Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: David Carrigg

WINDS OF CHANGE COME TO HASTINGS

Street Scene Now 'Breezy' Thanks To City Clampdown And Construction,
Says Store Owner

Skate shop owner Jordan Lilwall has felt the mood at Hastings and
Abbott turn from confrontational to breezy in a year.

"It's changed dramatically for the better," said Lilwall, sitting at
the till of Vancity Skates at 419 Abbott St.

Lilwall shifted Vancity Skates to a ground-floor retail space in a
large hotel at the southwest intersection of Abbott and Hastings two
summers ago.

"You learn pretty quick what it's all about down here. We were robbed
on the first day we opened, and you start seeing the everyday things,
people shooting up behind Hydro boxes, that sort of thing."

Lilwall was attracted to the site because the rent was cheap and it's
relatively close to the Skate Plaza under the Georgia Viaduct at the
intersection of Union and Quebec streets.

Until this year, Jordan's daily work grind included regular
confrontations with addicts and dealers.

"A year ago I couldn't go a week without a confrontation, but now
it's breezy. I'm not dealing with addicts and dealers in the doorway," he said.

"I'd have to kick the same guy out of the doorway over and over and
over. You're your own security down here."

Lilwall attributes the dramatic change in business conditions to
construction workers being in the area because of the massive
Woodward's development in the 100-block West Hastings, and also to
city hall's get-tough attitude towards Downtown Eastside businesses.

"Most of the reason I had problems was because this retail space used
to be a place to buy crack," Lilwall said.

"When I got my business licence to move in here, I had to go through
Barb Windsor."

Windsor is the City of Vancouver's no-nonsense chief licence inspector.

Working closely with Vancouver police, Windsor has brought dozens of
dodgy business owners before council and seen them stripped of their
business licences -- usually for selling drugs and buying stolen property.

Lilwall's tough first two years were in part because, until a 2005
crackdown, several businesses on the 400-block of Abbott were
allegedly selling drugs. Those businesses subsequently had their
licences revoked, but the block had already become a Mecca for
addicts and street-level dealers.

Windsor told The Province she is still closing down businesses, most
recently this summer, when council cancelled the licences of a
grocery store in the 300-block Columbia and a nearby seafood
restaurant on East Hastings -- both for alleged drug dealing.

But times are a changin'.

"We are not closing as many [businesses] as we used to, and that's
because there's less illegal activity in stores," said Windsor, whose
team is now seeing a different type of business-licence applicant.

"What we traditionally had were pizza places and corner grocery
stores. Now we are getting more of a variety," she said.

Windsor points to Vancity Skates, a Brazilian clothes store at 45
West Hastings, the reopened Rickshaw Theatre at 254 East Hastings,
Waves Coffee Shop on the 100-block East Cordova and a specialty
cheese shop and restaurant at 843 East Hastings that opened in June.

Windsor's work is part of a broader effort since the Vancouver
Agreement was introduced in 1999 to improve the living and business
conditions in the Downtown Eastside.

Jessica Chen, chief planner responsible for the Downtown Eastside,
thinks those efforts are now being seen at storefront level.

In her West Broadway office, Chen has a map of the Downtown Eastside,
with coloured ovals highlighting Gastown, Chinatown, Japantown and
the Hastings corridor.

There are marks for each of the the hotels bought over the past 18
months by the provincial government, for the two new social-housing
developments, park upgrades and corridor upgrades.

"We want to revitalize without displacement. We want the area to
evolve respectfully," Chen said.

"It started 10 years ago and in the past two years we are starting to
see the changes.

"We've worked out how to work together as bureaucracy, and things are
starting to add up."

This fall will see several major Downtown Eastside projects come
online -- the opening of Woodward's retail spaces, the reopening of
Pigeon Park and Oppenheimer Park and the launch of the Carrall Street Greenway.

The Pennsylvania heritage/social housing project is already open and
the historic Merchant Bank Building alongside Pigeon Park will be next.

Chen said with better infrastructure, businesses are moving to the
area that "want to be in the community."

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association is now targeting
green businesses and there is a proposal to create a Hastings Street
business improvement association.

When The Province was at Vancity Skates last month, two Calgary
skaters, both 19, who had been at the nearby skate plaza walked in
and bought a skateboard deck.

"I'm starting to get more walk-ins, though my wife still won't come
here," Lilwall laughs.

But when he brings his son, Salem, to work, it's all cool on the street.

"He's eight months, and that's when it seemed to change. My goal is
to be here in three years. I just shouldn't have been here for the
previous two."