Last night's protest made it clear. Gentrifying hipsters on the Downtown Eastside, choosing ironic restaurant names like Cuchillo (Spanish for knife) and PiDGiN (situated across from Pigeon Park), are offensive to DTES residents.

Will these newcomers to the Downtown Eastside continue to use their comparative wealth as a tool of acquisition, compelling those they judge surplus to leave? At the moment, it looks that way. But the current drivers of gentrification must know that they’re small fry compared to the corporations that will follow, using their corporate power and wealth to displace them. And when all that is left is a Disney-fied strip mall of Starbucks, 7-Elevens and Money Marts, will the owners of Cuchillo and PiDGiN be proud to say that they helped make it all possible?

Modified from my article, Pain Street, published in Right to Food Zine.