N E W S L E T T E R April IS, 1996 - 401 Main Street, Vancouver. V6A 2T7 (604) 665-2289

in

lastside Story, on display in the 3rd floor gallery until April 24th.

- every Wednesday starting at 5:30p.m. - only $1.25

TEN YEARS AND COUNTING

Ten years ago this week, a gentle old man with a long white beard died in our midst. Olaf Solheim was 87 years old, but his death on April 18, 1986 has to be classified as premature. Olaf was one of the legion of long-term residents

to be turfed out of their homes by hotel owners to make way for rich Expo '86 tourists. He just wandered the streets for a few weeks, then gave up the ghost. As Dr. John Blatherwick, the city's medical health

officer said, "The spark went out of him after the eviction, and he just said, that's it. This was a man whose way of life was completely disrupted. He was conscious of what he was doing. He just stopped living." For more than 40 years, the retired, Norwegian-

born logger had lived in the Patricia Hotel. But that didn't cut any ice with his landlord. After he died, the manager of the Patricia, Max Mitchele, was asked why he didn't let Olaf stay, and he replied, "We're not a nursing home." That's the kind of attitude that typified the Expo school of human relations. For some, Expo was a way to make a lot of

money fast. Forbothers, it was a big party. For this neighborhood, it was a trauma and a tragedy. Hundreds of people lost their homes, leading to ill health and in some cases even death. Ten years later, we're still grappling with the same big problem - the insecurity of most low-income housing. We got a big scare with the casino proposal last

year. The evictions would have started again, but on a larger scale, and more permanent. Thanks in p@ to the lessons of Expo, we were able to rally support and defeat the casino. We've created our own positive Expo legacy in all

the new social housing projects in the neighborhood. Now hundreds of residents can never be deprived of their homes. But the loss of low-income housing continues at a

steady drip-drip-drip pace. In the 1 99O's, an average of 95 units have been phased out in the downtown area each year, through demolition or conversions to other uses.

We're getting hit fiom two directions at the same time. * The feds - first, the Tories, now their mirror

images, the Liberals - have pulled out of social housing. They used to f b d two-thirds of new projects; now, nothing.

Under the NDP, B.C. is the only province that is still actively building housing, but it's not enough. There were no projects approved last year in the Downtown Eastside, and even the massive Woodward's project, welcome as it is, will only add 200 low-income units to the total. * The yuppie invasion threatens to speed up the

process. As buildings go upscale, the owners of Neighbouring buildings start thinking how they can make more money, and that invariably means kicking out the long-term residents, the very people whose rent has paid off their mortgages for them in the first place. In the Victory Square area alone, the city wants to foster construction of 2,500 condos, which would swamp the community living in 750 low-income hotel and social housing units. The city says it is committed to preserving the affordable housing, but without an anti-demolition bylaw or at least an iron-clad requirement that every unit taken down be replaced, it's just a paper promise. So while you're figuring out how to get us out of

this mess, take a walk down the 200-block of Union Street, near the Georgia Viaduct, and contemplate that large new brick residential building. That's Solheim Place, the secure and affordable

home for hundreds of lucky Downtown Eastsiders, built by DERA and named in memory of Olaf. In Norwegian, Solheim means Sunny Home. A

nice thought, and a bottom-line necessity for all the residents of our community.

Joe Annato

Are you interested in participating in a 2 year self-help project for women on social assistance? If your answer is yes, you can attend an information

meeting on I

Fridav. April 26, 1996 l a m . - 3p.m.

If you can't attend the meeting please call Barb Wloney at

876-4297 The purpose of the meeting is to

provide details of how the project will work and to find out if there is

sufficient interest in the program.

lrene Schmidt 5

lrene is very proud of her son Wayne who is a musician. Well Irene, Carnegie is proud of you. Proud of all the Volunteering you do, and your work in the community. Carnegie has nominated Irene as our VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR. Congratulations Irene. There will be a big Volunteer Awards party on the 25th. Irene's ventures are too numerous to mention, but

I will list a few here. First and foremost she is a writer, a busy Carnegie activist, and member of the Green Party. Irene can be seen in the Downtown Eastside, interviewing desperate people and fighting for the rights of the poor and needy. As a member of the Green Party, Irene has a strong desire to take ~i~ McPhail's place, and has been touring parts of British Columbia in that capacity. Among Irene's latest activities is the Carnegie

Learning Centre's social studies class, "The Downtown Eastside Story." where she went out with one of the students and took several pictures of buildings in the Downtown Eastside. Irene almost got assaulted taking a photo without a drug dealer's permission. She had no idea he was working. Irene's photos and stories are on display in the Carnegie 3rd floor gallery, as part of the project. Irene lost a parent last year and had to travel back

and forth fiom Vancouver Island to take care of all the responsibilities required when losing a parent. Wayne has had gigs in Vancouver and toured with his band, which is a pleasure for Irene. She likes to go along to watch his band, or stay behind and house sit. Irene's stories come from her wealth of experience in Saskatchewan. One of several children in a farming family, she had to work hard over summers and learned that working as a team was important. She is writing her family history from information found in diaries. Thanks Irene. We appreciate your abundant

energy as a member of the Carnegie Board, and as an example of the enthusiasm volunteers display when dedicated to causes. Dora Sanders

FWSEk r i ., FlTUTE DISRUPTS ELP RALLY - i J volunteer ~ e c ~ g n i t i o *

! April 1 st was dark and stormy, but an enthusiastic Week Events! crowd of sixty-five people showed up for the ELP rally at the Fraser Institute to protest the death of the Canada Assistance Plan and the birth of the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) that cut $7 billion in transfex payments for health, education and welfhre, and eliminated national standards for social assistance. The Raging Grannies began the event with songs SUNDAY. APAO A 14 that described how the Fraser Institute represented ' VOLUNTEER PARTY the interests of Big Business. Then the i % ~ - 5:00pm; THrATRE

distinguished Labour historian and representative / (Rsffia Included]

from an Old Age Pensioners' Organization, Ben Swankey, spoke on how the Fraser Institate 7:00 - 10:00bm: THEATRE

w g SENIOR'S PITCH 'N' P U U 11:OOam - COOpm c/gh up Mffi h d y of Amy

IASER TAG 2:OO - 5:OOpm

up ulffi &dy m Amy

CULTURAL SHARING

. . - -

wanted to abolish the minimum wage and replace social programs with private charity. Dwing a skit by the Elpfiil Players, a bulky figure over six feet tail with a moon face free of wrinkles appeared among us, handing out Fraser Institute propaganda. Yes, it was Michael Walker himself who had come to disrupt the ELP rally. No ELP Security was present to head him off, and he worked his way to the front of the demonstration as the crowd became increasingly uneasy with his presence. Economist Marjorie Cohen from Simon Fraser University was the next speaker, and she trashed the laissez-faire economic policies of the Fraser Institute which have never worked, and never will work, for ordinary people. Michael Walker loomed behind her with an arrogant smile on his cwporate face, and when she was finished, he

stepped forward and spoke into the microphones of the assembled media ' This was too much for the crowd and the meeting degenerated into a shouting match. One eighty year old Raging Granny shook her tambourine in Walker's face. Others chanted "Shame" and "Corporate welfare bums." Sheila Baxter placed herself between Walker and a young man with fire in his eye. "Michael Walker would love to incite a riot," Sheila said. Finally Walker went inside the building, and he was followed by most of the media Fred Muzin of the Hospital Employee's Union, Michael Gardener of the Canadian F e d d o n of Students, and person from tho British Columbia Teachers' Federation, and Sheila Baxter all spoke, but the media would report the screaming match, not the injustice of the CHST. On December 24, 1992, an article by Michael Wslker appeared in The Toronto Star. It was entitled "Dickens was wrong: miserly Scrooge was a hero." The next time you read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, remember that according to Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute, Dickens was wrong, and Scrooge was a hero.

Sandy Cameron

SIGHT SEEING 12:00am - 5:00pm "TREV DEALEYT MUSEUM" 'RAINFOREST REPTILE REFUGE" (lunch Included) Lign up d t f ~ Son& ot Amy

w g ~ ~ g s ~ ~ y . 07 VOLUNTEER DINNER 630bm; THEATRE . .

VIDEO NIGHT FEATURING: LREE WILL Y1& 2 6:00pm - 10:OOpm; THEATRE (Open fot evet yohe)

VOLUNTEER BINGO 2:00 - 6:OOpm (ptizer) S&n up w/ih Amy or Sandy

DANCE FEATURING: TAMMY'S BROTHER 'RUYTHM AND BLUES" 7:OOpm - 1O:OOpm; THEATRE (Open to eretyone)

ZQ

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION GARDEN STROLLS -

MKS TQ; ANTHONY SET0 (NON-FICTION DESIGN) DIANE MACFARLANE &CHRIS WEBSTER GEORGE NICHOLAS EVELYNE SALLER CENTRE OUT OF T H E WORLD - LASER, TAG RAINFOREST REPTILE REFUGE H. & R. MACMILLAN PLANETARIUM

"BLOEDEL CONSERVATORY" "VAN-DUSEN GARDENS"

BLOEDEL CONSERVATORY

"STANLEY PARK AQUARIUM' FIREHALL THEATRE PURDYT CHOCOLATES

sign up wlth Amy or Sen& Whore donut/onr mude the eeIebt4tfon of Voiunteer Reeogn/tfon Week poss/b/e.

TMURSRAv. 01 MAT BAILEY STADIUM 12:30am -5:OOpm S&n up w/th Amy or &ndY

SENIORS COFFEE SELLERS DINNER THE KEG 2:OOpm - 11 S&n up w/th Bev N n n m or Mike Renn/e

VIDEO NIGHT FEATURING: COCOON &

COCOON THE RETURN 6:OOpm - 10:OOpm; THEATRE

Rhythm & Blues

FRODAY ADRO& 09 SARTl& MARINA WALK CRESENT BEACH 10:OOam - 5:OOpm $ g n up 4 t h M4rIn4

VOLUNTEER POOL TOURNEY 11:OOam - 2:OOpm; POOL ROOM Open to 8// volunteers. No membe&/p requ/red

Friday, April 19

Theatre EVERYONE WELCOME

NEWS UPDATE FROM THE A p r i l 10, 1996

OODWARDS COMMITTEE

I For nearly ten years, various members of the community have been trying to convert Woodwards into housing for local Downtown Eastsiders. From time to time, we came close to having a deal, and then things would fall apart.

The project was considered too big, too expensive, too risky.

After Woodwards closed, and at least three developers had tried to put together a plan, Fama Holdings Ltd. of West Vancouver acquired the option to buy Woodwards. Their plan at the time was to turn it into condos.

When Downtown Eastsiders heard Woodwards might go condo, they became active. Cmegie organized a campaign involving everyone who cared about the fbture of Woodwards.

Other groups supported the movement and marched and demonstrated to indicate their conviction that Woodwards belongs to all of us. Even the children From Four Sisters and others turned up time and again to paint the Woodwards windows with their vision for housing at Woodwards.

The tide turned when Mike Harcourt, then premier and MLA for our neighborhood, announced the province would provide funding for 200 units of

housing at Woodwards. At about the same time, Farna exercised its option and bought the building

,A group of Downtown Eastside ! residents fiom a variety of groups who had been involved in the campaign formed to make sure that Downtown Eastsiders remained powerfbl stakeholders in the development of Woodwards for the community.

We know that even with the best intentions by the province, unless residents are key participants of the process, we have no guarantee of success. We called on Jim Green because of his experience and expertise in developing affordable housing to

represent us at the table and work for the community interest.

The Woodwards Committee then began the work of articulating the principles of the group on how Woodwards should be developed. These included:

* All units to be self-contained (include kitchen and bathroom).

* To house low-income residents now living in substandard housing in the Downtown Eastside. including singles and

couples (all ages), family units (including larger than three bedrooms), and appropriately modified units for people with disabilities

* The Woodwards partnership is one community with common governance and integrated neighborhoods that are not divided by social class or household type.

* Commercial component should reflect the values and needs of the resident community

* Minimum of one-third the total residential development be deep-core need. Residents not require specialized, fill time services (medical or other s taq.

The Committee continues to meet regularly and sub-committees have been formed to carry out the work generated by the project and to create the best housing possible.

There is tons of work to be done, and anyone from the communtty who wants to

get involved is more than welcome. A good place to start is with the

Commercial Space Committee, which is looking at possible community social and recreation services for the first three floors of the building (contact Lore Krill of Four Sisters. 682-1 948). . -

In order to formally apply for developing the housing, a Co-op group has been formed as a non-profit society. So far, this group is drawn from members of the Woodwards Committee and are committed to seeing the project through to compleition.

They are Downtown Eastsiders who have a very strong comrnittment to their community, and collectively possess a clear. view of the housing needs, as well as experience in runnin~ their own housinp

Love Yourself More ... and More ... and More. ..

Anythmg that has a shape must crumble. Anything that is in a flock must disband. We are all alone in this world, like bees buzzing in the midst of conked pain. Our forms are as various as light glistening off water. We offer this prayer to you; May we develop Compassion as boundless as the sky so that all beings will come to rest in the Clear Llght of their own awareness.

-Tibetan Buddhist Litany

Buddhism teaches that all beings are basically love looking for love. Yet, ironically, many, when they do encounter the love they have sought, run away fiom it, thinking that they do not deserve it. l%us starting the cycle all over again. Yet again, according to Buddhism, karma was started accidentally, long ago, through a case of "slightly saddened love," where an offer of love was spurned, or betrayed. This s m e d the wheel rolling. But this saddened love referred to is not the love

of the Unborn, the Undying, the Unformed and the Uncreated. Rather this love is the one of "I love, I want, I am hurt, I am happy, I am sad." But if the term "slightly saddened love" weren't used, no one would understand it.

( we tend to judge ow own lives more critically than those around us judge our lives. We think people are making fim of us, but since they have not gone through EXACTLY the same experiences, their emotional investment is not the same. We are, after all, our own worst critics. According to the "New Morality," it is supposed

to be more important whether you drive a CFC emitting car than whether of not you give someone a kind word, more important whether or not you

smoke than whether or not you cast a smile in a needed direction, more important whether or not you meditate than whether or not you write mean letters. (Recently, 1 was the recipient of a punch in the

head because of the accumulated karma of my past mean letters, and if there is a silver lining to this black cloud, it has aborted any future embryonic mean letters I would have written.) So take the time to be kind to, or to smile at

someone and do not forget to be kind to yourself. Try YOU best, anyway. The problem is we all have been told at one time or another, (and thus some of us believe) that we are such bad people- and this truly is not so - getting back to the slightly saddened love. You are not fools so don't treat yourself as if YOU

are. Underneath that surface of pain is a Being of Light that shines like a glimmering jewel. Ultimately, each of us is here for a reason.

Dean KO

flewsletter of the Carnegie

Community a c t i o n project

Want to get involved? Call 689-0397 or April 1996 Come see us at the Carnegie (2nd floor)

Where Will You Go?

The changes facing the Downtown Eastside are becoming clearer all the time. So far, we have been worried that hotels would get bulldozed, as the land on which they sit becomes too expensive to house poor people. But do you notice something else going on? Hotels are being renovated and rooms rented out at slightly higher rents. Not outrageous rents, but just enough to discourage people on welfare or with the minimum pension from living there.

Back at Expo, a number of hotels evicted their long-time tenants in order to renovate for the tourist trade. After Expo, places like the Patricia, the Niagara and the Marble Arch kept quite a few rooms for over-night rentals and tourists. They also increased the rents on many of their monthly rooms to discourage single people on GAIN from renting there.

It's starting to happen again.

In This Issue:

- Where Will You Go?

- The Developer's Real Agenda

- Participate in Community Walks

The Cambie, which converted last year into a $40 per night bed and breakfast, now advertises for tenants in the Georgia Straight. The Chelsea Inn at 33A West Hastings advertises rooms in the Straight, as "ideal for students, artists, tourists and working people" in the "Gastown area." When you call the number in the ad, they quote rents ranging from $375 to $400. (cont. over)

(cont.) And now the Columbia Hotel, which got serious heat from the City, DERA and the Residential Tenancy Branch last year over the conditions in the building, is upgrading its rooms. For $375 a month. you can rent a room there with a polished hard-wood floor. The rooms don't include kitchen facilities, however, unless you want to buy your own hot plate. If you do, apparently they'll give you a small fridge.

Who is living in these newly renovated rooms? Not the traditional Downtown Eastside resident. These rooms are being rented out to artists, travellers, and young people who work at low-paying, service-sector jobs downtown.

The 'Downtown Crowd' of lawyers, bankers, stock brokers, and other professionals have money to spend and they need people to serve then in trendy coffee shops and restaurants, clothing stores, sports equipment stores, night clubs, and bars, etc, etc. They also need people to work for them cheaply, like secretaries, couriers, janitors, etc. With the average rent on a one bedroom in the West End hovering around $640 a month, these young wage-slaves are now taking up rooms in the Downtown Eastside.

As places for workers are needed, advantage is taken and money is made in cheap renovations and higher rents. The City is relieved that the low-rent housing stock is "maintained."

So everyone is happy. Except for the people who now live in Downtown Eastside hotels. Some will be able to afford the new rents. But what about those who can't? Jf you find that you are with the majority of people who get priced out of what is now the lowest rent housing in the city, where will you go?

We'll take a look at this question in the next newsletter.

T H E DEVELOPERS'

They said the waterfront casino deal. They said there would ne rent housing in the Woodward's building. They were wrong.

Well, now they are saying the developers' agenda is inevitable. They say we'll never . -

stop it. They say the Downtown Eastside will disappear, the community will be uprooted, and we'll get pushed out.

If you have any doubt the developer's real agenda, take a look at the Van Home condos at 8 East Cordova and Carrall St. There's an old CPR right-of-way, which cuts through that property like an alley. Developer Bradley Holmes agreed to keep this right of way as a public open space. In return, the City let him build an extra four stories on his condo project building, making that building into the tallest structure East of the city core.

Then Holmes pushed City Hall further by enticing City officials to allow the fencing off of this public property and the installation of infra-red cameras. The property was confiscated frotn local people. He got his extra 4 stories, and now he gets to make the CPR right of way into a private park, as well. That's why some people call this place Fort Cordova.

REAL AGENDA

"As for

the down and o u e r s who call the area

home," reported the Courier, "they'll be

pushed further eas t and south. 'They

get moved along; they ge t kicked out.

Those poor buggers are used t o it."'

Just last summer, in BC Report, former city councillor Jonathan Baker asked "Why should the poor be guaranteed to live downtown, rlght m the middle of what is becoming a high-rentdistrict?" When the high rents push people out of their homes, Baker says "they'll go wherever aging housing stock is -- anywhere."

There you have it in a very few words: the developers' real agenda is to push out the community and bring in property owners who can afford to pay higher prices for the land and buildings. The problem with the formula is that there is nowhere else for people in the Downtown Eastside to move to.

Well, they've been wrong before. The latest on Woodwards is the inclusion of 2 10 low- rent suites. And extravagant plans and proposals surrounding the casino are now

history. Participation and involvement

paid. Together, we can also help ward

And that's what all this development activity off greedy manipulations which take really seems to be about. SFU business professor, Lindsay Meredith, let the real agenda. slip out as he was boosting Holmes'

away public r ights and ownership. Let's

prove them wrong about the developers'

condos in the Vancouver Courier. agenda, too.

Community-Care

- The first of a series of walks starts Friday April 19 at

12:30pm I from the Carnegie Building (front door). :=-4.=-

ir Come explore the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood 5 -< '. Leam about the History of this Community

< Help Define the Boundaries of our .X

-2

Fraser Institute

Speech I gave at the Fraser Institute April 1st

This Institute puts out books and dishonest that lies to the media and the public and

governments about poverty solutions, and sadly they lie and misrepresent poor people. They lie about we the poor THEY LIE THEY LIE THEY LIE OH HOW THEY LIE preaching a right wing gospel the message is clear. Love of money - competition - dog eat dog philosophy Love of Rich international corporations and banks Love of inflated bank interest re: the deficit Love of power over the unemployed Love of destroying unions, making workers

powerless, jobless. Love of abandoning U.I., minimum wage, welfare, medicare, free education Love of smashing our social safety net that keeps Canada Canada and not a third world country Love of bringing back the English Poor Laws of 160 1 that said: Hang the able-bodied if they beg when there's no work - cut off their ears Families went to work houses The children went to orphanages Love of implementing those English Poor Laws where workers had no rights and women couldn't vote The English Poor Laws have never died they are alive and well and the F r k r Institute

Rule Britannia

Sheila Baxter L We do have a two tiered health system ,

I fell last Christmas hurt my leg and knee X-rays showed a small loose piece Painfully swollen - couldn't walk on it Knee doctor said it was grinding that I needed a leg scan of some kind, before s w w St. Paul's X-ray department prioritizes their list. I was told I had to wait till August I was in so much pain, 1 went to see the Head of X-ray. 9 months seems to be a cruel wait I was and am in pain.

He, a tall man, told me they had only two machines - they were busy with long waiting lists he said if you don't want to wait you can go and

gav to get it done. I responded in tears that I didn't have money for this - I already have one knee replacement - If I have to wait a year 1 will need another one - That's two years out of my life. Pain killing anti-inflammatories etc. cost money - if the government doesn't care about my pain - Think about the money a new knee, all these pills are costing the system. Suggestions please.

S. Baxter

"He was struggling with a stone. Sometimes he managed to lift it high up into the air, and then he would laugh. But the stone would always sink down again, and then the ghost would scream horribly. "

s A Little Fable (Kafka) Alas, said the mouse, "the world is growing

smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and T was glad when at last T saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that T am in the last chamber already, and there in the c o r d stands the trap that T must run into." "You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up.

d Two days ago, I saw a dishevelled looking

man come halfway up the circular stairs, stop in his tracks and say, "oh, dear, not here, not here at all," after which he left quickly.

One night a long time ago, a woman in the fishing village of V.. . saw her father, whom she knew was at sea at the time, standing by her bed. He was dripping wet. She thought that she perhaps had been dreaming. But the next morning, she found wet tracks on the floor, and she clearly saw a mark shere he had turned on his heels when he walked away. The very same night her father drowned at

sea.

Not long before that, a young witch had peered down the stairs, laughing smugly to herself

x Someplace in West J..., folks were cutting

grass on a meadow by a river, when they heard a voice from the water: "The hour has come, but not the man!" Shortly after, a man came running as fast as

he could and wanted to wade through the river. But they stopped him, saying that he must not cross the river; if he did, he would drown. "Give me some water to drink, then," he said.

'Tm so thirsty." They fetched some water for him, but as soon

as he drank it, he collapsed and died.

Tt has been raining for a long time, and that is why we are all acting ;*c so strangely.

-A witch by the name of F.. . H.. . once sailed on a millstone across S.. .fjord near K.. . . She stuck a broom handle through the hole in the millstone. On her way she passed someone she knew

and shouted to him not to call her by name. The man was stupid enough to do what she asked. If he had called her, she would have sunk.

X T mean, the endless grey blanket seems to

disguise the smithereens of our lives, until there is nothing apparent left at all. A f l u e blanket with broken glass in it

One evening an old man from .. came You came to the workshop and took copious fi-om work and met li~llself. A week and a half notes. Ran up to your room. Came down again. later, he was dead. Ran up to your room. Came back. Sat and listened

-AL to the other tenants comment on the changes that ' r

be carefbl of your hands will occur in this area. Eighteen. ,/ And so now you are gone. in northern lands \ '- - b ~ v l d oublish t t v month a'death \ (

in the south - \ , , -, TI, ,/?; :sigh and hi& .. // watch your mouth / ( \ - q \ , , - / , 1 . \\ , \ Y ,

-x. // . / \/.<

A cock had some cats as his litter-bearers. As ,,>'

, ./ /

A ,5 . '

he thus palanquined in sprawling languor, a . '-. /'

fox stepped up beside him and said: "I advise / , L' /' , A '

you to watch out for treachery; if you looked ranrtu u 4 ~ 0 - 4 d i 7 r by closely into the faces of those bearers, you Feeney might conclude that they are not porters with a load, but hunters bringing home their booty."

besop)

- - - - - - - - - - . Crltlcs thought ;Z%L (41 too violent I

m yil JV( fib. into art1 I'll kill you!

IF THAT'S YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IN

-

hat's it all in aid of? They say all these film shoots help economy. Well, I say, that attitude

worthy of an uptown pimp.

With few exceptions (like Legends of The Fall) most street scenes have violent contents. All over north america, a mfljority of

ordinary people are saying there's too much vimlence in the movies & on TV. Most of us agree there is too much

violence on film, but when the makers of this distructive crap show ap with their big bucks and ask our civic leaders if they can film a few explo- sions, high speed car chases, or mid- night gunfights, our leaders say 'to hell with non-violence, we want the money ! '

b When will city hall and our com-

LIHE, BUB, YOU'RE LAUGHING. Jmunity leaders get their consciences

While pausing to read the ''bad trick'' sheet on the window of the community Cop Shop on Hastings, out of the blue I was interrupted by the words: "SIr, we're about to shoot. you please move along." Instead of telling the speaker of the

words to f---- off, I ignored him and continued to read. But my concentration was shot, and after a few I did move along. How many times in the past coupla

Years, I wondered, have I had to go out of my way because camera crew had taken over a bloek of the DEside How many more times would I get that

cheap sinking feeling of being dispos- sessed of freedom of movement in my own community by some not so cheap tax write off artists. These people spread money around from

city hall to indisposed shopkeepers, for the right to move in and take over. They have uniformed police to enforce their bully-boy "move along" authority, and all we can do is grin and bear it. But that response is wearing thin.

together and stop offering up our streets to the providers of this violent tripe of such little artistic value. When will they stop treating down-

town Vancouver like an expensive whore.

BE OPENLY DISCRIMINATING, BIASED, SELECTIVE --IT'S YOUR CITY!

a hint for the powersthat be: when the production company shows up, ask to read their script. It won't take more than a half-hour of reading to ascertain if the proposed film has artistic value that would do ~ancouverk

streets,backdrop proud. that case you sa$ yes, and take their money. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ e l y , a few minutes of script

reading will reveal if violence is the main attraction, and in that case, you say thanks, but no thanks. screw the economy, ~f I'm going to

continue to be inconvenienced by film crews, let it be for something of the film industry, society as a whole, and our pride of v ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .

Garry Gust

Reggie's Christmas Story

Oh I don't know its hard for me to remember one Christmas story. I kinda like t9 or the way I remember them any way is more like ajumble of lots of different things at once. One of my favorites was what happened to this fiiend of my dad. His name was Ian and he drove for Advance taxi cabs. They had those great Slant sixes in those days anyway Ian was driving this guy somewhere, I don't remember where and the guy left a Christmas package in the cab when he got dropped off. At first Ian never even seen the package so he didn't reaUy know it was there. I don't know finally he's parked beside this friend of his from Toms Taxi and their yakking away. Remember those guys, anyway they're shooting the breeze and this other guy says: "Hey look there's some package in the back of

your car." So Ian takes a look and sure enough there's a

package. Its sort of not too big or not too small but its pretty good medium size. At first he thinks he would just keep it but he feels like that's not very fair so he tries to remember which one of his customers could of left it. Maybe he'll get a reward or something. He shakes it up trying to decide what's inside, he even smells it, but it doesn't help. Finally he remembers that there was only one guy who sat in the back of his car that night. Everyone else sat in fiont and talked to him. So he tries to remember where he let the guy off. Well that wasn't going to be that easy because sometimes Ian wouldn't turn the meter off if vou know what I mean. The records like didn't alwavs. YOU know. they sometimes didn't show every&;. ~nyway' Ian figures out that it's probably this guy he let off q- ' at Scotts on Granville, do you remember that place,

" its gone now it used to be up by the old clock there on Granville. So he goes up to the restaurant and even this hour's latehe describes this guy to his

friend Mary who is a waitress at the place. Well it turns out that Mary does remember this guy and tells Ian he headed out to the race track after his veal cutlets dinner. So Ian kinda hums and haws he doesn't really

know what to do but he decides what the hell I'll take a chance, so off he goes to the P.N.E. Almost as soon as he's turning off on to Renfiew there he realizes maybe its not such a good idea after all. He figures he'll never find this guy so what the hell is he doing. So he turns his light back on and someone starts to flag him right away. Now Ian can tell this guy is two sheets to the wind but he looks friendly and Ian decides to pick him up. They guy wants to go home I cgn't remember exactly where that was somewhere near Rupert I think. Anyway they get to this guys house and tells Ian that he probably doesn't have the money for the cab because he lost it all at the track. Ian figures he lost a hell of a lot of it in the bar. So then he says he'll go into the house to get somedung for Ian 1 and he'll be right back. Ian had been in this situation before he'd get a watch or even a tool box, so he decides to wait. Well the guy comes out of his house with a bejesses TV he almost trips over the cords danghg from the back, throws the thing in the back of Ian's cab and starts to kinda stagger away. Ian yells at him: "Hey," he says, "take this you can give it to somebody if you want." Ian mds-him the package. They guys p&ky out of it he doesn't really know what's going on but he takes the dung and goes inside. Anyway that's one of my fkvorite Christmas stories. I always try to imagine the look on the guys face when he wakes up see a package instead of a TV. I hope everybody is OK and my dad used to tell me You Gotta Go with the Flow. 1 hope everybody is OK all year round!

Reggie

1

Poet had a choice of gutters : Emerging from a terrible childhood, ~ b d Osborn I

I

has managed to get it together at list- - I

1 townEastside. It3 fdutjiears and count- hospitals, first in the U.S. and lately in . ing since h e ~ a s hadanything more Canada, after fleeing the States when j than the normal proximity to a gutter or he was drafted during the Vietnam war. , a rehab bed. $F A \ Toronto isn't the best city in the world, ,

.''he &died iife as well as his work he says, but it has to be way ahead of Da , aqd I, lived in the Bronx, in his house, Nang. not far from P k Park," Osborn says in He had turned in his draft card, telling , a boqh at the Ovaltine Cafe. "He tried the officials at the induction cenue he , very hard to stay straight. The BZackCat didn't recognize either the u.s.-m'ili- . has the statement: 'What disease is like tary's right to be in Viemam or its rikht , alcohol?"' to send him there. The officials imri.le-

The waitress fills the cups again. 0s- diately okayed him for the draft, with- 1 bommoves his saucer to one side. . out a physical. He had decided to go to i

"Idon'tknowwheretostartthewhole jail when a friend, the journalist miserable scenario," he says, smiling. William Worthy, recommended cans- "I've had a great deal of trouble." dainstead , . . .

i NO things distinguish him fiom the t's a story of suicide, homicide and majority of and addicts. He I dwm so bleak and despairing no a u

6M pmw and and he qut thor would attach his real name to it, ldllinghimseK and certainly no self-respecting writer li "I kept writing even if I was in a psy-

JOHN ARMSTRONG set it down and then read- chb ward or detox. When 1 began read- I ers to swallow a happy ending.

Vancouver Sun His alcoholic father hanged himself in ing understands,, poetry as even a kid if I said, 'Somebody lived a bun- - F our days into the month Bud jail when Osborn was three; a former

~sborn ' s belongings are still reporter for the Toldeo Blade, his death dred years ago. It was always my ambi- scattered over the pink-and- inspired an editorial "that said, basical- tion to write something that would grey lino of his new apartment. ly, this is what happens when you disre- mean that much to someone else.

Cassettes of music and piles of shirt. gard the social mores". His alcohol and ''Evenmall~ Iwentintodetox for the and socks are organized into a hop- drug-addicted mother brought home "a last time four years ago and I've been scotch layout on the living room floor series of stepfathers" and finished her straight ever since. I'd made a lot of and moving in hasn't progressed much days surrounded by "Vietnam vets and stabs at it and been so messed up but beyond the coffemaker and answering crackheads." His grandmother, the only this time I thought if I could get straight machine stage. and stay there, even if I never get a

refuge he was shot and Mled by book published or do anything else, But Edgar Allan Poe is already f rmd his aunt, who then shot herself. andmountedon the north w d , ablack- A listener to this may find himself that'll have to be enough." and-white portrait blown up from a wearing a half-bright smile, meant to In the great Zen tradition of acquies- postcard sent by a friend. convey some kind of understanding or; cencej asking nothing brought more

His is not the most reassuring and empathy but really meaning this kind of- than he'd ever asked for. A first collec- calming face to have looking down on horror is so alien that the whole thing ti0n9Lonesome was published

last December by Anvil Press and Os- you; Poe, author and Poet, hventor has made only a taxi-stop at the ears born came through his years of drug the detective story, father of modern and rolled on again.

horror, collapsed delirious in the gutter Osborn smiles back: "And the rest of and alcohol anaesthesia still able to outside a Baltim~re saloon and died my family wasn'tparticularly stable." write something as sharp as the line S~OI-tiy after. If anyone ever had the right to invoke Refi@- that describes a drum kit

But it has a certain resonance for 0s- a dysfunctional childhood as excuse for like a Ja~aneselandsca~e." He began to give public readings and born, a Poet who had his own pick

a messed-up life, Osborn does, und'und became involved in the Downtorvn gutters to die in from Toledo to New four years ago he carried the family York to Toronto to Vancouver's Ihwn- banner through bars, cheap hotels alld Eastside Poets and the Carnegie Ce

trt, where he was elected to theFhard ed support and defence raised in other last year, which got him involved in ag- areas of the city." itating for low-income housing. Even One of the most urgent issues in the during his less sober years work for neighborhood was development of the VISTA in Harlem and Camden, N. J. had former Woodward's building, a block- punctuated the benders and recover- square of East Hastings near the Ceno- ies. He felt Qulyconnected to the lower taph that seemed headed for remodel- stsi side. ling as expensive condos.

'l~r's not social activism or political ac- "We went to churches from UBC to tivism, it's the older tradition of being Langley and got support from 'serious a poet," he says. "It's a real privilige for voters' for low-income housing at a poet to be part of a community. A lot Woodward's. St. John's Anglican in ofpoets live in estheticcircles, very&- Shaugnessey is probably the richest &rentid and self-congratulatory, and and most powerful church in Vancou- they write to a small group. ver and we spoke there about gentrifi-

"They say there's no one reading po- cation. The other speaker was David etry and I say, that's because you're not Lay, a professor of urban geography at writing about what people care about UBC, and the place was packed. There -you put something in the Carnegie were representatives from city plan- newsletter and people read it. ning and B.C. Housing. The mayor's

"I got renovated out of Toronto. Every place I lived they'd say 'We're renovat- ing' and you had to move. So I came out here to the lower Eastside nine years ago. I've been in revitalized skid rows in Toledo. New York and Toronto and . 5'0ciai services .:,

daughter das in the front row taking notes."

"Now there's going to be over half of Woodward's for low-income hodsing. People said, 'You've brought a real sense of hope here,' and I went home and said, 'Me? I brought hope some- where?', because there's neveibeen anybody more hopeless than me.? Lonesome Monsters has been out less

than six months and Osborn ha9 al- ready finished another book and be& doing poetry-and-jazz gigs with musi- cians Graham Ord and Paul Blaney. The trio has been accepted for this year's jazz festival, and he still has box- es to unpack back home. . .

It's a busy life. . . . , ^ "Yeah, it is. Finally." Parting at Hastings and ~ h ~ , h e -

heads south at the crosswalk yithou,t even looking down as he steps over the' gutter and into the street.

one-legged old man with a white' beard ,

drags his &ut'ches ; a

cops go into a jewelery store where's that welfare worker?

1 " I've seen the dislocation that happens. little boy in a strol~er blows a yeliow "It was beginning to happen here. horn . Hotels were disappearing. I'd been con- skinny street dog trots past , , to the the old man counti his pension mane; little red-headed boy with a plasric Bastside was a community, despite rough &hungry men give it the eye @CW and the newspapers, and it need- 1

ragged broom I'm waiting on a welfare worker grey hot & toxic sky . '

streetcar crashes by kids sing "---- the schools" a truck full of bananas rasta bums a match big black hearse shiniest thing on the street

DOWNTOWN STD CLINIC - 219 Main; Monday - Friday, 10a.m. - 6p.m. EASTSIDE NEEDLE EXCHANGE - 221 Main; 9a.m. - 8p.m. everyday YOUTH Needle Exchange Van - on the street every night, 6p.m. - ACTIVITIES 2p.m. (except Mondays, 6p.m. - midnight)

The Downtown Eastside Residents' Association can help you with:

* any' welfare problem *information on legal rights *disputes with landlords *unsafe living conditions *income tax *UIC problems *finding housing

SOCIETY 1995 DONATIONS Paula R.-$20 Diane M.425 Ceci le C.-$12 Libby D*-$25 Wm. 8.-$25 Nancy H.-$16 THE NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE

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*opening a bank account Come into the Dera office at 9 East Hastings St. or phone us at 682-0931.

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DERA HAS BEEN SERVING

Submission Deadline for the next issue:

Friday, April 26, 1996 A

THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

' ,Bruce -$4 - Amy E .-$20 Franc is -$50

X h a r l e y -$25 Anonymous -$166.50 NEED HELP?

FOR 23 YEARS.

In the Dumpster Please don't ask what happened to my last article or my trashhopper story about 2nd hand stores. They got misplaced. Last night as I was at 4th and ~acdonald, I fell md hurt my back real bad. I asked the 24 hr 7- eleven to hold my bike overnight. They were real ignorant to me. I'll have to keep off their property unless I'm partaking. F--- U. Get A Job In Hollywood. I am real hurt by finding out about Atiba. Enough said. Trashhopper is really hurt.

Love,

Mr. McBinner Do not lose this one. Ha ha Thanx.

Dear Ed: Why do the city keep on hurting the DE by giving more pollution than we can handle, by allowing smoking upstairs and not giving masks on the streets where there is construction. They are hurting our lungs. Also, why don't the city fix up the mess in the alleys also. Thank you.

The Stoned Ranger PS Why aren't the police patrolling the alleys instead of sitting in ofices. Scotty and the Roadrunner would never hear of this.

Did you report your cents? A social services worker called to complain that I

had not reported my cents. 1 usually send in a monthly claim requesting support. When I listed my miserly C.P.P. income, I had failed to add the $.60, so I wasn't reporting my true income.. "You have to do thag" the worker said, "so that

our budgets balance." Then she added, "and you need proof your income tax refhd is what you say it is. If not, w i will take it off your cheque." Great, I thoughty since this is my last cheque from

them. From now on I'll be on OAP. I got the income tax refund proof, and a b& statement about the $.60 saying I got that for three nonths, and took it in. So what I'm saying is REPORT YOUR CENTS, 10, or they will come back at you. Apparently their mokkeeping hss to be precise.

Dora Sanders

Oppenheimer Park Gathering NafiueAkum Groups

12:OOam to 6:OOpm SATURDAY MAY 4 12:OOam to 6.aOpm

TRADITIONAL DANCERS WELCOME

l l l ~ ~ r l l W~IW of ~hke weben