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PHOTOGRAPHY about PovertyFoodDirect Actionposted on February 20, 2013 by flux
Pidgin packed - outside
DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE - Protests against gentrification continued tonight outside the Pidgin Restaurant across from Pigeon Park.
Organizers were concerned after Vancouver Police tactics escalated today with police harassing people in the Carnegie Community Centre for information about one of the protesters and parking beside the protest with their lights flashing.
Two cruisers were on hand, but so were several media.
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Comments
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[Comment deleted at request of user.]
Are you implying that there
Are you implying that there is no hatred for rich people in this socierty build on class and explotation?
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[Comment deleted at request of user]
Bleeding heart for trickle-down economics
I can't speak for others, but this is where i'm getting my impressions from: http://www.linkedin.com/in/brandongrossutti It seems he's a day-trader & has founded additional companies. From what i understand, he is co-owner of the building where PiDGiN is in as well. The media may spin Brandom as some "small business owner" (and depending how you define "small" that may still ring true for some), but that doesn't change the fact he's opened an extremely exclusive (and offensively named) restaurant right across from Pigeon Park. He has an investment in further gentrifying that neighborhood and moving in more high-end clientele to feed his operations, which means he is essentially profiting from the displacement of the low-income residence. If that isn't in bad taste i don't know what is.
I think we should refrain from fawning over how "charitable" he is as well. All businesses (or people above a certain income) donate to institutionalized causes in order to offset their revenue and minimize tax. There is nothing generous about that, and no amount of "workshops" will circumvent the fact that the cost of living is increasing for residence of the DTES because these kinds of posh places are moving in. If anything, we should read his "generousity" as a strategic means to deflect criticism & bolster his public image, cause seriously, what he is contributing to is called gentrification. Moving wealthy people into the area does not eliminate poverty; it exacerbates it.
he's still a lowlife
he's still a lowlife gentrifier!!
and he's friends with mark brand, the save on meats foolio. on one side (the greenwashy side) he does all those *great* things for the folks who he is displacing. on the other, he's profiting off the yuppies who have moved to the dtes, raising the property value of everything around him (which further displaces those living in subsidized housing--- read this: http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/16432), and creating a spectacle out of pigeon park.
he opened a restaurant across the street from pigeon park that is completely unaffordable to most residents of the dtes and put in huge windows so his rich customers can look out over the neighbourhood in safety behind their thick yet breakable glass. his restaurant is class warfare, along with many others in that neighbourhood.
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[Comment deleted at request of user.]
so can you look at my comment
so can you look at my comment and try to understand it, instead of attacking my maturity level?
you seem to have come into this comment section already agitated and i've further pushed your buttons (believe it or not, attacking the maturity of people whoze views oppose your own is common as hell, so don't worry about me, i'm not offended). i'm not going to convince you, no matter how many statistics i pull out, because there is a dozen well written and articulate articles out there already for you to peruse at your leisure and they haven't convinced you. read them again, and if they don't do it for you, go to a picket and air your grievances with someone in flesh.
we aren't havin a conversation and i don't feel like sparring today!
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[Comment deleted at request of user.]
im aware, thanx. decisions
im aware, thanx.
decisions can be made in lots of ways so i tend to disagree that conversations are essential (look at the gov't if you want to see non-conversational decision making), but i agree that conversations are really important and needed, definitely. and i think what you don't see is that conversations are being had. it's not the responsibility of anyone else to field your veiled criticisms, or to explain why they are doing what they are doing. but i bet some would if you went down and talked to em.