Gentrification of Vancouver

The gentrification of Vancouver, Canada, has been the subject debates between promotion and opposition to gentrification. Historically, its geographic location as the transportation hub connecting Western Canada to the Orient has made the area rich in raw materials, sparking a booming manufacturing core centred on the Canadian Pacific Railway networks. Numerous warehouses, timber mills, rail yard facilities and wartime industries filled up easy-access areas like Coal Harbour and False Creek, and working-class neighbourhoods sprang up in surrounding areas like Kitsilano, Strathcona and Grandview-Woodland. However, starting in the 1950s, the area was starting to face decline, caused largely by the growing prominence of freight trucking and new industrial complexes like Annacis Island being built on relatively cheap suburban land close to the freeways.

Early gentrification

Gentrification in Vancouver has occurred differently in many of its districts. Changes in the area of Kitsilano in the 60’s and 70’s provide excellent examples of consumption-side gentrification. It was traditionally a working-class residential neighbourhood during Vancouver’s industrial days. As workers moved out, the area's low rent and proximity to downtown, the beach and nearby UBC made it a hotbed for artists and students. It subsequently became the heart of the city’s counterculture movement, giving rise to Greenpeace in 1970. As the area became more artistic and vibrant, innovative young professionals began making improvements to the area's old wood-frame houses. The city came under pressure to halt the expansion of high-rise buildings, which were becoming commonplace across English Bay in what’s known as the West End. David Ley argues this direct action to halt the spread of gentrification actually sped it up, as the city down-zoned Kitsilano and made home improvement loans easily available. The lower density, tree-lined streets, access to the beach and downtown and relative ease of renovation made the area an attractive place for young professionals, which drove housing demand and prices higher. This cycle of improvement and rising property prices have transformed the area into a trendy strip for the city’s growing class of "yuppies."

Production-side gentrification

Other areas of Vancouver, such as the north and south shores of False Creek, tend to follow the production-side model of gentrification. Here, investors and city planners saw^{[citation needed]} a rent gap between current and potential property value if the land was redeveloped and decided to capitalise. Investment on the north shore of False Creek skyrocketed before and after Expo 86, which had previously been abandoned rail and industrial land. Hong Kong real estate developer Li Ka-shing, the primary shareholder of Concord Pacific Developments, was the first major foreign developer in the area and paved the way for a massive influx of Asian investment in prominent urban property, largely as a result of the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong. Concord Pacific developed a series of mid to high-rise mixed-residential buildings that fit well with the city’s vision of a liveable downtown featuring high density, proximity to amenities and ample parks and walkways along the waterfront. This trend has been replicated across the downtown core, particularly on the opposing south side of False Creek, where the Olympic Village for the 2010 Winter Olympics was built. This architectural style has been dubbed "Vancouverism," and has no doubt helped Vancouver be named the world’s most liveable city 5 years in a row (even though none of these indexes include the cost of living, which Vancouver also tops). In Noah Quastel's article "Political Ecologies of Gentrification," he examines how the platform of greening and sustainability helps justify the displacement of locals in Vancouver.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside & Chinatown

The Downtown Eastside and Chinatown, the Inner City, has been an area of focus in recent decades. With Gastown having nearly completely transformed through the influx of capital, the edges of the DTES and southern edge of Chinatown has seen much new development. Restauranteurs have set up a number of new businesses, gentrifying the area.

Resistance to development

Just as some neighbourhoods have been passionate proponents of gentrification, others have been equally as opposed to it. Most notably, the Downtown Eastside (DTES), known colloquially as "Canada’s poorest postal code," has opposed gentrification at every turn. David Ley has examined why gentrification seems to have completely skipped over this section of the city, which begins just blocks from Vancouver’s ultra-high value financial district. He attributes this to a combination of local resistance, led by the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, a large amount of available social housing and "a street scene that has proved too raw for most middle-class sensibilities. " An example of opposing visions of the DTES was the replacement of the Woodward's Building, once the premier shopping centre in Vancouver, but vacant since 1993 and demolished in 2006. After much debate the new building was built with mixed commercial, market-priced condos and social housing. Though arguments have been made that the redeveloped space would not affect the surrounding areas and that these projects would include social housing; opponents of the development claim that after a few projects, it would result in large populations being displaced and possibly push out social services that create no revenue for the city such as safe injection sites. Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project reported that Chinatown offers services to possibly thousands of low-income Chinese seniors who commute daily to Chinatown to shop and by developing it for a different class, it would take away the independence and comfort that many seniors still clutch onto. In a recent 2011 development permit application regarding Sequel 138, a new condo development, the same situation has been brought up only to have 34 social groups call for a rejection of the permit by the City of Vancouver. 30 professors from the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology have stated that permits tend to only include the technical and legal matters but in this case, should consider social impacts as they are far larger than people tend to expect. It was suggested that the permit be put on hold until a study of the social impacts of gentrification of the DTES is completed.