Good things about this area, this community
VANDU is the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and provides peer counselling and advocacy for users in matters of housing, medical aid and needs in a harm reduction model.
Various missions and churches operate programs that involve food, clothing, showers, phones, advocacy, referrals, administration of assistance money, rehab, housing and counselling.
The Help in the Downtown Eastside booklet contains the briefest outline of the many groups, services, agencies and organisations in the neighbourhood as a guide to what the community has. Almost every interest has the same underlying factors affecting expression - poverty, decent housing, drug misuse and substance abuse, safety, recreation, jobs and job opportunities, access to training and education, medical aid and security. Every listing and component of work is, of course, limited by space and even words and only touches the surface. This neighbourhood is much more than just the sum of its parts.
PRT
INT: You come down here quite often to the Carnegie Centre.
MIKKI: Ya, I love the Music Program.
INT: What kind of songs do you sing there?
MIKKI: I like mostly women's songs. We'll Sing in the Sunshine or Dreams or
Angel of the Morning or Blue Bayou.
INT: I've heard you sing the same songs quite often. How does that work? You
don't mind?
MIKKI: Rob (Doucette) said if I don't sing it enough I won't get used to it,
because of stage fright.
INT: I see. What else do you want to talk about in this interview?
MIKKI: Oh, all the nice people who come to Carnegie. They're poor but they don't
make each other feel poor. All the friendship and the love that everybody shares,
they care about each other. We're like a family.
INT: Oh neat. What kind of experience have you had with say one person about
that?
MIKKI: Oh. When I first saw Dean he took a whole bunch of us out for tea, over
at where they're playin' live music...
INT: Where was that?
MIKKI: West End. Where the jazz place used to be. Just over that way by Pigeon
Park somewhere. Ya they had a jazz thing there, a jazz coffeehouse.
INT: So you're dressed for summer today?
MIKKI: Ya...I got the shorts, the tank top, and the nice summer jacket, so I
don't burn (laugh).....I'm glad they don't get sunstroke.
INT: Who?
MIKKI: Me (laugh).
INT: Oh, so what are you going to do after this?
MIKKI: After this probably go home and watch TV like I do every day. Maybe have
a game of Crazy 8s or 21, with Cliff (her husband)...
INT: OK. Thanks very much!
MIKKI: OK, you're welcome.
1 + 1 = 2 (...told ya)
Are the chickens finally coming home to roost? Articles in the
Vancouver Courier and the Georgia Straight have noted the uncomfortably
close connections between Vancouver’s ruling political party, the Non Partisan
Association (NPA), and Gastown merchants. In particular, prominent gaspoid property
owner JP Shason and anti-poor people propagandist, Grant Longhurst, are intimate-ly
tied to Mayor Phil Owen’s NPA Council. Shason, it turns out, is Phil’s bag-man,
while his family company actually does the NPA’s printing. According to Courier
columnist Allen Garr, Shason also pretty much runs the NPA board of directors.
This is the board that gets to decide which people will be allowed to run for
NPA nominations for City Council, Parks Board, and School Board… and whoever
gets Shason’s nod will pretty much be a shoe-in for the election in November.
He lives in Shaughnessy. Longhurst is a communications consultant with a gastown
office who has been involved with the business association. Until recently,
Longhurst was also on the NPA board. He quit so that he could work as an NPA
staffer, running the upcoming election campaign. He lives in North Vancouver.
So what’s the problem with this? We’re all entitled to be politically active.
This is a democracy, after all.
Well, for one thing, Vancouver’s civic politicians are instrumental in deciding
what'll happen to the Downtown Eastside. They decide on the kind of zoning and
land use policies that ultimately determine whether this remains a community
of people with low incomes or becomes a sanitized heritage heaven for yuppies
and tourists. These politicians are all NPA members and therefore close associates
of these two gastown power-brokers. This is no innocent relationship. Shason
has a printing shop in gastown and is one of the area’s major property owners.
The value of his properties will increase depending on decisions made by the
same civic politicians with whom he is so tight. His record on the Downtown
Eastside is pretty dismal. As president of the gastown merchants in the mid-1980s,
he actively lobbied against a pedestrian access route to CRAB Park from the
Downtown Eastside, favouring instead a route at the bottom of Carrall or Abbott
that would help promote gastown business. He has remained a key member of the
gastown business improvement association ever since.
This is a group that has consistently been hostile to actions that would promote
better housing, better services, and improved quality of life for the majority
of people who live in this neighbourhood. Instead, they have actively supported
policies that promote residential displacement, gentrification, and conversion
of residential hotels. [Every business owner in the geographical area called
"Gastown", plotted on some map in 1972, must be a member of the Gastown Business
Improvement Association. Registration is a requirement under City by-laws and
the dues are added onto each business's taxes. It is then used as a political
vehicle, regardless of dissent from individual owners. Ed.]
Longhurst has also been an important player in the gastown business group. A
couple of years ago he put out an expensive piece of poor-bashing propaganda
called The New Downtown, suggesting that the Downtown Eastside was a ghetto
and that gentrification would fix the problem really fast. He also represented
gastown business in the discuss-ions over the Carrall Street tourist corridor.
City Hall has been actively promoting its Downtown Eastside Revitalization Plan,
but how can we really trust the elected politicians who are making decisions
about the future of the neighbourhood when they are so closely associated with
individuals who have consistently attacked this community?
I’m not sure if any of this is a conflict of interest. But given that gastown
businesses and property owners stand to make a lot of money on City Council’s
zoning decisions, it sure smells like one big ethical stinker. (and do ethics
even matter when it comes to profit?)
EA Boyd
Barb H. is one of the newest residents in the Downtown Eastside, but how Barb arrived here is more curious and disturbing than most such tales. At the age of 12 Barb and her family embarked on a wonderful new adventure and moved to southern California from Hamilton Ontario. For Barb her new home was an exciting place, warm and alive with all the sights and sounds of the sixties. Barb lived an ideal kind of adolescence there. In her early twenties Barb went on to marry and give birth to a daughter. Following this her and her husband adopted and took in as foster kids 7 other children, each troubled by abusive backgrounds. For 25 years Barb raised her child and foster kids, enjoyed a happy marriage and had every right to expect a gentle glide in to retirement.. to enjoy the fruits, if you will, of all her labours.
Then tragedy struck. Barb’s husband was stricken with cancer and after a 2 year
battle he died. To add to her grief little insurance money was available so
to help make ends meet Barb allowed a man with a trailer to rent space in her
back yard. Barb heard disturbing rumours of drug dealing but she chose to ignore
them and took the man at his word. He swore no drugs were being sold from out
of his trailer. One evening about 3 1/2 years ago the police raided both the
trailer in her back yard and her home. The man was arrested for dealing speed.
Though Barb did not even know of the man’s involvement the police also arrested
her too. Under a 1996 California law a landlord can be held criminally libel
for any drug dealing done on his or her premises. Barb, a very passive and naïve
suburban housewife and widow, was led away to jail.
Listening too well to her court appointed public defender, Barb signed a plea
bargain, pled guilty and received a 3 year sentence in the California State
Prison system. 16 months were spent in the notorious women’s maximum security
prison at Chowchilla, and the remainder at a minimum security facility called
Live Oaks. Barb did her time but her troubles were far from over. The US Immigration
and Naturalization Service determined that Barb was now unwanted in the USA
and arranged to deport her here to Vancouver.
In spite of her status as a permanent resident and having been married to a
US citizen for 25 years, Barb had no defence. The day she finished her sentence
she was removed to Mann County Jail for 6 weeks then sent to Canada with a handful
of immigration documents, her few belongings and less than $200.00 Canadian.
From the airport she met a fellow deportee and stayed for several nights in
an East Hastings Hotel. From there she spent several nights in a women’s shelter
and found suitable but sparse lodgings also here in the Downtown Eastside, where
simply her view of the streets is, she says, more shocking than anything she
saw in prison.
What can we say about Barb’s plight?
As Canadians we hope such a thing could never happen here. Yet, it was the same
hysterical ‘law and order' screaming and the cry for a “War on Drugs” we hear
here that led to these repressive California laws and their consequences. This
is not to say that our laws haven’t perhaps strayed too far in the opposite
direction; it is to remind us of the consequences when we let our emotions
alone direct and inform our criminal justice system and our laws. And one of
those consequences is that a 50 year old housewife is now living in a place
she doesn’t belong, a living counterpoint to the other ‘immigration’ stories
we hear of today.
Barry Hames
This is the last of three Carnegie Newsletter
articles on a report called Comprehensive
Systems of Care for Drug Users in Switzerland
and Frankfurt, Germany, written by Donald
MacPherson for the Social Planning Department,
city of Vancouver.
We can learn from the Swiss and Germans that
drug use (legal or illegal) is part of the present
world order, and the problems of drug misuse
must be dealt with in a practical way that fosters
the health and safety of all citizens.
We can learn that the stabilization of a drug
user’s life through care and respect is important in
order for that person to take steps towards
improved health. Abstinence can be a goal of
harm reduction programs, but it is not the imme-
diate goal. The immediate goal is the reduction of
drug-related harm to the individual and the
community.
We can learn that drug addiction is a serious
health concern that is inappropriately dealt with
by the criminal justice system. It is time to
separate drug users from the criminal elements in
the illicit drug market, and move towards
adequate health services. The Canton of Geneva
has passed a law that says it you are a drug user,
you must be able to receive treatment without
waiting, and that includes methadone treatment.
The same law states that if you are a drug user
who is not ready to quit, you must have access to
appropriate health and social services.
We can learn to balance the issues of public
health and public order. Sure, harm reduction
programs cost money, hut the savings in hospita-
lization, emergency services, the courts, crime
control, and police time spent dealing with ill
people were significant in Switzerland and Ger-
many, and helped build public support for the
comprehensive programs. Public order increased
with harm reduction programs because they
reduced crime and the street drug scene.
We in Vancouver can learn that without more
resources for harm reduction and treatment
programs in the Lower Mainland, we may
continue to spend a lot of money for the
suppression of drug users without any lasting
effects on the actual harm that individuals and
communities experience as a result of drug use.
We can learn that a comprehensive system of
care for drug users takes a lot of co-operation
among the various branches of government,
including the police. Police in Switzerland and
Frankfurt, Germany, supported harm reduction
programs because they increased public safety and
public order, and the programs enabled the police
to concentrate on the organized crime aspects of
the international drug trade. Business people
supported harm reduction programs because they
created a healthier climate for the tourist trade,
and drug users supported the pro-grams because
they treated them with respect, gave people a
chance to stabilize their situations, and saved
lives.
In his report, Donald suggests that the City of
Vancouver consider an intergovernmental task
force similar to the one set up in Frankfurt, and he
reminds us that the overall objective of our drug
control programs must be to reduce the harm
caused by the misuse of drugs (legal or illegal) for
all citizens - our children, families, friends and
communities.
Donald MacPherson’s report is required reading
for anyone interested in an intelligent, practical
approach to the problem of drug misuse. The
Carnegie Reading Room has copies (ask at the
desk), and copies are available from the Social
Planning Department, City of Vancouver.
Sandy Cameron
There are no words to describe the loss of a child who leaves this world suddenly. One day you are comfortable in knowing you have a son and you are not alone in this world. The next, you must watch your child die. The soul wrenching pain is so hard, that at times you cannot even move. To have this compounded by discovering what our son endured while being “assisted” into an ambulance is something that no family should have to endure. These types of actions should not happen to any person, especially in this country. The family asks all people who were at the scene of Oak Bay and Bank Street (Victoria) on August 11, 1999 to PLEASE call Scott Hall, Lawyer at (250)384-6600. Thank you very much
Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out
they don't.
Joe Paul
We are confined in our understanding of other human beings
by what we know about ourselves
Joe Paul
You were sunny, funny, so special, so beautiful and amazing. We will always love you. We'll miss your music, laughter, spontaneity, cleverness and generosity.
One day around 4pm I sat outside of Carnegie
Centre, watching the actions of many people. At
first all I could see was addictions and drug
dealers. I started jotting down some information -
who are these people swarming the community
centre like bees to honey?
I saw only people with addictions, then looked
over to the bus stop. I noticed people with suits
and others well-dressed, like they were getting
off work - you know, the 9-5 people.
I thought of addicts as people with 9-5 jobs too,
people who could be nurses, building managers or
working with money in a bank…I thought of
addicts and dealers who have to know the cost of
their product and markets. I thought of users
having to know which veins are good and
quantity/quality of dose.
It was amazing to see my thoughts turn into
something totally different.
THOSE people, as some call them, can be
someone one day.
Margaret P.