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Downtown Eastside

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Downtown Eastside
Urban Neighborhood
View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward's site from Harbour Centre.
View of the Downtown Eastside and Woodward's site from Harbour Centre.
Nickname: 
DTES
Location of the Downtown Eastside (in red) in Vancouver.
Location of the Downtown Eastside (in red) in Vancouver.
Country Canada
Province British Columbia
CityVancouver
Population
 (2001)[1]
 • Total16,590
Time zoneUTC-8 (PST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is known as "Canada's poorest postal code".[2] According to the city of Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside contains the following neighbourhoods: Chinatown, Gastown, Oppenheimer Park (formerly Japantown), 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.[3] Hastings and Cordova Streets were once the core shopping district in the city,[4][5][6][7] many of the retail shops that flourished until 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]

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, along with the headquarters of the BC Electric Railway Company and as such was the hub of rail transit in Vancouver and in the region. 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.

File:Picture44 230.jpg
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)[8], began to decline. With the area already containing numerous cheap hotels and beer parlours, and alcoholism already endemic, hard drug use became the norm along the Hastings "strip". With Eaton's moving its Vancouver flagship store from West Hastings in the 1970s, the decline in shopping traffic led to Woodward's shutting down 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.[9]

Demographics

File:Picture44 245.jpg
A Chinese temple in the heart of East Hastings shows the diversity of the neighbourhood. The building was originally a Salvation Army Temple.

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.[3] In 2001, 43% of the population were immigrants, with 23% from 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 less than $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.[3]

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.

Problems

Vancouver police making an arrest in a DTES alley.

The Downtown Eastside has a high incidence of HIV infection.[10] 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.

File:Picture44 248.jpg
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.[11] However, the project is controversial.[12] 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 neighbourhood sidewalks are becoming less common due to the efforts of United We Can[13] 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[14] 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.

Community groups and social agencies

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 Centrem 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, 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 on Cordova Street across from Oppenheimer Park offers activities such as crafts, sports and special community events and lunches. The IATSE, Local 118 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 aids women in need of emergency housing. The Evelyne Saller Centre, on 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 the First United Church, one block east of Hastings and Main, Union Gospel Mission on Cordova Street, and Street Church, on 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 on E. Cordova St., have for years provided food and clothing for area residents.

The Health Contact Centre on 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.

St. James Community Service Society is broad-based social service agency providing care and support for the most marginalized and vulnerable. For nearly 50 years the organization has cared for those in the DTES who face homelessness, poverty and isolation, mental illness and addictions, as well as chronic and terminal illness. A team of 300 dedicated staff provide a spectrum of crisis, housing, personal care, financial support, and end-of-life services to over 2,000 people a year.

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.[15]

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 [16][17] 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[18] 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 behavioural problems. Some low-income residents and DTES advocacy groups are concerned about the area's increasing gentrification[19]. 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.[20]

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 neighbourhood, and had sat empty for many years.[21]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.[22]

Woodward's W43 tower as of 2009-07-16

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 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 area hosts several public parks, including Oppenheimer Park, Portside (Crab Park), and Wendy Poole Park. Portside Park[28], or Crab Park as the local residents like 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 is trying to build support to retain it for Vancouverites, as it is presently being considered for development.

Events held in the Downtown Eastside

File:Picture44 207.jpg
Every Sunday a privately organized educational tour is conducted in East Hastings

A number of 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[29]. 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 Theatre partnered with the Carnegie Community Centre to put on the Heart of the City Festival, 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 Centre. 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.

Every Labour Day since 2004, a volunteer-run outdoor concert featuring Vancouver bands has been held in Victory Square Park. The Victory Square Block Party] raises money for charities in the DTES.

The Women’s Memorial March is held annually in the distict on Valentine's Day, to call attention to missing and murdered women. As of 2009, an estimated 39 women were missing from the Downtown Eastside.[30] The event was initiated by First Nations women in 1992, when the body of Cheryl Anne Joe was found dismembered at the corner of Powell and Salsbury streets. The march has become an annual event to protest the high numbers of women missing and murdered in the community.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "2005/06 Downtown Eastside Community Monitoring Report" (PDF). 10th Edition. City of Vancouver. Spring 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  2. ^ Canada's poorest postal code in for an Olympic clean-up? The Globe and Mail
  3. ^ a b c Patrick Brethour (February 13, 2009). "Exclusive demographic picture: A comparison of key statistics in the DTES, Vancouver, B.C. and Canada". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  4. ^ Milltown to Metroplis, Alan Morley
  5. ^ Early Vancouver, J.S. "Skitt" Matthews
  6. ^ Vancouver History website
  7. ^ Historical Atlas of Vancouver, Peter McDonald
  8. ^ "Demolish City's Skid Road, Murder Protest Demands". Vancouver Sun. 6 April, 1962. p.1
  9. ^ [1] "Council defers vote on redevelopment," Metro News, 20 October 2006.
  10. ^ [2] Guy Babineau, "Poverty and Prejudice, not drugs, fuel BC's HIV rise," The Georgia Straight, 1 December 2005.
  11. ^ Mullens, Anne (2008-07-28). "Insite Works". National Post. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  12. ^ Kay, Barbara (2008-07-28). "The solution is abstinence". National Post. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  13. ^ United We Can website
  14. ^ Matas, Robert (2009-02-13). "The Money Pit". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
  15. ^ [3]
  16. ^ Slumlords evade real justice Vancouver Courier article by Pete McMartin (2007)
  17. ^ Rich slumlords keep tenants in squalor The Vancouver Sun article by Pete McMartin (2007)
  18. ^ City of Vancouver Administrative Report: November 2006
  19. ^ Baker, Linda (2007-12-27). "Amid Gentrification, Vancouver Seeks Balance". Architectural Record. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
  20. ^ [4] CBC News, Olympics making Vancouver housing crisis worse: critic
  21. ^ Woodward's - The Story of Woodward's
  22. ^ "The Future of Woodward's..." © 2007, City of Vancouver, Real Estate Services. Last Modified: Monday, January 29, 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  23. ^ [5] City of Vancouver Downtown Eastside Revitalization link
  24. ^ [6] Olympic-related property speculation and its effect on the DTES housing stock: PIVOT Legal Society Report.
  25. ^ [7] Mosaic Art Source website posting of mosaics from the Footprints project
  26. ^ [8] Western Economic Diversification Canada New Release MOSAIC MARKERS TRACE STEPS OF OLD VANCOUVER TOWNSITE IN DOWNTOWN EASTSID
  27. ^ [9] Sins of the City video tour, dabbler.ca website
  28. ^ [10] Crab Park area views
  29. ^ [11] Opera Brevé at Four Corners Bank reference
  30. ^ Elien, Shadi. "Women's Memorial March to take place on Valentine's Day". Georgia Straight. February 13, 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  31. ^ McDowell, Christine. "The Global Women's Memorial Website : Creating a circle from which to speak in unison". Canadian Women’s Health Network. Retrieved 27 November 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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