What are the chances of the economy in the Downtown Eastside taking off?
Wendy Pedersen
Organizer, Carnegie Community Action Project
"I think it very well could take off because of Woodward's and if there is more condo development that comes into the neighbourhood. I think we could see Gap stores and bigger places in the neighbourhood easily, unless there are some tools to manage change. We don't see what those are. What is going to protect the small-business owner and the low-income renter in the neighbourhood?"
Jorge Mar
Chinatown shop owner
"Not in the near future. Because of the price of gas and the U.S. economy, especially in Chinatown here, we are dependent on the tourists and that doesn't help. The past three years have been going down [in terms of revenues]. Last year, really, we felt the effects of the U.S. economy. This year is the worst. I don't think the city can do much--maybe some cosmetic stuff."
Bernie Magnan
Chief economist, Vancouver Board of Trade
"There are businesses that are already there and doing very well, thank you very much... What we need to do is help the people--and I'm not just talking about those who have a drug and/or a mental-health addiction problem--but also the residents of the Downtown Eastside and their children in making sure they get a proper education so they can succeed in life."
David Eby
Council candidate and DTES-Strathcona resident
"I guess that depends on what you mean by the Downtown Eastside economy. I mean, the Downtown Eastside economy is doing really well. But until we deal with the underlying issues of homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health in the Downtown Eastside community, the Downtown Eastside mainstream economy will never take off."
Fresh from lunch on a balmy Saturday afternoon, Coun. Peter Ladner strolls westward from the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings and confronts Vancouver's socioeconomic underbelly.
Already on this short walkabout, the NPA's mayoral hopeful and two-term councillor has talked with VPD Sgt. Tim Henschel in an alley, where the officer had recovered a stolen city engineering truck. Flustered Chinatown security guard Harold Johnson pulled Ladner aside a minute later to tell him drug users should "start rehab or serve time".
