 2T7
(604) 839-0379
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Dear Mayor & Council,
How should we preserve the Downtown Eastside as a low-income community?
Reason #8: Build on the current assets
The city has imposed a theory of “revitalization without displacement” on low income residents of the Downtown Eastside. This “involves introducing middle income households and workers who bring disposable incomes that support retail and a normalization of social behaviour and expectation” (see source below). The 75% of residents who are low-income had no say in this plan.
“Revitalization” has already begun, but it’s condo owners who are coming, not middle income and working households. Displacement is happening because land speculation in the DTES, and high rents in other parts of the city are enabling hotel owners to increase their rents to beyond what low-income people can pay.
Introducing richer people to “normalize social behavior and expectation” is a poor bashing concept with no place in a city that respects diversity. It can’t work, anyway, because people on the street don’t have the resources, like toilets, money, and homes, that condo owners have.
Some condo owners are organizing to get rid of low-income residents and the services they depend on. Gastown has become a dysfunctional community where the 70% of residents who are low-income walk by businesses they could never hope to shop in and get harassed by security guards in their own neighbourhood.
There’s a better way to make a neighbourhood healthy. You ask the people who live there what the strengths and assets of the community are. You stabilize what’s there and enhance the good things that are already working. This is the process that the Carnegie Community Action Project is working on. Stay tuned.
Source: Cameron Gray, City of Vancouver Housing Centre, April 7, 2006 “The Downtown Eastside: Who Lives There and It’s Role in the City and Region (yesterday, today, tomorrow, the day after, and making it through the night)
Archive of previous paragraphs:
To stop social exclusion
This area is like a stronghold
DTES problems will not change by throwing richer people into the mix
3 Comments
June 17, 2009 at 8:45 am
One key fact that these articles seem to forget is that Gastown is home to other non-low income residents that are not just condo owners. I would have to argue that the majority of Gastown residents are now non low income. As such, businesses have opened to serve these residents; ie restaurants, retail shops, and hair salons. So the businesses in the area are serving the residential population of Gastown and it is working. It is a reason many more people are moving and wanting to move to this neighborhood.
June 22, 2009 at 1:59 pm
“Some condo owners are organizing to get rid of low-income residents and the services they depend on”
Which condo owners? Can you name specific buildings? Which low-income residents and services are they aiming to get rid of?
Gastown residents are typically very tolerant of many of the socially dysfunctional activities/people in the area. Certainly more tolerant than the majority of Vancouver residents.
Gastown is one area of the DTES that has seen great improvements the last 5 years. It is transforming into a neighbourhood where people live, work and play. I personally am looking forward to seeing 1500 students coming into the Woodwards building every day – and hopefully generating more businesses targetting students and lower income people.
June 24, 2009 at 8:36 am
Where are these rich people getting thrown in the DTES?How do you define “rich”? Please provide concrete examples. Another thing these articles seem to be lacking are concrete examples backing up arguments.