Revitalization Strategy: Re Condos and Census Data

revitalization strategy: While the area has grown with waves of immigration and development over the decades, it remains one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, according to The Chronicle Herald. According to 2006 census data, the median income for the area was $17,658 compared with $47,299 for the city as a whole. As the city begins to review the impact of its economic revitalization strategy for the neighbourhood, which ended last year, community members are at odds whether Chinatown direction is what they want. "With all the developments that are happening in the area, they're condos for the most part and they're not being catered to the residents that live there right now," said Yuly Chan, a member of the Chinatown Action Group. "Just because people are poor, or are income assistance, it doesn't mean they can be pushed out of their own neighbourhood." Vancouver Chinatown is one of the oldest in the country, established in the late 1880s when early Chinese immigrants, many of them railway workers, settled in the area near what is now the downtown core. A more recent report by First Call B.C. found that the child poverty rate in Chinatown in 2013 was a staggering 59 per cent. The strategies allowed for taller buildings in select areas of Chinatown to bring more residents into the neighbourhood, with the catch of requiring developers to contribute new amenities like community centres in return for the extra height on new construction. A three-year economic plan, in conjunction with a longer term neighbourhood plan, was introduced by the city in 2012 to address concerns about the growing number of closing storefronts in Chinatown, city planner Karen Hoese said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.