NEW CHINATOWN GATE WILL ECHO CITY HISTORY

Government Has Promised $750,000 For The Landmark To Spruce Up The Area

There was a rare and pleasant moment of harmony between Chinatown and
government officials this weekend, as almost three-quarters-of-a-million
dollars in government funding was announced for an elaborate new gate at
the western entrance to Chinatown.

The gate, meant to create a postcard-worthy image of Vancouver's Chinatown,
is the first step in a larger plan to revitalize the area and make it a
tourist destination again, along with the plan for a "Silk Road" walking
route from the Vancouver Public Library at Robson Street to the Millennium
Gate at Pender near Gore.

"For years, Vancouver's Chinatown had wished for a traditional gate to
serve as a landmark," said Tong Yuet, president of the Chinatown Merchants
Association and the Millennium Gate Society, at the ceremony held during
the weekend at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden.

The gate, designed by architect Joe Wai, echoes the style of earlier
temporary arches that had been built in Chinatown to celebrate city events
like visits from royalty.

Yuet also paid tribute to the politicians at the three levels of government
that provided money, and he even singled out city planner Wendy Au for her
"relentless effort" in bringing the gate project to fruition.

All of that was in sharp contrast to the confrontational atmosphere that
has been growing over the last year.

Chinatown-based organizations have mounted increasingly strenuous
objections to government plans for health services for drug users in the
area, all part of a massive effort to rehabilitate the Downtown Eastside
through a co-operative three-government effort called the Vancouver
Agreement. Au had come under particularly heavy shelling in the past couple
of weeks in the Chinese media, to the dismay of more moderate voices in the
Chinese community, even though she is not working directly on the city's
drug strategy.

The confrontation is due to resume this week, as Vancouver's
development-permit board gets set to hear from several hundred people over
controversial plans to set up a "contact centre" for drug users on the main
floor of a hotel on Hastings Street -- part of the harm-reduction piece of
the plan.

But Saturday, with the announcement of $750,000 from the three government
partners in Vancouver Agreement, co-operation and a focus on the positive
were the themes of the day.

"We need some good news in this area because we've been inundated with bad
news for a while," said Kelly Ip, vice-president of the millennium gate
society.

But, while MP Hedy Fry lavished complimentary remarks on the Chinese
community and its contribution to Canadian history, she also made a point
of stressing that her government supports the city's proposed drug
strategy, which emphasizes improved enforcement and treatment but which
also makes room for sometimes controversial harm-reduction strategies.

"Mayor Owen and his council had the courage to bring initiatives forward
that do not have unanimous support," she said to the crowd in the gardens.
"They did not take the easy way out. But these initiatives before the
development permit board are the way out, the way out of the status quo for
the Downtown Eastside."