Condos Love Culture New Arts Development Brings Creative Placemaking to Chinatown. While arts and culture arent bad things, governments and developers have increasingly instrumentalized them as a way to stimulate market value in marginalized and working class communities. Under intense pressure by the City to develop, BC Artscape is the latest wolf in sheeps clothing making an incursion into Chinatown. When she was a child, Jannie Leung and her dad made regular weekend shopping trips to the Sun Wah Centre at 2. Typing Chinese Windows Vista. Keefer Street. Back then, the mall was bustling, and even had a grocery store in the basement. This experience, she recalls, was formative for me as a Chinese person, going to Chinatown. Anyone who has visited the mall in recent years knows that only a handful of shops remain. In many ways, the building is emblematic of the devastating impact of gentrification on the small businesses that cater to the Chinese community. All of this vacant space, however, makes way for new possibilities. In March of 2. 01. Kha hc ting Anh Chuyn su Cao cp ca chng ti ti inlingua Vancouver c gi l ting Anh Ngi sao Star English. Kha hc ny. The BCIT Bachelor of Business Administration BBA degree provides students the opportunity to enhance the skills developed in their diploma programs. By earning a. Leung, an organizer with Chinatown Action Group CAG, helped coordinate an event on the buildings empty third floor called Untold Stories Voices of Chinatown Seniors. The event invited Chinese seniors to share their stories of living in Chinatown and how gentrification was impacting them. For Leung, the choice of venue was very symbolic, and got her inspired there were all these empty spaces, and we were thinking wouldnt this be amazing if this were a hub for the community, for political organizing, for grassroots organizations    In a prophetic turn, a process began last December to prime the building into a community cultural hub though not quite in the way that Leung had imagined. An upstart organization called BC Artscape signed a 1. Sun Wah Group to rent out 4. Founded in 2. 01. Toronto based Artscape, a not for profit urban development organization with a multi million dollar budget and a glowing reputation among condodevelopers and those who trumpet the virtues of mixed use planning. Among other things the group is infamous for its role redevelopment of Regent Park. The vacated third floor of the Sun Wah Centre. BC Artscape plans on opening this space to its tenants this October. Artscapes method, which they have branded creative placemaking, involves raising public and private capital to purchase or lease underused properties. More often than not the buildings are located in low income neighbourhoods. The spaces are then rented out to professional artists and registered not for profits at below market rates. After a development is up and running, it becomes financially self sufficient, maintaining itself on rent, as well as event rentals. In the case of BC Artscape, the project was also helped with the generous funds a total of 9. City of Vancouver, Van. City Community and the J. W. Mc. Connell Foundation. A match made in real estate heaven. Over the past decade in Toronto, Artscape has become a very attractive partner for developers. There are two main reasons for this. For one, the partnership yields bigger condos. Under Section 3. 7 of Torontos Planning Act, the City will lift height and density restrictions on proposed projects if developers provide community benefits. This elastic term can take the form of park improvements, affordable housing, bike racks, a historical plaque or, yes, arts studios. So developers may concede a few storeys of market housing to Artscape, but in turn the City will grant the developers more floors to develop. Second, and more perniciously, cities and developers have come to recognize the effectiveness of arts and culture at making neighbourhoods more desirable for prospective homeowners. Under the premise that keeping space for artists and creatives will help to preserve an areas je ne sais quoi, developers are more than willing to position themselves as cultural benefactors. Look no further than the 7 million Rize gifted to several Mt. Pleasant based galleries in exchange for the rezoning of its 1. Vancouver has its own version of Section 3. FBRLgUwhhiU/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Vancity Able Program Texas' title='Vancity Able Program Texas' />Community Amenity Contributions. What makes this strategy politically and economically problematic is that cities and developers are actually targeting predominantly low income communities with the intent of increasing land value. And though a few artists may come out with affordable space, this fact is often publicized in ways that obscure the larger processes of gentrification taking place and the displacement that will inevitably follow. Activists have taken to calling this tactic artwashing. Daniels Spectrum is a case in point a 6. Torontos Regent Park. Completed in 2. 01. Artscapes partnership with Daniels Corp., who fronted 4 million out of a total 1. Regent Park was originally built as a public housing project for recent immigrants in the 1. In the 2. 00. 6 census Regent Park housed 1. South Asian, 3. 65 Chinese, and 1. Latin American people. View of Torontos Regent Park in 2. Phase One of its redevelopment. Today, only one of the five original public housing towers seen at right still stands. The community has seen drastic and violent changes since the City launched a massive 1. The three phase project has forced large scale relocation of low income residents their temporary new dwellings were decided by lottery while their homes were demolished and replaced. With the addition of over 3,0. In the wake of such violent displacement, Daniels Spectrum has become the focal point for positive spin about the neighbourhoods transformation. Confoundingly, Artscape is congratulated both for their real estate savvy and their concern for keeping arts and culture in the community. Meanwhile, the hub has become the focal point of a cluster of new condo towers, many of them built by Daniels Corp. Against revitalization. Vancouvers Chinatown is at a similar crossroads. The City earmarked the neighbourhood for economic revitalization in 2. This has since paved the way for a wave of new galleries and upscale developments. BC Artscapes bid at Sun Wah is only the most recent example of this bigger trend, though given the scale of the project not to mention Artscapes reputation in Toronto their intrusion sets a dangerous precedent. The connection between arts and culture and real estate speculation isnt lost on Vincent Tao, librarian at 2. A and another CAG organizer. Artists are the citys favourite kind of poor people, he says. Leung agrees, adding that this top down strategy of bringing in artists is a way to make it more palatable for white, middle class people to move into the neighbourhood. Rest assured, condo developers have been trying. While arts and culture arent bad things, governments and developers have increasingly instrumentalized them as a way to stimulate market value in marginalized and. A trio of experts gave captivated municipal leaders from around B. C. insight into the affordability crisis plaguing parts of the province. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. Just down the street from the Sun Wah Centre, the community has been waging a pitched battle against Beedie Development and its proposed condo tower at 1. Keefer. Both Leung and Tao were involved in organizing the opposition, and spoke at the City Hall hearings during the last week of May, along with over 3. Chinatown residents and concerned citizens. Given the volume of resistance, and perhaps also to maintain some minimal credibility after an awkward heap of controversies about the hearing process, the City rejected Beedies proposal on June 1. Recently the City of Vancouver rejected Beedies proposal for a 1. Keefer Street. The lot remains empty. Vancity Able ProgramgarfieldMSB Friendly Banks well, sort of If youve been in the market for MSB Friendly Bank and have been disappointed for not being able to find any. Vancity Able Program Special NeedsFor community activists, it has been and continues to be an uphill struggle to get a seat at the table. CAG and the Chinatown Concern Group have been fighting to see the land at 1.