Downtown Eastside

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Downtown Eastside
—  Urban Neighborhood  —
View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward's site from Harbour Centre.
Location of the Downtown Eastside (in red) in Vancouver.
Coordinates: 49°16′N 123°06′W / 49.267°N 123.1°W / 49.267; -123.1
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
City	Vancouver
Population (2001)[1]
- Total	16,590
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. According to the city of Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside contains the following neighborhoods: Chinatown, Gastown, Oppenheimer, Strathcona, Thornton Park and Victory Square, as well as the light industrial area to the North.^[1] There are many conflicting definitions of its perimeter but it can generally be viewed as being bordered by Cambie Street to the west, Clark Drive to the east, the waterfront to the north and Venables Street/Prior Avenue to the south, with Hastings Street running down the middle of the neighbourhood.

The area is noted for a high incidence of poverty, drug use, sex trade, crime, as well as a history of community activism.^[2] Once a core shopping district in the city^{[citation needed]}, many of the retail shops that flourished through the early 1980s are now gone. The area was the victim of significant urban decay but presently buildings are being renewed and many new businesses are operating in the community.^{[citation needed]} In recent years there have been tensions between developers and members of the community relating to gentrification development proposals.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Demographics

A Chinese temple in the heart of East Hastings shows the diversity of the neighborhood.

As defined by the City of Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside was home to 16,590 people in 2001. According to the city, 10% of the residents self-identified as Aboriginal in 2001, which was approximately 10% of the total Aboriginal population in the city. The Globe and Mail claims a higher number, saying 14% of the residents are of Aboriginal decent, and 9% are status Indians.^[2] In 2001, 43% of the population were immigrants, with 23% from Mainland China, 5% from Vietnam, 2% from Hong Kong and 14% from all other countries. 1% of residents were on Visas or had refugee status. The average household size is 1.3 residents, with 82% of the population living alone. Children and teenagers make up 7% of the population, compared to 25% for Canada overall. Average income for adults living alone is $6,282 per year, and $14,024 after government subsidies. In comparison, the average for Canada is $21,000 for adults living alone. 62% of the residents over the age of 15 are not considered participants in the labour force, compared to 33% in Vancouver as a whole.^[2]

A large number of service personnel work and/or live in the area. These include cooks and kitchen staffs, paramedics, police, and firemen, social service and employment agency representatives. Mental Health workers, doctors and alternative therapy practitioners, educators, priests, nuns and clergy, also make up a significant portion of the population as well as artists and social activists.

[edit] Problems

Vancouver police making an arrest in a DTES alley.

The Downtown Eastside has a high incidence of HIV infection.^[3] Vancouver's drug problem has grown steadily worse over the last decade with the most common drugs being heroin, crack cocaine, IV cocaine (powdered cocaine taken intravenously), and--increasingly--crystal methamphetamine. Vancouver's needle exchange, the first in North America, opened in 1989, distributes about 3 million free needles per year to drug addicts.

A used syringe lies on a sidewalk on East Hastings.

The opening of North America's first safe injection site, Insite, in this neighbourhood has lowered the spread of HIV (and the number of overdose deaths) considerably, according to an article by the Canadian Press.^[4] However, the project is controversial.^[5] The southwest corner of Main and Hastings Streets continues to be a problem as drug sellers and users frequently occupy the corner, establishing a plein air drug market in front of (and in the alleys surrounding) Carnegie Hall. Recent efforts have attempted to increase police presence at the Main and Hastings intersection, but this has been opposed by some residents. There is a police station half a block north.

Used syringes and condoms on neighborhood sidewalks are becoming less common due to the efforts of United We Can^[6] a charity organization that offers local people jobs cleaning up the streets each morning. However, Graffiti remains common on buildings and walls and most DTES alleys are regularly used as makeshift toilets.

Through a Blue Lens, a documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada, was shot in DTES. The film follows interactions between police officers and drug addicts and documents the extreme poverty and suffering many addicts endure.

The Globe and Mail newspaper estimated in a February 2009 article^[7] that over 1.4 billion dollars has been spent by federal, provincial and municipal governments since 2001 on health, social and justice efforts aimed at improving the many problems faced by DES residents.

[edit] Community groups and social agencies

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Carnegie Community Centre at the corner of Main and Hastings.

The Ray-Cam community centre provides services and programs for children and families, including English as a Second Language classes, seniors programming, singing and sports opportunities, tutoring and computer stations. Another, the Strathcona Community Centre, operated by the Vancouver Parks Board, offers fitness and martial arts classes, special events, a pre-school, after school care, general recreation, arts and crafts programs and free showers. The Carnegie Centre^[8][9], located at Hastings and Main Streets, serves food, provides live music several times a week and offers free art sketching opportunities^{[clarification needed]} since the early 1980s.

The LifeSkills Centre, 412 E. Cordova Street across from Oppenheimer Park offers activities such as crafts, sports and special community events and lunches. The IATSE, local 118 Union^[10] puts on annual turkey dinners and clothing give-aways at the park just before Christmas. The Downtown Eastside Women's Centre at 302 Columbia St. at Cordova provides the Relocation Project/Bridge Housing ^[11] aids women in need of emergency housing. The Evelyne Saller Centre, at 320 Alexander Street, known to locals as The 44 (from a previous address on E. Cordova St.) provides low cost meals, a TV room, pool table, laundry facilities, showers and out-trips. WISH, a drop-in centre for female survival sex workers located at 330 Alexander Street, is open Sunday - Friday evenings, and offers a hot meal, showers, a literacy program, makeup, clothing and hygiene supplies, and a safe space for women to gather.

Churches such as First United, one block east of Hastings and Main, Union Gospel Mission at 616 E. Cordova Street, and Street Church, 175 E. Hastings St., run by the Foursquare Church, provide assistance to area residents in the forms of advocacy in dealing with welfare offices, getting health issues met, dealing with drug rehabilitation, and providing entertainment through movies and outings. First United Church has given away thousands of donated books, articles of clothing and kitchenware. The Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, at 385 E. Cordova St., have for years provided food and clothing for area residents.^[12]

The Health Contact Centre, at 166 E. Hastings, in the alley, is a place where addicts and street people can go to access nurse services, information and some forms of occupational activities.

The UBC Learning Exchange, sponsored by the University of British Columbia since the year 2000, opened up an outreach program at the north end of Main Street which is used by local residents to improve their education.

Pivot Legal Society is a non-profit legal advocacy organization located in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Pivot's mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins. Pivot's work involves addressing child welfare, addiction and health, housing, policing and prostitution.

Guru Nanak's Free Kitchen is a non-profit community organization that regularly provides thousands of meals to the needy and homeless in the area through events held in the local area such as the LifeSkills Centre and the First United Church. The concept is founded on the Sikh principles of langar (free kitchen) and seva (selfless service) developed by Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji hundreds of years ago.

It is estimated that the total cost to all levels of government paid to the 175 organizations serving the 5,000 needy individuals in the DTES is 1 million dollars per day, or 200 dollars per day per person[17]. Despite this expenditure, the neighborhood is still Canada's poorest postal code with some of the highest levels of crime and drug addiction in the country, begging the question of whether or not this money is being well spent.

[edit] Residents Association

The neighbourhood is home to a non-profit Residents' Association, the Downtown Eastside Residents Association or DERA as it commonly known to residents, who have battled what are known as slum landlords, who own a number of hotels and rooming houses in the area and have been accused of failing to fix dangerous problems ^[13][14] and contributing to the growing problem of area homelessness by evicting tenants illegally.

Early 20th c. buildings on East Hastings St

The many hotels in the area^[15] are single room occupancy, or SROs, and provide housing for people on welfare, often including the physically disabled, those having addictions and those with mental or behavioral problems. Some low-income residents and DTES advocacy groups are concerned about the area's increasing gentrification^[16]. Many SROs are being closed, and there is concern that they will be replaced with condominiums and other housing, whose prices will be out of reach for the residents of the neighbourhood.^[17]

[edit] History

Behind Cobalt Motor Hotel (just west of Main St)

This area was the centre of the city at the turn of the 20th century. City hall, the courthouse and the Carnegie Library were all located here. It was also the main shopping area for the city, which centred around Woodward's department store. The surrounding stretch of Hastings Street was a major cultural and entertainment district. Prior to the Second World War, there was a large Japanese community in Japantown.

Mosaic Sidewalk art in East Hastings

As the city centre moved to the West, and suburban shoppers took advantage of new local malls, the DTES (or Skid Road as it was more commonly known as until the late 20th century)^[18], began to decline. With the area already beset by numerous cheap hotels and public houses, Eaton's moved its Vancouver flagship store out of the neighbourhood in the 1970s and Woodward's shut down its multi-storey store in 1993. Around this time, crack cocaine was becoming a serious problem in the city. Businesses began dropping out of the neighbourhood for many years. In recent times, however, they have been making a comeback. There are pawn shops, tourist, knick knack and low cost household supply stores, restaurants, a large Army & Navy outlet, clothing outlets, a full-scale grocery store, many fresh vegetable retailers and butcher shops, as well as a multitude of convenience stores, some of which are suspected to be fronts for drug dealers. Some storefronts along the DTES stretch of Hastings Street are still empty, the entire buildings often up for sale. New art galleries, convenience stores, fast food outlets, social service organizations and other small businesses continually open here.

In the 1980s many of the street prostitutes in other parts of Vancouver, such as the nearby West End, were harassed out of those neighbourhoods and moved into the DTES-- now known to sex trade workers as the 'low track'--and contiguous industrial areas near Vancouver's ports. Many believe that this has exacerbated the problem of violence against prostitutes. Dozens of women associated with the DTES low track have gone missing since the early 1980s. Robert William Pickton, of Port Coquitlam has been charged with the murders of twenty six of these women and convicted on six of these counts. The BC Missing Women Investigation is ongoing.

Hotel Empress at 235 East Hastings is one of the many SRO hotels in the area that are included in Vancouver's diminishing affordable housing stock. In the fall of 2006 Empress residents were issued eviction notices.^[19]

[edit] Significant locations

The final roll over demolition of the Woodward's building on September 30th 2006, taken from across Cordova street facing south. Only the original 1903-08 portion of the building remains standing behind the cloud of dust and debris.

The demolished Woodward's building, (only the original 1903-08 portion of the building remains) was at one time a central retail and social epicentre of the neighborhood, and had sat empty for many years.^[20]The City Hall driven process was led by then City Councilor Jim Green and is being designed by local architect Gregory Henriquez. Almost the entire block is now being redeveloped by Westbank Projects to contain the Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts, 200 units of social housing, 536 units of market housing, a drugstore, a foodstore, a daycare, National Film Board, Federal offices, City offices, a bank and 31,500 square feet (2,930 m²) of Community Space for DTES Non-Profit organizations which includes Aids Vancouver and W2 Media Collective.^[21]

Vancouver's historic Chinatown (Pender and Keefer Streets run through its center) and Gastown Historical District (Water Street) are popular tourist areas in the Downtown Eastside. Gastown is home to many high-end restaurants, lofts and boutiques. Some see this creeping eastward gentrification as a promising development while others are concerned that this will only force many of the poorest from the only housing they can afford. Vancouverites do not traditionally see Gastown and Chinatown as Downtown Eastside locations although they do fall within its borders according to the City of Vancouver.^[1].

A number of art galleries, artist-run centres ^[22] and studios have located themselves in the area. The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden, built by monks from China in the early 1980s, also reposes in the area. The flatiron shaped Europe Hotel, an SRO, sits at the crux of Water, Powell, Alexander and Carrall Streets. Spartacus Books, one of the longest running collectively run bookstores in North America, was located right on the west edge of Vancouver's Eastside and is now in Strathcona.

The Strathcona neighbourhood lies within the DTES^[23] and is a historic working class neighborhood that has avoided many social problems, despite the decline of areas nearby. Some people believe that this sense of community is being threatened by the growing number of wealthy land speculators buying up the neighbourhood in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics.^[24]

In 2001 17 mosaics^{[25] [26]} were laid, employing local artists and residents. Tours of these mosaics and the Downtown Eastside ^[27] are conducted by various groups. The Vancouver Walkers Meetup group has posted some photos of the mosaics.

The park which area residents fought to create is presently at risk to development. Crab Park^[28], or Portside Park as the City likes to call it, provides a haven for dogs, fowl, and human elements. It is attached to a small beach of sand and pebble that has views over Burrard Inlet. A local group, the Central Waterfront Coalition ^[29] is trying to build support to retain it for Vancouverites.

[edit] Events held in the Downtown Eastside

Every Sunday a privately organized educational tour is conducted in East Hastings

Numerous culturally significant events have been happening in DTES in the recent past, beginning with Opera Brevé's series of short opera held at the Four Corners Savings Bank^[30]. A grand piano was brought in for each event and full costumes and interactive singers put on shows inside the bank at no cost. In 2003 Vancouver Moving Theater partnered with the Carnegie Community Center to put on the Heart of the City Festival, ^[31] the City of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Revitalization link which attracted thousands of visitors from outside the area. It was the 100th anniversary of the Carnegie Center. The festival was made an annual event during the years 2005 to 2008.

The Japanese Festival, know as the Powell Street Festival is held each summer in Oppenheimer Park and at the Japanese Language school nearby. In 2008 the 32nd annual Powell Street Festival is relocating temporarily to Woodland Park, 700 Woodland Drive (August 2 & 3, 2008). The Jazz Festival also comes to the area in early summer each year, with both renowned and local performers. Gastown is a hotbed of activity and music during this time. Contemporary dancers perform annually at the Dancing on the Edge Festival. One of the venues is the old Firehall Arts Centre.

Every Labour Day since 2004, an outdoor concert featuring Vancouver bands has been held in Victory Square Park. The Victory Square Block Party raises money for charities in the DTES. Past recipients have included Pivot Legal Society, a legal advocacy organization, and the DTES Women's Center Association. It is run by volunteers.

[edit] See also

• City Opera of Vancouver
• Downtown Eastside Residents Association
• Victory Square
• Woodward's building

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Map and definition of the DTES neighbourhood - City of Vancouver
• City of Vancouver's Revitalization Program
• Article on Vancouver's safe injection site
• Another Vancouver's safe injection site article (2004/09/23)
• A photo essay depicting life in the Downtown Eastside, circa early 2008
• Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

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