In Chinatown, residents' group rejects proposed condos
Posted: Feb 21st, 2011
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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
One of the stories simmering below the surface in Vancouver has been the proposed “Historic Area Heights Review,” which anticipates seven 15-storey condominum developments in the Downtown Eastside (two condos North of Pender between Carrall and Abbott, and five in South Chinatown).
That's right, Chinatown -- historic home of the city's Chinese-Canadian community and recent magnet of a string of new Waves coffee shops and posh-looking venues to eat and drink (Cafe Brixton, London Pub). If the condo projects are approved, historic Chinatown may be undergoing a big facelift in the years to come.
According to the DTES Neighbourhood Council (DNC), a handful of Chinatown residents met on Saturday at the Lore Krill co-op about the proposed building of high-rise condo towers in their area. Many residents were hearing about the proposed condos for the first time and expressed fears of increased rent in the neighbourhood.
DNC board member Ivan Drury says of the 15 people who showed up to the meeting, most had never heard about the proposed condos.
"No one had been consulted in advance about the condos," says Drury. "Which is disturbing, because the city is claiming they have 100 percent support from Chinatown, but they've only consulted the business organizations so far and not the residents." He notes that the City had "ample opportunity" to notify residents about it, as City Council approved the report on the project last January.
Drury says residents were concerned the lasting impact of new condo buildings in their backyard. "The condos will raise real estate prices in the neighbourhood," he explains."People are concerned that when high-income people move into the condos...new shops catering to them will come into the neighbourhood and drive out the old heritage shops."
Drury says one of the most compelling arguments came from an elderly Chinese woman who said that the area provided her with a sense of independence, and that many Chinese seniors come in from outside of Chinatown to play mahjong, shop, and feel the independence that they would not feel elsewhere.
"Chinatown is also historically low-income and working class," he says. "It's not just about how much the buildings are worth, but also about the assets of community -- friends, neighbours, family." He says he hopes that those involved in the condo proposal will understand the value of community which will be lost when the area is opened up to high-income condos.
A public hearing about the condos will be held on March 17. If you'd like to express your thoughts at the hearing, register by phone before 5:00 pm, March 17 by calling Tina Hildebrandt in the City Clerk’s Department at 604.873.7268.
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Jenny Uechi
Jenny Uechi is the Managing Editor of The Vancouver Observer. She is a writer and editor with an interest in mixed cultures, art and social issues. She recently worked as a news director at NHK World...
where will these chinese seniors and dtes residents go when they carve the area for yuppies....
There is a tendency of some to defend the-way-things-are as common sense and to argue that there is no alternative. This point of view can blind them to what critics like the DNC are actually proposing.
First, the meeting of 15 people in one building was one meeting of tens that will take place throughout Chinatown. And that one meeting of 15 people who live in one building was the first time ANY of those people had heard about the issue because the city had never approached them at all. And that meeting of 15 people in one building resulted in a special general meeting being called on the issue... which meant that some of those 15 people called together nearly 30 building residents to sign a call for a special general meeting and that notices were delivered to all the tenants in the buildings to have a special meeting to pass a resolution. That means that the residents of this one building feel strongly enough about this issue, within days of having found out about it from a group of volunteers who are also neighbours, to have a series of meetings and get involved in a community issue. That is no small thing and it is not negative. This one meeting of 15 was a mark of an emergent movement of residents and renters who are tired of being marginalized by landlords and the city.
Second, this is exactly what the DNC is *for*. We are for resident control over the buildings we live in and over planning in the neighbourhoods we live in. And specifically, in the DTES we are in favor of a moratorium on market development because it is dangerous for the most vulnerable people in the city. The city has a responsibility to protect marginalized and vulnerable people from market forces, especially in a city with such a powerful and influential real estate investment market.
After the assets and tenure of the low-income community are secured, then we can talk about market development.
Market development is not "doing something," it is actually destroying what low-income people *have*. When I speak with Chinese seniors who live in Chinatown they say they love living there because they can be independent, they feel safe, they are supported by their community. None of them talk about being in a "ghetto," only outsiders talk like that and it shows that they don't understand the DTES community.