2nd Annual Paint-In at the Pantages!

2ND ANNUAL PAINT-IN, PANCAKES, PETTING-ZOO,
AND PROTEST AT THE PANTAGES
Saturday June 2
12Noon
100-Block East Hastings
(in front of the Pantages demolition site)

Last year we gathered in front of Pantages (before it was all knocked down) and painted the walls with visions of a future where everyone in our community is housed and healthy and where no one faces the threat of eviction, displacement, and homelessness. On April 23 the Vancouver Development Permit Board approved the proposal for condos on the Pantages site despite massive DTES community opposition. Come join the community in the street on June 2nd to renew our commitment to fighting this condo project and winning 100% resident controlled social housing on the 100-block of East Hastings. There will be paint, pancakes, a petting zoo, and some speakers too. All you need to bring is your self and your hopes and will to fight for the future of DTES low-income communities.

Be ready for emergency action at the Sequel 138 sales centre!

STOP PANTAGES CONDOS!
-  Boycott Downtown Eastside condos  -  Solidarity with low-income DTES  residents against displacement & homelessness  -

RALLY TO BOYCOTT PANTAGES CONDOS
12NOON
On the day the Sequel 138 sales centre opens
OUTSIDE TINSELTOWN MALL
(Pender Street side at Abbott, in front of McDonald’s)

On April 23 the Vancouver Development Permit Board approved a condo tower on the 100-block of East Hastings. Since then the owner and developer of the Pantages site has been bragging that his “Sequel 138″ condo sales centre is going to open soon.

The Downtown Eastside Not for Developers Coalition is calling for an emergency action the day the Sequel sales centre opens (located on the second floor of Tinseltown Mall).

What you can do

Fill out the Pantages pledge form in order to get on the contact list for this action. You can print it, fill it out, and drop if off at the VANDU office (384 E Hastings) for Aiyanas, type out your answers and contact info and email it to ivandrury@gmail.com, or call one of these contacts: Ivan 604-781-7346, Greg 604-809-1053, Aiyanas 604-315-8766

There is a good chance that the presentation centre will open with very short notice so contact us with your contact information to receive the alert when we take action.

Spread this news around and see if others would like to know when emergency action will be called to stop the sales of this destructive condo project. This is an important test because the city has approved this project despite unanimous local-community opposition. We need to send a message that the DTES low-income community won’t be displaced without a fight, and that this community has friends and allies who are also ready to act.

For more information on the Pantages condos project here. And read community group resolutions against the condos here.

Invitation to a community rat count!

May 21, 2012

YOU’RE INVITED TO A COMMUNITY RAT COUNT

Downtown Eastside residents will hold news conference near a garbage and debris filled lot that has become home to hordes of rats up to 9 inches long. They will talk about how they have been affected and then go to the site to count rats.

Residents want the city to force the owner to clean up the site according to the Standards of Maintenance Bylaw which says “Every owner of land must keep the land, and any building or accessory building on it, in such condition that it will not afford harbourage for or become infested with pests.”

When: Tuesday May 22 at 9:30 pm (late-evening)
Where: Meet on the steps of the Carnegie Centre, 401 Main St.

Contact: Jean Swanson 604 729 2380

City rubber stamps another 10-story condo tower at Main and Keefer

It didn’t make the news, but on May 7th the Vancouver Development Permit Board received an application for yet another condo tower in the Downtown Eastside. The 10-storey, 90+ feet tower on the north-west corner of Main and Keefer (189 Keefer), was presented by its architect, Foad Raffi. For those of us paying attention, Raffi is the Development Permit Board advisory member who was the most outspoken media critic of we opponents of the Pantages condo project just two weeks before his project appeared before the same board. The architect and developer could not get any civilian supporters out to speak in favor of the tower, so everyone who spoke from the public was against. (NOTE: The exception to the media blackout was the great story in The Mainlander)

The Carnegie Community Action Project presented a technical argument outlining how the proposal violates city policy. The DTES Neighbourhood Council criticized it for threatening to displace SRO hotel residents within a block of the project. And the DTES Not for Developers Coalition protested the city process that pushes through condos without any meaningful process of consultation, oversight, or control by those who stand to be most terribly impacted. See the coalition statement, “Better neighbourhood, same neighbours,” below.

The DTES low-income community member formerly known as Homeless Dave was one of the last speakers before the board voted unanimously in favor of the project. After challenging Foad Raffi for not declaring his conflict of interest, even as a point of information, H. Dave asked the board whether they had ever turned a project down. They excitedly perked up for a moment but then deflated, trying to remember which they had turned down just last year.

Dave declared that the board should be renamed the Vancouver Development Approval Board, and offered the suggestion that their new alienating hearing chambers could be decorated with a great fountain the shape of a rubber stamp.

Read the coalition statement against the condo project at 189 Keefer here:

Better neighbourhood, same neighbours
Downtown Eastside Not for Developers statement against the condo development proposal for 189 Keefer St

We are asking that the city of Vancouver Development Permit Board refuse the Development Permit application for a 10-storey condo tower at 189 Keefer Street. This condo proposal threatens existing residents with displacement by gentrification pressures. Condos at189 Keefer violate city policies that are meant to protect the low-income community. Its central tenets, “economic revitalization” and “affordable home ownership,” rest on and enforce the myth that the Vancouver housing crisis can be abated through the sacrifice of lower-income people’s housing in the Downtown Eastside (DTES).

Sequel 138 decision ignores DTES low-income community

Sequel 138 Decision and Process Ignores DTES Low Income Community

By Greg Williams, DTES Not for Developers Coalition & UBC Social Justice Centre

Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories – Last Monday, protected by a phalanx of 21 uniformed police officers, the City of Vancouver’s Development Permit board ignored over six hours of testimony given by members and allies of the DTES low-income community and approved condos at the Pantages site on the 100-block of East Hastings.

Rally at City Hall against Sequel 138: Monday April 23, 2:30pm

Don’t let one man’s property rights outweigh the needs and will of an entire community

Originally published on The Mainlander

Don’t let one man’s property rights outweigh the needs and will of an entire community
By: Ivan Drury

DTES Community organizing against Sequel 138 condos shows united opposition to displacement-by-gentrification and will reveal the priorities of city hall

The date is looming for the City’s Development Permit Board meeting to decide the fate of the Sequel 138 condo proposal. It’s been a year since nine major Downtown Eastside (DTES) community organizations formed a coalition to stop Sequel 138 condos. Their campaign involves thousands of  DTES residents, workers, social housing providers, artists… united in opposition to a bad proposal for a destructive condo project in the heart of the most vulnerable urban community in the country.