Revamping of Vancouver’s Chinatown fails to impress those who live there
VANCOUVER — The transformation of Vancouver’s Chinatown, fuelled by a changing population, crisis of affordability and ripe potential for new development, has left locals calling it either a dying neighbourhood or one under threat of gentrification.
As the city reviews the effects of its economic revitalization strategy for the neighbourhood, which ended last year, community members are at odds over whether Chinatown’s direction is what they want.
“With all the developments that are happening in the area, they’re condos for the most part and they’re not being catered to the residents that live there right now,” said Yuly Chan, of the Chinatown Action Group.
“Just because people are poor, or are on income assistance, it doesn’t mean they can be pushed out of their neighbourhood.”
Vancouver’s Chinatown is one of the oldest in the country, established in the late 1880s when Chinese immigrants, many of them railway workers, settled in the area. While the area has grown with waves of immigration and development over the decades, it remains one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Vancouver.
A three-year economic plan was introduced by the city in 2012 to address concerns about the growing number of closing storefronts in Chinatown, city planner Karen Hoese said.
The strategies allowed for taller buildings to bring in more residents, with the catch of requiring developers to contribute new amenities such as community centres in return for the extra height on new construction. It also protected historic facades and set standards for new buildings.
Whether the plans have resulted in the desired effect of bringing necessary amenities to the area, along with new business and more housing, will be reviewed by planners in the coming months, Hoese said. The need for more affordable housing and the loss of Chinese storefronts are among concerns Hoese has already heard from the community, she said.
Melissa Fong, who is studying for a PhD in neighbourhood revitalization, with a focus on Vancouver’s Chinatown, said neighbourhoods across the city are losing their identities as they are redeveloped.
High-end coffee shops and boutiques that have popped up across Chinatown and other Vancouver neighbourhoods don’t service those living near the poverty line, Fong said.
Many of those establishments also fail to connect with Chinese seniors who are more comfortable speaking in their native tongue and look for cultural-specific products, she said.
Hoese said while the city can control the look and density of new buildings, it can’t regulate the culture created by the people and businesses that move in.