As anyone who lives anywhere near the downtown eastside/Strathcona area of Vancouver knows, there’s a battle on right now to fight off gentrification of this neighbourhood. Now, we would argue, looking at the broader picture of what’s going on in our society, that Harper and his neo-conservative adjuncts are busily destroying any chance of middle class people affording their own home anywhere and so sooner or later gentrification is a moot point. No one local will be able to buy a home, period.
The real problem is that most of these new relatively pricey condos are being purchased offshore and just not being used. So a useful if mainly for poor people building gets torn down and a fancy joint goes up in its place and that new building sits empty. Not exactly a useful way to marshal housing resources in a finite space which is what Vancouver is.
In the meantime, young entrepeneurs just starting out see what they perceive is a growing wealthier population in a low commercial rent area and reasonably but falsely surmise that if they start a business such as a restaurant or dress shop in the neighbourhood, they’ll have a successful business on their hands. But the conclusion is false because no one with any money actually lives there.
So, desperate with their businesses failing, they start blaming the poor indigenous population for their strategic blunder. They figure that somehow the rich folks are hiding in their empty condos afraid to come out because of all the mean unclean and obscene poor folk in the neighbourhood. Who now have to sleep in the streets outside the new shops and cafes in the neighbourhood because all the affordable housing was torn down to house the gentrified well-to-do who don’t actually live there.
This is a vicious cycle of stupidity that provides answers for no one, hope for a better future for no one, safety and security for no one. Except maybe for the fat bloated city council who are ultimately responsible for this mess and should be made to take personal responsibility for their actions (or lack thereof) and clean it up. Instead of blaming others for their errors.
