Eek -- got the day wrong -- see correct info below

TUESDAY, April 12th not Thursday, April 12th.

From: Carnegie Action [mailto:carnegie.action@shawlink.ca]
Sent: April-11-11 2:27 PM
To: 'Carnegie Action'
Subject: Chinatown towers hearing night # 4: Tomorrow at 6 pm

Hello again to the CCAP email list. If this looks really messy, scroll down to the plain text version below.

Well. It’s been quite the marathon. City council has held three Public Hearings on the possibility of towers in Chinatown, so far. View a complete video stream of the meetings: March 17, 2011; April 5, 2011; April 7, 2011;. The fourth night of the hearing is 6 pm TUESDAY April 12th. Meet at Carnegie for dinner at 5 pm sharp if you need food and transportation. There will likely be one more night: 6 pm April 18th. It’s not too late to get on the end of the speaker’s list. Call Tina, city clerk: 604.873.7268.

Some memorable quotes from speakers, good and bad from April 7th:

Fraser S, hotel resident, DNC board: Condo owners won’t shop in Chinatown stores. There is a fancy pizza place opening up in Chinatown. Yuppie stores and hair salons too. If this is success, I don’t see it.

Don M: Your trickle-down theory does not work. If you aren’t interested in solving the low end housing crisis then at least stop making it worse.

Doug H, Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden Society: Holding Chinatown hostage for social housing would be grossly unfair….Chinatown is entrepreneurial and vital. To oppose that is to deny it’s heritage….We are shocked to find ourselves in the confrontational situation we’re in now. We were shocked to think that people and groups who we feel are outside of Chinatown would ask that this Chinatown planning process be opened to them.

Stephen B, social housing resident: It is true that SUCCESS, the family societies, and business organizations have been consulted, but that’s not good enough. Low income residents have been grossly overlooked in the planning of this process. It seems like the more low-income people don’t know about stuff like this, the greater chance it gets implemented.

Rick L, Shon Yee Society: The relaxation of heights will help because the surrounding area will increase in population. Then we could charge higher rents and could use the revenue to improve the housing in the May Wah hotel.

Eugene M, SFU Geography Prof: Only ½ of SRO’s in Chinatown are owned by societies like his…..We believe that property values and taxes will rise, and subsequently rents will rise. The low income community that exists in the area will be displaced by these changes. Even academics that support gentrification believe that social housing and rent guarantees must be in place before gentrification changes can responsibly be implemented.

Kerry Jang, City councillor: (responding to Eugene): One of the reasons I left the academy is because it can be an ivory tower sometimes.

George Chow, City councillor: I agree that if you look for the market to create affordable housing, then forget it.

Susan Friday, Chinatown resident: I can see why someone living in the New Sun Ah would be suicidal….please and very kindly, hold off on incentives for developers until you can prove to us that we won’t be hurt by gentrification.

Elise C, SFU Professor (one of 36 Profs signing letter against towers): To allow development without communication with residents of Chinatown south is not as dramatic as the displacement of Chinese and First Nations people, but it is on the same principle, that some people don’t matter as much, or at all.

Kerry Jang, City councillor: (responding to Elise): I’m not stuck in some ideal of the past. People move and people leave and that’s what happens in cities.

Stephen G, First United church: For the last 25 years the DTES has been subjected to the forces of gentrification. Over the last 20 years I have heard calls for a local area plan. These calls have been ignored. Instead the city has proceeded with a process of Balkanization that has dealt with development isolated corners of the neighbourhood..

https://sites.google.com/site/fightfor10sites/ --- Everything you need to know from DNC’s point of view about the Chinatown Towers and more.

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/hahr/ --- City’s info about the Chinatown towers

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

Wendy

CCAP/604-839-0379

PLAIN TEXT VERSION:

Hello again to the CCAP email list. If this looks really messy, scroll down to the plain text version below.

Well. It’s been quite the marathon. City council has held three Public Hearings on the possibility of towers in Chinatown, so far. View a complete video stream of the meetings:

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20110317/phea20110317ag.htm

The fourth night of the hearing is 6 pm TUESDAY April 12th. Meet at Carnegie for dinner at 5 pm sharp if you need food and transportation. There will likely be one more night: 6 pm April 18th. It’s not too late to get on the end of the speaker’s list. Call Tina, city clerk: 604.873.7268.

Some memorable quotes from speakers, good and bad from April 7th:

Fraser S, hotel resident, DNC board: Condo owners won’t shop in Chinatown stores. There is a fancy pizza place opening up in Chinatown. Yuppie stores and hair salons too. If this is success, I don’t see it.

Don M, hotel resident: Your trickle-down theory does not work. If you aren’t interested in solving the low end housing crisis then at least stop making it worse.

Doug H, Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden Society: Holding Chinatown hostage for social housing would be grossly unfair….Chinatown is entrepreneurial and vital. To oppose that is to deny it’s heritage….We are shocked to find ourselves in the confrontational situation we’re in now. We were shocked to think that people and groups who we feel are outside of Chinatown would ask that this Chinatown planning process be opened to them.

Stephen B, social housing resident: It is true that SUCCESS, the family societies, and business organizations have been consulted, but that’s not good enough. Low income residents have been grossly overlooked in the planning of this process. It seems like the more low-income people don’t know about stuff like this, the greater chance it gets implemented.

Rick L, Shon Yee Society: The relaxation of heights will help because the surrounding area will increase in population. Then we could charge higher rents and could use the revenue to improve the housing in the May Wah hotel.

Eugene M, SFU Geography Prof: Only ½ of SRO’s in Chinatown are owned by societies like his…..We believe that property values and taxes will rise, and subsequently rents will rise. The low income community that exists in the area will be displaced by these changes. Even academics that support gentrification believe that social housing and rent guarantees must be in place before gentrification changes can responsibly be implemented.

Kerry Jang, City councillor: (responding to Eugene): One of the reasons I left the academy is because it can be an ivory tower sometimes.

George Chow, City councillor: I agree that if you look for the market to create affordable housing, then forget it.

Susan Friday, Chinatown resident: I can see why someone living in the New Sun Ah would be suicidal….please and very kindly, hold off on incentives for developers until you can prove to us that we won’t be hurt by gentrification.

Elise C, SFU Professor (one of 36 Profs signing letter against towers): To allow development without communication with residents of Chinatown south is not as dramatic as the displacement of Chinese and First Nations people, but it is on the same principle, that some people don’t matter as much, or at all.

Kerry Jang, City councillor: (responding to Elise): I’m not stuck in some ideal of the past. People move and people leave and that’s what happens in cities.

Stephen G, First United church: For the last 25 years the DTES has been subjected to the forces of gentrification. Over the last 20 years I have heard calls for a local area plan. These calls have been ignored. Instead the city has proceeded with a process of Balkanization that has dealt with development isolated corners of the neighbourhood..

https://sites.google.com/site/fightfor10sites/ --- Everything you need to know from DNC’s point of view about the Chinatown Towers and more.

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/hahr/ --- City’s info about the Chinatown towers

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

Wendy/CCAP/604-839-0379