Vol. II No. 1 December 1981 WELFARE CUTS By Sam Snoeb<.Un ON August 27, 1981 Grace McCarthy, Minister of Human Resources, announced new policy guidelines for income assistance recipients, effective as of November 1, 1981. The new guidel:ines include reductions in social assistance payments and define the "errployability 11 of those seeking social assistance. Under the new regulations a single person who formerly received $205 per month plus rent now receives $150 plus rent while an "employable" single parent with two or more child-ren receives $315 plus rent per month rather than $350. EIT1)1oyable persons are defined as 'those who are not over 65 years of age; not suffering from a mental of physical condition which makes work i~ossible; not a single parerrt with one child under the age of six months, or two children under twelve years of aqe; and not a parent with a physic-;:il]y nr menltllly Lllsal.Jled child. Single people and couples receiving assistance must re-apply eaCh month and "employable11 singles and couples with children must re-apply every four months. People reclassified as employable must have periodic interviews with a Human Resources worker and prove that they have been actively seeking errployment. Handicapped people and seniors on G.A.I .N., those on Individual Opportunity 1-'lans and people taking job-upqrading courses are not required to reapply for job assistance or prove they have been seeking errnloyment. l~elfare mothers A spokesperson for the Welfare Rights Coalition points ~out that before November .1 a welfare roother with one child had an income well below any _9overnment-defined poverty line. Jhth an e·,en & .. ~allBr income, welfare mothers will find it ·extremely difficult, if not irmossible, to provide their chilrlrPn with an adequate suor:ily of food. Demonstrators picket the Sacred Convention, orotestinlJ welfare cutbacks Picture by Me 1 Horseman THE cuts in welfare payments have been met by a concerted fightback campaign on the part of many concerned groups, both those representing welfare recipients a'nd others, drawn from lhe community at large. Since the announcement of the cutbacks the following actions have taken place: On September 30 (MHR cheque issue day) the Welfare Rights Coalition, DERA, First United Church and the Urban Core Community Workers Association helped hundreds of people across the City fill out forms to appeal any unjustified decision td reclassify a person as unerrployable. The Welfare Rights Coali tien and DERA sponsored a demonstration at the Scotia Tower at Georgia and Granville (BC Place headquarters) to protest Sacred priori ties of spending millions on BC Place while cutting back on welfare payments. The BC Association of Social lforkers, DERA, Welfare Rights Coalition, BC federation of Labour, Vancouver Status of Women and welfare recipients o..ffected by the new policy appeared betore a committee or Cl Ly Council to request tnat the Minister of Human Resources rescind the policy changes. A delegation of 10 women marched into a meeting of the Provincial Cabinet at the Hyatt Regency Hotel to demand a meeting in Vancouver with the Cabinet to discu.1(. the cutbacks. Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Vander Zalm promised to relay the request to Cabinet. Human Resources workers charged with enforcing the new policy have held several meetings to talk about how they can help oppose th~ plan. An increasing number of trade unions are suppo".rting the campaign to have the welfare cutbacks cancelled. The Vancouver and District Labol!r Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the cuts. The Vancouver Municipal and Regional Employees Union (VMRE~) of which workers at Carnegie, Cordova House, the 44 Club and the Down.town Homemakers are members, has passed a ~imilar resolution and pledged to ·participate .in future actions. Over 500 people representing concerned groups and indi vid-u~ls, picketeQ the Soc~ed C~mverition l)eJ.d on November 21. On!f hundred rrotesters frou1 'i:he ::;uwntmm Eastside arriv8d at the s~te of the demonstration courtesy of a BC Hydro bus provided by the Amalgamated Transit Unirm. CONTENTS Downtown Eastside's New Faces BC Place Special Supplement Carnegie News I/ho's Who on the Advisory Board Poetry What's On Page 3 Pages 5-8 Page Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 2 continued from previous page Job scarcity Since announcing the MHR policy changes, McCarthy has stated that there are "plenty of jobs" available in B.C. She has atte~ted to justify this stance by further stating that there are 5,000 jobs listed in the Vancouver Sun each week. The Welfare Rights Coalition counted 1700 job listings in the Sun during a one-week period. McCarthy obviously neglected to mention that a large number of job listings are openings for teachers, accountants and those with specialized skills which take years to obtain. In reality only a handful of the jobs listed in the Sun do not require some sort of specialized skill. The Welfar"eRights Coalition found 73 unskilled jobs listed in the Sun during a one-week period and pointed out that a great deal of conpetition ~xists for such unskilled, menial jobs. When hundreds, or even thousands, of people are fighting over a handful of jobs, it is easy to keep wages down at a minimum. Day-care McCarthy has also loudly proclaimed that the provincial qovernment is providing subsidies for day-care centres and argues that the subsidization of day-care centres will enable sinqle parents to hold steady jobs . However, the September newsletter of the British Columbia Association of Social Workers states: "The hastily conceived initiatives to create new day-care resources are clearly intended to prop up the new income assistance policies and rescue the Ministry from criticisms that mothers would be forced to seek work without the comfort of knowing that their children will be placed in good day-care. Creating good day-care resources will not be achieved by the Ministry's ad hoc approach. The planning for new spaces should have begun at least six months before the inplementation of new income assistance policies that attempt to force mothers into the workplace. The Ministry has,provided less than sixty days for the task." MHR workers protest MHR workers are also concerned about other aspects of ·the new policies. The monitoring of constant reapplications ·and of job-search proof will mean that the average MHR workers will spend a great deal less time actually helping members of various communities in coping with the di fficul-ties they face. People on welfare who are faced with the loss of social assistance payments can respond by requesting enrollment in an Opportunity Plan which is approved by the MHR or by appealing their "employable11 status. Those who plan to appeal their status should contact the Welfare Rights Coalition at 4932 Victoria Drive or DERA. n,;S-/:'::° :::::.: Se>mE4JHERE t>EE,P NS/PE YdP Mar L.::,,t,t;:... W 8Ecr;J,,7J1= 119 ~nvs-l>?E:hllilER dP Otll? JC/E""'J"Y/ 7Z' ~r .SantE lhtJI\/EY~ V~ AIVST S/20.tv Sal"JJE /N/r/"9'77Y.E ... 1/0CI MtlS'r #.-9JIE A ,1...1sr dP .ReamEo7VE e/JJP.1.tiY6'S" ¥0~ H"9VP ~~.D /N y,:,p.,q Jd8 .sEA..ec..+' ..• H:,u /}fl)Jr #AVE ~ ~,-.S-JC,Su!EM (7,,'ll?;\o'.l!"BIB.I..E' K,lfEAGo,:tPBby -""C. THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD by Frank Doman After daydreaming the day away at the Carnegie Center Library searching for the meaning in the original applica-tion of the word 11 Doom", as in the 11 Doomesday and Land !3ook' (Circa 1085 \Hlliam the Conqueror), I went back there that evening to attend a civic meeting and came face to face with the same wraith-like characteristics which seem to indicate that in the portrayal of all human endeavour, past and present, the paint comes from one common pot. Previously my train of thouqht had barrelled up and down along the corridors of time taking in the dim past with its primitive democracies, then on to the tragedy of the developing despotisms and back again to the sophisticated democracies as we know them today. As night fell I say the latter in full bloom: Vancouver City Council was seated to discuss the zoning by-laws affecting a part of the east section of the downtown core. The seating arrangement in relationship to the central figure in the council, the Mayor, inplied an instinctive dedication to the images wrought by Leonardo da Vinci's immortal painting "The Last Supper". And the air was rife with the ghost of Oliver Cromwell in his historical role as a rhetorical catalyst in the dissolution of the Long Parl-iament. Several people lashed out from the podium to com-:>lain about the length of time the issues on hand had been aii-ed (six years), but to no avail. There wasn't one good Roundhead among all those who sat. The sitting was ad-journed aqain. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS EDITOR: Linda Grant CREATIVE WRITING EDITORS: Linda Field, Al Todd PRODUCTION: Stephen Hrynewi ch, Tora TYPING: Rita Greenlaw. Linda Field PHOTOGRAPHY: Mel Horseman, Jimmy Stewart ARTWORK: Tora SPE,CIAL THANKS TO DERA The last edition of the Crescent published the first installment of an interview with NORMAN WILES, long-time resident of the Downtown Eastside. Unfortunately, his interviewer, Carol I tter Nas unable to complete the interview iii time for this edition. ~e will carry the final installment in the next issue. The Carnegie Crescent is funded and assisted by the Department of Social Planning of the City of Vancouver and Career and Community Education Services of the Vancouver School Board. All signed articles represent the view of the authors. Neither the Editor nor the agencies named above take any responsibility for views expressed in this publication. ASK MR CARNEGIE Question l~hy do yo~ put 11 seniors day 11 aside from all other days? ~/hy not mix the elderly with the young? It can benefit both. 11 Age is a matter of mind, If you don't mind it doesn't matter". ' Answer Our philosophy has been to urge all ages to mix and to share their "living :oom 11 with each other, remembering that the Centre was intended primarily for elderly Downtown Eastside residents. But both young and old members have asked for some time and space for their own age group~. \fa 1 ve tried~work out several arrangements. Each requires corrpromise. NEW FACES JOY THOMPSON by Carol \1eaver THE Downtown Eastside Women ' s Centre has recently hired a new co-ordinator by the name of Joy Thorll)son. Joy is originally from England and has been living in Vancouver for about two and-a-half years . For the past ten years she has been working with single women in urban cores here in vancouver and in England . Joy's involvement included working on projects Which had just about folded, stepping in to try to pick up the pieces and save them . Her l ast major project involved working in a day-care centrn; her roles included political lobbying of all three levels of qovernment and community organizing. She has also been involved in fund- r aising to provide self- help counselling for disabled persons so they could o r ganize their own support systems . Joy was interested in the job at the Women ' s Centr e because she likes !Jetting involved in the community she lives in . "I' m a colJl)ulsive community organizer11 , she says . Joy's responsibilities at the Centre are quite broad and s he would like the Centre to c reate an environment that ties in with the need for a place where women can feel comfortable a ll day.She says that other agencies provide programs that are of no interest to women, programs that are mainly attended by men--and that, in itself, can be intimidating for some women. One-to-one 11kitchen-table counselling" is one thing that happens regularly at the Centre, a service that women just can ' t get anywhere else. "They hav~n ' t built up famili-arity with other agencies to feel comfortable to expose some more of their per sonal problems, 11 she said. Other important aspects of the Centre's work include li Fe-skills sharing, drug and al cohol counselling, child rearing, family probl ems, welfare rights etc . Joy also commented t hat the Centre should be a community resource--taking itself out into the community as well as well as a ttracting people to the facility. She hopes to liaise with other community workers and agencies and build up a good working relationship with them so they can share resources. Joy feels -that it is important to maintain all the services that the Centre has been providinlJ up t o now because they are obviously much-needed. As for future plans she would like to see stronger links with the r est of the community with regards to women I s concerns; she mentioned, in particular, Carnegie, the Dugout, Powell Place and Lookout. She would also like to encouraqe younger 1•wmen and single mothers with children to use the Centre: 11 I would like the Centre to act as a body for getting women together to have parent problem-solving grours and ta collectively look after children so women can take part in other activit-ies and responsibilities in the community. 11 This program is already being developed and there will be a newsletter in the future for updating pro-1rams , news and also space for stories, poems and artwork fror1 ',1/0'!len who use the Centre. Good luck to Joy and welcome to the Downtown Eastside ! The \fomen ' s Centre i s open for women to dron in and visit Monday to Friday 10 - 5 . Picture by Jinmy Stewart l rsu Rl JIM GREEN THE driving fo r ce behind the recent explosion of activity across the street at the DERA office is Jim Green , DERA's new, full-time community organizer. Publicist , organizer, advocate--these are some of the roles Jim will be pl aving during the life of his one-year job, paid for by a grant from City Council which involved a lenathy strugl)le itself to win. In a recent interview with the Crescent Jim explained both his background and his ideas and demonstrated what it takes to be a fighter on behalf of the 4000 residents of the Downtown Eastside. For the i"ast ten years he has ·iived or worked in the area; in fact the house he used to live in was torn down to make way for a new residence for which DERA had fought. He has worked on and off on the dockside as a longshoreman and at Canron at Fa I se Creek as a marine boilermaker. While at Canron he was chief shop steward for the afternoon shi Ft and his roots in the labour movement run deep. For the last two years he has been working on a history of the Canadian Seamen's Union (CSU ) , using an office overlooking Oppenheimer Park . Many of the people he interviewed in compiling his book are residents of the Downtown Eastside and members of DERA . On fact Stringer McDonald, who was a CSU man, is still involved in DERA on a daily basis as a volunteer. With such a strong record of activism as a trade union-ist, Jim is obviously well-equipped to take on City Hall, the planners and the Ministry of Human Resources--all current targets of DERA orgainizing . But why did he decide to leave the labour movement to devote a year to the Downtown Eastside? "It l'IOUld never in my life have occured to me that I would ever do anything that was not connected with the trade uaion movement until I heard about the DERA job_." he explained. "The reason I considered applying was that I I ve always been very impressed with DERA. It's an organ-ization that reminds me of the Seamen I s Union because it ' s never afraid to take on an enemy or a problem. I 'd never met Bruce (Eriksen) or Libby (Davies ) but I'd followed DERA quite closely since its inception . \~hen I lived behind the Patricia Hotel Jean Swanson was a beer waitress there and and it was there she met Bruce Eriksen and joined with DERA so I 've known the organization all a l ong although I was never involved in it because I was busy in the trade union movement. I have a lot of respect for DERA I s history and the people who have organized for DERA so it seemed like a natural place to go where I could learn a lot of skills and be involved in a good fight. 11 As we talked in the DERA office, we were f requently interrupted. Phones rang, pPople waited patiently while Jim argued with social wo r kers, called lawyers and riffled through a well-thumbed copy of the GAIN regul ations . As he waited "on-hold" on the phone, he c'ut otJt sheets of 11Gracie bucks" for distribution and simultaneous / y answered my next question: what skills did he learn in the trade union movement which he can use at DERA? "Having to think on your feet; dealing wi th pr oblems that have to be solved on the spot; and having to do thorough investigations before oroceeding11 • He continued: 11 To my mind DERA is the union of the residents of t his area and as a union should do we ta• up the grievances of the people who live here and, as in a union, we are controlled by our members . "Like the CSU, we are responsible for all aspects of people's lives just a s hop ste rd on a boat has to deal · 1·1ith all kinds of grievances . One of the thinl)S that made the CSU so militant and so loved was the way t he union dealt with food hassles, bedding hassles--all the t hings you have to live with when you're at sea for six months at a time . 11 Having a full-time organizer has already enabled DERA to respond in a more sustained and vigorous manner to events which have an i mpact on the lives of the people it represents . \~hen Green was hired he was told t hat the mair campaign he would have to concern himself with would be BC Place; within a cour le of weeks of starting work he was up to his ears i n the Welfare cutbacks campaign. coniinued on ne~t page 4 continued from previous page "One of the things DERA has been able to do now", Jim says "is work with different organizations like the Welfare Rights Coalition and the Skeena-Terrace Residents Associa-tion. We can work in unison. If we hadn't hnd o full-time organizer we wouldn't have been able to r,ut the time and e"nergy in which enabled us to organize a much more all-,encorrpassing and vigorous carrpaign. Also, having a full-timer enables us to spend more time publicising the fight against the cutbacks." I asked him what his years of politicaJ. organizing in .the trade union movement had taught him about political organizing in general and the current fight against the welfare cuts: 11That it's necessary that we never give up and that we realize that there are very few total victories . That we win as much as we can and not be discouraged by defeats. That we keep qoing . I believe that we have already made a substantial irrpact on the regulations. 11 Fi1~htinq words for a fightinq o rqanization. FRANKLIN HOUSE WOMEN'S RESIDENCE Anyone who has applied or who is i nterested in applying for an apartment in the Franklin House lfomen ' s Resid~nce must be interviewed before a suite can be assigned to her. The Selection Cammi ttee will be available for these interviews every Wednesday and Friday from 2 to 3pm. All interviews will be held at the • \'lomen' s Centre at 412 E. Hastings Street. Drop by and ask for Joy or Vickie. If you would like more information you can call Vickie at 876-8095 or Joy at 255-1614 MATHEMATICS Hello! This article will attempt to explain our mat~e'.18tics p°i-ogram at the Carnegie Centre. We have been operating on the third floor off and on since the early summer every Tuesday evening at 7pm. The class has been designed to help anybody interested in learnin() matheml:ltics at all levels from beginning to advanced anrl beyond. Each week the students bring their own specific problems and questions to be discussed, analyzed and solved by themselves and others. Recently we have been starting a study-centre approach where certain activities, problems, puzzles and aames rel-ated to mathematics are left in the classroom to be attefll)ted throuahout the week by those interested. We welcome your ideas and problems, even if you only want to drop in once in a while. In fact most of our students are part-time--like the instructor! NUTRITIONAL EYE-OPENERS BY ALBERTA WALTERS Dave Howarth Add the missing ingredients to your diet and you can make your life sparkle nutritionally. Trouble with eyes? Try a cup water eye bath with a pinch of salt or a smidgen of cayenne pepper to heal and bring back the sparkle to your eyes. While seeing we use up Vitamin A found in Alfalfa (father of all foods). Arabs use it to he.Ip them spring lithely. Dab on cammomile, witch-hazel, marshmallow root, passion flower and eye-bright herbs--all of these benefit eyes. Red Raspberry strengthens weak eyes. Other sources of Vitamin A for eyes--okra pods, parsley, watercress , capsicum pepper, spearmint, paprika, papaya, buckwheat, saffron, kelp, carrots and Red Raspberry . Fish oils--cod liver oil capsules, dairy products, butter. BOOK CORNER THE. shelves of Carneeie Library are jrunmed to the point where we can no longer :i.ncrease our ran."!e of sub-jects . We eypect to P.xpMd into thP, rea.dinc lounge nnxt door in a few months. In thi? mions, :ind more books of poetry, history and novels than we can put out. We have developed exten-sive files of maps, law pamphlets, immigration ques-tionnaires, g9vernment regulat:i.ons and heal th pro-grams.. Lle also have news-paper files on current problems and developments jn the Downtown F'..a.stside, such as B. C. Place, light rR.pid tranRit, the housing crisis, crime, alcohol abuse, and the various ethnic com- · !'llunities here. On our "Reference11 shelf, you will find a binder indicating where the;.e subjects are located. If you do not see what you need, please ask. \.le have two special collect i.ons in the back room .. Our country, folk and modern ">ongbooks c~i:nnot l::e borrowed because t hey are vecy ex-pensivP. and in hir,h 1famand. 'rhese books can be S"!l ecterl. from a Cl'ltA.lor,ue in the "lusic section and used in the library., Our northwest coast Indian art collection include;,; all the available books of history, traditi.on-fll customs and art of the 8. C. Indians. Many of these titles are expensive museum cataloeues or are now out-of-pr"int and therefore irreplaceable. The available books are listed in a binder in the Uati.ve secti.on, and !Tlay be borrowed for short neriods of time. - Part of our library's responsibility ii> to gather material about this neigh-bourhood. While a vast amount of infonnation is available, it is a frustra-ti.ne; f act that little has appeared in book form. Our solution is to produce our own books, i n the form of binders containine; magazine and newspaper features. One of these "books" discussea the Chinese canmunity. &-,rinning with the legendary Zen monk who is said to have visited this coast in 500 A.D., it f_ollows B.C. Chinese histOry from . the gold fields :ind the b.J.ildine of theC.P.R. t o present-day political· and cultural life in China-town and ~trR.thcona. Another binder covers traditional Indian life-styles and art as still practi ced on this coast. \le have collected into two binder H the artwork and bio-graphies of dozens of contem-porary Indi.an artists , since much of the newer Indian art has not yet appeared in books. Two other books are in the works: one will cover the histocy AAd on!'.oing life of Ga ,;town and the Down town East:;ide, the other contin-ually updates the Carnegie Centre stocy. All these 11 books 11 will grow as we locate new material1>. If you care about where the community has been and t,•here it is e;oinc, let us 1:; ve you a eui.ded tour. by Ron Du t t;n Christmas c·raft ~ nunnm the !'lonth of December, a variety of crafts created by members or the Rose Gar-den Co- op will be on di.splay at 702 i::. Cordova ( at Heat-ley) , The Co- op beean several yea.rs aeo as a tenant~ organ-i zation, the purpose of .which was to improve living conrh tions and sponsor self-help activi.t-1.e:: for i.ts memOOrship. The Rose ~ard:en Apartments, now nearin·_7 .compl etion on Pender street, demonstrates the Co-op' s success i n provi.di.ng its members with affordable housl.ng. The objective~ of offer:i.n:-, occupational train:l.ng are · being met throu~h operation of the wo0dworking shop on ;;. Cor,1ova. The workshop contains power machinery suitable .for prcil.ucinrr ca-binetry and custom woorlwork. The showroom area, at the saf!le addre::,s, is also used "'uy other member:-, of the Co-op who, on their own, produce jewelry, kni.tted eoods, enbroidery, woo:ien toys, and other craft goods. The showroor!. area wilJ. be open extended fl.ours durine; December before Chri.stmas, Thursdays and 1'1'idays to 8 p.m., and f.aturci,qys from 10 a . m. to 5 p. m., You R.I'8 riost welcome to visi.t. WOMF:NWRITE THE nowntown ::;;astside Homen I s • Centre is startinc up its own newsletter. It is plan-ned as a vehie:le throueh whi.ch women in the commun-ity can expre0s their thoughts and feelings. It will con-tain news, articles and creative writinr,. If you are interested in -wri tine for the newsletter, send or deliver your contributions to Joy at the Women's Centre (412 E, HastoJ.ngs. ) NO PlACE for BCPlAC~ By Robert Rich IN 1981 the provincial government foisted a huge megalith on the City of Vancouver without public consultation . Like the bearers of Greek gifts, the government had forgotten about the repercussions of such a monstrosity on the surr-ounding areas. Here are some of the facts and fiqures tenea th the mystery of BC Place. The immensity of this project bog(Jles the imagination: a 60 ,000 seat stadium, a housing development to rival the density of F,alse Creek and 5,700,000 square feet of office space . That is · roughly the equivalent of twelve Bentall Towers. In order to feed the Goliath we will then need a monum-ental road1-Jay system running thr~ downtown residential 1Jnd business areas, to be speci fie, Prior and Union Streets i n the East and Bute and Thurlow, Smythe and Nelson in the West. The i rrp lications of this are far-reaching. However, no -one saw fjt to consider the effects of this giant on surrounding communities, at least no impact study was do ne to that effect. As an example, for a stadium seating 60,000 people, there is only parking space for approximately 4000-6000 cars. The far-sightedness of these people is beyond me , The result of this is community action: * Tuesday September 1. 83 delegations were present at the Plaza 500 Hotel to address City Council. So many people were present, in fact, that only 23 were able to be heard. The remainder were postponed September 8. The Downtown Eastside Residents Association was well represented, as were other association_s from various parts of the city. '*Monday September 14 there was a meeting of CAP BC Place--Community Action and Planning, BC Place, at the First United Church. At this meeting we discovered that the stadium itself wUl be completed by the middle of 1983. special supplemen ---=,r-However, no light rapid transit will be ready uri'til 1986. This appears to be a discrepancy to me, especially in view of the parking problems mentioned earlier. There was also reference to a · housin9 µroject though with no definition of how large and for whom. From what information I have been able to glean, there will be approximately 10,000 housing ·units, apparently for singles or 11 swingles 11 • I do not believe there is any provision rviatle for low income people. I have personally made an investigation of avail-able and affordable housing in the area, notwithstanding my own room, and the situation is delicate. The situation will not i~rove in future unless the people speak up. *Tuesday September 24 there was a public meeting at Carnegie regarding "affordable housing 11 • Mr John Jessup of the Social Planning Departme~t was chairperson. In our time the facesof the Downtown E8stside will remain unless they have someplace else to go tO. I realize that taking on BC Place is a David and Goliath pro-ject but eve;l David got in one good shot. Therefore, ·While we can I t stop BC Place, we can at least remedy some s ocial conditions. This will be the result of one ' thing--citizen participation . One thousand voices rising up are greater than one crying in th~ wilderness. Participate in public meetings, public gatherings, information groups etc. Only that will save the Downtown Eastside for the people. Remember that it is your home as well as mine. INNER CITY COMMUNl1Y? ~peech made by TORA a " meeting to p!toteM BC Place wluch took place on SeptembVt 1, 1981. \~HY aren't we livirig happy, creative, peaceful lives in this city? Doesn I t everyone in this room and everyone in tl='lis:C.rty just want to to live a satisfyingly human existence and create a sense of trust, neighbourliness, community feeling , and creative exchange? I don't know about you, but no matter what economic and political motivations divide us, we all dream sometimes about 11 how it will be'1 , when finally the urban environment has become a really mellow place to li ve--vi tal, yes--but mellow, where creativity, aesthetic values and practical ways of doinq thingsfinally do come together and work. How lonij has it been? HOW long ,have we been arguing this way and debating and juggling positions of power inside a democratic framework? Well it seems like forever. What I really want to know is: when are we going to stop kicking political footballs and finally get down to living in the the world i n a way that really satisfies us? Obviously it would help to create a sense of satisfact-ion in a lot of people, most people, I think, to have future Vencouver projects softened and scaled down to the level of the ideals of average citizens--their dreams and visions, the dreams and visions of the people who actually live here, instead of money-making propositions promoted by alliances of professional experts and political motivators--the so-called system we presently have. You know, some people think ' 1you can't change the system 11 , but really we could start doing it right now by becoming a channel for the creative urge of the people who live here to take over this p roject--i t could be done by sheer creative output. If we really wanted bJ we could out-plan the planners, out-draw the architects anc out- guess the experts. If we continue with more public input, well, there might ¼Onie a time when the input began to take over and actually beco~ the action itself! Almost every speech we've heard so far repudiates the idea that experts sitting behind microphones shuffling papers know more about the needs of the . people than the people themselves. We who live here want the power to 11 make our own lives" in this city. When we leave our homes we don 1 t want to step into a Social Credit Wonder land of parking lots and super stadiums surrounded by glass and steel towers protected by security guards. We want a lot of really creative and relaxed parks and genuinely liveable neighbourhoods. We already have glass a nd steel towers to play money games in and we already have too much of it. A lot of us are tired of walking around in streets where far too many people look depressed and prematurely aged and burdened down with t'ie world's problems. If we can 1 t find it in ourselves to create an environ-ment tha.t helps people to feel relaxed and at home in the street fronts with their fe.:j.low citizens, then ·we' re going to lose the ballgame and if that happens, believe me, it's a much bigger ballgame we will lose than the Social Credit government ever dreamed of ! 1n the Downtown Eastside we want less traffic on Pender, Cordova and Powell Streets, not""iiiore. We ·,,,,ant lower rents, not higher a nd we like the old-fashioned things~ don't want the old houses"torn down and replaced by 'high-rises. \1e want less crime on the streets, not more and we certainly don I tne°ed more tourists and rich businessmen slumminq on the Eastside, turning our streets into a distorted Disneyland to satisy their hunger for cheap thrills. If our own elected government is going to force things on us that we obviously don't want, then it's going to make enemies of us, And if the 1overnment is looking for a fight-well, we've gat lots of fi')hters on the Eastside and when the shoutinr] is all over and the smoke clears away, it 1 s a sure 'te"t that they' 11 wish they never even thou9ht of BC Place ! 5 6 B·C·PLAc~~TDWN /4pe:;:. EASTSIDE supplement by Tora In 1980, the Social Credit Government paid 60 million dol-18.rs (30 million in cash and 30 million in real estate) to Marathon Realty Corporation for a large part of the down-town area, 170 acres bounded by Pender St. to the north, Main to the east, Burrard St. to the west and False Creek to the south; this area includes the entire north shore of False Creek. (See map of B. C. Place 11 Area of Control 11 ) "British Columbia Place Limited", the Crown Corporation created by the government to handle this deal, began immed-iate construction of a 60,000-seat sports stadium coverin!J ten acres near the north end of Camble bridge. Because this land was a private purchase by the Social Credit gov-ernment, the locally elected city council could not leg- . ally oppose its development and, because B.C. Place Ltd. 1s an agent of the crown, it is also exerrpt from the normal re-zoning and permit processes required by a private developer. The plans drawn up by B.C . Place Ltd. include an office and commercial corrplex surrounding the stadium of six million square feet. This has been described as equivalent to five Bentall towers and exceeds the total of all office space now being constructed or proposed by private developers in the downtown core (5,214,600 sq . ft.). The total downtown office space now in existence is 15.9 million sq. ft. The City Plan-ning Department estimates the proposed B.C. Place office space to be the equivalent of about seven years of "normal 11 development. Vancouver developers in the downtown core at present have a total of 5,214,600 sq. ft. of office space under construction or proposed - as corrpared to 723,600 sq. ft. of residential space. A great many objections have been raised by citizen ' s groups to the acceleration of com-mercial del"\sity the B.C . Place project represents, and sus-picions have been aroused that the provincial government may intend to insert a "social credit city 11 into the center of Vancouver, which would continue to riromote the life styles favoured by Sacred philosophy - whether that party won the next provincial election or not. The government also plans to construct 10,000 to 20,000 units of "residential develo11ment 11 in the B.C. Place area. Rents for these spaces are estimated by B.C. Place officials to begin at $700 per month. That is, for a single bedroom bachelor unit containing the smallest floor space area of a 10 to 20 thousand unit complex - $700 per month would be the minimum. No one as yet knows what the maximum rents at B.C. P] ace would ~e. B.C. Place officials estimate that the housing density in the residential portion of the B.C. Place complex will he similar to development densities in the \1est End - about 110 to 150 units per acre . By corrparison, the residential density on the south shore of False Creek is only 45 units per acre. In spite of the $700 per month minimum, B.C. Place promotional literature states that "A major portion of the site should be developed for housing persons of all in-comes and all types of householdu and " a significant por-tion of the uni ts should be for non-market housing and for housinq of families with children". The key word ommitted from this statement is the word 11 affordable 11 • The official opening date set for the stadium is 1983, which seems to be a political priority of the Social Credit Party. The GVRD "transit report has predicted that the ALRT rapid transit system will not even be ready by 1986 - the date set for the opening of Transpo '86 - a "transportation fair" to be hosted by Vancouver. At present, the future of both Transpo '86 and the ALRT system are in doubt as a re-sult of inadequate federal funding . Originally, Transpo 1 86 was cited by the Provincial government as a reason for build-ing the stadi1...1m - and the ALRT rapid transit was expected to service the area so that large scale parking and roadway re-development would be unnecessary. Th.w -6pec-u:il 6 oM-po.ge -0upp£ement to the CMneg.ce C~ucent blt.cng-0 you .en-depth covVlo.ge o, BC Place. The -6upp£emer.:t hM been com.Ued o.nd W'1.-U:t,.n by T Mo., RobVt:t R.cch o.nd Undo. Gltan:t. Ail V.Cew6 Me th0-0e 06 the au:thM-6 . When it was realized that rapid transit would not be in place by 1983 - instead of delaying the opening of the stad-ium , an extensive traffic corridor system was proposed by B.C. Place working in conjunction with the city planning department. This plan would dramatically increase traffic on Georgia and Alberni streets, Lions Gate Bridge, Bute St., Thurlow, Smithe, and Nelson in the West End, Cordova, Pow-ell and Pender Streets in theEast End, and involve the con-struction of new roadways to link the system up with the area of the Stadium and route B.C. Place traffic south along Cambie Bridge, Granville Bride, and the Downtown Eastside. Nearer the waterfront, Cordova and Powell Streets; which pass through Japantown and the Oppenheimer district) will receive heavy traffic from a proposed \faterfront Extension link-up with Bute and Haro. In the area immed-iately adjacent to theStadium the proposed now roadway has been variousl y described as 4 to 6 to 8 lanes. The entire system involves increasing the volume of traffic in all thP. neighbourhoods adjacent to B.C. Place and those neighbour-hoods adjacent to them, and so on - out to and beyond the city limits. (See map of B.C. Place roadways'jstem) . When this plan was announced ci ti zen reation was intense - the many similarities between this system and a system of freeway development proposed by the city Planning Dept. several years ago were obvious. The previousl y pro-posed freeway system, which had aroused extreme opposition and had been defeated now seemed to be resurrected in the service of B.C. Place. Especially significant was the fact that the Stadium hub of the new system is almost exactly in the same location as the once-proposed hub of the de-feated freeway sy5t.em. City Council was forced by public outcry to schedule two special meetings to hear citizens' reactions. Eighty-three speakers from all the nei ghbourhoods immediately affected by B.C. Place expressed unanimous opposition to the proposed road system . This vital citizens' input was later described by Alderman Boyce as a 11circus 11 , a 11 comic opera", and a 11 free-for-all 11 • Needless to say , the opposition it pre-sented to the entire concept of B.C. Place was embarassing to those members of council supporting it. The Stadium was described as a "playpen for the B .C .Lions", and B .C. Place as a 11 Social Credit wonderland of parking lots sur-rounded by glass and steel towers 11 • The Citizens' Com-munity Action and Planning group (CAP) voiced their op-position this way: "At one monstrous stroke the provin-cial government has nailed shut the coffin of the Ii vable region policy, placed pi-ofessional sport on a higher pri-dri ty than housing, assured innordinate expense to ul-timately present to the world a monumental traffic jam .. • and wrecked the prospect of a medium density housing development in downtown Vancouver ... obviously, B .C. Place is playing by the rules set by their political masters." It was also pointed out that since B.C. Place officials are planning to pay for the Stadium by leasing space to developers, the entire project will be so commercially oriented that ordinary citizens in search of housing would be discouraged in favour of those with higher incomes. Many of those present from the Eastside wondered how such an obviously false statement could be made by such a high-powered group of efficiency experts. LIST Cf" SPEAKERS 4; September 8, 1981 , Peter Harcus ' c.w. Sherlock " Miguel :;~~~~·~;~:~!er ,~~ Joan Rykyta-Bousing Rights , Taa McGrath Margaret Birrell Arnold Lindst.ro111 Ron Walkey-Urban I11ue1 cam:ni·.,_ Mount Pleuant Neighbourhood • Jim Green Dave Woodall coast Foundation Lower Mainland Society Rehab Richard Pooley Sol Jackaon-JCillamey Chan.pl&J Daniel O'Reilly-Grandview Woo~ " Gordon Price-concerned Re1ider. Kary Bosu-Grandview Woodland Co-op Radio H1, Zoe Napier-Henry Edith ThaHI Peter Si,,ith Chris BrIETflOUPE Rita Greenlaw Robert 1tich ~!!fr:r ~}!~r ... .. They were aware that Cordova, Powell, and Pender - all main streets pas-sing through the Downtown Eastside - would be channelling the enormous volume of traffic this development would create. They reasoned that the motivabons of 8.C. Place must reflect their allegiance to the political objectives of Social Credit and could have no real concern for the people of Vancouver. Clearly, 8.C. Place was trying to deceive the residents of the Downtown Eastside about the . future impact of their scheme. In spite of the Government's obvious attempt to de-ceive and use its authority as a Crown Corporation to force its will on the people of Vancouver - city council has avoided any direct confrontation with Victoria on the issue. Aldermcin Yorke's motion to deny approval of the plan until social and environmental irrpact studies could be made was defeated. Council then went on to approve road-way, sewer and water systems in the immediate area of the Stadill#land in the area west of Cambie St. Alderman Brown stated that she did not feel a master plan would serve any real purpose and would only provide B.C. Place opponents with another target. In order to protect 8.C. Place from the criticism of area residents a chance to gain information on the full impact of the project was bypassed. Aldermen Brown, Ford, Beliamy, Di vinsky, Puil, Boyce, and Kennedy joined for·ces to approve the proposals in fav-our of 8.C. Place. Aldermen Eriksen, Rankin, Yorke, and Mayor Harcourt opposed the motions. It is interesting to note that the Vancouver City Planning Commission Report released in 1980 contains com-mitments to 11 reduce traffic congestion through better use of existing roads and facilities" - to 11 maintain and ex-pand opportunities for child-rearing families to live with-in the city" - to 11 reduce air pollution caused by auto-mobile traffic" - and to "preserve the unique character that already exists in many Vancouver neighbourhoods 11 • Clearly, the 8.C. Place Project will contradict the recommendations of Vancouver's own city _planning department NEWS FROM NOWHERE THE latest neiqhbourhood-busting news from Washington is that ghettos and poor neighbour-hoods in American cities will be 11 targeted 11 as "enterprise zones'1 • Reagan aides have stated that these depressed areas contain "cycles of poverty that are un- . acceptable to the national norm". These unacceptable conditions are going to be 11 blitzed 11 so that big business can move in and take over in poor communities. Reagan says that these unacceptable areas are being tagged 11 enterprise zones" so that the system can 11hit targets of high unemployment" in its crusade to "get America back to work". Tora - yet the department itself seems completely unaware or this fact, having since joined forces with B.C Place of-ficials to design and promote a road system that will severely undermine their own recommendations. In one of the city planning committee's own surveys, 80~~ of the respondents said that they were not willing to accept economic growth if it reduced the quality of life and character of the city. Sixty per cent of those who res-ponded said they were totally opposed to any further growth in the level of business and financial activity in the downtown area. The City Planning Department's Quartl.erly Review for July 1981, in examining futuristic projections for the Down-town core had this to say: 11We could then envision a core accomodating in its office towwers only the elite decision makers who out of tradition or psychological need require face-to-face contact. Their support staff, the clerks, the analysts, the designers, could be dispersed all over the Lower Mainland, the Island, and who knows-where-else, connected by an intimate communication network and super-vised through a new technologically based, less hierarch-ical network organizational structure. 11 .•.•. how's that for 1984? In the Downtown Eastside, another particularly ugly aspect of the BC Place development is the greed it is presently creating among 11 developers" who are evicting long time hotel residents, increasing rents and decreasing service to the neighbourhood. In a recent speech to City Council on its rezoning plan for thr 0ppenheimer-Eastside area, Libby Davies of DERA had this to say: "In the last year the following hotels have been sold or are in the process of being sold--the Regent, Balmoral, Stratford, Patricia, West, Lotus and Europe; the Palace Hotel was sold in January last year for $326,000 and resold ten months later at $735,000. 11 Someone made $400,000 on that. deal in ten months. At. the Stratford Hotel on Keefer, longtime residents have been evicted and the owner has actually stated in a letter to the Vancouver Sun that he is converting his building to high rent office and commercial space because 8 he can make a lot of money on the people being attracted by BC Place. He also stated that he felt his actions contributed to 11 cleaning up the neighbourhood 11 , which he characterized as 11 evil 11 • The We.st Hotel has been taken over by a group of speculators known as 11 Stadium Equities"--a name obviously inspired by the BC Place Stadium, now under cofll)letian orders from the Sacred system. The Provincial Government is pushing for it to open in 1983_ and all the citizen protest generated by the deal seems to be having no effect on their business-like political objectives. Libby Davies says that "many hotels, including the lonestar, Hilden, Brandiz, Marble Arch, Stratford and Lotus are renovating rooms and/or beer parlours and changing from affordable monthly rentals to higher weekly or even daily rents as high as $22.00 per day. "The Alma, St. Francis and Grandview have already been demolished with news that the Cobalt and Main Hotels are the next to go. 11 ! t is very clear to us that developers are looking at the Downtown Eastside with great interest and are realizing the potential for profitable re-development due to BC Place. 11 Ms Davies then demanded that council include in its plans for the rezoning of Oppenheimer-Japantown, a clause that would prohibit evictions for redevelopment. The decision was deferred by council. At a later meeting council passed Alderman Eriksen' s motion that developers be required to present the full details of all planned redevelopment to Council before consideration for approval would be granted. Previously onlv 5m~ of the plans had to be presented. ' This action would have the doulble effect of slowing the rate of evictions and presenting council with a more co~lete picture of the situation, but it is far from being a final answer to the economic forces sweeping the neigh-bourhood from the area of BC Place. The ongoing battle being waged by the alerted residents of the Downtown Eastside against the ugly effects of HC Place is gaining momentum. Rev. John Cashore of the First United Church has recently been appointed to represent the Downtown Eastside on an Advisory Co;nmi ttee to report to City Council on neighbourhood problems being created by BC Place. The Save the Downtown Eastside Committee- (S.D.E.C) is planning a rally against BC Place and a special project to inform the Chinese community of the effects that six lanes of BC Place traffic will have on Pender Street which passes directly through the large open-air vegetable market on Pender Street east of Main. The BC Place Pender connector if approved by Council,. will make this proposal a realit;. Long-time residents of the Downtown Eastside have grown to love the neighbourhood they live in and many are exore-ssing fears that the livability and unique character of· this neighbourhood will disappear if some effective action is not taken against the Sacred dragon. In their view BC Place wil.l ruin everything they believe in. ' The Cay P,'a.n,ung Vepa1, plays and memoirs -to put their ima,einR.tioni:J to work on how the fe1tive spirit 1 i.ghtens (or darkens) the co:n:,u..'"lity. Mnny resi-·i.ents mu:=;t remember the iluncry Thirties AI1d the Ghrist111a:; rta,y poverty of J.onrr ago. Others must have a tale to tell of a Christ-mas marked out from all the other:1 by an act of kindness. Anrt others must wonder wheth-er certai.n .Scrooges in cer-tai.n government departments will re lent and soften their hearts in time for Christmas bonuses on the welfare cheques. There are storiea in the neiP,hbourhood just asking for someone to write them. barrier t"o learninr: - fear. 11 i.o eet out pens, pencils, The proP,ram offers a wirte typewriters - whatever you range of educationAl ass-ts- nj:'!ed to produce a ma.ster-tance and innovative approachespiece. P.r-i,1;es wi.11 be given to basic literacy. One of for the hrnt entries: $50 the latter involves publica-tion of the Carnegie Cres-cent - a community-based newspaper, published quarter-ly. Currently funded mainly by c.c.E.s., the expanded Open For Idea::: project has prOVC'!d SO SUCce:1sf'ul that th,~ Centre plans to pick up for the first prbe, $35 for the second, ann. '>15 for the third. Winnin,:; entries will be chosen on the basis of originality, human interest and clarity of style~ ;md the pri1.es will be awarrted at the annual Carneeie Christ :nas Concert. Conte~·tants '"'lu··t be residents of the Grant 1 s salary next spring. 11\.le will st.ill need help Dmmtown ::astSide and entries from adult educR.tlon institu- must be orie:i.nal and pre-tions like c.c.E.S. to bring viously unpubli::hed, type-no-cost or low-cos t programs written or le~ibly handwrit-to the Centre, 11 snys the te_n, labelled Christmas resourceful educator. "One '.'rit·inp; Conte;;;t and maUed or future course miP,ht be I Public brOllr,hi to: Linda GrAI1t, Speakine for the Terrified!" Carn~eie Centre, 401 Main Ideas like that should Street, Vancouver. Closing keep the money tree shaking. date for entries is Dec. 15. RAIN IN CHINATOWN In Chinatown \~hen the rain comes down, There's no cessation Of the celebration, The band plays on, The crowd's not gone, They' re standing yet, Though get ting wet, When rain comes down In Chinatown. Percy Maddux 10 ADVISORY BOARD: WHO'S WHO M p!tom.we.d ~n the. £Mt e.dilion 06 the. Cltuce.nt, we. b~~g you " p!!.06-U'e. 06 me.mbeM 06 CMne.g~e. '/2 Adv-WMY BoMd. Re.