Ken Sim and Gentrifying the Downtown Eastside

I talk about Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim's plans to gentrify the Downtown Eastside, and how he plans to do it, the criticisms of the plans, and express my initial thoughts about the situation.

Sources:

https://globalnews.ca/news/10974788/vancouver-transform-dtes-pausing-new-social-housing-crime-crackdown/

https://globalnews.ca/news/10976443/downtown-eastside-plan-critics/

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/smacks-of-deportation-mayors-office-pitch-on-helping-dtes-indigenous-residents-relocate-gets-pushback/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentrification

The words I use in the recording may not match the words in the transcript.

Transcript

On January 23, 2025--at a Save Our Streets forum--Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim announced the city's plans to gentrify the Downtown Eastside.

Sim stated he wants to 'break the cycle of hyper-concentrated services' in the DTES, and integrate the neighbourhood into the wider Vancouver community'--and plans to do so by ceasing construction of supportive housing, cracking down on organized and street crime, and encouraging a mix of housing, businesses, and services. In short, Sim's plans for the Downtown Eastside are the definition of gentrification--which, according to Wikipedia, is 'the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment,' particularly in terms of displacing incumbent residents by raising the rents while bringing a variety of businesses to the neighbourhoods being gentrified and sprucing up rundown buildings to be attractive to people with high incomes. 

Sim believing some of the Downtown Eastside's woes being caused by a 'cycle of hyper-concentrated social services' shows his ignorance (perhaps willful) of how the Downtown Eastside got to be how it is in the first place--at the root of which is government at all levels caring more about placating their corporate sponsors than taking care of people.

It heartens me that, almost immediately after Sim announced his plans for the Downtown Eastside, Green party city councillor Pete Fry, Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association (BIA) executive director Landon Hoyt, and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon moved to criticize him. 

Councillor Fry has stated that Sim's decision to cease construction of supportive housing in the Downtown Eastside 'belies lack of comprehension from the mayor on what’s really going on down here" and “It certainly won’t help decentralize some of the concentration that the mayor talks about because if we are saying no more (supportive housing) in the City of Vancouver then really all we are leaving is a further concentration in the Downtown Eastside; he states further that supportive housing doesn’t just refer to the stereotype of low-barrier social housing for people with addictions or mental health problems, but also seniors housing, people with disabilities, and recovery housing--those are all forms of supportive housing.

Hoyt added that supportive housing facilities in the neighbourhood tended to be the ones with the fewest problems, saying that the BIA gets the majority of its calls related to safety or cleaning from the private single-room occupancy or “slum-oriented” buildings in the neighbourhood. He further stated that, “Supportive housing is something this neighbourhood actually needs more of because that’s the kind of housing that provides access to services, clinical care, food, that sort of thing that people really need to prevent them from falling into homelessness in the first place. We were pretty shocked and a bit concerned with the announcement.”

Kahlon, for his part, stated that Sim has yet to offer specific details about how services should be revamped in the city, or how new construction would be paused. 

then, on February 26, CTV News reported a leaked memo from Trevor Ford, Sim's chief of staff, suggesting the City of Vancouver 'convene a roundtable focused on helping Indigenous people living on the Downtown Eastside move out of the city and return to their home communities,' calling it a 'Reunification Roundtable' and framed as a step towards reconciliation--but Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, says it "smacks of deportation"; Phillip also states, "The dream on the part of the city council has always been to transform the Downtown Eastside into another Yaletown." Sim insists no one will be forced out of the Downtown Eastside, and claims that the offer to 'return home' could apply to anyone--even though
the memo singles out Indigenous citizens. Jade Diamond Doolan of the All Nations Outreach Society says, "They need to be a part of this community to help this community. They can’t just make a decision and tell other people to do it. People will listen to people that they trust.”

As far as I'm concerned, this latest news is just more proof of Mayor Ken Sin's inability--or, more to the point, unwillingness--to consider that his decisions have the potential to hurt others, even when he actually thinks those people will benefit. And, given what I've seen of his actions during his time as mayor, I have a strong feeling he won't listen to views opposing his own on this issue--nor will he let them stop him from carrying out his plans.