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Topic: survivor, vancouver style (Read 394 times)

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survivor, vancouver style
« on: Sep 18^th, 2002, 4:29pm »

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Survivor, Vancouver style

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20020918 /COSULL18/national/national/nationalColumnistsHeadline_temp/4/4/6/

By PAUL SULLIVAN

Wednesday, September 18, 2002 Page A15

It's tough to understand the fuss about reality TV when the real thing is much more interesting. Vancouver's downtown east side, for instance, offers an opportunity that has, so far, eluded even the most imaginative reality-TV producer.

When you step off the cruise ship at Canada Place, they advise you not to go there, as it harbours one of Canada's largest collections of drug addicts and homeless people. In the heart of the downtown east side is Woodward's, a remnant of the days when the area was the ritz, not the pits. Occupying the former department-store building is a band of players who didn't bother to audition. Self-described "aboriginal people and their allies," they say they're not leaving until their demands are met, and of course, no one has any intention of meeting their demands. So the government will enforce a court injunction acquired Monday, and they'll probably all be out of there by tomorrow.

Who needs The Osbournes when this kind of stuff is happening? The back story: The 99-year-old, derelict, rat-infested eight-storey mausoleum was occupied over the weekend when protesters learned a $90-million scheme to redevelop it into 300 social-housing units had been shelved, with Housing Minister George Abbott scorning the scheme as "the fast ferries of affordable housing."

The Minister sought the injunction, ostensibly fearing for the safety of the two dozen or so squatters, who laugh and laugh, pointing out it's a damn sight safer than overnighting on an east-side street.

In truth, the Liberal government is trying to unload the old carcass purchased by the NDP. Crumbling nicely, Woodward's occupies an entire block but a much greater metaphorical space as the border station between the haves and the have-nots. For years, local developers have wanted to recapture Vancouver's icon of faded glory and make it new again, pushing back the border of touristy, pricey Gastown into the places where the ragged people go. And the raggeds are just as determined to hang onto Woodward's.

This not the first time Woodward's has been at the centre of a storm of social unrest. In 1930, 4,000 homeless people looted the store for food. More recently, environmental protesters festooned the giant W atop the building with protest banners, and another group of "infiltrators" launched what can only be described as an extreme archeological expedition into its bowels.

It remains to be seen if the government will be successful in its effort to make some commercial hay out of the site. Mr. Abbott says he hopes social housing will be an element of the redevelopment, but his attempt to demonstrate that laissez-faire capitalism can do a better job than dewy-eyed socialism at providing for the homeless may just be the spark that ignites a protest blaze that has been smouldering since the Liberals took over.

Local social activists have extra time on their hands since the NDP lost the last election. Looking for "allies" and schooled in street theatre, they are sizing up Woodward's as a potential permanent set for an ongoing class-warfare epic. The injunction just adds to its radical chic.

Whether any of this will help the real homeless is hard to tell. According to a detailed July survey for the Greater Vancouver Regional District, housing conditions have never been worse -- one night in January, there were about 1,200 people without a place to live.

So while the Woodward's occupation has a dimension of theatre -- social realist or the absurd, take your pick -- the outcome has a life or death quality for some of us. Go ahead. Turn off your TV, and tune in real life: Survivor Vancouver.
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