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Tea & Two Slices: On Busloads Of Boozers And Gentrification

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by Sean Orr | Charles Bar graciously signals hope, change and gentrification in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Try and read this article without spitting up your coffee. “Surely this is the sort of misplaced civic idealism that threatens healthy return on investment and rapidly rising real estate values, which everyone of sound views knows are far more important than Condon’s concerns about lumpenized homeless folks who wouldn’t recognize a good Merlot or a Tuna Tataki if it bit them”. I had to actually look up the author to realize this was satire. Unfortunately, I’ve read pretty much the exact same argument on some Vancouver blogs.

Because, as CCAP’s new report on hotels in the DTES shows, gentrification is happening. Not like, happening as in groovy, but you know, actually occurring.

Bedbug summit opens in Chicago. I knew the little itchy bastards were highly sophisticated, but I had no idea they were that organised!

And in an effort to make Vancouver the World’s Greenest City, the province is considering legislation which would eliminate the international aviation fuel tax. It’s like we’re living in backwards land.

CAW worried bus drivers at risk with new drunk driving laws. “Fears over rowdy crowds on late night transit”. Right, I forgot our transit was supposed to be just for display and not, you know, actually used. Or you could always hire a little buddy for the driver. That way when it gets quiet and lonely at night the bus driver has someone to talk to. He could even be like a navigator dude or the guy who jumps out and puts the things back on. Job creation: it’s just one of the many things I do.

SFU aerial gondola proposal moves forward. Who would make their college hard to reach in the first place? That seems so mean. ‘You wanna learn? Go climb that mountain, fucker!’

There are 6 comments

  1. I appreciate the qualms by the new Charles Bar in the Woodwards building, but the anti-gentrification sentiment has it’s opposite, the right of free enterprise. The capital costs of building, permiting, and staffing a new bar like Charles is huge, which translates into a huge personal risk for the owner operators. The stress of low sales, the angst over effective marketing and pricing strategies, plus the day-to-day foibles of staff stealing, hiring/firing and repair/maintenance is a 24/7 endeavour by the risk-taking operators.

    Do they not have the right to attempt to create something at a place that has may provide attractive growth? Do they not have the right to be rewarded for hard work and risk taking? More importantly, is it the responsibility of a business owner, who has no power to effect change on the homeless situation, to avoid starting a business in a new area?

    Blaming gentrification on business owners is the exact same thing as blaming poverty on the poor.

    I’m not trying to be confrontational, but the Courier article seems to be attacking the wrong target.

  2. You had to look up the author to realize that article was satire? “Perhaps we could turn parts of Gastown into a poverty theme park.” – hmmm no hint of sarcasm there… or here…

  3. Well, obviously once you read it knowing its sarcasm its hard to believe otherwise, but like I mentioned, I’ve seen basically this exact sentiment echoed on blogs and comments.

  4. >>”CAW worried bus drivers at risk with new drunk driving laws. “Fears over rowdy crowds on late night transit”. ”

    Anyone drunk enough to cause out-of-the-ordinary bother to a bus driver would have been too drunk to drive under the old laws, too. I suppose there’s a possibility that previously, potential bus-driver-assaulting drunken louts would have been driven home by their not-quite-so-wasted designated driver friends, who now decide they don’t want to risk it, but I think it’s a stretch to suggest there’ll be a big change. That said, I’m all for increased night bus service! More frequent buses, and keep it going past 3am, please.

    On the SFU gondala, there’s actually one like it in Portland, OR. It connects a university/hospital complex at the top of a steep hill to the streetcar line by the river. Portland always gets the cool stuff first.

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