January 8, 2021

Narratives and Demographic Realities of the West End – 1

A few weeks ago, PT ran a post: “The West End The Way it Was.” Its last line: “One of the best urban neighbourhoods in the world.”

Regular commenter Bob took issue:

The distinctive mix of demographics that made it unique: seniors, young immigrant families, the gay community, all are being driven out by the gentrification unleashed during Vision Vancouver’s and the BC Liberal’s tenure. The removal of St.Pauls to the False Creek Flats will be yet another body blow to the community.

There’s been a narrative like that in the West End as long as I’ve lived here. Since the 70s people have said the unique mix isn’t what it was, or is in danger, or is no longer.

I understand what Bob bemoans: the perceived loss of diversity as the West End becomes upscaled and out of reach of the residents who gave it real character. It seems they are being unfairly squeezed out by a rate of change – whether demographic, physical or economic – that’s too fast.

No arguing with what people perceive; that’s their reality. But I learned as a councillor that people’s perception of the rate of change in their community is paradoxical. As the rate of change slows down, in fact, people’s perception of change increases. What was once unnoticed in a neighbourhood swept by turbulent change – like the West End in the 1960s – becomes the focus of attention when things slow down enough to notice.

But eventually facts have to match up with perceptions. Change must be reflected in the measures of that change. And thanks to the great work by the City’s Social Policy department, we have those measures in one place and can graphically see them illustrated. Lots of charts.*

No amount of data from yesterday will necessarily convince those persuaded by the anecdotal changes of today. However, these community profiles derived from the census do provide a base of comparison over decades. Are seniors, families, immigrants and gays being driven out. And who has replaced them?

We can find out in this Profile of the West End**:

Big takeaway: the astonishing thing about the West End is its stability. Even physically, the district west of Burrard and south of Robson is remarkable for how little it has changed from the 1980s on.

Chilco Street in 2009:

In 2019:

Not even the trees have changed.

Is this Denman Street in 2005 or 2019?

Denman Street in 2005

So how about the people? Let’s begin with the Age Profile of the West End:

The general distribution of the West End’s population has been quite consistent over time.

To repeat: “consistent over time.”

The biggest shift hasn’t been in age cohorts but in ethnicity, and that’s something we haven’t begrudged. Boomers like me as young adults who moved into those new highrises built between the late 50s to early 70s were, like the apartments, largely white – a reflection of the Canadian post-war demographic. (In 1971, 96 percent of all Canadians were of white European origin. Canada may never have been so white, ever.)

In fact, the West End has an increase in the percent of young adults, but more are brown. They are increasing in number, not being driven away.

Many are ‘immigrants’ from eastern Canada, some the children of offshore migrants who came to Canada in substantial number beginning in the 1970s. But as fits the theme of the West End, the change in the percent of migrants has been modest, unlike that in some of the other neighbourhoods of the city.

The same overall with racialized groups – known now as IBPOC*. Surprisingly, there’s not a lot of change there either.

The percentage measure of racialized groups stays roughly the same, even when it doesn’t look that way to those who see the shifts in years, not decades.

The West End doing its thing: being the ‘arrival’ city for waves of immigrants, foreign and domestic, each turning stretches of Robson, Denman and Davie into their dining rooms. That included a wave of gays – young men like me in our 20s – looking for one-bedroom apartments to share along with social acceptance. The West End was doing what it did well – accommodating different kinds of newcomers. Same purpose, different origins.

And like every group that comes from more conservative cultures (which is, compared to the West End, practically everywhere), some discover the freedom to pursue their sexual and gender identity. How many are gay? How many of them are now being driven out? It’s always been hard to say with any precision – like the myth that 10 percent of the population are homosexual (check your Kinsey).

Today classifying people as ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ is so binary. Likely the biggest cause of change in the size and location of the young gay community has been the app – Grindr, Scruff, etc. – diminishing the need to cluster in a single neighbourhood, benefiting from the serendipity of the casual contact. My guess is that anything comparable to the ‘Castro Clone’ wave of young boomers is much smaller. But the senior gay community (although impacted by AIDS in the 80s and 90s) may even be a larger percent.

So Davie Village lives modestly on, even if gender fluidity flows elsewhere. (Not a bad thing if you’re in the region. There is gay life in Langley)

Next post in the series will look at seniors, and the West End housing stock.

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*There’s a report for each of the city’s local areas:

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**WEST END: HIGHLIGHTS

A growing population of seniors, with a very significant proportion of older persons living alone.
The smallest share of families of any Vancouver local area, but growth in absolute numbers.
A less culturally diverse population than the city overall on many measures, but a large population of new immigrants and non-permanent residents.
A neighbourhood with many lower-income residents and households.
A substantial share of Vancouver’s rental stock and increasing affordability pressures on renters.
A large working population filling jobs in many sectors.
Strong perceptions of a healthy built environment and use of active transportation.

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*** IBPOC: Indigenous, Black, People Of Colour.

However, “racialized” is shifting in its definition.

The word has been used to describe those said to be oppressed by those who defined them, the linguistic colonizers, universally white. Since an oppressor cannot be among the oppressed, whites could not be ‘racialized’. But now that Vancouver (52 percent people of colour) is made up of racial minorities, to omit whites as a racialized group becomes increasingly untenable. Consequently, the definition has shifted: “to categorize or divide by race” – unavoidably including whites.

This City of Vancouver report is using the term but, understandably, avoiding clarity of the definition.