DTES gentrification. Where does it stop? (low income, 2013, condo)
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Cuchillo restaurant new target of DTES gentrification protestors | CTV British Columbia News
I support these protestors. Gentrification has gone too far. It's just another example of the mentality that the rich should have everything, and the poor should bow down and accept it. Look at what's happening now that even in the poorest neighbourhoods in the Western world aren't safe from forced evacuation to make room for the rich white people. Gentrification does not "improve" a neighbourhood, because the people who will be living in the neighbourhood post-gentrification already live a comfortable upper-middle to upper class lifestyle outside of the neighbourhood in the first place, whilst the poor will be forced further and further out of the city limits, into worse and worse areas.
Let the people of the neighbourhood decide their own fate. Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands voted to stay British, let the Downtown Eastside vote on whether or not to stay the Downtown Eastside.
Let's get things straight, a drug-riddled wasteland is not some historical treasure that should be saved. Some working people may eventually get to live there in non-bedbug infested buildings? Boo hoo.
Separately, how does opening a restaurant impede on anyone's ability to do whatever they want? Personally I won't give my business to anywhere that charges $14 for a fish taco, but I don't protest anyone's right to pay that.
Cuchillo restaurant new target of DTES gentrification protestors | CTV British Columbia News
I support these protestors. Gentrification has gone too far. It's just another example of the mentality that the rich should have everything, and the poor should bow down and accept it. Look at what's happening now that even in the poorest neighbourhoods in the Western world aren't safe from forced evacuation to make room for the rich white people. Gentrification does not "improve" a neighbourhood, because the people who will be living in the neighbourhood post-gentrification already live a comfortable upper-middle to upper class lifestyle outside of the neighbourhood in the first place, whilst the poor will be forced further and further out of the city limits, into worse and worse areas.
Let the people of the neighbourhood decide their own fate. Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands voted to stay British, let the Downtown Eastside vote on whether or not to stay the Downtown Eastside.
I disagree.
The DTES has become a mecca for every person in this city that have problems with drug abuse & mental health.
Allowing people with these kinds of issues to just flock to one neigbourhood in the city is pathetic.
These people need help. Not a safe haven to take part in illegal activity.
Oh and FYI "white people" aren't the only ones that are wealthy in this country. Living in West Vancouver I see far more chinese & persian people with money.
Canada isn't the United States. Our government loves to open its doors to immigrants that are "rich".
Having a "white man always tryin to keep us down" attitude isn't going to get you anywhere and comes across as weak.
I speak as minority who despises racism.
Cuchillo restaurant new target of DTES gentrification protestors | CTV British Columbia News
I support these protestors. Gentrification has gone too far. It's just another example of the mentality that the rich should have everything, and the poor should bow down and accept it. Look at what's happening now that even in the poorest neighbourhoods in the Western world aren't safe from forced evacuation to make room for the rich white people. Gentrification does not "improve" a neighbourhood, because the people who will be living in the neighbourhood post-gentrification already live a comfortable upper-middle to upper class lifestyle outside of the neighbourhood in the first place, whilst the poor will be forced further and further out of the city limits, into worse and worse areas.
Let the people of the neighbourhood decide their own fate. Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands voted to stay British, let the Downtown Eastside vote on whether or not to stay the Downtown Eastside.
Rich white people? I don't think you know Vancouver....
These protestors do not represent all the people who live in the downtown east side. Here a bit of the other side.
I think most agree that low income housing is an issue, but ignoring the neighbourhood altogether and have it continue to spiral downward is not the way to go.
whilst the poor will be forced further and further out of the city limits, into worse and worse areas.
Why is somebody entitled to live in the city limits because they are poor? I know many middle class folks who are only able to afford housing in places like Maple Ridge and Surrey. Living in Vancouver is a privilege, not a right.
Also, "worse areas"? It doesn't get much worse than the DTES.
You can never eliminate poverty completely, but it is much better to have a social housing strategy that encompasses various neighbourhoods across the entire region so drug addicts and the mentally ill are not relegated to a few square blocks.
I also find the idea that gentrification is spearheaded by the "rich" completely laughable. Because somebody spends $100 on a dinner, that means they are a millionaire? Preposterous. There are plenty of middle class folks who enjoy fine dining every once in awhile and clean neighbourhoods.
I am empathetic to many of the perils of the disenfranchised folks in the DTES - however this neighbourhood needs to be a improved instead of being some sort of phallic symbol for social justice.
Let me guess PDW, you have never been to the DTES and actually seen what goes on there?
There are two major groups living in the DTES ~ drug addicts, and lower income 'normal' people (lots of seniors, including Chinese immigrants). Certainly no rich white people would want to be there (at least, rich white people from Vancouver who actually know what it is like there).
The lower income 'normal' people like the seniors and the Chinese would welcome a slow change in this direction, would they not?
Let me explain the DTES for your pdw since you obviously don't have a great deal of experience with it. If you go to one particular intersection at 8pm on a Friday, you will hundreds (and I mean that, literally) of drug users on the sidewalk, running into the road, scaring the **** out of the old income woman waiting at the bus stop, and bars on every single window. That's just your main intersection, not even talking about the alleys.
Such an equivalent does not exist out here in Ontario or Quebec. In fact, many of those users floated to Vancouver because of the weather, they are originally from the east.
These protests are full of people who lay on the side of extreme socialism, where everyone should be entitled to extreme low income housing a concentrated area riddled with IV drug use and prostitution, which will turn it into an even deeper hell hole than what it already is.
Gentrification is the colonialism of the 21st century.
The way people in favour of gentrification see things is exactly how the colonists saw things in the Age of Imperialism. They thought they were spreading their country's superior culture, technology and wealth and "improving" the impoverished nations they conquered.
The point is that this isn't necessarily gentrification. It's about trying to turn that filthy wasteland into a habitable area. It's not about making it rich, it's about being able to walk 10 feet without stepping on a used needle or dirty condom. About driving 3 blocks without a half naked person on drugs banging on your car window. I am NOT exaggerating, it really is that bad.
I would be very happy for those pensioners to have access to continued clean and safe affordable housing. What many of these 'gentrification' protestors are forgetting is that they are enabling the continued squalor and concentration of IV drug use/crime/prostitution (including 12 year olds wandering the street) to take place because hey, people should have affordable rooms to shoot heroin in too!
So again, I ask~ have you been to the DTES? Do you know what it is actually like? Have you seen it for yourself?
The reason people want to bring in better business into the DTES is to try and disperse the concentration of drug use. It is a Canadian MECCA for IV drug use. In Montreal or even Toronto, would you get away with dozens of people shooting up needles beside a cop car at 2pm? You do in the DTES. There is so much of it that it cannot even be dealt with.
Gentrification is the colonialism of the 21st century.
The way people in favour of gentrification see things is exactly how the colonists saw things in the Age of Imperialism. They thought they were spreading their country's superior culture, technology and wealth and "improving" the impoverished nations they conquered.
Sorry but I don't see how invading a nation and destroying their culture has anything to do with the gentrification of the DTES.
The people who reside there are Canadian citizens not members of a foreign nation. Our taxes financially aid these people who are lost on drugs in hope they will get
themselves back on their feet.
Sadly most of them choose to leech off the government and continue their self destructive lifestyles instead of getting the help that they need.
Nothing positive will ever come from the DTES the way it is right now. Thats why I have no problem with people that work and contribute to our society moving into the area.
Bringing up colonialism into this disscusion shows your still trying to blame "the big bad evil white man" for your problems.
Its 2013. Yes racism still exists but wealth is not exclusive to people of Europen descent. Open your eyes.
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