Latest Classifieds in Letters of Scorn

‘Displacement is not beautiful’: Critics slam Westbank’s Fight for Beauty exhibition, October 22, 2017

Fight For Beauty Exhibition Tent

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.”

Carnegie Community Action Project 2012 Hotel Survey & Housing Report

Carnegie Community Centre

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

COPE Politics

Vancouver City Hall

An archival feedback loop – an email from the Friends…

Notes On Van Housing

Carnegie Community Centre

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.

Letter to Board of Variance from Nicholas K Blomley, Associate Professor of Geography at Simon Fraser University, December 6, 1997

Vancouver City Hall

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.

Board of Variance Appeal No. Z29428: Third Party Appeal of Approval of DE 217797 (4 pages)

Carnegie Community Centre

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.

Letter to City of Vancouver Planning Department from Carnegie Community Action Project

Carnegie Community Centre

“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.”

Letter to the Mayor from Rob Smith (Abbott Mansions), “Making Equity Planning Work in the Face of Power,” City Magazine (Edmonton), Winter 1993

Woodward's

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.

Letter to the Premier from Tenants’ Rights Action Coalition, November 15, 1995

Woodward's

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

Director’s Report, February 2, 1995

Vancouver City Hall

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