[van-announce] Chinatown condo towers public hearing: LAST APPEARANCE TONIGHT!

[Ivan D. Drury]

:::See this announcement with pictures and hyperlinks here: 
http://dnchome.wordpress.com


The fifth and final public hearing has been announced, and it’s already here!

Send out the word: all DTES residents and allies and supporters of the 
anti-gentrification community fightback are needed at City Hall on Thursday!

LAST PUBLIC HEARING ON THE CHINATOWN CONDOS PLAN!
THURSDAY APRIL 14TH
6PM
VANCOUVER CITY HALL

-    Community members meet-up at Carnegie at 4:30pm for dinner
-    Our group will leave together for City Hall at 5:15pm
-    Gather at City Hall at 5:45pm
-    The FIFTH AND FINAL public hearing begins at 6pm

“You got what you get ‘till you get what you want.” (DNC Board member Paul 
Martin, quoted by speaker Richard Marquz at the April 12th public hearing)

For detailed information, social impact reports, media coverage, and statements 
about the Historic Area Heights Review in Chinatown, see: 
https://sites.google.com/site/fightfor10sites/

WHY YOU SHOULD COME TO THE HEARING

1)    We can turn the tide and push the developers back!

There was an important shift in the dynamics at the last hearing near the end 
after Gladys Lee’s talk. We could all feel the lift of spirits of the DTES 
representatives in the council chambers, and there was a definite sense that 
councilors who have been hell-bent on defending the towers plan went on the 
defensive. A critical point was when Wendy P said to them: Putting the rest of 
the DTES over to a Local Area Plan has made the developers sit up and pay 
attention and ask to work together... apply the same incentive for cooperation 
to Chinatown business and developer organizations! 


We have presented council with proof that the HAHR recommendations do not have 
support from residents in Chinatown. And we have demonstrated how they can work 
together with us to build a community led process to plan Chinatown, against the 
divisions they have worked to drive into our community. Thursday night is our 
last chance to have our voices heard on the official public hearing platform.

2)    Speeches from DTES residents and their supporters were very inspiring and 
really make it worth the trip.

The video from April 12 is already up here: 
http://cityofvan-as1.insinc.com/ibc/mp/md/open/c/317/1202/201104121730wv150en,002


It was an incredible night for heartfelt, insightful, and passionate talks from 
our community representatives. Coming to the public hearing is so educational 
and inspirational because of the voices of our community that, if word got out, 
we could charge at the door... It’s not that often that we have so much time to 
talk about an issue. 


Some notable quotes that we took down during the last hearing on April 12th.

Teresa Vandertuin, Strathcona resident and DTES cultural worker: I think what 
you did on Jan 20th when you carved Chinatown out of the DTES was not a good 
idea.  All the year of community building that I and others have done, all that 
we work for, was undermined by city council.  On the first night of the hearing 
young people spoke of respect and inclusiveness but when I greeted them and said 
hello their adult ambassadors told them not to speak to me. Is that what we 
really want?  I hold city council responsible for that climate of division. 


Kim Tang, Solheim Place resident: Most of us think change must be good, but when 
it means changing affordable housing to condo towers it means that low income 
households and seniors will be driven out. They do not deserve to be kicked out 
of their homes. The current conditions they live in are already too harsh.

Mrs Lau, Solheim Place resident: I’ve lived in chinatown for over 22 years and 
haven’t gone anywhere since I have lived here. It took me six and a half years 
to get out of an SRO into social housing. I think everyone should live in social 
housing. A lot of low income people put at threat because of the proposal being 
put forward.  If they get kicked out where will they live? They will be put out 
on the street. 


Councillors Raymond Louie and Kerry Jang repeatedly questioned them over whether 
they understood that their housing is not under threat, because it’s social 
housing. Through their interpreter, Claudia Li, they said that they understood 
that. They said they were concerned about other peoples’ housing. 


Suzanne Baustad, Lore Krill resident & DNC member: I moved to Chinatown because 
I could no longer afford to live in East Van off Commercial Drive. I have a 
daughter in grade 6 in Strathcona and I can’t afford to live in a city where 1 
bedroom apartments rent for $1500 a month and 2 bedrooms rent for $1900 a month. 
This heights decision is important and it will have a serious impact on my life 
and the lives of many other people. It is a major policy change that will impact 
the whole of the DTES. It is clearly the result of extensive research... but I 
don’t know of one resident who was consulted during the HAHR period. 


Kate Murray, DTES ally: With this framework of a “moderate” heights increase, 
you’re asking us to debate the height of a Trojan horse, rather than about 
what’s inside. 


Sarah Stevenson, VanAct! Activist: The city must listen to every one of its 
residents, and not discriminate on the basis of class.

Nate Crompton, VanAct! Activist: When DNC organizers visited a shop owner on 
Keefer and Gore, who is closing down because of rent increases, they asked if he 
knew that London Drugs and Nester’s got a 10 year tax holiday for setting up 
shop in Woodward’s? He said no and asked how he could apply for that. The Keefer 
Hotel has been given a 10 year tax holiday, and the small shop at Keefer and 
Gore is going under because of rent increases. There is socialist planning in 
Vancouver, but it is socialism for the rich.

James Ho, condo towers supporter: “The Downtown Eastside is not that bad. Only 
humans make it that bad.”

Beth Malena, DTES pastor and DNC member: You’ve heard the voices of those with 
power, with money, and with powerful influence. You have also heard from people 
who come here with nothing but their stories. You should be grateful that these 
people have come and shared their wisdom with you... 


Marlene Basil, VANDU: Someone, somewhere, somehow has made it so our voices 
can’t be heard by you. If you give us the opportunity to revitalize the DTES 
through our community, to rebuild the DTES and Chinatown with social housing and 
with our own hands, it will show the world that we have the same blood no matter 
where we come from.

Gladys Lee, DTES volunteer and resident: I’m half Chinese but these Chinatown 
societies never welcomed me into them because I look native. I volunteer with 
the Chinese elders and they love me and I love them. So why do the societies 
never welcome me? We’re all one community. The Chinese, the native, the whites, 
we’re the downtown eastside community. Chinatown is not just Chinese like you’re 
trying to make it. I’m talking about a community. We are one big community.

Peter Marcus, Communist Party of Canada: These developers operate like the 
godfather, ‘I’ll make you an offer that you can’t refuse.’ They build condos 
that can only be bought up by foreign rich. It’s time to put a stop to them.  We 
need a social housing and an affordable housing program to build co-ops. 
Otherwise, what will our heritage be 100 years from now?  Leaky condos?

Clint Burnham, SFU English Professor: I’m in favour of getting more middle-class 
people in the DTES... I think that can be accomplished by raising the standards 
of living for the people who are already in the DTES. Instead the poor are 
excluded by soft measures, by private security and by the cultural changes of 
gentrification.

Darcie Bennett, Lore Krill resident: In the past year I have seen such a 
different approach with the arrival of the V6A, Ginger, and the London Pub. The 
Pacific Pub was a local space where seniors went, it was a real community space. 
Now it’s a sports pub that could be anywhere in the lower mainland.

Tristan Markle, VanAct! Activist: This is not a community plan. It’s a developer 
plan.