Gastown, Vancouver
The term gentrification has been around for a while: it was invented by sociologist Ruth Glass in 1960 when she noticed an inflow of gentry— a word used to describe agroup of people that were seen to be more wealthy and educated than the theirfellow working class citizens—who were buying up old town-houses and cottages in particular neighbourhoods in inner-London (Shaw 1697). The later, but still early definitions of this term, as scene used by Neil Smith in 1982, were very precise:
“By gentrification I mean the process by which working class residential neighbourhoods are rehabilitated by middleclass home buyers, landlords and professional developers. I make the theoretical distinction between gentrification and redevelopment” (Shaw 1698).
Today, in the 21st century, this definition has undergone considerable change and has become aword to describe a lifestyle. Modern definitions of gentrification encapsulate so much more. The word itself doesn’t provoke thoughts of a middle-class individual doing renovations on a house in an old neighbourhood to make an out-dated home look more modern; it provokes images of an entire neighbourhood beingtransformed. The word conjures images of transformation from a rundown neighbourhood to a vibrant, restructured geographical space where apartments are completely redone, and new town-houses aren’t only being renovated, but built from the ground up. The word doesn’t only capture housing; it extends to retail markets, consumer outlets, galleries, boutiques, bars and restaurants—places where this new breed of people can enjoy the life they have made for themselves whilst slowly eliminating the previous body of people thatonce lived in this old, previously low-status neighbourhood. Within this broad description of just one word, one thing is certain: “people who cannot afford to pay are not welcome, and homeless people are moved on” (Shaw 1698).
Gentrification is an interesting topic, because depending on one’s viewpoint, it is, simply put, a ‘good’ or‘bad’ thing. To many, gentrification is something that a city or neighbourhood should strive for. It makes sense to beautify ones living environment, but what are the downsides and why is it an issue? In Vancouver’s gastown district, it is the after effects of such ‘revitalization’ projects and areas going through‘regeneration’—words that go hand in hand with gentrification. As an areabecomes gentrified, it is seemingly inevitable that the land within its closeproximity will surge in value whilst the negative outcome for the people iseven greater: “Rising real estate prices are already resulting in increased rents, conversions and closures of residential hotels (SRO’s), creating a constant flow of displacement and evictions of low-income residents, and consequent homelessness” (Carnegie community).
Geographer David Ley, in his article “Are there limits to gentrification?” points out that the Provincial government,from 2000 to 2010, introduced a policy in Vancouver known as “revitilization without displacement” in Vancouver’s inner city in which social-mixing has been encouraged. The goal is to provide housing for middle-class residents on certain available sites whilst “maintaining the level of affordable housing as new non-market units take up the dwindling SRO stock.” Despite this tri-level governmental program, gentrification continues to slowly consume a large portion of gastown.
Gentrification is occurring from a neo-liberal perspective. Market forces greatly affect the gastown population as new apartments and improvements to current apartments drive up the cost of living in gastown. In the past,gentrification was almost a haphazard occurrence, “conforming to the real estate markets themselves” (Crompton). Today, it is the purposeful planning of development or redevelopment that is greatly affecting populations.
For gastown residents, the gentrification of the historical neighbourhood can be viewed as a legitimate issue. Residents of gastown are some of the lowest- income earners in all of Vancouver, with about two-fifths the people in between the ages of 20 and 34, making, in 2005, just $56,945,in comparison with residents of Vancouver making $68,271 and residents of Metro Vancouver, who make over $70,000 per year (bizmap). In the district, 34% of the current housing stock has been built since 1991, representing the mass-revitalization and construction that has taken place In the area in recent years. Because of this, the 2005, one year apartment housing cost increase was greater than Vancouver and Metro Vancouver.
Numerous plans have been drawn up to continually gentrify the gastown area. Countless bars, restaurants, and galleries have opened up to transform gastown into what it is today. In the Vancouver downtown east-side and Chinatown, plans have been made to “rezone the entire neighbourhood so that existing lots, including those with existing buildings, can be torn down and replaced by profitable condo towers “(Crompton). Not only this, but plans to raise the height restrictions on numerous buildings in gastown have been proposed—not to mention three further high-rise exemptions for three gastown sites: two of three in which are within a block radius of the highly controversial Woodward’s building (Crompton). Non-governmental organizations ,like the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), have continually spoken out against the gentrification of gastown. Current projects like the Concord Pacific development has been verbally attacked on a consistent basis. CCAP project facilitator Alison Higginson has pointed out that “the current rate of new development, in which new condos outstrip social housing 3 to 1, is a grave threat to the neighbourhood.”
