UBC
Building, Vancouver, August 8, 2005, 5:15 pm
Hello from Vancouver (4) - A Walking Tour
through The Downtown East Side
The University of British Columbia has a drop-in centre downtown
in Vancouver's East side called the Learning
Exchange where it provides educational opportunities to people
who live and work in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and other
inner-city communities.
Vancouver's Downtown East Side is an inner city neighbourhood that
has been experiencing problems with drug addiction and prostitution
for many years. The area consists of several diverse neighbourhoods,
including Strathcona, Chinatown, and Gastown, as well as the central
area around Main and Hastings. The Downtown Eastside is currently
facing significant social, economic and health-related issues. While
there are undeniable problems, the community also has significant
strengths. And, important community-building work is being undertaken
and some of this important work is done by the UBC Learning Exchange.
Bridge at the foot of Main Street
The Learning Exchange provides opportunities for UBC students to
develop an understanding of society through first-hand volunteer
work and promotes the formation of partnerships between people at
UBC and people in the Downtown East Side and other inner-city communities
that make the sharing of expertise and resources possible. The program
started very small and still has a very tight budget, but today
more than 800 UBC students volunteer here in a variety of community
assistance groups.
10 people from the Servas conference
went downtown to participate in a learning experience involving
a self-guided tour, and our young local expert Francy spent about
90 minutes with us, exploring what we knew or had heard about the
neighbourhood, the various media stereotypes, what type of people
lived there and why and what was being done to help this community.
We learned that the community is actually quite diverse, not only
does it include people dealing and using drugs as well as sex trade
workers, the area also houses new immigrants, social service personnel,
artists and students. Even seniors and families live here and in
one coop housing project, built around a central courtyard, the
single and older people live on the outside of the complex to provide
protection, while the families with young children live on the inside
so the young ones can play safely in the courtyard .
The Downtown East Side is one of the few areas in Vancouver that
still has affordable housing prices. We found out that many of the
people in the area take on short-term or transient type of work
assignments in labour pools, and many of them work as "binners",
collecting metal cans and glass bottles from garbage containers
which then get reclaimed in local recycling facilities. In Vancouver
the sight of people going through garbage bins is very common, even
in the pristine suburban campus of UBC, and this activity is also
referred to as "dumpster-diving". We realized that these
people perform an important societal service by diverting recyclable
materials away from the landfills back into reprocessing facilities.
The main drugs represented in this area are heroine, crack and
crystal meth, and Francy explained that many of the area's inhabitants
live very nocturnal lives and that the mornings can be fairly quiet.
After exploring the socio-economic background of this neighbourhood
we were given a safety briefing which included practical advice
such as treating people respectfully and looking them in the eye,
even if they are requesting money from you, politely declining if
someone mistakes you for a sex-trade worker, keeping valuables out
of sight and similar issues. I decided to leave my entire purse
and camera at the drop-in centre as did several other members of
our group.
Buildings in Downtown East Side Vancouver
We then headed off in small, inconspicuous groups of 3 or 4 people,
with a small unobtrusive map. The map pointed out local sights such
as buildings, housing coops, community centres, churches and parks.
The first thing we did was we headed north out to the bridge at
the top of Main Street from where you have a gorgeous view of downtown
Vancouver, including Canada Place. It strikes you as ironic, how
so much beauty and opulence can be located right next to an area
with immense economic and social problems.
We headed west on Alexander Street and promptly arrived on a beautiful
little square that is part of Vancouver's historic restored Gastown
area. From there we headed south along streets like Pender and Carrall,
many of which have boarded up main floors, and former retail areas
that were closed a long time ago. Occasionally you see local homeless
people and at one building we saw two young people on a couch in
front of a building, and beside them a young woman who was stretching
and contorting her body in strange ways. We were later explained
that this woman was probably coming down from taking drugs the night
before and was experiencing excruciating pain in the process.
We snaked our way through the neighbourhood past various parks that
according to our guide book were described as gathering spots for
drug activity during the night. Most of these areas were fairly
empty, but we did pass a number of people whose appearances had
been ravaged by years of drug use. On Pender Street we passed by
an astounding building, the Sun Tower, built in 1912, that housed
the offices of The Vancouver Sun newspaper from 1924 to1964 and
is crowned by a by a three-story beaux arts copper roof.
Pender Street took us further east towards Vancouver's Chinatown,
which compared to the chaotic hustle and bustle of Toronto's Chinatown,
seemed very orderly and organized. Our map told us to make a brief
detour into the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, opened
in 1986, the first full-size authentic Chinese garden built outside
of China. From there we went through a mixed neighbourhood with
a variety of Chinese or Korean community centres and seniors residences.
We also passed by a community centre that offered free showers,
Internet access, mailbox and various other services to many of the
homeless people in this area. Many of the local churches provide
shelter and other services to this community in need.
The gates to Chinatown
One particularly haunting image for me was a very young woman,
maybe in her late teens, early twenties. She had bleached blond
hair, blue eyes and dark rims of smeared mascara under her eyes.
She was leaning into the recesses of a building and had obviously
been crying. Something was in her hand, but I was unable to see
what it was. She appeared to be in a great deal of physical and
emotional pain, and her face was still so young and pristine. I
thought how powerfully addictions affect people and how difficult
it must be to extricate oneself from this way of life.
My two walking partners commented on another older woman, whose
face had been scarred and they commented that the blank look in
her eyes was a very haunting experience. Since I was in charge of
figuring out the map I did not see this individual, but the ravages
of drug use were plainly obvious in so many of the residents' faces.
Ironically enough, as we were looking at our map, we were asked
twice by different people if we were lost and if they could help
redirect us. We had been prepared for being accosted and asked for
money, and instead we were offered some help by the locals - ironic
indeed.
After we completed our walk we headed back to the UBC Learning
Exchange for a debriefing and we shared our experiences. We noted
that the neighbourhood was much more mixed and less consistently
run down than we had expected. A comment was also made that relatively
few people were on the streets and that we didn't witness any drug-related
or sex-trade transactions at this time of day. Overall it had felt
quite safe for us 3 women to walk through this neighbourhood, and
during morning hours this area didn't look all that different from
other urban neighbourhoods.
The Carnegie Community Centre
Our learning experience was capped off by a visit at the Carnegie
Community Centre, built in 1908 as a Public Library. The Carnegie
Centre provides a range of social, recreational and educational
programs for the residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
It is often described as the community’s living room—a
place where people can come to participate in programs or to simply
relax and socialize with others, particularly important since many
of them live in one-room dwellings where they don't have the luxury
of a living room to relax in.
The Carnegie Centre offers a variety of facilities: a Public Library
reading room, a seniors centre, weight room, a learning/literacy
centre, a kitchen that offers 3 nutritional meals a day, an art
gallery, an auditorium and gym as well as a dark room and pottery
room. Our group did indeed sample the Carnegie's cuisine, and I
had a vegetarian lunch with veggie spring rolls, salad and rice,
as well as one of the most delicious mushroom soups I have ever
eaten. Together with a lemon pop this lunch came to $3.40.
The meal was delicious and completing this learning experience
in Vancouver's Downtown East Side truly enriched my understanding
of the city and this neighbourhood, and I gained a real appreciation
for the efforts of the many hundreds of people who try to bring
about positive change in this area. Francy indeed summarized it
succinctly: the best way to make a difference is through individual
engagement, and the small efforts of many can bring about huge change
to the community as a whole.
Useful Books:
Related Articles:
Hello from Victoria (1) - Reaching
the West Coast
Hello from Victoria (2) - Exploring
Victoria and its vicinity
Hello from Vancouver (1) - Arrival
in Vancouver
Hello from Vancouver (2) - Wheeling
around Stanley Park
Hello from Vancouver (3) - The Grouse
Mountain Experience
Hello from Vancouver (4) - A Walking
Tour through the Downtown East Side
Hello from Vancouver (5) - Gastown
and My Final Explorations
Hello from Vancouver (6) - Covering
the Servas Conference
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