Tuesday, October 13, 2009 from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Meet in Maple Tree Square by Gassy Jack’s Statue

Heritage Vancouver invites you to join Robert Fung, the President of the Salient Group, for a personal guided tour of his Water Street and Maple Tree Square projects – the Alhambra, the Garage, the Cordage, the Grand, and the Terminus. This is a unique opportunity to see the interior of some of these buildings and experience how Robert’s work is transforming Maple Tree Square and Water Street, Vancouver’s historic birthplace.

Robert Fung has a passion for redeveloping and reinterpreting heritage buildings for modern, urban life and for reviving old neighbourhoods as vibrant and integrated communities. Following the tour there will be an opportunity to talk with Robert about his vision and how these projects contribute to the revitalization of Gastown, to the City, to the local economy, to the tourism industry, and to the future of Old Vancouver.

This event is of particular interest to architects, developers, planners, decision makers and people who are passionate about the future of Gastown.

• Project architect Mark Ostry, of Acton Ostry Architects, will provide a detailed look at how his architectural ideas shaped the final building designs.
• Heritage consultant Donald Luxton, of Donald Luxton & Associates Inc., will provide historic background information and discuss the restoration of the buildings.
• Scott Hein, senior urban designer with the City of Vancouver, will provide an overview of the City’s plans for Gassy Jack Square.

The event begins in the Heart of Old Vancouver at Gassy Jack’s Statue on Maple Tree Square and ends with a private reception at the Canvas Lounge at Powell and Columbia. Canvas, a world class, full service venue for special events, is located in the historic City Hotel which was built in stages between 1905 and 1912.

Robert Fung – What is a Heritage Building Film

$100 includes the tour, conversation, and a private reception with hors d’oeuvres and a sampling of wines in the Canvas Lounge.

All proceeds from this fundraising event go to support
the preservation of Vancouver’s built heritage.

Space is limited – click to register online by PayPal
For more information email info@heritagevancouver.org

Saturday March 28, 2009
10am to 9pm
All events are free admission

Oppenheimer Park and various other locations in the
Japantown and Powell Street neighbourhoods

Celebration of Japantown’s multicultural neighbourhood with history walking tours, displays and story sharing, daytime activities, a procession, ceremonies, performances, and open artist studios.

Read the event programme as a PDF

Produced by Powell Street Festival Society, Tonari Gumi, Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall and Vancouver Moving Theatre, in association with a host of community partners www.vjls-jh.com or call 604-628-5672

Dear Friends, Neighbours & Colleagues,

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association is proud to present Sustainability 2.0 – the Evolution of Green, building on the success of the first Sustainability 1.0: the Upside of Greening your Business. Learn how collaboration can create new opportunities and build community to help you go green.

The event will feature  keynote speaker Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx, and a panel of local businesses that represent different stages of green. Learn from businesses that are taking their first green steps and others who have been incorporating green strategies for years. Discover how to collaborate with other businesses on sustainability initiatives and get access to resources on programs for waste/recycling management, transportation, material exchange network, and energy conservation.

Majora Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. Find out how this South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic and social degradation. With her inspired ideas, fierce persistence, and her motto: Green the Ghetto she pushes both for eco-friendly practices, job training, and green-related economic development for her vibrant neighborhood in the South Bronx, N.Y. Majora Carter is a 2005 MacArthur Fellow; named in Essence Magazine’s 25 most influential African-Americans, one of the NY Post’s 50 Most Influential Women 2 years in a row.

Greening the Ghetto
a film of Majora Carter

Thursday April 2, 2009
3:00pm to 7:00pm
Chapel Arts
304 Dunlevy Ave.

The event is free but pre-registration is a must
Register today at www.strathconabia.com/expo2

Cathy Kwan, Executive Director
Strathcona Business Improvement Association
787 East Cordova Street, Vancouver, B. C.
strathconabia@telus.net, www.strathconabia.com

Centre A – Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art – provides a platform for contemporary Asian art to engage, educate, and stimulate a reflective experience and provoke critical thought.

Exhibition March 14 to April 25, 2009
Open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm
2 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1G6
604-683-8326, www.centrea.org, info@centrea.org

Visits to the satellite venues are only available by taking the Walking Tours on Saturdays, March 14, April 11, and April 25 – 4 pm to 5 pm.
Meet at Centre A.

Centre A – Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art – provides a platform for contemporary Asian art to engage, educate, and stimulate a reflective experience and provoke critical thought.

Curatorial Notes by Makiko Hara

Another City is not about an imaginary city nor is it an exhibition manifesting some socio-political message on urban issues. Rather, it proposes a temporal physical and intellectual space where we can put ourselves into a flow of imagination – and question who and where we are – and what we are looking for.

We hope Another City will keep evolving and transforming to reflect ourselves in relation to art and life.

~ Curator Makiko Hara

My thoughts have been spinning in circles around the same place. The more I try to define and summarize what Another City is, the more I feel like I’m in a maze. Attempting to encapsulate the elements, I feel continuously displaced as if wandering through a forest of meaning, definition, idea, concept and structure. It is unsettling to be in a paradigm that is constantly dislocating and shifting. Perhaps this un-centred feeling of displacement defines the nature of this project. Additionally, because Another City is a collaboration, its central concept has been shifting with the contributions of each artist.

In early spring 2007, Masashi Ogura proposed the idea of a collaborative exhibition and publication on the human condition in response to global cultural change and physical transfiguration of the urban environment. I had just recently moved to another city, Vancouver, and had begun working with Centre A. When Ogura and I started discussing the initial concept for the project, I described my new life and my new reality. At the same time, while working in the gallery I was constantly confronted with everyday life on the street outside and the transformation of the neighbourhood. I found this new dynamic dislocating and sometimes even emotionally disturbing. The Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) soon became one of my preoccupations. I began speculating on how to address and integrate the complicated, transforming conditions of my new environment into my art program. I also wanted to address the many layers of historical, socio-political, aesthetic, philosophical and ethical issues surrounding me. I asked myself, how can an art gallery take a position in this cultural and political context?

Centre A examined different aspects of these issues in three exhibitions. Another City follows two earlier projects held at Centre A in 2008, which also focused on urban issues and the human condition: THTP and Show Room. The THTP Project/Phase Five/Oversight 1 juxtaposed the DTES with an illegal squatter community in the contested inner city neighborhood of Treasure Hill in Taipei. Show Room 2 provided a literal platform for the public to discuss ongoing issues of gentrification and development in downtown Vancouver, and examined the idea of “Vancouverism.” Another City completes this trilogy.

While Ogura and I were brainstorming – on the initial ideas for Another City on the transfiguration of the urban environment and the human condition – we also found we shared a common interest in developing an art exhibition as a spontaneous exchange. We were seeking a new way of collaboration. Ogura suggested we invite Vancouver based artist Paul de Guzman, and Tokyo based artist Yoshihiro Suda as collaborators on this journey.

I asked Ogura to take the lead as the philosophical thinker/writer and that he prepare a text to share his ideas with the participating artists. His resulting short text “Toward Another City” became the departure point for our collaboration. Ogura wrote this text, with its allusions to Italo Calvino’s influential book Invisible Cities, as a way to describe his multi-strata approach, and as a framework to feature de Guzman’s series of cut-up architecture books with the same title. De Guzman’s art practice is characterized by his conceptual and linguistic approach to the institutional nature of architecture, and by his extremely meticulous and detailed object making. Paul has lately been working with ideas of transience in relation to architecture. For Another City, he will construct a maze – a temporary architectural installation in response to Ogura’s text. De Guzman’s proposal gives physical structure to the project.

In his Another City artist statement, de Guzman remarks that his contribution to the project is to create a transient architectural structure that triggers our desire and fear of travel, migration and impermanence. Space such as corridors, bus shelters, airports, train stations, washrooms, even art galleries, whether humble or monumental expressions of built space, seem boundless. They are boundless because they are peripheral and necessary, neglected and appreciated. They are part of urban landscape. These structures suggest a type of temporary shelter from a nomadic urban existence, a respite from the routine of perpetual movement and travel.

The work of renowned installation artist and wood sculptor Yoshihiro Suda is specialized and skillful. His meticulously carved and painted realistic wooden plants (such as life-size weeds, rose, camellia) are carefully and discreetly installed in gallery spaces. Even though Suda’s carved plants are beautiful and astonishing as objects, his intention is not to present them as art objects; he wishes to create a new perspective when his exquisite objects intervene in the gallery space. The encounter and discovery of his plants awaken and transform our physical and conceptual relationship to space. We anticipate that Suda will insert his plants discreetly, to subtly transform the nature of the gallery space within the context of Another City. In the past, Suda has always created a space for his installation by himself, never in collaboration with other artists. We are excited as this is his first collaborative challenge.

Suda decided to carve mushrooms for the exhibition, inspired by some photos de Guzman showed him, because fungi are transitory and elusive. After Suda’s Vancouver visit, he then showed interest in carving a marijuana ‘weed’, as he was playfully informed that it is the most representative plant of BC. Whatever botanicals he chooses, his new works will parasitically occupy de Guzman’s architectural structure.

In the summer of 2008, we invited Ogura and Suda to Vancouver for a pre-visit to the gallery to initiate their collaboration. After spending four days together, we started to share a vision for the space. De Guzman’s maze and Suda’s subtle interventions illustrate the interaction between private/public and exterior/interior spaces.

But then we thought it would be exciting to extend the viewers’ experience of Another City into the neighbourhood. The exhibition space became the neighbourhood, and was expanded to include the satellite venues of Bestway Studio (Chinatown) and Stratagem Pacific Consulting (Gastown), both located in historically significant Downtown Eastside buildings. Both spaces have hosted occasional art and performance events. With this off-site initiative, we invite the viewers to venture outside of the gallery to the two satellite venues. We hope the trip will provide another perspective – through Another City viewers will re-experience key heritage architecture and cultural histories of the Downtown Eastside. Although the DTES is familiar to many of us, we hope Another City will evoke the feeling of walking around an unfamiliar place – when our mind is constantly in the flow of movement and sights – when we are accidentally getting lost and discovering.

Another City has been developed through the artists’ correspondence and discussions over two years. Instead of seeking consensus and a point of destination, we decided to let our inspiration, our interpretation of each other’s concepts and ideas – and our exchanges – stay open and keep transforming.

Collaborators with Another City include three authors who have contributed to the accompanying book, an integral part of the exhibition. Local historian and heritage advocate John Atkin was asked to provide a history and guide to the Downtown Eastside, “Wandering Off Centre.” Viewers should use the accompanying map to navigate. Gary McFarlane edited the publication and wrote the satirical “Re Route Re Place.” These two texts provide an even greater multiplicity of approaches to Another City, like different people walking the same streets at different times.

“Episode” was written by Masashi Ogura to lead us into the project. His narrative, evoking a hard-boiled, film noir set in Venice, is suggested as a metaphor for being, involving and locating ourselves in the art world. We ask ourselves: What is our relationship to the art world? Who do we follow? Where do we look for guidance? How do we choose which direction to take? What is the art world? And where we are?

Artists, Venues and Other Collaborators

Paul de Guzman
Paul de Guzman’s art has been exhibited widely in Canada and Europe over the last decade. Having immigrated to Canada in 1986 from the Philippines, Paul is now based in Vancouver. His art practice is characterized by text-based combinations of architecture and visual art. He recently showed at the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Kenderdine Art Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan, Art Gallery of Windsor, Vancouver Art Gallery and Art Gallery of Ontario. Internationally he has shown at Hofstra University Museum in New York, Galerie Markus Richter in Berlin, Dominique Fiat in Paris and Galerie Transit near Antwerp. Current and upcoming exhibitions include Oakville Galleries (March 2009) and Birch Libralato in Toronto (May 2009).

Yoshihiro Suda
Yoshihiro Suda is based in Tokyo. Suda is an internationally celebrated contemporary artist who was nominated for the Canadian Millennium Prize (National Gallery of Canada, 2001), and his work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery in Ottawa. Suda has exhibited at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago (2002), Le Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2004), and the Victoria & Alberta Museum, London (2007-08). In 2009 he will be the first Japanese artist to have a solo exhibition in the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. Another City will be Suda’s first exhibition on the West Coast of Canada. Suda is represented by several galleries including Gallery Koyanagi in Tokyo and Galerie René Blouin in Canada.

Masashi Ogura
Masashi Ogura is a Tokyo based art critic and former editor of the leading Japanese art magazine, Atelier. For more than three decades he has organized numerous exhibitions and contributed texts to many Canadian and European publications. During his long and distinguished career, he has translated important works of philosophy into Japanese, produced exhibitions and publications, and worked with leading artists from around the world. Over the last 15 years, Ogura and Makiko Hara co-founded the art collective Tokyo Art Speak, which since 1993 presented monthly round table discussions and symposiums, and published periodical catalogues and journals. Ogura received Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française in 1994. Ogura’s publications include: A translation of Jean-Luc Nancy’s La ville au loin, Tokyo, 2007; Contemporary Art from Art Nouveau to Postmodern Age (collaboration), Tokyo, 1989; “L’entre-deux,” in Sylvie Bélanger’s catalogue De la séduction à la résistance, Art Gallery of Windsor, 1999; Du côté de l’ombre, catalogue de l’exposition Jocelyne Alloucherie, Montreal, 2001.

Makiko Hara
Makiko Hara has been the curator at Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art since January 2007. She has curated numerous contemporary art exhibitions by Japanese, Canadian and international artists, and has served as project coordinator for several international exhibitions, including the International Triennale of Contemporary Art in Yokohama, 2001/2005, and the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale, 2003. Hara has served on several juries including the VIVA Awards, the City of Richmond and the City of Vancouver Public Art Programs, and the Visual Arts Section of the Canada Council for the Arts. Hara is one of the curators for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009 in Toronto.

John Atkin
John Atkin is a civic historian. He creates and conducts popular walking tours of Vancouver neighbourhoods. He edits British Columbia History for the BC Historical Federation, is a co-founder of Heritage Vancouver, and curated City Lights: Neon in Vancouver, an exhibition at the Vancouver Museum. Atkin’s published works include numerous articles on heritage issues and four books: Heritage Walks Around Vancouver (1992) (with Michael Kluckner) and Strathcona: Vancouver’s First Neighbourhood (1994) (both winners of the City of Vancouver Heritage Award), Vancouver Walks (2004, 2nd ed. 2005) (with Michael Kluckner) and Skytrain Explorer (2005).

Gary McFarlane
Gary McFarlane is a Vancouver based freelance writer and editor, and has been an administrator in the non profit sector for over 20 years. He also composes and performs with the Alligator Joy Gamelan ensemble.

The Best Way Studio
The Best Way Studio is an artist studio established in 2008 by Vancouver artists Randy Gledhill, Glenn Lewis and Elisha Burrow. It is located in Chinatown’s historic Chinese Times Building, 519 East Pender Street. The studio hosts art events in collaboration with local art organizations.

Stratagem Pacific Consulting
Stratagem Pacific Consulting was formed in 1995. The company provides qualified and innovative services associated with cultural, economic development and natural resource issues. Stratagem Pacific Consulting is represented by Craig R. Noordmans. Since 2007, Stratagem has held four art exhibitions and artist-in-residency programs of local Vancouver emerging artists using their office space, 710 – 318 Homer Street.

The Future of Old Vancouver

Old Vancouver is Gastown, Chinatown, Strathcona, Hastings,Victory Square, and Japantown.

Heritage Vancouver welcomes guest speakers Ray Spaxman, Aprodicio Laquian, and Jan Sircus to an evening of imagining a future for Vancouver’s historic neighbourhoods.

Ray will tell us about current urban planning that could alter Old Vancouver’s future. Prod will talk about Asian cities that have created vibrant neighbourhoods from run-down historic areas. Jan will talk about how successful place making begins with the story.

This is an opportunity to contribute ideas to shaping Vancouver’s historic neighbourhoods and creating a future for our heritage.

Ray Spaxman, former Director of Planning with the City of Vancouver, was there at the start of the city’s heritage programs in 1973 and oversaw the development of emerging policies until 1989. The Spaxman Consulting Group was lead consultant for the city’s innovative Gastown Heritage Management Plan and the recent Historic Precinct Height Study. Ray is also a volunteer member of the Building Community Society, a group of concerned citizens dedicated to the future of the Downtown Eastside.

Aprodicio Laquian, human settlement expert, is advocating a plan that explores successful development models in the city, the region, and the world to solve the problems plaguing the Downtown Eastside. Aprodicio Laquian is an emeritus professor of human settlement at the University of British Columbia, and author of Beyond Metropolis, a book exploring ways to improve the lives of slum-dwellers in mega-cities such as Mumbai and Manila. He moved to Vancouver from New York in 1991.

Jan Sircus, an internationally recognized creative director, has experience designing innovative attractions, world expo pavilions, Olympic venues, themed environments, and destination resorts. Jan’s skills and background include story, art direction, media and theatrical design, architecture, urban design, and master planning. He is an experienced executive producer guiding and facilitating diverse creative teams. Jan was a Senior Vice President of Creative Development for Walt Disney Imagineering in Los Angeles for 25 years and now lives in Vancouver.

Thursday, March 19, 2009
7:00 pm to 9:30 pm

Registration at 7:00 pm
Conversation begins at 7:15 pm

The Vancouver Museum
1100 Chestnut Street

Tickets $5:00
Heritage Vancouver Members free

Contributions from the conversation

Michael Geller
Special to the Vancouver Sun

Should really poor people be living next to really rich people in expensive housing on Vancouver’s waterfront?

This is a question on many peoples’ minds following the recent revelations about the cost of the southeast False Creek social housing.

But it was also a question being asked in 1975 when plans were being completed for the first phase redevelopment of the south shore of False Creek.

And it was asked again in the early 1990s when the Westin Bayshore Hotel parking lot was rezoned for a new community.

To better understand the current situation, it is helpful to look back at these earlier projects. On the south shore False Creek, planners socially engineered a broad mix that replicated the income profile of the region with one-third low-, one-third mid-, and one-third high-income residents. However, it did not cost the city a lot of money since ample subsidy dollars were available from the federal and provincial governments.

And, in the words of former CMHC assistant regional director Keith Tapping, the poor were not really that poor. Rather, many were the “deliberate poor” — teaching assistants, writers and artists, excited about the opportunity of living in an innovative waterfront community environment.

Today, many of the original residents are still living in their government subsidized housing, some maintaining “primary residences” on the Gulf Islands. But the idea of income mixing was firmly established, and it has become a trademark of Vancouver’s major projects in subsequent years.

By the 1990s the federal government had withdrawn its subsidies and the province and city targeted limited subsidy dollars to those in greatest need. At Bayshore, the Non-Partisan Association council of the day insisted that 20 per cent of the units be occupied by low-income families and seniors. As the development manager, I questioned the appropriateness of housing low-income families in this prime area, with little social infrastructure and few affordable shops.

Eventually, led by Libby Davies, council agreed, and the developer was required to make a cash payment-in-lieu of building the family housing. A few years later, after raising money to pay for facilities the city would not fund, the highly successful Performing Arts Lodge was approved as the low-income seniors’ component.

In the rest of Coal Harbour and the Concord lands, the 20-per-cent requirement for low income housing has continued. However, due to a shortage of funds, many of the Concord social housing sites have remained vacant.

From this perspective, I cannot see how the city can justify spending more than $450,000 per unit to house the poor in southeast False Creek. Instead, I would recommend that the units be sold as “affordable ownership” housing to cover the cost over-runs. This will still result in income-mixing and more cost-effective units can be built on future sites in the area.

I would also like to see the city and Victoria fund truly affordable housing to house the truly homeless. For the price of one southeast False Creek unit, governments could build 10 homes using pre-fabricated modular homes. They could be set up on public and privately owned vacant sites around the city while permanent social housing is built.

I know there is often nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. However, once the sites are required for other purposes, the modular homes and residents could be relocated to other sites. Eventually, the units could be set up as permanent housing elsewhere around the region or province.

I appreciate that many will fear these developments might look like suburban trailer parks. However, through creative design, including stacking and colourful murals, they could be very attractive.

Indeed, some have now expressed the fear that the housing might be too attractive, and deter governments from building permanent projects.

While this concern cannot be ignored, I believe factory-built, relocatable housing could be a cost-effective and quick solution to getting people into homes.

I have estimated the cost between $38,000 and $45,000 a unit, depending on whether there are private bathrooms.

Support services would be provided by qualified non-profit organizations.

If we start now, we could have a couple of demonstration projects underway and the first residents in place by Labour Day. Now, that would be something to celebrate.

Michael Geller has a background in architecture, planning and development. He serves on the adjunct faculty of Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Sustainable Community Development.

Jonathan Fowlie
Vancouver Sun

The provincial government currrently has no accurate method to track the number of homeless people in the province.

The provincial government currrently has no accurate method to track the number of homeless people in the province.

The B.C. government lacks a comprehensive plan to deal with homelessness, Auditor-General John Doyle said in a highly critical report released Thursday, adding that he believes homelessness in B.C. is getting worse.

Photograph by
Ward Perrin
Vancouver Sun

“We expected
government to have an understanding of the causes and patterns of homelessness and to be aware of where key gaps in programs and services existed,” said Doyle’s report, titled Homelessness: Clear Focus Needed.

“Instead, we found that government lacks a clear profile of the homeless population,” he said, pointing out that the government has not developed a mechanism to ensure a steady and reliable count of B.C.’s homeless.

Overall, Doyle’s report found the government “does not have a comprehensive plan for addressing homelessness,” that its “goals and objectives for the homeless are unclear” and that it has “no overall measure or target in place to define success.”

Doyle said the government has not integrated information on all the services it provides to the homeless, making it difficult to identify potential gaps or omissions.

Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman said he did not agree with many of the findings.

“I have a comprehensive plan and I don’t think we’ve failed to address homelessness,” he said, adding that he is “proud of the government’s record” on the issue.

Coleman pointed to his announcement earlier this week of a Homelessness Intervention Project as evidence that the government is moving towards a more streamlined and integrated model for services.

He said the project, which puts him in charge of all homelessness-related initiatives, will soon be introducing performance targets to measure progress.

“Within 90 days, we’ll set some standards for that and we’ll start measuring every 30 days and delivering on those goals,” Coleman said.

He also said he thinks homelessness is declining, not rising as the auditor-general suggested in his report. But he agreed with Doyle that there are no reliable numbers to back either side of the argument.

Doyle’s report pointed to surveys, budget consultations and reports by government staff to support his statement that homelessness is growing.

Coleman said he relies on information coming from community organizations and other stakeholders.

“I talk to people on the Downtown Eastside or in communities across B.C. where we are doing things and they say things are working much better,” he said, adding that outreach workers have connected 4,600 people with housing supports over the past 18 months.

Mark Townsend, of the Portland Hotel Society on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, would not say whether he thinks the situation has improved or worsened, but did say he believes the government is committed to the issue.

“I believe that sincerely, Coleman and the premier and [B.C. Housing CEO] Shane Ramsey really want to tackle this problem,” Townsend said.

But, he said, implementation of measures to relieve homelessness is complicated and it can be difficult to ensure the vision becomes reality.

“I think it gets lost in the process,” he said. “I think it gets lost in things that involve accountability.”

New Democratic Party critic Jenny Kwan said she believes the homelessness problem is growing, and that the government is not doing enough to address the problem.

“What we have is an ad hoc approach to the homelessness crisis. What we have is one-time initiatives and that’s simply not good enough,” Kwan said.

“What we need is measurable targets, objectives and timelines. We need a permanent housing program to end the homelessness crisis,” she said.

Doyle’s report included recommendations that the government:

- Develop a comprehensive plan to address homelessness.

- Work with municipalities to get reliable and consistent homeless counts.

- Gather information on services offered to identify potential gaps.

- Set targets and develop programs to meet them.

- Improve reporting to make it easier to determine if progress is being made.

Coleman said that while he disagrees with some elements of the report, he thinks Doyle “makes some good points.”

“We’ll take them into consideration as we go forward,” he said.

Coleman said his goal now is to end homelessness in five years.

By Mark Hume
Globe and Mail Update

To solve the problems plaguing the Downtown Eastside, human settlement expert Aprodicio Laquian is advocating a plan that explores successful development models in the city, the region and the world.

Aprodicio Laquian is an emeritus professor of human settlement at the University of British Columbia, and author of Beyond Metropolis, a book exploring ways to improve the lives of slum-dwellers in mega-cities such as Mumbai and Manila. He moved to Vancouver from New York in 1991.

When was the first time you saw the Downtown Eastside? What surprised you?

I first saw the Downtown Eastside in 1976 during the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements – Habitat I. I was accompanying a delegation of leaders of squatter and slum-dweller organizations from Manila and they asked me to show them a Canadian low-income area. I was not surprised at what I saw in the Downtown Eastside. Still, I could not help but wonder how a beautiful and affluent city like Vancouver could allow a place like the Downtown Eastside to deteriorate when there are so many successful models of inner-city redevelopment that Vancouver city authorities could emulate.

What is the root of the problems plaguing the Downtown Eastside?

The root of the problems plaguing the Downtown Eastside is the concentration of poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, poor housing, prostitution, petty crime, and mental illness in the area. This high concentration may be traced to developments in other parts of Vancouver like Expo that have reduced the availability of affordable housing until only the Downtown Eastside remains. It will most likely continue because the Downtown Eastside acts as a magnet for people from other parts of Canada and even the United States who are afflicted with personal, economic and social problems and are looking for a place where they will belong.

Why has decades of heavy spending by governments failed to fix the problems?

The serious problems of the Downtown Eastside are exacerbated by two factors. First, residents in other parts of Vancouver do not seem to mind the concentration of people with serious problems in the Downtown Eastside provided these problems do not affect them in their own neighbourhoods – an interesting case of not-in-my-back-yard-ism. Second, activist supporters of the Downtown Eastside strongly oppose the redevelopment of the area, calling it gentrification that they say will interfere with the people’s chosen life style and violate their basic human rights. Supporters of the Downtown Eastside also claim that it is a functioning and viable community and developing it will destroy the residents’ sense of community.

The first factor is a false premise because the problems in the Downtown Eastside are not confined to the place. This is shown in the high rate of petty theft and other crimes against property in other parts of Vancouver, the gang-related murders attributed to syndicates engaged in the drug trade, and the persistence of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C among drug addicts and commercial sex workers who infect people outside the Downtown Eastside.

The second argument that the Downtown Eastside is a viable community that should not be developed is hard to defend because of the unique conditions in the Downtown Eastside.

What must be done to fix the problems in the Downtown Eastside?

A comprehensive solution requiring coordinated action among residents and supporters of the Downtown Eastside, City of Vancouver, province of B.C. and the federal government is needed. The solution should not be focused on the Downtown Eastside alone but integrated with developments in the whole city and the Lower Mainland.

Some specific components of this comprehensive strategy include the following: Deal with serious cases of poor health, mental illness, and drug addiction first. This will require re-institutionalization of individuals who are not able to live independently because of personal and other problems.

Social housing should continue to be built in the Downtown Eastside but it should be mixed in and integrated with affordable housing for middle-income people as well as high-end luxury condominiums. A more balanced housing stock will make the Downtown Eastside a more viable and vibrant community.

An inner-city redevelopment program should be formulated for the Downtown Eastside. Such a program should include: A mix of housing that includes high-end condos, medium-priced units and at least 30 per cent of social housing; A heritage conservation program that will renovate and preserve properties that will maintain the cultural features of the community; Employment opportunities in the area focused on the service, entertainment and tourism industries; Upgrading of the physical infrastructure, amenities and urban services in the area; and Repopulating the Downtown Eastside area with a more balanced mix of residents.

What must be avoided?

Rash and draconian measures such as sweeping of undesirable persons on the streets of the Downtown Eastside to avoid embarrassing Vancouver authorities, especially during the Olympics.

Fragmented actions such as razing down of old and dilapidated structures, without first formulating and adopting a realistic development plan for the whole Downtown Eastside and other parts of the city and region.

Punitive police action against protesters and demonstrators, especially before and during the 2010 Olympics.

Lack of proper consultation with all stakeholders.

Do you think the Olympics will have a positive or negative impact on the Downtown Eastside?

It depends. If the government authorities and citizens of Vancouver will be mainly interested in avoiding embarrassment when tens of thousands of visitors come to Vancouver for the Olympics, very little will happen. In the Beijing and Seoul Olympics large parts of the inner city areas were demolished to make room for condos and other prestige dwellings. This is not likely to happen in Vancouver as Olympic Village is already being built outside the Downtown Eastside. The current economic crisis that will probably last beyond 2010 will also inhibit projects that may gentrify the Downtown Eastside.

On the other hand, if the authorities and the citizens of Vancouver will look at the Olympics as a stimulus for formulating a comprehensive and more lasting solution to the Downtown Eastside problems then the Olympics will have significant positive effects and impact.

How can your area of expertise help to fix the problems in the Downtown Eastside?

My field of comprehensive community and regional planning is a key discipline in carrying out inner city redevelopment in developing and technologically advanced countries. It upholds the goal of economic, social and environmental sustainability. A solution focused only on the Downtown Eastside will not be sustainable and will most likely fail. A good solution for the Downtown Eastside depends on a comprehensive and well thought out development plan that is integrated with the whole Vancouver-centred region.

Globe and Mail

Vancouver architect Gregory Henriquez talks about his innovative mixed-income, mixed use development that will see wealthy and poor residents sharing the same facility.

Gregory Henriquez is a Vancouver architect and author of Towards an Ethical Architecture. He designed the Woodward’s building, a mixed-income development in the Downtown Eastside. The project is a bold experiment: When it opens later this year, the development will see wealthy condo dwellers living cheek by jowl with the poor, who occupy 200 subsidized units.

Gregory Henriquez says, “The first step is to end homelessness and provide all citizens with a safe, affordable home. The next step is to ensure the appropriate support structures are in place to help people who cannot help themselves. In concert, we need creative mixed-use developments, which bring real body heat back to the street.

Gentrification without housing for everyone must be avoided. Inclusive communities are meaningful only when the most disadvantaged are taken care of first.

All neighbourhoods in Vancouver should include a broad section of socio-economic groups housed in beautiful buildings that suit their needs. The Woodward’s redevelopment is a step toward this dream. It includes market housing, family non-market, single room occupancy replacement non-market housing, and 10 units of Vancouver Resource Society housing for people with physical disabilities. This vision is of a truly inclusive city.’”