Poster found outside of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden
Photograph taken this Monday afternoon, with the poster in the foreground likely put up by The Chinatown Youth Coalition during their SAVE CHINATOWN Block Party held that same afternoon. The event aimed to oppose the third attempt by Beedie Development Group to rezone 105 Keefer and 544 Columbia Street.
The following is a media release from the Coalition:
May 12, 2016
Chinatown youth leaders oppose 105 Keefer rezoning application; Call for halt – and checks and balances – to new development through social impact study
Vancouver, B.C. – The Chinatown Youth Coalition is calling for temporary halt to all new market development project applications in Chinatown – including the current revised rezoning application for 105 Keefer – until a social impact study is conducted. The Coalition believes the current level of unchecked development is destabilizing the neighbourhood by threatening the viability of small ethnic businesses and affordable housing options for vulnerable Chinese and other residents, especially seniors.
The full media release can be read here.
As I noted in Urbanarium debate, planning department & Council made a huge mistake listening to Chinatown merchants and agreeing to high rise development in Chinatown to create ‘body heat’. Sadly many of us told them this a number of years ago. See my blogposts on high-rises in Chinatown.
It makes no sense to have a low density area so close downtown, be it east or west end !
Chinatown today is in Richmond.
The old “Chinatown” is a dirty area that needs cleanup just like the rest of the entire downtown east side. If needs new far higher mixed use buildings and a subway station along a spur going along Hastings to N-Burnaby and then onto N-Van.
Much development potential here close to downtown.
West end and east end had far too much protection for far too long.
Well I’m with you on most counts Thomas.
Chinatown however is still very Chinese. It’s mostly older Cantonese speaking populations who don’t have a lot in common with the younger and mostly Mandarin speaking investors who have come here recently.
The only problem with having that group be the dominant group in Chinatown is that the area is pretty sleepy after about 6PM most nights. It has however been getting better recently in regards to actually having people around at night. Eyes on the street and infusions of younger populations to mix with the huge amount of Chinese seniors living in the area.
Some things cannot be valued strictly monetarily – there are heritage sites whose value is out of all proportion to their development value.
Corbusier wanted to raze Tangier and put up his version of progress. Fortunately, he didn’t get his way.
How about the Wailing Wall – what would builders do there.
Look at Pier 21 in Halifax, where so many of our ancestors first set foot on Canadian soil. Think of the waterfront towers that could have been built instead of the historical treatment it received. How many of us will visit that site – with tears in our eyes.
I’ve spent a lot of time in our Chinatown and in Richmond. No way can you call Richmond Chinatown. It doesn’t have the history, the heritage architecture, the patina. It’s like comparing IKEA particle board to an antique.
What tourist will come to stroll around Richmond. You can’t stroll. It has no charm. What tourist goes there to take pictures. Zero.
Bob Rennie can afford pretty much what he wants – he bought the Wing Sang building in Chinatown. I doubt he finds this area dirty.
Not only should this Chinatown be preserved as a heritage site, but it should be renamed Shirley Chan’s Chinatown, in Vancouver. Without her, Chinatown and Strathcona would have been freeways and Vancouver would not be a model for the world.
Much respect to Shirley Chan.
At least no one can accuse them of being racist…
Are you sure about the dirt, Thomas? Did you go down there, walk around and get your shoes dirty? Did you touch the dirt with your lily white hands? Did you smell the dirt? Did you taste the dirt to see if it’s real dirt? Is it your experience of the dirt down in that part of town that led you to imagine digging a tunnel through the dirt under the dirt so you can travel through the dirt to someplace where there isn’t any dirt?
I saw a poster like that and wondered what the connection with seniors was. I wonder just how development affects them.
There’s something like 14 Chinese seniors homes in the area. I’m not sure if there’s demand for more housing for that specific group, but this group is concerned that adding market housing is going to cause everything nearby to go upmarket and price out the seniors.
I think it’s kind of a weird point, since most of the nearby businesses don’t seem too interested in expanding their demographics into a younger crowd and have slowly been declining as a result.
If anything they need to convince the business association to adapt a bit and chase both low-cost crowds. It’s not like lower end businesses nearby aren’t busy when they’re aimed at the younger demographic, and the Millennials moving into the new apartments have been statistically shown to have rather meagre spending power.
Oh so prices might go up with development. Well, that’s also a concern of people at other ages.
Especially considering that some dingle just paid $1.8M for a house in Strathcona. Property prices have gone crazy nearby regardless of new development.
By coincidence, coincidence, since I have lost 80% of my speaking fluency in my Chinese dialect:
Our VAncouver home is 1 block away from VAncouver Chinatown.
Calgary home is 2 kms. away from Calgary Chinatown. Right now, the local community Chinese-Canadian group is fighting a developer proposal for a highrise exceeding current height (over 20 stories, I think ). http://www.iloveyycchinatown.com/
I lived in Toronto…and am familiar with several Chinatowns there.
As someone who never lived in Chinatown but did have recent immigrant relatives, who first lived in Chinatown…it’s tough to live there in very low-income conditions. That’s why some folks move out if they can afford it and if they have no close relative/friends there. It doesn’t mean they don’t want to come back to visit. …because they do. Richmond or in Toronto, Agincourt area or Richmond, Ontario Chinatown areas, are pretty faceless cultural bland modern places. Yes, they are more “vibrant” in sheer volume of people (and cars), more restaurants, etc.
But if all three cities obliterated Chinatown heritage buildings, then it is burying a whole historic-truly Canadian cultural mini ecosystem.
As for this comment: ” There’s something like 14 Chinese seniors homes in the area. I’m not sure if there’s demand for more housing for that specific group, but this group is concerned that adding market housing is going to cause everything nearby to go upmarket and price out the seniors.”
Very true, that these low income seniors would be priced out. Yes, of course there would be demand for housing for Chinese-speaking seniors in Vancouver. It wouldn’t take much to phone up SUCCESS for facts, the non-profit group on social support services for Chinese-speaking community.
Just look at the census. No, not everyone can look/or may want to look after aging parents in their home…
Metro Toronto has waiting lists of 7 yrs. I looked it up. My mother speaks only Chinese.
If I sound annoyed. I am.
Better to have a highrise seniors multi-level care long term facility in Chinatown…