A Reminder of how the Grandview Park redevelopment affects us!

BLOG POST posted on Août 28, 2010 by Insurgent G

As of early in the morning on August 11th, 2010, a construction fence was built around Grandview Park on Commercial Drive, thus beginning the redevelopment project, that may last as long as a year and many believe much longer than a year. Yet those who want this so called development to happen will be pushing for this to be done on time. For some who did not want to see the redevelopment, and for many who seemingly could care less, this new fence seen as either a minor annoyance, or the end of all possibilities in this fight. It is perfectly clear that they did not have to close the park all at once, and this only lends more credibility to the concerns of the who were trying to stop the redevelopment.

Many of us have stated that the reasons for this redevelopment are reasons of gentrification rather than the official purpose which is that the facilities are outdated and in disrepair. This disrepair is completely on purpose and not an oversight. Reasons range from who frequents the part, how it is used by citizens of the area, and how the parks board & the City of Vancouver views east Vancouver. Something as a fore thought and only to be taken seriously when their masters (big money) bring it to their attention, in terms of nefarious capitalistic ideals. (i.e. land grabs/policing people/gentrification/zoning changes) Grandview Park has been somewhat like a city square on the Drive, in which people congregate in ways, which are not always possible in their homes. Grandview Park is a green space that many people do not have in their yards, if they have yards at all. As well the park is right in the middle of the drive, where during the day, people stop by as they please, and bump into all sorts of people that would not be possible in the more tucked away parks throughout the neighborhood. Many of the people who do not have the yards, and do not have the money to hang out in bars, or restaurants, or cafes most of the time are exactly the people who do not fit into the interests of business and property owners. It is these interests that are behind “The Friends of Grandview”, and the construction currently in progress.

The point of closing the park all at once, is in the hopes that they can break people’s habits of using the park so that when the park reopens, the police and BIA security, will have an easier time managing the use of the park. People who have a long history of being in the park, some for decades begin coming back in smaller numbers at first, making them more vulnerable to harassment from the authorities. This is exactly what the majority of the changes in the park over the last few years have been all about, putting people more and more under the watchful eyes of the authorities.

Generally, a division seems to have been created of “junkies”, and “drug dealers”, versus “families”. What needs to be recognized is that this is a division that is created in the interests of the businesses and wealthier (newer) residents of the Drive. The fact is that as the working class residents of this neighborhood, we are all under attack together. When they wipe a few of us out of the picture based on whatever racist, classist suspicions we are all left standing on our own. Tragedies such as the case of Curtis Brick (a native man who died in the park of sun exposure last summer) could have been avoided if we didn’t allow them to control the ways we relate to each other.

The strategy here is not simply about displacing us from the park, but in a larger context, about displacing us from Commercial Drive altogether. As the Community Policing Center, the property and business owners, and the police themselves can control what the neighborhood looks like, this will in turn increase property values. As property values increase, so does rent, and we all know how hard it is already is to pay rent around the Drive.

In other places in the world such as Berlin, Germany, there have been strong anti-gentrification campaigns involving thousands of people from diverse backgrounds. Places like Commercial Drive need to utilize this culture of resistance. This has made it much more difficult for the rich to just move in and impose their interests, because the people there already know how to assert their own power. In Vancouver however, they have been able to steamroll into our neighborhoods with very little trouble, sometimes even being welcomed with the term “revitalization”. With the drastic increase in homelessness over the last few years, and constantly increasing price of life we should have started to catch on by now that “revitalization” requires us to be smothered altogether.

Now that the park is closed, it would be in our best interest start asserting ourselves, and not letting them shove us under the rug while they try to make a sale on our community. This is not just an East Van issue, this is a problem throughout much of the Lower Mainland, the symptoms are often more acute here because we are so close to downtown. Lets remember that this is a Class War, and we actually hurt ourselves when we just lie back and let these types of social division happen. Let’s keep our visibility in the streets and on the Drive, it is through this that we can find each other and help each other out in ways where we don’t rely on the police or the government. Let’s keep in mind that the very small amount of activity against this redevelopment, that has already happened has made the park redevelopers weary. They are scared of our power, and as always they use the police to defend themselves, which is VERY typical of a class war, where as the police & security types are on “the front line”.

The Class War is the Last War!!!

Resist the Yuppie Takeover!!!

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