Downtown Eastside

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location of the Downtown Eastside (in red) in Vancouver.

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver. The neighbourhood has a rich and colourful history and a strong community fabric. It is bordered by Cambie Street to the west, Clark Drive to the east, the waterfront to the north and Pender Street to the south, with Hastings Street running down the middle of the neighbourhood. Once a popular destination for shopping, restaurants, and nightlife, the area of Main and Hastings is now known as the poorest postal code in Canada. Retail shops which flourished through the early 1980's are now gone. Buildings that are not boarded up have bars on the windows. Overhead doors cover storefronts at night to protect them from theft and vandalism. Graffiti is prevalent throughout. The area is noted for high incidences of poverty, drug addiction, and prostitution, as well as an ongoing tradition of community activism. In recent years there have been tensions between developers and members of the community relating to gentrification development proposals.

1 Social Mix
2 History
3 Significant locations
4 Trivia
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Social Mix

Carnegie Community Centre at the corner of Main and Hastings.

The Downtown Eastside is home to thousands from the homeless to the affluent. It's residents are a dynamic mix of people of many different ethnicities, ages, and incomes. Many people volunteer their time to create a healthy environment at community centers and on the street. Some individuals have dedicated their lives to feeding and sheltering the homeless. The presence of local police is also often noticeable as poor transitional populations including runaways, prostitutes, petty criminals and drug addicts cohabit the area. A disproportionate amount of the vagrant population are of First Nations descent.

The Downtown Eastside has been pegged with the unfortunate distinction of having the highest rate of HIV infection in the Western world.^[1]. The DTES's (and Vancouver's) drug problem has grown steadily worse over the last decade with the most common drugs being heroin, crack cocaine, IV cocaine (powdered cocaine taken intravenously), and - increasingly - crystal methamphetamine. However, the opening of North America's first safe injection site, Insite, in this neighbourhood has lowered the spread of HIV (and the number of overdose deaths) considerably, according to a recent article by the Canadian Press.^{[citation needed]} The southwest corner of Main and Hastings Streets continues to be a problem as drug sellers and users frequently occupy the corner, establishing a plein air drug market. Recent efforts have attempted to increase police presence at the Main and Hastings intersection, but this has been opposed by the residents. A major police station is only half a block north of the intersection. Many people from other parts of Vancouver, outlying vicinities of Surrey and Burnaby, and even as far away as the Kootenays and other provinces, visit the area to obtain drugs and experience the things they have heard about. The media often portray this neighbourhood as a hazzardous one, purposely ignoring the care and support that plays a big role in establishing it as a community. The mix of different types of people from disparate places makes this a creative and thriving area.

The neighbourhood is home to a strong Residents' Association, the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA)which battles what are known as slum landlords, of which there are numerous in the area. These are persons who profit by refusing to fix dangerous problems in the most run-down buildings and who contribute to the problems of homelessness by evicting tenants illegally.

Early 20th c. buildings on East Hastings St

The many hotels in the area are single room occupancy, or SROs, which provide housing for people who have been forced on Welfare through job loss, for many who have become disabled, as well as for some of the most difficult people to house in Vancouver, having mental and behavioural problems. Some low income residents and DTES advocacy groups are concerned about the area's increasing gentrification. Many SROs are being closed, and there is concern that they will be replaced with condominiums and other housing, whose prices will be out of reach for the residents of the neighbourhood.^[2]

The UBC Learning Exchange, sponsored by the University of British Columbia since the year 2000, opened up an outreach program at the north end of Main Street which is used by many local residents to improve their education and network for positive social change.

[edit] History

This area was the centre of the city at the turn of the 20th century. City hall, the courthouse and the Carnegie Library were all located here. It was also the main shopping area for the city, which centred around Woodward's department store. The surrounding stretch of Hastings Street was a major cultural and entertainment district. Prior to the Second World War, there was a large Japanese community in Japantown. As the city centre moved to the West, and suburban shoppers took advantage of new local malls, the DTES (or Skid Road as it was more commonly known as until the late 20th century)^[3], began to decline. With the area already beset by numerous cheap hotels and public houses, Eaton's moved its Vancouver flagship store out of the neighbourhood in the 1970s and Woodward's shut down in 1993. Around this time, crack cocaine was becoming a serious problem in the city. The main businesses that remain are pawn shops, restaurants, and convenience stores, some of which are suspected to be fronts for drug dealers. Some of the storefronts along the DTES stretch of Hastings Street are empty, often with the entire building for sale. A number of art galleries and Artist-Run-Centres and studios have also located themselves in the area. The beautiful Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden, built by monks from China in the early 1980s, also reposes in the area.

In the 1980s many of the street prostitutes in other parts of Vancouver, such as the nearby West End, were harassed out of those neighbourhoods and moved into the DTES-- now known to sex trade workers as the 'low track'-- and contiguous industrial areas near Vancouver's ports. Many believe that this has exacerbated the problem of violence against prostitutes. Dozens of women associated with the DTSE have gone missing since the early 1980's. Robert William Pickton, of Port Coquitlam has been charged with the murders of twenty six of these women and is currently standing trial on six of these counts. The BC Missing Women Investigation is ongoing.

Hotel Empress at 235 East Hastings is one of the many SRO hotels in the area that are included in Vancouver's diminishing affordable housing stock. In the fall of 2006 Empress residents were issued eviction notices.^[4]

[edit] Significant locations

Vancouver's historic Chinatown (Pender Street) and Gastown Historical District (Water Street) are popular tourist areas in the Downtown Eastside. Gastown is home to many high-end restaurants, lofts and boutiques. Some see this as creeping eastward gentrification as a promising development while others are concerned that this will only force many of the poorest from the only housing they can afford. However, these two neighbourhoods are not traditionally referred to as part of the Downtown Eastside among Vancouverites even though they fall within its borders.

The Strathcona neighbourhood is adjacent to the DTES and is a historic working class neighbourhood that has retained a very strong sense of community, despite the decline of areas nearby. However, this sense of community is being threatened by the growing number of wealthy land speculators buying up the neighbourhood in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics.^[5]

[edit] Trivia

The band Billy Talent wrote their song Standing in the Rain while recording in Downtown Eastside. The band stated that it was hard to believe a place like this could exist in North America.

Another song of Billy Talent's, Fallen Leaves from their 2006 release Billy Talent II, is inspired by the severe drug-problem in the Downtown Eastside, speciffically referencing the notorious Pigeon Park, located on the corner of Carrall and Hastings Streets.

The band Godspeed You! Black Emperor wrote a song titled East Hastings, released on the album f♯a♯∞.

[edit] References

^ [1] Guy Babineau, "Poverty and Prejudice, not drugs, fuel BC's HIV rise," The Georgia Straight, 1 December 2005.
^ [2]CBC News, Olympics making Vancouver housing crisis worse: critic
^ "Demolish City's Skid Road, Murder Protest Demands". Vancouver Sun. 6 April, 1962. p.1
^ [3] "Council defers vote on redevelopment," Metro News, 20 October 2006.
^ [4] Olympic-related property speculation and its effect on the DTES housing stock: PIVOT Legal Society Report.