December 15, 2017 carnegie newsletter

DECEMBER 15, 2017 FREE. ·00 not pay for this paper.

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Carnegle NEWSLETTER

carnnews@vcn,bcca

401 Main Street, Vancouver BC V6A 2T7 604-665-2289 email: carnnews@shaw.ca Website/catalogue: carnegienewsletter.org

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Carnegie Theatre Workshop

REPERCUSSIONS In this issue are two more pieces recognised for merit in the Sandy Cameron Memorial Writing Contest. A Gathering Place, by Barbara Morrison, got an honourable mention; Oppenheimer Memorial Pole - Remembered, by Kim Washburn, was second in the top three.

Repercussions were mostly avoided by not naming the 5-6 people who.reviewed all entries, but the editor is still the public face of the Newsletter and - true to whatever psychosis afflicts some people - I got a tiny shitstorm of protest. Comments of the panel of judges were put together on a single sheet and given or sent to each person who entered. It's always helpful to aspiring writers to get constructive criticism, to see or hear what someone thinks of their work.

But wait! There are also the odd few who focus solely on the negative, who think any criticism is a personal assault on their very existence. One person opined that "they (the judges) hated it! Who the fuck do they think they are?!" Another proceeded to claim that their piece was the best, that it was far better than anything else, that it was a conspiracy to award the winner (presumably of anything this writer didn't win) and screw the complainer. Oh, and I can't write worth shit no matter what. ..

So please enjoy, and if you have something interesting you've written, bring it in or email it and most likely it'll be printed.

For the aficionado's (long-time readers) it's a given that the next paper will be on January 15, 2018 . For the few of you who have no history with the Carnegie Newsletter, the story goes that, back in 1991, this fool was in the Newsletter Office at quarter-to-one in the morning on New Year's Eve collating newsletters. In a flash of revelation, like an epiphany, it came to me: "What the fuck are you doing?!"

Thereafter it seemed at least possible that citizens of this planet could get through January 1 without having the latest edition in their hands.

See you next year.

Respectfully, PaulR Taylor, Volunteer editor since '86.

"Show thou Carnegie workshop Players"

We'll put our ideas together for-

"You're living in the Past, Grandma!

A Christmas Pageant" ~ Remembering,

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Imagining ~

Everyone is old; everyone is young, , Everyone is middle-aged;

everyone is twenty-one.

Creative sessions/rehearsals • Fri Dec 1~,12:30pm-3:30pm,

Carnegie Theatre

• Fri Dec 22, 12:30pm-4:30pm,

Carnegie Theatre

• Sat Dec 23, 12:30pm-4:30pm,

Carnegie Theatre

Performance • Sun Dec 24, 6pm Christmas Eve, Carnegie Theatre

Free, everyone welcome, join in!

For more info: Teresa 604-255-9401 thirteenofhearts@hotmail.com

Jenny Kwan, MP Vancouver East NDP Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Critic 2572 E Hastings 5t Vancouver,

BC V5K IZ3

T: 604-775-5800 F: 604-775-5811 Jenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca

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RESOURCES FAiR -. MOW TO FiNDWKAT YOVNEED,+D{? HOU5IN~f1?J;

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.. WELFARE SA1URDA1 l..• 'tpn . CAlV[,fE1ii£A1Rr

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~HIs and LOWs

Dear me, dear you. You know what you look like?

You are my childhood sweetheart and I am your prince charming. We make it work in the end, and you are my best friend. You are wearing a wedding dress and people say that their wish is they had a relationship love like ours. We get to know ourselves and we better each other, so that we never really know each other. Dear me, you know what it looks like? Something ... rare. You are my sweetheart. There is know pain in our hearts and there is no other love quite like ours.

By Deloni Holland

Surviving Christmas Christmas was never a happy time for me. Too many tensions curdled in the dark corners of om house. A huge gap existed between the unspoken unhappiness at home and the peace and joy that Christmas was supposed to bring. Maybe that's why the adults drank too much at Christmas. Too much pain.

The pain of men dying in the trenches during the First World War. The pain of women denied their rightful place in the sun. The pain of unlived life.

One Christmas Eve, when I was about four years old, an argument among adults in the front room drove me onto the back porch. Looking at the sky, I saw an

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angel fly overhead, and this vision reflected the Christmas spirit, which wasn't doing too well inside the house. Years later, I realized that the angel had, in fact, been an airplane.

These days, I approach Christmas with great caution, and completely reject the commercialism of the time.

There is much to forgive, but there is much to be thankfull for as well. The religious aspect of the season promise's a new heaven and a new 'earth. How can I be part of that vision? In this century of war and refugees, many human beings have had to live with a deep loneliness that can only be broken by an even deeper love - the kind that spiritual people talk about at Christmas. We all need respect and caring, but maybe we have forgive what we most need in order to receive what we most need. It sounds simple, but why is it so difficult?

At Christmas, hope is born one more time. I can try, no matter how awkwardly to keep that hope alive.

This task can only be done with others. It took me forty years to learn that lesson. We're still struggling with it in the Downtown Eastside, although there is more caring here than anywhere else in Vancouver.

It's not that we want a perfect world -just a better one.

Christmas is the struggle for justice.

Sandy Cameron

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The Battered Women's Support Services hosted Dr. Ange1a Davis to speak at the Orpheum Theatre on Wednesday November 29th •• She teaches at a few American universities, has written books, and foremost is a social activist around the world.

I was invited by the Power to Women of the Down.town Eastside Women's Centre to attend. Cecillia Point, Musqueam warrior, opened the show & was a great speaker. And an aboriginal drum group performed the Womeg's Memorial song, which was composed by Martina Pierre of the Lilwat nation. And then Angela spoke on many issues from the glass ceiling to Aboriginal rights.

I sure hope with the number of people in attendance that we will see more support at the annual Downtown Eastside Missing & Murdered Women's Memorial March on February 14, 2018.

Afterwards, I spoke to many women from all walks oflife and familiar faces. I sure hope violence agaillsf . women ends.

Stay Beautiful at Heart to you all. PrisciIIia Mays of the gitsxari and wetsuweten territory.

PS: Thank you Angela MacDougali for a wonderful evening with the Power to Women group. Thanx Harsha.

Self-Esteem You told me it was my fault I started searching for my default. you told me I wasn't good enough that they'd never be proud of me. you to Id me a lot of stuff you told me that the true me, I'd never be able you told me I'd be alone my heart became as cold as a frozen stone you told me your words were true, but never told me what to do. you left me behind you haunted my mind I tried to find you, to tell you you were wrong.

But the thing is I believed you all along.· And now I'm left with half a heart.

Is this where my story ends?

Or is this where it all will start?

Gabrielle Tremblay

To Paul Than~ y~u for all your years of dedication & love to this great honest paper of free news and poetry by the People. Hugs Sheila Baxter

Addiction and Bonding I have picked up that the most difficult lesson for the addict is to learn how to fully bond with another human being. Somehow, as addicts & alcoholics we've never learned to fully bond with others by becoming vulnerable and trusting in the other. So we use drugs because it changes our perceptions and our judgement and gives us the impression of emotional, mental and spiritual connection. But of course when we are drinking and drugging we are under a grand illusion. Bonding has to happen sober and is the most difficult thing . to do for the addict because it means we must learn to trust and trust does not come easy for us. It becomes something we must learn to do all over again because we never learned it in childhood.

Maybe because of my chaotic home life, I never learned to fully trust and thus never learned to bond because it was too risky to do in an environment that was full of mistreatment and frenzy. I learned about power and powerlessness in my primary relationships.

I was unable to bond and did not learn to bond because it was too dangerous to do so. Bonding is an essential act which in nature animals must do to survive.

It is essential because it gives us an experience of connection, of belonging. How many times have you heard in 12 step programs that the addict or alcoholic feels they finally believed that they found a place where they 'belonged' when they came into the program?

Bonding allows for intimacy and intimacy allows for bonding. I drugged because 1couldn't get into authentic relationship with my fellow human beings. I felt more 'connected' with my fellow sentient beings when high even though I ~as actually deluding myself. I was actually lying to myself. Putting a drug or drink into my body always leads to a fundamental

break in truth. We cannot be honest or authentic when drugging. It changes our perceptions and our judgments, and we cannot accurately gauge reality. That is why rigorous honesty is emphasised in recovery because drugging always involves deception. We learn .to lie to the point that.we start to believe the lies.

Today I am praying to my Higher Power, to help me to become humble and teachable. I am praying to remove the grandiose ambitions I have carried with me like a heavy sack of debris on my back; stuff that has kept me from bonding with my fellow travellers. False ego is always in antithesis to vulnerability, intimacy and bonding. False ego is a huge block to allowing for relationship. I believe that the addict is thirsty for intimacy and bonding and that this is the most important experience that must occur in order to truly break the addictive cycle. In fact, because the addict thirsts for bonding it is one of the primary reasons she drugs. Bonding is essential to experience in order to be in community and human beings need community.

Being in community is essential to good mental health so today I pray to my Higher Power that He will teach me how to bond with others in sobriety.

By Ruby Diamond

The addiCt a magician â&#x20AC;˘ This with each long

morning I awoke clutching your name such reckless devotion that it turned to dust. ~ letter fell to the floor. I know where you went. before you vanished inside of your name.

long before the grave. You sank into your body like a river, guided by the low light burning on the horizon. I know how you found us the pipe is a beacon. The pipe is a lighthouse.

You wanted to know how to remove the em ptiness from yourself. We never understood it cannot be removed. It is not a pulsing seed in the gut. or a peach pit run into the mud. We weren't drug addicts, we said we were scientists. We experimented each day.

Sent the smoke down into the deep mine of the chest as though it were a rope with a hook at the end of it to pull the emptiness back out. We partitioned ourselves away to the dark piece by piece. we did not remove the emptiness but further became it.

The mind of the addict is cunning enough to convince the body it is not dying.

Houdini doesn't have shit on an addict. he was able to convince everyone but himself

he had vanished. Addiction is the ethereal art of forgetting that you are still here I know where you went. before the syringe perched in your arm and whistled through the vein like a steam engine. -before the crack rock broke apart in a blaze of light as though it were an egg hatching fire.

I know what it is to walk down an unlit street at midnight and have a gun cocked in your mouth. I know what it is to discover the gun shaking in your own hand.

The most dangerous neighbourhood is the one in my own head.

This is a game of masks A Rorschach test of the mind.

QUESTION: what do you see?

Anything I want This is the magic of perception.

The difference between an addict and one who is drowning is the one who is drowning knows it.

The addict will drink the sea until it becomes him Even now, five years sober and when I smell whiskey from across the room my mouth still waters I have not fed my skin a blade for nearly a decade for fear of what I m ight let out.

What sleeps must one day wake. even when you sneak through your own life like a thief.

I made it and you didn't. I can still hear death pawing at the outskirts of town. as you vanished inside the needle in your arm and I swayed from the edge of a bridge. neither one of us was any more deserving of this life.

I feel ill to even think it but I have to thank you some days your death is all that stands between me and a drink There ~re days I went as far as to hold a bottle in my hand but couldn't bring myself to swallow because your name was stuck in my throat There were weeks I couldn't walk two blocks from my door without being asked if I wanted some kush, some glass, some white, some snow, some jack up, some jelly beans, some dust, some rock, some good shit And each time I heard your voice ask me "how badly do you want this life? you didn't deserve it then, but you got it so what are you willing to do to keep it?"

Anonymous

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Remembering the Woodward's Squat This week marks the 15th anniversary of the Woodward's squat -a 3-month long occupation at the building organized as a way of pressuring government to build social housing to replace the shuttered DTES department store. To commemorate Woodsquat, we've put together some excerpts from Woodsquat, a book of writings from the tent city squat, to tell the .' story of the action.

On paper, the squat was said to have started with Jim Leyden's march through the DTES to protest Gordon Campbell's cuts. The march culminated with three squatters and one dog breaking into the Woodward's building. But it could be said that the whole thing started long before that. Bruce Gongola was at the Frances Street squat deep in East Van some years before the Woodward's action kicked off.

"W oodsquat was like the gases in a solar system.

Energy that takes a long time to come together, to form a planet. That energy was Woodsquat. The Frances Street Squats were like stars. Frances Street had a coalition. Woodsquat was the gases of the universe, spiraling and whirling around, not worried if it was gonna happen or not. Frances Street functioned politically while Woodsquat was manipulated.

For all the manipulation I think people really enjoyed themselves and learned a lot. For all the manipulation that happened on all the levels, it didn't make a goddamn bit of difference. If it wasn't for aka, Frances Street would kind of just have petered along. aka gave it a hard definition. Woodsquat was primordial energy" (Gongola, "Frances to Woody") For the Downtown Eastside, the story goes that the Woodward's department store had closed in 1993 after years of neighborhood disinvestment and neglect (the Carnegie Newsletter talked a lot about social housing at Woodward's from '93 onwards).

The city and the property owners let things rot. It scared off the suburbanites who used to drive in to shop at Vancouver's working class department store, drawn by some mix of nostalgia and frugality.

But Charles Woodward and his family was no good

- they complained to the cops about crowds of people in the Downtown Eastside loitering outside their door. When the Great Depression happened, unemployed workers marched down to Woodward's in protest of poor conditions at relief camps. In 1935 they tried to occupy Woodward's, and in 1938 they would smash windows at the department store. In 2002, the squatters brought a ladder and forced their way through the windows.

Ann Wilden: "I arrived completely by accident. I was just walking by when there was a rally. I lived in squats in New York before and I got evicted from all of them. So I was really happy that there was resistance here and that it seemed to be working [... ] Noone was in charge. People were just doing whatever they felt needed to be done and whatever they would enjoy doing, to contribute. Things were getting built.

There was a kitchen. There was food being made" ["1arrived Completely by Accident (09/30)"].

Ann was like the majority of the new Woodward's residents who seized the chance to squat. It was a political moment and a survival moment - there's never any difference in any case. Meetings started strategizing and sharing duties and figuring out a list of demands. Lyn Tooley, another resident, talks about the squat: "The Woodward's Squat was, and is, both about challenging the depletion of personal and community building resources by the demands of wage labour and business profit. And Woodward's is about healing the damage this insidious dynamic has created in our lives: The basic unit of this healing process is space; land. Denying us access to a land base, to house ourselves .s to deny us the rest of our lives." ["We need to be left alone (11114)"] After 7 or 8 days inside Woodward's, police burst in, coming through a tunnel from across Cordova Street.

Ivan Drury details how the cops arrived at 6am, slamming their batons on their riot shields, two cops for every squatter. The squatters chanted 'Social Housing Now!' as the cops arrested them. "In the wagons we slipped out of our plastic cuffs and shared cigarettes.

In the Supreme Court cells that morning we sang songs and talked about racist cops confiscating the shoes of every Frirst Nations man arrested." The next day they went back, set up camp outside the building.

They were arrested again. More brutality. They went back again. A new kitchen outside, more meetings.

This was a tent city - the first of its kind outside of the Woodward's department store.

Mike Krebs wrote about the Demands at the squat.

The demands as they emerged in the squat were first and foremost around the housing crisis. The squatters wanted Woodward's developed as social housing, with a portion of that reserved for housing of aboriginal people. This was one of the major changes that housing activism saw during the squat: a new emphasis on indigenous issues. It was a point of contention within the squat too - "[there was] a problem from . the beginning where First Nations concerns were ignored or swept under the rug," he writes. In meetings First Nations squatters worked to make sure that theirdemands were heard, including the demand for' indigenous business, a native self-governing office, drop in, and support services on the ground floor of Woodward's.

There's a lot of political baggage that needs to be unearthed about Woodward's - too much to include it all here. But it's worth putting in writing that COPE won the election in November 2002, and they got voted in on the backs of the Woodward's squat and the promise of social housing at Woodward's.

The squat continued. In December, there was a major police action. rHS tore the squat down and rehoused the squatters - a fat contract. The squatters were spread around the Downtown Eastside, and Woodward's was developed as mixed with a rich door and a poor door. Only a small portion of Woodward's was developed as social housing, and the swanky condos pushed out people living in SRO's across the neighborhood.

The effects of the Woodward's development are still hitting the DTES like a ton of bricks. But we rarely take stock of the effects that the squat had. The squat was the beginning of a series of tent encampments that live on today. "I grabbed an armful of banners and a sturdy looking fellow to climb the big red 'W'.

The air was a bit still that day and after a thrilling climb to the top, three long banners hung from the 'W' saying 'Campbell's Olympic Shame," writes Shawn Millar ("Bustin Into Woodwards"). The squat helped consolidate a force to fight the 2010 Olympics And even today, 15 years down the line, that energy of the squat is still relevant as ever. Let's make sure it lives on.

By Josh Gabert-Doyon

CARNEGIE

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ANALYSIS ON THE NATIONAL HOUSING STRATEGY AND CITY HOUSING STRATEGY, AN UPDATE ON 177 W. PENDER, AND VANDU ON VPD'S 'DRUG CONTAINMENT FACILITY' DECEMBER

2017

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CITY COUNCIL APPROVES ZONING FOR TINY UNITS AT 177 WEST PENDER

PROPOSED BUILDING

The City of Vancouver has received an application to rezone 177 West Pender Street from Downtown District (DD) to CD-l (Comprehensive Development) District. The proposal is for a new to-storey residential building, including: - 90 social housing units; - a floor space ~tio (FSR) of 6.93; - a building height of 32 m (105 ft.); and - one level of parking with 68 bicycle parking spaces, one loading space and no vehicle parking stalls.

City Council approved the rezoning of 177 W. Pender for 90 units of social housing on December 6, 2017. Only 30 of them will be for people who are on welfare or basic pension. Rents for the rest of the units will be at about $1000 a month or even low end of market rents.

Most of the units will also only be 250 sq. ft, a really small social housing unit. The building will be owned by the city and probably managed by a non profit operator. The city says it will try to find money to increase the number of units that rent for welfare/pension rate.

CITY HOUSING STRATEGY COULD HELP IF WE GET A MANSION TAX With over 200 pages, the City's new housing plan is likely to have something for everyone. The important questions, however, are: Is there enough housing for the people who need it the most? And, is there enough money to pay for it?

Who Pays For It All? According to the plan the City will aim to build 12,000 units of social, supportive and co-operative housing over the next 10 years for residents who earn under $50,000 a year. The problem is, the report doesn't say who will pay for them.

HOMELESSNESS: The City does not propose to end homelessness in this plan. It talks only about "action to prevent homelessness", creating "pathways to housing stability" and "addressing the needs of the homeless population." We can end homelessness by building cheap and fast modular housing for every homeless person, while real social housing is being built. This is what the City needs to aim for starting now.

RENT CONTROL: A huge problem facing renters across the city is outrageously high rents, averaging over $2000 a month for a one bedroom apartment accojdlnq to data collected by PadMapper. \ The City's strategy, to its credit, calls for re-examining the annual allowable rent increaseor 4% next year. But the big rent increases come when tenants move out of apartments and landlords can raise rents as much as they like. In spite of this the city is only asking the province to stop rent increases between tenancies in Single Room Occupancy Hotels. This is not enough. Low income tenants all-over the city need rent control to be tied to the unit.

The Federal Housing Strategy has already failed to allocate enough funds for social housing. Will the City challenge the strategy on its failures? Or will they comply with the Liberals' National Housing Strategy even when it means Vancouver's low income residents will go without housing?

MANSION TAX: The plan discusses working with senior governments to consider "applying differential property tax rates on residential properties depending on property value and ownership type." This is planner-ese for "let's get the Province to consider a Mansion Tax." It depends on what kind of Mansion Tax, gets approved, but it could be enough to build 1,160units of social housing a year in the following years. With the revenue from the Mansion Tax, plus some help from the Province and the Feds, the City could really start working on those 12,000 units of housing for homeless and low income people.

Continued on the next page ...

CITY HOUSING STRATEGY COULD HELP IF WE GET A MANSION TAX SINGLE ROOM OCCUPANCY (SRO) HOTELS: The City is recommending the creation of a $200M fund to acquire and upgrade SRO hotels. This would be a good idea: a refurbished SRO hotel would last longer than modular housing and we definitely need upgraded accommodation for SRO residents until decent affordable housing is built. However, the plan doesn't guarantee the rents will stay at the welfare shelter rate. This is an absolute necessity for SRO residents. Also, there is no mention of who will provide the money.

Again, the Mansion Tax could help.

Funding the SRO collaborative and the Vancouver Tenant Union, which is suggested in the plan, is an excellent initiative, provided the City doesn't use the money to try to muzzle the two groups who work to get tenants their rights.

Increase funding could allow these group to hire tenant organizers to reach out to the 300,OQO-plus renters who need representation in ou r city.

Improving the Tenants Protection and Relocation policy is also a good idea. The City should require all landlords seeking to renovict tenants to allow them to return to the renovated unit at the same rent.

afford? We still don't know because the city only has targets, not actual numbers of housing units that it intends to see built.

Will we have the money to pay for what is needed? Maybe, if we get a Mansion Tax. Private developers won't build housing for low income people. Having just completed an analysis of the Federal Housing Strategy, we're convinced they wouldn't solve our local housing crisis either. And we haven't seen any budget numbers from the Province that indicates they would help enough.

We believe our best hope is the Mansion Tax and public housing We need to break out of the trap of market-oriented false solutions'beinq pushed by the development lobby.

UBC professor of Urban Design Patrick Condon has suggested Vancouver aim to have non-market housing for at least 40% of wage earners in the city. This is not pie in the sky - Vienna has 60% social housing.

We need to use the Mansion Tax plus anything we can scrape together in order to get as much housing as possible out of the market. Housing is a human right. not a commodity. It will take political courage and bold action to reverse the rampant commodification of housing in Vancouver and build the city we need.

THE BIG QUESTION: BYJEAN SWANSON & SARA SAGAII Will there be enough housing in this plan that the people who need it the most can

$700,000 'DRUG CONTAINMENT FACILITY' FOR VPD WASTEFUL AND UNNECESSARY The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) opposes the proposed budget increase of $11million (4.2%) for the Vancouver Police Department (VPD).

In particular VANDU is outraged at the VPD's request for $700,000 to build an unnecessary 'drug containment facility'.

VANDU

For many years the VPD has continued to increase their budget despite falling rates of violent crime. Advocates for poor people contend that the increased budget is used to over-police and criminalize poor people and pursue failed drug war policies.

"The City of Vancouver keeps pouring money into policing when our communities need economic and social supports not more police," says Aiyanas Ormond, a community organizer with VANDU. "We are over-policed and under-protected.

More funding for police means more criminalization for us. In 2016 we saw record numbers of arrests for drug possession in Vancouver, continuing the failed war on drugs policies, even-In the context of a horrible overdose epidemic."

The $700,000 for a 'drug containment facility' is particularly upsetting for VAN DU, given the need for resources to deal with the overdose epidemic and the negative role that the police continue to play by criminalizing people who use drugs.

"A $700,000 drug containment facility is wasteful and unnecessary," says Ormond.

"A Ju Iy 2017 statement by the American

College of Medical Toxicology states that the risk of clinically significant exposure to fentanyl for emergency responders is extremely low. They outline how that low risk can be managed with low-tech nitrile and n95 respirator. Drugs are being tested for tested for fentanyl by health care providers on a daily basis without such costly and unnecessary infrastructu re."

"We need public education, health services and economic supports, not more police," says VANDU Vice-President Hugh Lampkin. 'This money could be put toward services to help people who use drugs survive this OD epidemic. It could be used for real drug education and support programs for young people. I could be used for housing or other economic supports for our communities."

SIX POINTS ON THE LIBERALS' NATIONAL HOUSING STR-ATEGY

In late November the federal government released its long awaited National Housing Strategy which is a huge disappointment for people who were hoping the feds would help end homelessness and build lots of social housing for lower income people.

1. THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS STRATEGY ABOUT END NG HOMELESSNESS FAST There is only a vague promise of cutting chronic homelessness {about 2-20 percent of all homeless people} by 50% in 10 years.

This is a criminally slow target. Homeless people have half the life expectancy of housed people. Too many precious lives will be lost by then.

2. THIS IS NOT A HOUSING STRATEGY, BUT A RE-ELECTION STRATEGY FOR THE LIBERALS

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Very little of the money promised in this plan will flow before the next Federal election.

3. THE STRATEGY EMPHASIZES MIXEDINCOME DEVELOPMENTS, MAKING IT INTO A NATIONAL GENTRIFICATION STRATEGY Mixed-incom e is a failed experiment when imposed on low-income neighbourhoods. These developments increase property values, taxes and nearby rents resulting in gentrification and displacement. They don't involve a mix at all: they have a rich door and a poor door, rich amenities and poor amenities. Making the announcement of the release of the national housing strategy from the abhorrent Woodward's complex -- the symbol of gentrification in Vancouver DTES -- speaks volumes about the true direction of this strategy.

4. THE DEFINITION OF AFFORDABLE IS NOT AFFORDABLE AT ALL The plan defines affordable as "30% of units having rents at or less than 80% of median market rents, for a minimum of 20 years". So, for example, if the median rent is $2000 a month, 80% of it would be $1600. You need to make about $65,000 a year to afford this amount of rent. The people who need housing the most have much lower incomes.

They could be left out of this housing strategy because financing homes for higher income people is so much easier. Saying that the "affordable" units only have to be affordable for 20 years is also bad for low income people who could be priced out of their homes after that period. This is a really unaffordable rate for a pretty short time.

5. RENT SUPPLEMENTS ARE BASICALLY LANDLORD SUPPLEMENTS This strategy uses rent supplements as a solution to the crisis of affordability.

US studies have shown that the impact is to increase rents for all low income people, not just people who get the supplement; it is not a good tactic when you have a very low vacancy rate and virtually useless rent control like we have.

6. MOST OF THE FUNDING ANNOUNCED IN THIS STRATEGY COMES WITH LOTS OF STRINGS ATTACHED

$11.2billion of the $15.9 billion promised is in loans, not investments.

This makes it unlikely that non-profit groups will be able to finance housing for low income people as they will have to repay their loans and interest as well as pay for land, construction and operating costs. Private developers are eligible for loans if they meet minimum requirements, meaning they can use government money to subsidize their profits and help them benefit from property appreciation.

Much of the remainder is slated for "eo-investment" and contingent on being matched by another level of government. The plan says: contributions from other partners could include provincial, territorial and municipal lands, inclusionary zoning provisions, accelerated municipal approval processes. waiving of development charges and fees, tax rebates, and other government loans." u •••

This is deeply troubling, as it would allow municipal governments to be coerced into agreeing to terms of development in order to receive Federal funding.

Toget us out of the housing crisis, and to implement a Housing as a Right policy we should be using government money to get land and housing out of the private market where it is a commodity, not help developers get control of more land and market housing.

CARNEGIE

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ACTION

PROJECT 111:15AM EVERY FRIDAY

The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP)is a project of the board of the Carnegie Community Centre Association. CCAPworks mostly on housing. income. and land use issues in the Downtown Eastside (DTES)of Vancouver so that the area can remain a low income friendly community. CCAPworks with english speaking and Chinese speaking DTESresidents in speaking out on their own behalf for the changes they would like to see in their neighbourhood.

Join us on Fridays11:15am for our weekly volunteer meetings! Downtown Eastside residents who want to work on getting better housing and incomes and stop gentrification are welcome to attend. Lunch is provided!

CARNEGIE

AFRICAN

DESCENT GROUP

III AM EVERY 2ND TUESDAY

The Carnegie African Descent Group (CADG) is pleased to invite you to a bi-weekly lunch gathering at the Downtown Eastside Neighborhood House. Come. cook. talk and enjoy African dishes with us.The lunch will take place every Tuesdays.from 11:00am tilll:30 pm. The group has the same mandate as CCAP.but with particular focus on issuesthat Black and African Descent community members experience. DTEScommunity members who identify as Black and or as of African Descent are welcome to the lunch. For more information. contact: Imugab075@gmail.com

mAi1J~~):E~'§I CHINATOWN

CONCERN GROUP

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CONTACT

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Office: 2nd floor of the Carnegie.

401 Main Street. Vancouver Phone: 604-665-2105 Email: info@carnegieaction.org Website: www.carnegieaction.org

Vancity

•Thank you to Vancity for supporting CCAP'swork. Support for this project does not necessarilyimply that funders endorse the findings or contents of this report.

Oppenheimer Memorial Pole- Remembered Another day of searching for a wife I'd lost to drugs. My mind lying to me so I don't kill myself again hiding from the truth of her death. "It's a conspiracy," I lie to myself, "she's not dead." I walk through the park looking for anything to dull my memories. As I walk up to the old field house I can see a couple of old men inside where a log is propped up on two saw horses, they are talking and just glance at me as I walk past them into the room where the pole is. I spot some pieces of cedar wood in the corner, "probably cut offs from the log," I think to myself, as I bend down and pick up a block of it and begin to walk out. "Hey!" say's the bigger of the two old dudes, "Where you going with that?" he asks. "It's mine," I say trying to walk past the two of them, but they are standing by the door, and I stop. "I'm a carver and this is my wood." The huge old dude looks familiar to me, but I'm too sick to think. I need a drink, food, sleep, a bath, and probably a hospital, I don't know this at this time, I'm lost in depression, sick of malnutrition, and ulcers, broken legs and ankle, dislocated shoulder, hip, teeth missing, heart attacks, pleurisy, asthma. With the fear in my voice, I apologize to both of them and try another lie. "I left this wood here so I could get something to eat and buy some tools today." "HA ha ha ha!" They both laugh at me, and then look at each other and laugh harder yet. I'm fuming, but can't say anything, because I'm afraid of being hit, losing the wood, and mostly confused. Then the bigger one speaks to me in a kind voice, "I know who you are, you did a pole with a carver from Alert Bay in Stanley park some years back, (90). "You're Kim!" I shook with shock, my name! I hadn't heard it in a long while. Like most egoless, selfless welfare throwaways I didn't get close to a lot of people .. too ashamed. Always put all of my love eggs in one basket, eo-dependent behaviour I learned later, one of many diagnosis doctors like to give you, along with the pills. "Kim, I want you to do something for us both. Tell me the truth and maybe I can help you." I hesitated for too long and the tall lanky old dude spoke to me, "you're lucky he's asking, in the old days you'd be picking up teeth, and his hands would still be in his pockets". I whispered hoarsely, "it's not my wood, I am just sick, and need it for money." "For booze?" The bigger one say's. "Yes," I answer. "Ok good!" he says happily. "Now, this is what you can do, you can ask for help from us, but you have to do something for us." I think I'm about to get lucky and step up in the street world, when he says something I thought I'd never hear. "Kim I need your help too, if you can come back here tomorrow sober, you can carve here, and I will support you until you can support yourself. Paul & I are carving a pole to honour and remember the people who have been lost to violence and drugs in the DTES ofVancouver, especially here in Oppenheimer Park." I cried, sobbing like a beaten rain soaked puppy. All the memories flooded in, my wife, family, friends, I'd lost too many. I returned the next day to find them waiting for me with food, and a five-dollar bill. "You only need this much money to eat each day down here, eat at the Carnegie, or the 44, it's not for booze!" It took a month to graduate to a ten-dollar bill. Long story shorter, I got sober, been sober for 19 years less 6 days, (fucking depression stole them). I remember them everyday, they gave me life, the community a spirit, Oppenheimer a voice. Two old men and a recovering drunk, along with any carver sober enough, free enough to help us. The pole went up. People raised it with blessings, cheers and tears. WE matter is what those two old dudes taught me, no matter where we come from. Richard (Dickie) Baker, Paul Auger, along with Alex Weir, Dallas Hunt, Cal Maltipi (B.C.), Eagle, Georgina lames, et al. WE did it. Today as I grow old, I wanted to remember them, and share them with you all. I love you, just as they loved me. Please remember them this September 2017, they saved my life 20 years ago when they let me help carve the pole in Oppenheimer Park for all our lost ones. Peace and Love, all my relations, Ay Siem - Cheyat-Ch .~

Second Place

By Kim Wash burn

The Skinniest Building in the World

By Debra McNaught Known now as the Jack Chow Insurance building, back in 1913 it was built as the Sam Kee Company building, except there never was a man named Sam Kee. The man behind the narrowest-commercialbui1ding-in-the-worId (see Guinness) was actually ..

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Chang Toy, a successful Chinatown merchant and businessman who built the 1.4 metre (5 feet wide) building when the city appropriated most of his city lot to widen Dupont Street (now Pender) after an associate bet him $10,000 that the lot was too small to support a building. Are you with me so far?

Chang Toy's Sam Kee Co was a mega-corporation in an era where they hadn't really been invented yet, at least not in the city of Vancouver, and certainly not in Chinatown. Chang's empire of businesses strategically complimented one another, and he created a niche that straddled the traditional Chinese and White business communities, and his fingers were in many interconnecting pies.

Born in 1857 in Guangdong (Canton), he came to Victoria in 1874 contracted by a 'snake head' to work in a fish cannery as payment for his passage.ln labour starved and resource-rich British Columbia, he was one of thousands of 'bachelor men' come to seek their fortunes, leaving families and social traditions behind. By 1874 he was working in a sawmill in New West, and by 1876 he and a partner had opened a laundry in China town. The laundry morphed into a

store that sold Chinese foodstuffs - especially rice expanding quickly to include pretty much everything the 'bachelor men' were homesick for.

After the Gold Rush hysteria had died down and the CPR was finally completed, many of the Chinese elected to stay. Most of them settled in Vancouver but every whistle-stop on the CPR line boasted at least one Chinese cafe or Chinese laundry, and the larger communities supported their own Chinatowns where the 'bachelor men' lived. They worked in the fishing and canning industries, in lumber camps, at building railroads (spur lines), in the mines, and at hard labour jobs like road and trestle building. Chang began selling his rice, dried fish, soy, & fire crackers to White-owned wholesalers like Kelly, Douglas and WH Malkin who in turn sold throughout the province Chang became adept at understanding not only the art of the deal as it translated through Western business models but the legal and court systems that support it, becoming a leading merchant with an ever-expanding list of big cool friends. Traditional Chinese society functions under a complicated hierarchy of family and social obligations, and as "wealth was one important determinant to leadership inside and outside Chinatown," the wealthier merchants began to act as spokesmen for those cut adrift from this familiar framework. In the face of racism that culminated in the 1907 anti-Asian riots, "[the need for] peace and the smooth functioning of the economy .... impelled Chinatown merchants to shoulder the traditional welfare and mediation duties of the gentry and lineage elders of China." As Chang's business expanded, the Sam Kee Co & other leading China town merchants - a very small group - began to be perceived as "non-threatening operations worthy of trade" by the White business community. In "1907 the Sam Kee Co was one of four China town businesses that grossed annual sales in excess of $150,000.

The Sam Kee Co's biggest export was fish: dried, smoked, canned, salted, and the herring, salmon and crab was shipped to Japan, Australia, and Hong Kong. Chang helped supply the labour to the very companies he purchased goods from, and although 'snake heads' like Chang "were an essential link to the pools of immigrant workers," contracting Chinese labour pretty much guaranteed low wages. Much can be said about exploitation but the cultural & linguistic gaps between management & labour necessitated

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intervention by labour middlemen like Chang.

At its peak the Sam Kee Co dealt in coal oil & other fuels, lumber mills, hardware, marine insurance, contracted with steamship agencies (the Blue Funnel Line and the Japan Mail Steamship Co), built salting plants, operated general stores selling everything Chinese and all manner of dry goods and - yes of course - opium. The British forced the opium trade on Hong Kong and many other of their colonies as a cost of doing business, meaning any port city in the British Empire was 'of course' a heroin town. Until it was criminalized in 1908 anybody who wanted to ship opium was just another merchant. After 1908 Chang's business records show no further opium shipments; what, demand just dried up? Everybody moved away? Business is business: minor details like ethics, illegal activities, and international boundaries mean little in the face of profit, and capitalism has no allegiance but unto itself. What's really interesting is that Chang's customers "were White." Of course, unless a risque night out slumming in the Chinatown opium dens was on the menu, the rich never had to leave their Shaughnessy mansions to lie down with the pipe; I still have a problem believing he sold just to White people though.

Back to the Skinny Building. Before the First WorId War, Dupont Street between Main and Carrall was a notorious red-light district. Under the guise of 'city improvement' the brothels were swept aside when Dupont was widened and renamed Pender. So, what do you do when the city appropriates most of your lot, leaving a useless strip less than six feet wide? A bet's a bet: he found an architect that could do justice to such a small 0 portunity, and Chang collected his 10k. Contemporary accounts are rife with suggestions the city refused to cough up any compensation; other rumours sneeringly claim that he got only half of what he asked for, but Chang was a pretty shrewd negotiator, and the first rule of negotiating is always ask for more than what you want. I suspect he got what he asked for.

Chang left us in 1920, but his building still stands at 8 Pender (at Carrall). Go take a look but don't blink in case you miss it.

Sources include the West Ender, and Paul Yee in BC Studies, nos 69-70, Spring-Summer 1986.

r 1968 Christmas at the Birmingham Bullring A half-split day of ruptured sky invites me to reminisce of nights gone, when tall tales of father's god stories left me in wonder at the Birmingham Bullring.

We trot through the market with rabbits hung on string, as I notice a stuffed dog yapping on a plastic leash and the sound of old men yelling and cussing.

Yelling and cussing, his hands caught in the air & a mouth poised in a kiss as skirts & well-pressed trousers & polished bootsfty by in the middle of the market where an xmas tree, blinking red blue & green stretches up to that ruptured sky Yelling and cussing with faces like old porcelain vendors sell meat pies, pastries, pork and beans stuffed dogs yapping on plastic leashes, I eat chocolate holding daddy's fingers, I press through crowds to peer at the snow-covered angel on top of the Christmas tree blinking red, blue and green Yelling & cussing button-down mothers push babystrollers with button-down babies burping and smelling of stale milk and daddy is as tall as the devil where everybody is busy and fixed on their work, with something important to do like sell dogs yapping on plastic leashes.

Yelling and cussing, it smells of fish and chips and greasy beans, pork sausages but daddy doesn't care as he picks me up into his arms, to leave the market with its rabbits hung on strings as the Christmas tree stretches up and up into that ruptured sky.

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....:-Ruby Diamond Love is the strangest thing ~very day, sometimes every hour Brings change But for the most part These changes are only superficial Love doesn't change You and I 'fit together' We 'get along' Disagreements on scale is usually the extent of such but the love endures Some things cannot be expressed in words Love may be one of those things Something that is experienced wordlessly Let's make ours last forever PRT

Membership has its privileges ...

We're having a "Cowboy Christmas" in the library, showcasing seasonal books and highlighting our expanded Western paperback selection! Discover some inspirational books to create unique gifts like the original homesteaders or live vicariously through wild adventures on the frontier. For fans of Westerns remember to check the paperback spinner, as well as the Fie- . tion and Large Print sections for hard-covers, as well as the DVDs! Here are a few Western novels turned into popular movies.

No Country for Old Men (2005) by Cormac McCarthy. A modern western on the U.S. / Mexico border where an illegal drug deal goes wrong. A sinister moral argument that was turned into a Coen brother movie two years later featuring Javier Bardem.

Shane (1949) by Jack Schaefer. A classic story of a mysterious gunslinger who must overcome adversity, help the homesteaders, & combat intimidation. Transformed on the big screen in 1953 by director George Stevens.

True Grit (1968) by Charles Portis. The story of feisty teenager Mattie Ross who seeks vengeance when her father is murdered, and recruits the help of one-eyed wild man, Rooster Cogburn as well as Texas Ranger LaBoeufto track the killer. Made into a successful film both in 1969 and 2010!

The Virginian: a horseman of the Plains (1902) by Owen Wister. Set in the Wyoming territory, the Virginian is a lone ider with a strong sense of justice, but love and betrayal push him to the limits in the struggle between good and evil. Turned into a silent film in 1914, inspiring several movies and a TV series..

Your librarian, Natalie P.S: don't forget to enter our draw prize for a 12-DVD set "The Way West" which has 50 Western films! The lucky winner will be selected Dec. 24th.

2018 Carnegie memberships go on sale December 1st.

Get yours now -- it's a steal for only $1.00!

Look at what it gets you: -- free phones -- computer access -- out-trips -- special seniors' events -- and you're a senior if you're over 40!

-- and more ....

That's not all -- the more members we have, the stronger our voice at City Hall, with MLAs and MPs - with government in fact.

Support your Centre .. buy a membership now!

NEED TECH HELP? Friday Morning Tech Drop-In @ Oppenheimer

Park

Learn more about how to use: Android • i~hone • Tablets • iPads • Laptops Email • Social Media • Other Tech Questions Every Friday morning Oppenheimer

10:30am -12:30pm Park Field House

Events at Carnegie There's a much nicer layout of the seasonal stuff available at the Front Desk, but here's a shorter, plainer version just in case: Live Band Dance Dec 15, Friday, 7-9:45, theatre.

Hanukkah Dinner ($3.25) Dec 17, Sunday, 5pm, 2nd f1 Winter Solstice Dec 18, Monday, 5-9pm, theatre Christmas Ornament Crafts Dec 19, Tues, 2-4pm, yd Christmas Cabaret Dec 19, Tuesday, 7-9:45, theatre Christmas Crafts Dec 20, Wed, 1-4pm, theatre Seniors Xmas Party Dec 21, Thur, 12-4, theatre Karaoke Dec 22, Friday, 7-9:45, theatre Christmas Eve Dec 24, Sun, open 'til lam, theatre Xmas Day Breakfast Dec 25, Mon, 7:30-10, 2nd f1 Christmas Dinner ($1.50) Dec 25, 5pm, 2nd f1 Boxing Day Dinners Dec 26, Tues, 2/3:15/4:30 Free NYE Dinner ($1.50) Dec 31, Sunday, 5pm, 2nd f1 New Year's Eve Party 8pm-l am, theatre

We Are Society's

is all-systems-go criminals waiting over a year to hear from a judge are released back to a society that would rather be force-fed hot coal we watch as ravenous politicians vow the evil already done can&will be rearranged. Such high praise from mayors' delegates & other hangers-on even shutting Mr Shakespeare in with plywood he is & always shall know what is right let alone what is going on The facts as we know them cannot ever be silenced those without debt were born raised&schooled in a cave, like admitting(lying) in court that the several pounds of Uranium were for personal use if anyone here graduated past kindergarten such things are used for atrocities mankind has bowed down to pure evil . over the days&years&centuries of authoritarian abuse you twist my arm to play along getting Earth disarmed Wake Up scumfuck we would like to think have done away with the rotten golden rule no one will ever ever be a slave.

In a land where clocks do not exist the broken ones are correct twice a day like every detail to detention your attention has been captured turned loose its death will please evil anyone with a soul will live with this . date etched in their brain there's nothing to say we've seen this before there are happy ones & this which tries to make what we're made of days will come when we shall smiJe. Imagine a war where nobody came like a set oflyrics worth two thousand pictures those four horsemen of the apocalypse written are incredible words I hope will last forever the good in us can overcome the tricksters yet I watched as today's youth wouldn't know a poppy from seaweed knowledge of the past is back about several hundred miles, people chained to trees no college diplomas for them what a shame like a sports contract worth billions & a planet to be named later plus a new boardgame 'Chinatown' complete with wrecking ball a single park bench to remember a past no-one wants brought up again, our silence shall always shine you've tried killing us Off: well hatred&intimidation got you nothing so many approving smiles have we made 'em erase in over a hundred countries we the Carnegie would've been murdered or gone screw because we are human amen.

Debt

Like a Middle East nudist colony or a Philippine drugin site/centre this world cries itself to sleep with virtually no one helping it get better how would the other planets hold Earth's funeralr l may not be one of the most upbeat citizens] think a couple (or eleventeen hundred) have pointed that out I may foreshadow my forecast while my flag is sort of half-mast there are no rooms for doubt some of us just resign & say it is what it is that is your normal, I am not smart no anagrams or sonnets from the likes of me nonono youth of today are way too busy with gadgets & the quickest way to make a million dollars screw this planet we should be calling home time is ticking, like a well-designed suit for a terrorist who has urinated on this planet marking his territorial land & can do as he likes until he awakens in Hell and demands to see the one in charge his urine will be running down his leg as the only colour down there is black there is no light begging to be returned to a draft board his fate becomes a dartboard & .wounds depend on where darts end up sticking ...

"Like usurping those high waves" ofmisfortune&circum stance this could be a new Olympic sport or the point of no-return abies I have lived like this the poor& homeless count on it otherwise their time is taken up by inconveniences like death near death warrants & of course court there goes an afternoon or several months worktickwork Like all friends we'd congregate in suburban malls our personal niteinares would be shared only by us as a group of four or five or six there were good times trust me I know William alias Mr Shakespeare has pulled me out of the ballpark of cruelty it is a true wonder those that are left (sinister) handed were able to meet mate&mix being a sort of freak is so so much better than being a jerk, As I see it we are to follow mankind's command not its debut which was suspect at best the people trying their hardest putting together this exploding world you say they deserve one million hours community service the ones killed will never be forgotten lest just once I'd like to pay the extortionists (hydro&cable) in couch change, our castrated judicial system in mute fashion

By ROBERT

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The thing that numbs the heart is this: "That men cannot devise some scheme of life to banish fear that lurks in most men's eyes." -James Norman Hall

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Gathering Place: The Kitchen Table Shortly after their wedding in the late 1920s, my paternal grandparents bought a small fir kitchen table and four matching chairs. The furniture fit perfectly into their first home - a one-bedroom apartment on Vancouver's eastside.

At some point, the table was painted the colour of a ripe Granny Smith apple; later, it was painted a pretty cream colour. Its decoratively shaped legs gave the otherwise plain tablean attractive air. Its two, fold- down flaps made it easy to adjust the drop-leaf table's size for two to four people.

My first interaction with this now ninety-year-old kitchen table occurred shortly after my birth one snowy February night over fifty years ago. As our family was very close to our grandparents - affectionately known as Daddo and Mommo - we spent much time at their then-current eastside 1900s house. In old black-and-white photos, I often seemed to be sitting in the kitchen on a relative's lap be it my mother's, my Dad's youngest sister Marjorie, â&#x20AC;˘ or Mommo's. Like many other kitchen tables in my life, this table became a favourite gathering place in the home. r When Mommo and Daddo sold their heritage wood frame house in 1979 and moved to an apartment in West Vancouver, they replaced their old kitchen table with a more modern version. The drop-leaf table -stored in our base; ment for ten years - was mainly used for storage. When I moved from our family's home to my own place in the Downtown Eastside, I took this small foldable table with me. Now located in my kitchen, it fit the area perfectly.

My relationship to the drop-leaf table has changed overtime according to its function. At times, the table has served a utilitarian purpose as well as a more philosophical one. For example, besides serving its original function as a kitchen table, it has also served as a desk and a storage area. As I worked on this essay, I also tried to envision all the people and their activities which took place around this small serviceable, easily overlooked piece of furniture. While looking through myoid photo album from the early 1960s, I noticed that many of the photos were taken around a kitchen table, be it in one of our former homes or other relatives' homes. Like a trusted friend or confidant, all these tables - mine included - seemed to represent security, safety, affection, and love. Thus, my grandparents' former table slowly evolved from one of utility to one of holding onto memories of my family.

Sadly, many of the people to whom this kitchen table would be meaningful to are now deceased. However, it might still be meaningful to my Aunt Kay (my paternal grandparents' sole surviving child) and Colleen, Kay's oldest child. After Uncle Don's premature death, Aunt Kay and her toddler daughter lived with my grandparents for a year or so. For Kay, the table might bring back mixed memories of fun social gatherings with friends and of grieving for twenty-five years the death of her beloved young husband. For my cousin Colleen, it might bring back other peoples' stories and memories of the young father whom she barely got to know.

Over time, I have learnt that the kitchen table's function seems to be fluid. Sometimes it is a place where meals are taken or where a storage counter is needed. It is where my grandparents welcomed their three children's friends into their home or offered much-appreciated companionship to a young minister and his large family. As well, it has been a comforting place of people sharing stories, memories, dreams, confidences over tea and toast, consoling one another in the wake of bereavement and grief, or celebrating achievements with happiness and joy.

While this modest drop-leaf table may never achieve "heirloom" status, its legacy as a domestic gathering place will always symbolize home to me.

Honourable mention.

By Barbara Morrison

We acknowledge that Carnegie Community Centre, and this Newsletter, are occurring on Coast Salish Territory.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful THIS NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Association.

committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade

iSLAP (Law Students

WANTED Artwork for the Carnegie Newsletter • • • • • • • •

Small illustrations to accompany articles and poetry Cover art - Max size: 17cm wide X 15cm high Subject matter pertaining to issues relevant to the Downtown Eastside, but all work considered.

Black & White printing only.

Size restrictions apply (i.e. if your piece is too large, it will be reduced and/or cropped to fit).

All artists will receive credit for their work.

Originals will be returned to the artist after being copied for publication.

Remuneration: Carnegie Volunteer Tickets

Please make submissions to Paul Taylor, Editor.

The editor can edit for clarity, format & brevity, but not at the expense of the writer's message.

Website carnegienewsletter.org Catalogue email: carnnews@vcn.bc.ca carnnews@shaw.ca phone: 604·665·2289 address: 401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 217 (Publication

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