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Gentrification of Chinatown

The Gentrification of Vancouver’s Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside is a contested topic that has been debated through various media outlets in Vancouver, Canada [1].  A 2016 CBC news report stated, “Chinatown development is publicly debated and new developments in Vancouver’s Chinatown [have left] residents concerned” [2]. More in-depth local news coverage is available through a variety of online web-journals and news sources; these sources provide precise histories of events of political activism and protests that have occurred in Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside. [3][4][2][1] According to the National Trust of Canada, “Relentless development threatens the physical fabric of this nationally significant urban cultural landscape.” [5] Design guidelines meant to maintain a “Chinatown look” are often overlooked and building heights have been dramatically increased [5]. The posturing of Vancouver’s Chinatown as a cultural hub and the [2] added aesthetic value of the  "Chinatown Look" continues to drive up rental costs and displace long-time residents, many of which are seniors, who are central to the area’s community. [5] Vancouver's Chinatown is included in The National Trust for Canada’s annual list of Top 10 Endangered Places this year.[6][5]

Restaurants in Chinatown

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In Vancouver's Chinatown, both new and ‘revitalized’ restaurants have created new 'zones of exclusion' for the low-income residents; this has been tied to the ‘transformation’ of the neighbourhood towards a ‘dining destination’. [7] The Mainlander addresses the gentrifying restaurants in Vancouver's Chinatown as "Zones of Exclusions".[8] In 2016, Vancouver’s Chinatown acquired the development of six new retail and restaurant businesses. [9] One example of a new restaurant that opened in 2016, is Virtuous Pie, a plant-based Pizzeria, which opened in September 2016. [10]

Since Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, two restaurants within the Downtown Eastside historically gained media coverage on CBC due to anti-gentrification protests during the restaurant's opening; [11][12] Pidgin, which opened across from Pigeon Park, [11]and Cuchillo. [12] Both these restaurants opened in 2013. [11][12]

Pidgin is located across the street from Pidgin Park on Carrall Street, a ‘notorious drug-dealing landmark and makeshift home for many of the area’s most troubled residents’.[2] Protesters conducting research tie these restaurant spaces to having transformed the neighbourhood into a dining destination for people with a higher income. [7]

On CBC online news articles, protesters have stated opinions that “the restaurant (Pidgin) is too expensive for local residents to enjoy.” and that many would prefer to see the location used for housing. [2]

Dalina is another 'high-income' grocer that opened in Chinatown in 2016. Dalina is located at Main & Georgia; their website states that Dalina is a 'modern Italian delicatessen, grocery store and coffee shop hybrid.’ [13] The store was developed and owned by the Bosa Group, a Vancouver real estate developer company. [13] Dalina is situated the ground floor of the Bosa Group's recently completed BlueSky Chinatown rental apartment building. BlueSky Chinatown is a condominium that was also being opposed by anti-poverty activists in 2011 during it's development planning.[14]

Activists have accused these restaurants - which are not affordable for Chinatown's low-income residents - as places for 'Poverty Tourism';[15]  Commodifying the experience of poverty and distress by being located within the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown. [16] Karen Ward, political activist from Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) states that "There's a couple [of businesses] that have opened up that cater to the higher-income community, selling ice cream cones for $6 and lunches for $15 and up — places that obviously exclude low-income people," [15]

In a 'Gentrification Tour' hosted by VANDU in 2016, a number of the ‘new gentrifying businesses' that have been increasingly prevalent the Chinatown neighbourhood were visited.[16] [14] [17]The tour visited Fluffy Kittens, an ice cream parlour on Gore Street which sells ice cream cones for $4.75 as well as Matchstick Coffee, which sells their most basic cup of coffee for $3.25. [16][17]

“These retail spaces are zones of exclusion for low-income people,” states journalist Karen Ward, in an article published in the Mainlander [15] [17]. “They are spaces where poor people are judged and watched suspiciously, spaces where low-income people can’t even afford the cheapest item on the menu. On most days—except for today—they are places where people with money can sit in comfort and gawk at poor and homeless people on the street and sidewalks outside.” [17]

105 Keefer Application

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In the last year, a property in Chinatown commonly known as 105 Keefer street, has undergone application development reform, due to protests from various Chinatown coalition groups; this incident and coverage is reported through a variety of CBC news articles. [18] [1][19] 105 Keefer Street - a long-term underused former gas station site - is centrally located in Vancouver’s Chinatown.[19] The Beedie Group, British Columbia’s largest industrial property developer [20], paid $16.2 million for the land. The application proposal for development is for approximately 129,465 square feet. [21] If valued at approx $500/sq foot, it is probably worth well over $65 – $100 million in market value once sold. [21] The proposed 13-storey tower submitted by the Beedie Group was met with protests from several Vancouver Chinatown coalition groups. [2]  Beedie Living and Merrick Architecture submitted a revised application to the City of Vancouver in April 2016 for their site at Keefer and Columbia in Chinatown after protesters went to press, stating the need for more social housing for resident Chinese seniors in Chinatown over commercial properties.[18][22] The revised application by the Beedie Group seeks to rezone 105 Keefer Street/544 Columbia Street for a mixed-use development [2]. One Chinatown Coalition group, says that there aren't enough social housing units on the table in Vancouver currently and they are “asking for 100 per cent social housing . That's what meets the needs of the community," said Sophie Fung, spokesperson for the Chinatown Action Group. [2]

King-mong Chan, an organizer in the Chinatown Concern Group (CCG) , claims that the 105 Keefer development ‘will displace local businesses and the Chinese seniors who depend on them’. [19] The Beedie Group's most recent submission is a 13-storey building with 119 units — down from 134 when it was initially submitted — plus 25 units dedicated to social housing for seniors. This is the third application for the development .[2] The coalition of neighbourhood activists state the need for more social housing units to be on the table for the 105 Keefer development. [2] Sophie Fung, spokesperson for the Chinatown Action Group (Chinatown Action Group), said on the issue to CBC reporter Tina Lovgreen on May 17th, 2017, “the Chinese elderly population will require 3,000 units of housing somewhere in the city and Chinatown is the best place to put that.” [2]

Centre A, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, states on their website, that community members feel the Beedie project could "mark the moment when Chinatown was demoted to the status of a gentrified tourist and real estate marketing commodity". [23]

Low-Income Tenants in the Chinatown Area.

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Jean Swanson, coordinator of the Carnegie Community Action Project, is concerned about the potential impacts of the development on low-income tenants in the Chinatown area.

“There are 388 SRO hotel rooms and cheap apartments in that vicinity,” she said in a phone interview. “So we’re afraid that the impact of the gentrification will be that the rents in those places will go up, and the low-income people will be displaced.” [24]

Private Security in Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside

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Gentrification is also apparent through legal reports stating responses towards the actions of security companies in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Research conducted by the Pivot Legal Society [25] state issues surrounding private security companies who ‘relocate’ individuals to move further East. [25] Pivot Legal Society is a legal advocacy organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia's Downtown Eastside. Founded in 2000, Pivot's stated aim is to represent and defend the marginalized and disenfranchised; The Pivot Legal Society is a legal advocacy group that "fights legislation, policies, and practices that undermine human rights, intensify poverty, and deprive people of the opportunity to become a full and equal participant in their communities." [25]

Pivot was forged in 2001 in the face of a health and human rights crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The Pivot Legal Society has collected statistics through interviews of people who have had experiences and interactions with residents of the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown. [25] 

Over the last two years, the community has raised multiple concerns about CSC Security, many of which centre around the treatment of sex workers by private security guards.[26] While the Vancouver Police Department has been proactive in drafting a policy designed to protect the safety of sex workers, private security firms have been accused of picking up where the police left off. [26] 

Jennifer Allan, who supports sex workers through her peer support group "Jen's Kitchen", takes note on how private security companies in the Downtown Eastside have moved sex workers off of public streets into more secluded areas, she commented:

"During the ten years I have been doing outreach with sex workers in the DTES one of the main battles I have seen women face is against abuse from private security guards. Security guards harass and abuse sex workers instead of helping them. They film and take pictures of women without permission and push them off public streets into secluded areas. Private security treat sex workers even worse than police do." 

[26]

Heritage

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Vancouver’s Chinatown is a National Historic Site that undergoes specific city land-use planning laws. [27]

Design guidelines meant to maintain a “Chinatown look” are often overlooked and building heights have been dramatically increased. At the same time, intense speculation in the area  is driving up rents and displacing long-time residents, many of them seniors, who are central to the area’s rich cultural identity; The National Trust of Canada has published on their website that, "Without better control on new development and efforts to sustain local businesses, Chinatown’s unique character will be lost." [5]

In the City of Vancouver’s Land use, development policies and guidelines publication, Vancouver's Chinatown goes under a city zoning category named HA-1A.[28] The City of Vancouver formulates these design guidelines for neighbourhoods so they can maintain ‘heritage’ regulations of the neighbourhood as a historic site.  These design guidelines consist of city infrastructure architecture protections, including condominiums storefront and ‘facade’ guidelines. [28]

Chinatown Specific streetscape treatments for the public realm in Chinatown have been approved by City Council to reinscribe a sense of distinguished community identity.[29][28] These streetscape treatments, such as granite cobblestones tree surrounds, sidewalk paver design, Chinese Dragon light fixtures, and heritage-style litter containers, are maintained for the public.[29]

New buildings in the neighbourhood are required to meet these design guidelines, with an aim to retain a ‘Chinatown-look.’ However, the city’s heritage guidelines do not address all characteristics of the area, specifically ones concerning the Chinatown low-income residents.[29] Some of these characteristics include tangible and intangible aspects of Chinatown’s community and cultural activities. [27] These guidelines do not take into account a diverse housing mix for affordability and an aging population.[29]

There has been debate that the heritage laws only reinforce ethno-tourism within Vancouver's Chinatown rather than reinforce an identity of the neighbourhood's character. [29] What can be seen as a primary 'threat to the character of Chinatown' is new development that ignores these attributes for a community. [27][29] The issue is not so much what heritage buildings that are coming down, but rather what new development is going up.[28] New infill developments are failing to engage with the intangible character of this important place, and may overwhelm it with out-of-scale and out-of-character developments.[29]

Fear over this loss of Chinatown character – despite the many years of planning that has gone into it – has led to demonstrations, protests at City Hall, a petition for a moratorium on development, community organized talks, countless letters, websites started by community members, numerous news articles in major newspapers including the Globe & Mail, and a documentary film that played at the Vancouver International Film Festival.[27][29]

  1. ^ a b c Bula, Frances. "Behind the Changing Face of Vancouver's Chinatown". Globe and Mail. Globe and Mail. Retrieved December 11th 2016. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Not good enough: Chinatown coalition opposed to new development proposal". CBC News. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  3. ^ Sinoski, ,Kelly. "Chinatown residents to protest proposed 12-storey development". www.vancouversun.com. Retrieved 2016-12-14.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Chinatown seniors protest city plan". Vancouver Sun. 2016-11-22. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Vancouver's Chinatown". www.nationaltrustcanada.ca. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  6. ^ "Death knell for Chinatown: Are we witnessing the end — in Vancouver and across North America?". Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  7. ^ a b Burnett, Katherine (2013). "Commodifying poverty: gentrification and consumption in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside". Urban Geography. 35 – via JSTOR.
  8. ^ "Karen Ward". The Mainlander. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  9. ^ "New Restaurants in Vancouver 2016 | To Die For". itstodiefor.ca. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  10. ^ "Vancouver's first plant-based pizzeria opens in Chinatown | Metro Vancouver". metronews.ca. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  11. ^ a b c "Protesters target Cuchillo as another symbol of gentrification in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2013-07-05. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  12. ^ a b c "Pidgin owner defends controversial new Vancouver restaurant". CBC News. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  13. ^ a b "Dalina is now open in Chinatown". We Love East Van. 2016-12-12. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  14. ^ a b "Chinatown | Vancouver New Condos". www.vancouvernewcondos.com. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  15. ^ a b c "'Yuppie gazing tour' organized in response to Downtown Eastside poverty tourism". CBC News. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  16. ^ a b c "'Yuppie gazing tour' organized in response to Downtown Eastside poverty tourism". CBC News. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  17. ^ a b c d "Residents respond to Downtown Eastside walking tour with their own "yuppie tour" of gentrifying businesses". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  18. ^ a b "LISTEN: 105 Keefer crucial in fight against development in Vancouver's Chinatown". rabble.ca. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  19. ^ a b c "Controversial project in Vancouver's Chinatown revised". Vancouver Sun. 2016-05-02. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  20. ^ Bellett, ,Gerry. "Weekend Extra: Beedie Development Group celebrates 60 years in business (with video)". www.vancouversun.com. Retrieved 2016-12-16.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ a b urbanizta (2016-05-13). "105 Keefer: Controversial project in Chinatown. New open house May 16 (Mon)". CityHallWatch: Tools to engage in Vancouver city decisions. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  22. ^ "105 KEEFER | FAQ". 105 Keefer. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  23. ^ "Discussion: Diversity and the Built Environment: the Case of 105 Keefer | Centre A". centrea.org. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  24. ^ "Vancouver city council set to consider 16-storey development in Chinatown". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2013-02-26. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
  25. ^ a b c d Society, Pivot Legal. "Security Before Justice | Pivot Legal Society". www.pivotlegal.org. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  26. ^ a b c "Pivot Launches Private Security "Know Your Rights" Cards". Pivot Legal Society. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  27. ^ a b c "3. Chinatown | Heritage Vancouver". heritagevancouver.org. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  28. ^ a b c d "Chinatown HA1A Design Guidelines" (PDF). http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Chinatown-HA1A-Design-Guidelines.pdf. City of Vancouver. April 2011. Retrieved December 11th 2016. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help); External link in |website= (help)
  29. ^ a b c d e f g h "3. Chinatown | Heritage Vancouver". heritagevancouver.org. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
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