Downtown East November 2013
In the November 2013 issue of the Downtown East there are a number of articles dedicated to histories and present struggles against displacement. See the front page article, “Displacement: Past, Present, Future,” for a summary of the articles in this issue that cover this theme, and how they intersect. And read the articles for an outline of the causes and effects of displacement in the DTES, as well as the struggles of communities who refuse to surrender their lands of their lives to its forces.
Downtown East art poster, November 2013
Displacement: Past, Present, Future
By Dave Diewert and Mercedes Eng
The forces that drive people out of their homes and communities and off their land have a long history in the Downtown Eastside. (…)
Photograph collection
By the Editors
Homelessness is increasing. In October, City Hall released a report that says the number of homeless people in the city is 1,600 and there are only enough shelter beds for 1,327. (…)
By Phoenix
The Stanza Project (Vancouver: Otter Press, 2013) is a DTES book of poems and writings, drawings and sketches. It is a collaboration of architecture and words. Edited by Elee Kraljii Gardiner, the book combines the work of the Thursdays Writing Collective at the Carnegie Community Centre and MLPProosten/Architecture of the Netherlands. (…)
By Bill Hopwood
A group of dieticians and nutritionists were among the people who took Raise the Rates’ 2nd Annual Welfare Food Challenge. In spite of all their training and skills, none of them could work out a healthy and filling diet for a week with only $26 to spend. (…)
By Phoenix
On October 2nd, Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson held a roundtable on mental health and addictions. This was done on short notice. The mayor announced a “public health crisis” saying that far too many people were walking around the city with “untreated” mental health and addiction issues and doing harm to themselves or others. (…)
By Karen Ward
The Downtown Eastside is the only place I have found where you’re treated with decency and respect when you’re upfront about your illness. Politicians and doctors will never understand this. They have a lot of privilege and think they know the best way to live a life, and anything else is just wrong. (…)
By Robert Bonner
In my lifetime, I have heard or read about historic events that have occurred in this world. The death of a British Prime Minister, assassination of two brothers, man on the moon, death of a man with a dream; an inept apology from a man who continues with his government’s policies to suppress and deprive this country’s First Nations’ people (Indians) of their share in the abundance of natural resources that he offers so freely to the world. (…)
Park-a-palooza and artists at Oppenheimer Park
By Diane Wood
The Oppenheimer Park show, named “Park-a-Palooza! – Fun & Play” is running at the Gallery Gachet, 88 East Cordova, until December 1. My first reaction to the theme of this year’s show was a defensive reaction to calling art “fun”. Many local artists have chosen this as our career, and it’s our livelihood. (…)
By DJ Larkin
When it comes to housing, members of the Downtown Eastside community are being squeezed on all sides, leaving many with few or no reasonable options. (…)
By Wendy Pedersen
What happens to your tent and belongings when the cops take it away? It took a lawyer and a long-time advocate to figure it out and get the possessions back for Donny Miller, a local homeless man. (…)
By Dave Diewert
Recently the Downtown East caught up with Barry Shantz, an organizer with the BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors in Abbotsford. (…)
By Jean Swanson and Harold Lavender
The fight over the future of the DTES is heating up. A DTES Local Area Plan that could last up to thirty years will be presented to City Council for a vote, probably in March. (…)
By Jean Swanson
While the City stalls on the Local Area Planning Process (LAPP), the heart of the DTES community is being taken over by condo and market housing developments. The latest is a proposal for 24 condos and only 5 social housing units (probably only 2 or 3 at rents people on welfare can afford) at 626 Alexander. (…)
By Ivan Drury
City Hall is making and proposing pro-development policy changes and neighbourhood plans. The first effect is a great leap in land values. How does this work? (…)
“My activism goes beyond the personal”: an Interview with Japanese Canadian activist Lily Shinde
By Mercedes Eng
In this era of official government apologies and ongoing systemic racism, we look to successful struggles for social justice such as the Japanese Canadian Redress movement and ask their leaders for advice in current struggles. (…)
By Grace Eiko Thomson
On September 25th, the City of Vancouver passed a motion to formally apologize for its role in the internment and forced removal of Japanese Canadians during and after the war. The Human Rights Committee of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association invited Grace Eiko Thomson, an independent curator, cultural historian, and Redress activist, to speak to the historic context of the City’s motion. (…)