WHICH CAME FIRST: DRUGS OR RETAIL DECLINE?

A new study on the Downtown Eastside blames its retail decline on a change
in shopping habits and the proliferation of malls and big-box stores rather
than the rampant drug trade.

The 15-page report, published as a booklet called On Hastings Street-30
years of retail history in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, 1970-2000, was
produced through the Carnegie Community Action Project.

The project, which involved Downtown Eastside residents, was designed to
improve participants' life skills. Those involved researched, designed and
compiled the material, which chronicles the changes in retail storefront
use along Hastings between 1976 and 2001, focusing on the four-block
stretch from Cambie Street to Main.

According to the study, the shopping district's demographics, which have
traditionally included low-to-moderate income earners, have changed little
over the years, suggesting the source of retail demise was not poverty or
scarcity of residents. Instead, developments in the late 1980s-such as the
launch of Pacific Centre Mall and Metrotown, both easily accessible via
Skytrain-siphoned off its customer base and forced the closure of formerly
popular businesses, including Ripley's Men's Wear and Pierre Paris Shoes.
Several banks also abandoned the area during this period, as did a number
of entertainment venues such as the City Night Theatre. These events
culminated in a vacancy rate of 13 per cent.

The situation worsened in the 1990s when anchor stores that drew shoppers
into the neighbourhood like Woolworth's, Fields, Felco and Woodward's
pulled out, further weakening the shaky business climate. By 1996, the
vacancy rate had climbed to 36 per cent and the proliferation of boarded up
shops did little to attract new businesses. Currently, there are four empty
lots and 43 vacant storefronts between Cambie and Main streets.

The report argues many of the factors that contributed to the Downtown
Eastside's retail decline preceded the explosion of the open drug scene in
the 1990s, when cheap heroin and cocaine became readily available. Rather
than drugs pushing out businesses, it says, retreating businesses left a
vacuum into which the drug trade could expand.

"There was always a drug scene on Hastings but the worst happened in the
90s," says Tom Laviolette, coordinator of the Carnegie Community Action
Project. "Retail had already been making a retreat."

The study acknowledges, however, that both problems-retail decline and the
drug scene-feed off each other now.

Laviolette said he hopes the report will help broaden the debate about
what's going on in the Downtown Eastside so better decisions about its
revitalization can be made.

City councillors had been invited to the book release, although none
attended. Although Laviolette anticipates some Vancouverites will dismiss
the study because it was not produced by an independent body, he maintains
a tremendous amount of research went into it and its findings are
defensible. Its authors used information from Vancouver city directories to
design maps illustrating changes along the street over three decades. They
also found old photos of the district and used census data to back the
findings.

Laviolette argues that despite the sorry state of the Downtown Eastside,
it's still possible to reinvent it, as the continuing success of businesses
like Army & Navy and Save On Meats suggests. "That the East Side is scary
and unsafe is often overstated," he said. "It's only been a little over 10
years that the street has been this marginalized, but it's not lost yet."

The city, in conjunction with the provincial and federal governments, is
trying to revitalize the business district. Through one program, a
non-profit organization leases space from a private landlord and the city
provides declining grants over a period of three years. A second program
helps private and non-profit businesses finance improvements to rental
spaces. To see the Hastings Street study online check on the Internet at
www.downtowneastside.ca/ccap/actions.html.