Dear Mayor and City Council,

Subject: CD-1 Rezoning: 228-246 East Broadway and 180 Kingsway.

We are writing to express concern regarding the rezoning application
put forward by Rize, and brought to Public Hearing along with the City
Council Policy Report RTS No.: 8840.
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20120131/documents/p5.pdf

We write to you as an organization in Chinatown, just off Main street
with 7000 square feet of artist studios and 2000 square feet of
presentation space for three different non-profit organizations,
providing studios to over 30 artists and public access to contemporary
art and design.

We feel it is important to convey to you that the continued
development of podium-tower style condominiums is an invariable threat
to our operations. As the City makes efforts to relax zoning for
artists and arts organizations, it also remains committed to
ineffective design that continues to preclude mixed-income
communities. Artists and arts organizations thrive in an environment
that can support varied income levels. It is a necessity that costs of
living remains affordable in the Mount Pleasant area – as those who
work, present, speak, perform, build and think in our spaces must also
have somewhere affordable to live.

The City, presumably since the enactment of Larry Beasly’s Living
First policy, has looked to density as a means of bringing people
together in a promise of the powerful overlap of diverse communities.
However, while condominium towers have quite successfully increased
the density of Vancouver, the diversity of residents and the type of
public activities have been truncated substantially.

The Rize development at Kingsway and Broadway, in its latest
manifestation, makes a commitment to increase pedestrian interaction – depicting vibrant multi-ethnic groups engaging in shopping and leisure
activities – not the ‘vertical gated communities’ that have become
categorically gentrifying forces downtown. However, we think that the
unadorned glass and concrete building physically, financially, and
culturally limit the activities of the neighbourhood. The building’s
main threshold will be the garage door–where 300 cars will make their
way underground before beeping up to their isolated homes.

The flat, and unified commercial storefronts Rize proposes will follow
within a tradition of indistinguishable condominium buildings in
Vancouver – why are we so committed to this type of architecture and
this model of density? Only substantially financed enterprises will be
able to afford the rates for the commercial units, not entrepreneurs
from Mount Pleasant, nor non-profit organizations like ours. In
reading the recommendations in your report we can only assume that
this is condoned by City staff who are making recommendations that
value expedited density over an engaged design and development process
that responds to the needs and desires of its environment.

Adding new residents to community is not an unwelcome gesture. As
relatively new members of the community in Chinatown, we understand
that a neighbourhood must allow for portions of change, but we also
respect and value the context in which we find ourselves. We have
worked to create a presence in the community that has developed over
time through mindful observation and slow growth. Our approach
acknowledges certain constraints–facade, noise levels, street
presence–while making the most of what is available–the diverse
culture and history, architecture, affordable rent and an active
community. We chose this location consciously. It is a desirable area
in proximity to viable residences as well as a cluster of other art
centres.

As members of this community, we have invested ourselves in the
betterment in a small part of this city, without much fanfare. We have
converted buildings into spaces for the production and presentation of
art. The slow tide of shifts we bear with us contains safer streets,
opportunities for public engagement, non-commercial meeting spaces,
cultural awareness, community building endeavors, a tradition of
volunteerism, avenues for the exchange of ideas, civic engagement, and
a sense of belonging. We know that our collective labour, which is
enabled by the combined generosity of many individuals, is often
followed by cycles of gentrification, but we remain steadfast in the
belief that we need not be the harbinger of unbridled growth that
displaces and replaces. That is only one of many possible options in
the future of our City.

Ultimately, it is the structure of the options presented by Rize
through the City report that we take issue with. We write now to add
our voice to many others who call for a more consultative process, one
that recognizes and respects the history and future of the
neighbourhoods that are facing change. It is the present community
members who will absorb more traffic, who will struggle to maintain
homes amidst an inevitable rise in commercial and residential rents,
and who will every day be confronted with towers that lack any
significant cohesion with their surroundings, unless something changes
in the way the City approaches development.

Being centrally located shouldn’t be a privilege afforded only by the
wealthy, offered only as a luxury to the rest of us. This is
particularly explicit in the recent decisions by City staff to remove
the 9,200 square feet of proposed artist production space in exchange
for a cash contribution towards another site, likely further east. We
implore you to reconsider your approach. How much longer will the City
continue to give up diversity for density?

Sincerely,

Brian McBay, Executive Director, 221A Artist Run Centre
Allison Collins, President, Board of Directors, 221A Artist Run Centre

Dear Mayor and Council,

I am the Program Director of grunt gallery and a resident in the Quebec Manor Housing Co-op. I have lived in this community for the past 28 years and have seen many changes over this period. Mount Pleasant is growing and changing at a rapid rate and while most of this development has been good for the community I think the RIZE building represents a very real threat to what is here now.

Development for the most part has been sustainable and inevitably gentrification is a part of this picture. But I feel RIZE in its central place in Mount Pleasant will push this gentrification into overdrive.

My biggest worry about this increased gentrification is what it will do to the art community in Vancouver. In the VanCity commissioned report, The Power of the Arts in Vancouver: Creating a Great City, Pier Luigi Sacco correctly identifies the east side as the home of the art community in the city. He also recognizes the strong state of development of the arts in the east side citing the international recognition of many of our artists and our strong position internationally especially in the field of visual arts.

The basis of much of this strength has been on the strength of the visual arts community here in the city. Despite the worst provincial funding in Canada Vancouver has somehow emerged as THE place where international artists emerge in Canada. This is not because of our strong visual arts institutions because frankly one of the things that pulls us together as an arts community is the fact that from The Vancouver Art Gallery to the smallest artist centre we are all under resourced. Struggling with not enough space or staff all of us must reconcile the highest space costs in the world with the lowest funding levels in the country.

So if it is not our institutions what is the nature of Vancouver’s success? Part of the reason for this has been the availability of space for artists studios and housing that has been the boon that made this development possible. Many other jurisdictions spend millions of dollars trying to develop the position that Vancouver is now in and unfortunately recent developments in the East End are changing all this quickly and perhaps irrevocably.

Most of this studio space exists in the neighborhoods around False Creek Flats; Mount Pleasant , Strathcona, Clark Drive, Chinatown and the DTES. These areas have historically been the places where artists live and work in the city. Development threatens all these areas currently. We at grunt see the results of this gentrification every day. Renovictions are common all along Main Street. The closing recently of 901 Main Street laid bare the problems with the arts and redevelopment and the very real threat they make to the arts community.

We all know the history of artists and gentrification because it’s an old story now. How the arts are used to open up neighborhoods for redevelopment is a cliché now. grunt gallery was able, in an earlier spurt of redevelopment in Mount Pleasant, to enter a marketing deal with a developer of the early Live Work sites, PEMCOR, to purchase a condo in the Mainspace Development on Main Street. We joke it was one of the only times the arts community ever moved forward during redevelopment but in truth I have been invited to write about it, speak about it and lunch over it many times. We remain a unique entity in this regard and not only in Vancouver but across Canada.

The same developer PEMCOR went on to produce the EDGE development at the foot of Main Street on Alexander which included 30 live work studios donated to the city that has become the CORE Coop and produced some of the only rent controlled live work space in the city. Perhaps the city should look back at this development as a model to move forward because it was one of the only successful ones.

But to RIZE. This development has far too many negative impacts on this community (and not just to the arts community) and far too few positive ones. Situated in the heart of Mount Pleasant and literally towering over it so much that even city staff toned it down in the visuals it presented to us and to you. The negative impacts include a threat to the small independent businesses along Main Street due to rental increases, the loss of really affordable housing, increased traffic problems and congestion, destruction of the café culture that exists in that intersection, and the promise of an even bigger development on the Kingsgate Mall site.

With the selling off of the studio space included in the project the city has effectively prevented any relief towards the studio shortage. Not that we were expecting much. The District Building by Amarcon also promised affordable studio space after closing 901 Main Street but even as this building opens nobody I know has heard anything about this affordable space.

The problem here is that artists are responding to these threats by moving east. But not east to Rupert Street but to Toronto or Montreal or Winnipeg where there is a better chance of finding sustainable housing and realistic funding. Over the past several months two board members of grunt left for Montreal and Winnipeg, our Technical Support now works out of Toronto and our associate curator moved to the interior. Further up Main Street art community residents housed for over twenty years are getting renoviction notices.

grunt owns its own space so is not threatened by these increased property values but we are literally watching our support base disappear under our feet. The housing that RIZE is offering is not affordable to any of the residents of this community so there are few alternatives.

Its easy to talk about helping the arts community and the power of creative cities but after working in this field for the past 30 years mostly all I’ve have seen is talk. But by developments like RIZE we will see the destruction of the arts communities in Mount Pleasant and in neighboring communities in a very real way and all the homilies in the world won’t prevent that. If this council is serious about its support for the arts it needs to step up here.

We can see the new community being formed but will there be any room in it for artists, small businesses, cafes etc. Who can service these communities and where will they live? RIZE will cause many more problems than it solves in this community and council needs to recognize this very real threat.

Thank you for your attention

Glenn Alteen
Program Director
Grunt gallery

On the eve of an important by-election in Vancouver’s BC riding of Point Grey, the Pacific Association of Artist-run Centres (PAARC) would like to take this opportunity to wish all candidates the best and hope for a large voter turn-out.

In 2009, the BC Government imposed severe cuts to provincial arts investment. These cuts were both unprecedented and unique in Canada, and have left the province’s cultural industry in crisis.

Since many supporters and patrons of BC’s cultural organizations live in the Point Grey riding, we hope that voters make close consideration of candidates’ cultural platforms, and let their would-be MLAs know that arts funding will impact the way they vote. In doing so, voters will set the tone of the next provincial general election and contribute to a more vibrant cultural sector in British Columbia.

Mayor and Council
City of Vancouver
453 West 12th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5Y 1V4

Dear Mayor Robertson and members of City Council:

I am writing on behalf of the members of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres to express our opposition to the proposed casino development in downtown Vancouver.

As you may know, many of our members, non-profit organizations in the visual, literary and media arts, are located in or near the city centre in Vancouver. In the past, non-profit charitable organizations in the arts and culture, and in other charitable sectors, have been used as a lever to justify the expansion of gambling in British Columbia. It has been argued that small amounts of money dispensed to charities through an ineffective and capricious bureaucracy offset the social ills associated with large-scale gambling, and justify the profits, and direct subsidies, taken away by commercial gambling operators.

If this was ever true, it is certainly not true at all now. Not only has the provincial government sharply diminished the amount of investment in the charitable sector through the Direct Access program, it disqualified most arts and culture organizations from applying for such funds, as an apparent punitive measure following community protests against provincial cuts to cultural investment.

We therefore wish to assure the Mayor and members of Council that, if you wish to respond to the social and economic problems with casino expansion identified within Councillor Woodsworth’s motion, you need not be worried that you are denying charities, and in particular arts and culture organizations, any revenue. You can choose to block the development of this ill-conceived project with a clear conscience, and with the support of our members.

Sincerely,
Keith Higgins
President, Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC)

For Immediate Release

The Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC) welcomes the announcement that the remainder of the $10 million from the “Sports and Arts Legacy Fund”, announced in the March 2010 provincial budget, has now been released to the BC Arts Council.

It is gratifying that seven tenths of the fund will be administrated through the capable and trusted peer-jury process of the B.C. Arts Council. Barring any further impediments or restrictions on the spending of these funds, this announcement could be a first step toward repairing some of the damage that has been done to public funding of the arts and culture in B.C.

However, the announcement also raises several important issues to be addressed:

1. As stated before, the $7 million announced recently is not “new” money: it is simply a fulfillment of commitments made by the Government of British Columbia in March of this year. It is regretful that it has it taken until now, and after a great deal of public protest and work behind the scenes for the government to follow through on its own commitment. In the context of limited financial and human resources, this communication shortfall can only be seen as improvident.

2. The release of these funds still leaves funding for the B.C. Arts Council painfully below the level recommended by the legislature’s Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, and does little to bring B.C.‘s per-capita support of the arts and culture in line with that of other provinces and territories. What must happen in order for the B.C. Government to address the historically inadequate level of investment in the arts and culture sector in our province?

3. The premise and effectiveness of the new “Sports and Arts Legacy Fund” is severely undermined by the continued absence of adequate and stable arts funding. Cuts to the B.C. Arts Council, and unannounced restrictions on Gaming funding, are continuing to affect British Columbians’ access to culture; the impact of those cuts will become more obvious during the year to come as programs at the community level are reduced. When it was clear to informed observers that the best remedy for these problems was stable, adequate funding for the B.C. Arts Council, we question why the government chose to put money into an entirely new budget line, and let months go by before announcing how these funds would be used.

4. Most importantly, we hope the Government of British Columbia will show a clear commitment to making the B.C. Arts Council a truly arms-length agency. The controversy surrounding the politically directed Spirit Festivals is itself an excellent argument in favour of arts funding that is at arms-length from electoral politics. Measures along these lines should include employing staff directly by the council, rather than the ministry, and drafting a clear policy limiting political direction to the council’s board.

We hope these points will be received as constructive criticism and look forward to opportunities for a closer dialogue with Government so that we can work collectively towards a healthy environment that supports the diverse and exciting culture for British Columbians to enjoy.