Latest Classifieds in Letters of Scorn

This article for CBC News was one of the first to openly criticize Westbank’s Fight for Beauty exhibition for being ignorant of the neighbourhood and cultural impacts of large scale luxury developments. With regards to Fight For Beauty, Michael Braun, Westbank’s marketing and sales director, is quoted saying, “It’s philanthropy, in a way.”

The excerpts above represent the pages of the CCAP 2012 Hotel Survey & Housing Report related to the neighbourhood impact of the Woodward’s Redevelopment.

An archival feedback loop – an email from the Friends…

This research summarizes the fight for social housing in the 1990s, the promises that were made and broken, and the overall tension between the Downtown Eastside and low-income residents, Gastown residents, developers and the City.

Many of Blomley’s speculations about gentrification and increased marginalization came true when the Woodward’s site was finally redeveloped by Westbank Corporation years later.

Prepared by representatives of the Woodward’s Co-Op/Woodward’s Committee, this draft appeal outlines hardships of the low-income communities surrounding the Woodward’s site and past promises related to the Woodward’s site.

“It is the responsibility of the Development Permit Board to ensure that in their effort to ‘revitalise’ the Downtown Eastside that it is not at the sacrifice of displacing the existing low-income community.”

Smith suggests that SRO hotel renovations are only short-term strategies, and that the community needs a long-term social housing strategy, which could include Woodward’s.

“The Woodward’s re-development will be a bellwether for the Downtown Eastside.”

The author remarks that while some City of Vancouver staff “pressed the issue of social housing,” it didn’t seem like a priority