April 1, 2014, carnegie newsletter

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APRIL 1, 2014 7 years since last Welfare Raise!

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We Are Poor Because They Are Rich

ELLEN WOODSWORTH IS A FRIEND Ellen Woodsworth for the Board of Vancity Credit Union for more info ww路w.ellenwoodsworth.com Voting starts March 31 www.vancity.com As a social justice advocate for over 30 years. I have worked with you to empower our communities and strengthen our diverse society. l also bring my six years' experience as a former Vancouver City Councillor to the Vancity Board of Directors.

"Today 1 am writing to ask for your support.

This is a grassroots campaign. Did you know that only 4% of Vancity's membership votes? Together. let's raise this percentage to help me win a seat on the board! Please share my campaign with your Vancity friends. family and colleagues and ask them to vote for former city councillor, Ellen Woodsworth."

Old/New Coalition/Organisation At Metro Vancouver Alliance, we believe that by working together we have the power to change our communities for the better.

We do more than sign petitions and protest. We organize and take action. We find common ground for the common good.

The MVA is a broad based alliance of community groups, labour, faith and educational organizations, all working together for the common good. There are currently 36 member organizations within MVA, representing over 200,000 people from across the Lower Mainland. lt is based on the Industrial Areas Foundation model of community organizing. The IAF model has over 60 active community alliances across the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia and has a proven track record around the wo rld: most notably in England, where Citizens UK persuaded the London .

Olympic Games Committee to become a living wage employer.

It's different from other organizations in that we start by listening to o ur members and building relationships; we identify our common ground and then take collective action. We are building an organization that is powerful enough to enable people to act collectively on the issues that affect them the most.

A new political partv. MY A is political, yet non-

partisan. We are committed to working with politicians - at every level and from every party - to make our cities better places for everyone.

Engaged citizens are the cornerstones of healthy commun ities and vibrant democratic societies.

We teach our members active citizenship and give them the skills and confidence needed to become leaders in our communities.

On March 19, 2014, representatives of our 36 member organizations, representing 200,000 citizens, gathered at Metro Vancouver Alliance's founding meeting. We celebrate the launch of an exciting and powerful new organization, and are working together to bring real change to our city.

So crystal meth or crack cocaine Anything to ease this pain Snort it, shoot it or put it in a pipe Each person has their own type Drugs or sex or crime at night Humans are addicts los ing a fight Street life, home life or no life at all The more drugs you do the harder you fall Ice meth crystal or speed Whatever you call it the drug you need Craving so bad it devours your mind Your addiction so deep you've become blind.

Stealing and lying just for a hit Lost all your family but don't give a shit So crystal meth or c rack cocaine Maybe some heroin to end this pain Addiction is powerful don't you see You're not the same person you used to be Smiling, laughing and telling jokes Now you' re selling, running & taking tokes I can' t bear to see you waste away and die You' re not the same person when you're high Diane Neufeld

One Billion Dollars and So What!

In the last few weeks, as the plan for the Downtown Eastside unfolded, I must have heard or read at least three media outlets squawking, "This plan will cost one bi llion dollars."

This mantra let developers like Michael Geller tell reporters that this kind of money wasn't around for the DTES. "The government's c upboards are bare," he said in effect.

Now first off, the one billion dollar figure was way out of whack. As CAP member Tamara Herman pointed out, the real figure that was going to be spe nt on the DTES from city hall and others was $50 million or one twentieth of o ne billio n dollars. And this money wo uld be spent ove r the next thirty years, not in the next twelve months.

Yet that I billio n dollar figure keeps getting thrown around. So I'm go ing to be the devil's advocate and say "Suppose one billion dollars was going to be spent on the DTES. What's w ro ng with that?"

For have yo u noticed how much the B.C. government, Transli nk and the federal honchos have spent in

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the last thirteen years? It d"varfs anything proposed for the DTES. First off, the Gordon Campbell government a nd Ottawa shelled out billions of dollars between 2001 a nd 20 II. But that money which totalled over 7 billion dollars wen t to the Olympic Games, the Sea-toSky Highway, the Canada Line, p lus other O lympic era projects. Yet not much of this money went to social housing.

"Vancouver did get some good ies out of it," one obse rver told me when I was complain ing about the priorities of the Campbell government. Yes, three new community centres went up in Vancouver, plus some other social projects. Yet Vancouver city council funded the building of the Olympic Village housing and we're still paying for that.

Yet the Campbell and Christy Clark Liberal governments have unveiled a whole new host of costly projects. There's the new Port Mann. br.idge ~hat.cost $3. 1 billion. The Northwest TransmiSSion Lme 1s coming in at $745 million. The South Fraser Perimeter Road (or the 'Ring Road' as it's called) will cost $ 1.25 billion. The Vancouver Convention Centre that's pla nked down in the DTES came in at over $800 million. And just to fix the roof at B.C. Place took $500 million of tile taxpaye rs' money. All of th is comes in at nearly $6.5 billion.

And 1 haven't mentioned the plans to build the Site C dam that's planned in the province's north east.

That's been billed to cost $6.2 billion. Yet given the b udget overruns that have attended so much of the recent Liberal megaprojects, a friend of mine may be rioht when he said a bout the dam, "It won't come in 0 less than $8 billion."

I've ieft out of this list, the new 6 lane Golden Ears Bridge that links Langley to Pitt Meadows. It cost $800 million and is losing 34 to 35 million dollars a year. Yet since this project was plan ned and built by Translink 1can't hold the B.C. Liberals responsib le Anyway anyone who keeps quoti ng that one billion figure when they talk about projects fo r people in the DTES is wrong. Yet given the way that this Libe ral government has spent money in this province and around Metro Vancouver in recent years, maybe it wou ld be a good idea if mo re money was spent on social housing in the DTES, even if the final sum does n't come c lose to one bi llion dollars.

By Dave Jaffe

Jean Swanson's presentation to City Council on the LAP, March 14, 2014 I would like to acknowledge we are on unceded coast salish territory, Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleii-Waututh I support the low income caucus and the things they would like to see in the plan, including an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre.

I want to talk about how a definition can displace a community. When we had our first few meetings the City Manager was there and she said , it was important to get a definition of social housing that recognized that dtes residents have very low incomes.

During the lap process when the Pantages condo proposal was happening, and had to have 20% social housing, we demanded that 100% of the social housing be at welfare rate and the manager said 50%. And that's where it stands today.

As the lap when on, low income members kept saying we want a definition that doesn't exclude low income people. We waited and waited. I think it was last week that we got Appendix N. Appendix N means that legally, no social housing units have to be at welfare rate. Appendix N makes the finances of 60-40 work out. Appendix N makes this council look like its building social housing for the poor. But Appendix N won't do that. All the housing built according to appendix N, which is referred to in several places in this document, could be like the Olympic village housing-owned by govt or non profit but rented by middle income people. Appendix N housing won't be sro replacement housing.

Ironically, all the criticism of this plan from the right is saying there is too much social housing when in fact the social housing that you're talking about is not for people who are poor. To solve this problem, amend appendix N as follows: "For the purpose of the DTES Local Area Plan, 'Social Housing' is non-market housing owned and run by a government or non-profit body accessible to those living on the lowest incomes including basic social assistance shelter rate or 1/3 of basic old age pension."

You talk about inclusion, the plan talks about inclusion-yet appendix N excludes people who are poor from their own neighbourhood. If all the new social housing, or most of it, won't be for people with welfare incomes, what happens to the people Stephen Lippman and others like him are evicting and displacing? We're losing hundreds of units a year, documented in the report Tamara gave you on Wed and in the city's own SRA research which talks about rents over $500 in over 20 hotels.

What can you do to prevent more displacement and homelessness in addition to changing the definition so it won't displace people? *Enact the 60-40 now. If you don't the DEOD will be wall to wall condos in a very few years and you'll have a massive homelessness crisis. 60 -40 will give us a little time to work for what the community needs. *Require a higher percentage of social housing in all the other sub areas too, especially the Hastings Corridor. *Don't give one incentive to any hotel owner, heritage or not, unless there is a guarantee of shelter rate rents. Work with Pivot on that SRA bylaw to prevent as many rent increases and evictions as possible. *Lobby fiercely (I think that was Andrea's word) and broadly for higher welfare rates and more social housing programs, not just supportive housing but for all low income people. Pretend low income people are as important as the folks who want a new art gallery and put an equivalent amount of money into housing and buying lots for housing to show you're serious. Put lots of money for housing in the capital plan and work fiercely to get it passed.

One purpose of this LAP was to "implement the 2005 DTES Housing Plan." The Housing Plan wanted 5000 units of social housing to replace the SROs. This plan proposes about 1467 units to replace SROs. The Housing Plan called for the city to buy one lot a year. This plan calls on the city to use 3 lots it already owns over 30 years. The Housing Plan calls for a rate of change of one market unit for 1 social housing unit. This plan proposes 10 mostly market unaffordable units for every one unit affordable to low income people. The Housing Plan calls for the DEOD to be the place where most of the new SRO replacement housing is built. If the targets in this plan are met only 1/51h of the new housing in the DEOD will be SRO replacement housing. The Housing Plan said the DTES would be a predominantly low income area. After 30 years of this plan, it will be a predominantly middle income area.

We don't like micro units. Homes should be big enough that you want to stay and contribute to your community, big enough to invite someone over. We shouldn't have one standard for the poor and another for everyone else.

I hope you'll pass the amendments that Tamara of CCAP gave you on Wed. If you don't pass the 60-40 and start treating the housing and poverty situation as a crisis, I think in about 71 years the council of the day will be having to make an apology to low income and vulnerable people, similar to the one you gave to the Japanese community last year.

Hello f'rOtn 1:he Library!

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If you visit the Carnegie library in the next couple of weeks, you'll see a fresh new Spring display. Elizabeth left plenty of blank white space in the background. so if you feel inspired to add your own bits of spring colour to the poster, please go ahead! You can ask a library staff member for some coloured pencils.

There are lots of books in that Spring Into Reading display, but don't forget to look at our usual weekly selection in the glass display case. This week, the new books in that display include: First Peoples ofCanada: Masterworks from the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Here's a rare opportunity to see items from an exhibit that has toured the world, yet - weirdly- has never been shown in Canada. Truly fabulous close-up photos show the detail and intricacies of bead work, and the texture of wood, fur, leather and stone.

Pablo Picasso I by Hajo Duchting More gorgeous photos to enjoy, although of a very different sort. This is a readable, colourful overview of the life and work of the artist. There is enough detail to make the book absorbing and interesting, but it's all in a compact, tidy size.

I Want to Change My Life: How to overcome anxiety, depression ami addiction I by Steven Melemis '' If something good happens, I'll have to pay for it with something bad." Does that sound like one of your familiar thoughts? Or how about: " If people knew the real me, they wouldn't like me." Read this book, and learn something about how to interrupt and change those automatic thinking patterns, which get in the way of our well being. We all know that it takes more than re.ad ing a book to really make a lasting change in our lives-- but this o ne can provide a great step in the right direction.

Cheers, Stephanie

This year, as part of our LETTERING PROJECT, we are bringing our writing to a wide audience by relaunching the popular Postal Code Reading Series that supported V 6A (Arsenal Pulp Press, 20 12).

Please join us t" kick off this reading series at the SFU Burnaby campus on Tuesday,April 15, !2:30pm 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, 7th fl- WAC Bennett Library,, special collections.

Refreshments provided Future readings w ith other guest authors of the Lettering Project will take place in a variety of locations.

These authors include Amber Dawn, Alex Lex Leslie, C lint Burnham and Kevin Spenst. Stay tuned for info on future dates in the Postal Code Readings series at cafes/bookstores/guerrilla events!

Thanks to Canada Council for the Arts for support.

More info at www.thursdavswritingcollective. ca

On Life: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Think, g uys & gals: You can forget the strife if you ever had a wife, and if a father or a mother go on in life and build your life a new! It all boils down to this: A kiss is just a kiss, a smile is just a smile away, and life

goes on regardless - Make someone happy and you'll be happy too. And if there's anyth ing I can do fu rther I have to say, "Thank you dear Carnegie for giving me a life!"

Here's to Lisa, Ethel and Sindy, love Joyce Morgan

If you've been past the site of the new Downtown Eastside/Strathcona branch recently, you may have noticed that demolition work is starting. We expect the buildings to come down in the next week or two, which is an exciting landmark for us.

The Library Board continues to discuss suggested names for the new branch. We were delighted to receive more than 400 submissions via our print and online suggestions forms, and we hope to announce the branch's new name in late spring.

There's more about the project at www.vpl-ywcaproject.ca. You can also get in touch with me if you have any questions about the new branch.

Beth DaviesNeighbourhood Services Manager Vancouver Public Library Office: 604-331-379 1 Cell: 604-365-7643

Madeleine Thien and Thursdays Writing Collectiver

OUT THERE SOMEWHERE Stunning mind numbing street noise, sirens, speeding cars, traffic light warnings, squawking sidewalk profanity, stale secondhand smoke, from smuggled thirdrate cigarettes- choking I hold my breath briefly still walking in a zigzag motion like an avant guard dance routing, likely looking lightly intoxicated to random, faceless passersby. This is quickly becoming routine for me, whatever is just the way it is & it ain' t gonna change anytime soon. There are (for certain!?) escape routes available to me; no excuses- I'm not going to play the pity card. Most of everythin ' operating in the big city are definitely in the same predicament, bar none. To avoid this mayhem I can step into any number of places, neighbourhoods, destinations ... i.e. an art gallery, a library, a quiet shopping mall (if there's s uch a thing) to avoid vulgar profanities screamed by yahoos, hoping security won't show up & yell at me to Get Lost!

Howza bout an entirel y different neighbourhood just for a change of pace? ! Awesome if you're lucky enuf to have the freedom of a buspass .. come to thin k of it most bus drivers could care less: it's not in their job descriptions to police the payers. All public transit should be free by way of a wealth tax. Commercial & hang out with hipsters, tricksters, artists & assorted poets like we have right here; make a mystery tour of kits and the cookie-cutter condos wedged in by the history-killing deve lopers li ke we have right here or even Chinatown with the same gentrify ing !grades as we have right here . ..

So give all this som e thought, think carefully, pick your spots, choose your fights/battles/cause celebre and relax, chill , be tranquil like me and hopefull y we' ll see each other around.

ROBYN LIVINGSTONE.

[Posted by The Syrup Trap]

Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson to be torn down, replaced with condos VANCOUVER (The News Desk)- After a long fight with developers, City Hall announced yesterday that Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson wi ll be demolished to make way for a condo development.

"Gregor is such a recognizable part of this city. We are all very sad to see him go and regret that we couldn' t do mor; to save him," said City Hall human resources manager Deborah Swift as she watched construction crews approach the mayor from across the street.

According to documents from Henriquez Parters, the developer, Robertson will be rezoned as "mixed-use residential." If the app lication is approved by council, the two-term mayor will be rebuilt as a 16 storey residential tower, wi th commercial space at street level.

"Gregor is an important part of this city's heritage, and we plan on preserving as much of him as possible," said the project's head architect, Greg Chu. "We will be retaining Gregor's characteristic, sculpted street-level facade, and will re-purpose materials from the interior as well. "Robertson told press that he is optimistic about the changes. " I' ll be the first to adm it that I'm not nearly as dense as 1could be, and that's holding back both our susta inabi lity and affordability goals,'' said the mayor, who at press time was being hosed down by construction crews in an attempt to control dust from the demolition. •

Through My Children's Eyes Their unrestrained laughter and excitement permeate my heart as we play together.

I'm learning to be less over-protective, less control! ing of their every move.

As they run carefree in the park I both admire and envy the valiant spirits they are.

are being replaced with soulful love. laughter and friendship.

The wounded child within me heals as I experience life through my children's eyes.

Angharad Giles

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Their innocence and their simplicity touch a delicate chord in my so ul.

Hov-.r can any mother harm or neglect her child?

I'm mending from the pain and void I knew throughout my childhood.

Those rather-be-forgot memories

I have represented Gallery Gachet on the LAP Committee. We are an artist run centre, specifically a centre for artists living with a mental illness. I live with a mental illness. I would not have been able to serve on the LAP as I have save for two things. First, I have stable housing and I no longer struggle to survive each day. I can see beyond my day's needs. As a result I'm able to participate in the life of my community as I do today and as I have these past years.

And despite the tremendous stigma that people with mental illness face in many parts of the city, here in the DTES I feel not only tolerated or accepted, but actually respected as a person. Secondly it is the community itself that has lifted me up and given me the ability to work on the LAP, as an artist and do my other volunteer work•in the community.

For the last 2 years the LAP committee has built a plan for the DTES; we have worked very hard to address the prevailing conditions in the neighbourhood. Nowhere else could a committee, working in collaboration with city staff, go to extraordinary and thoughtful measures to ensure that no citizen is displaced from their homes, an outcome stated in the 2005 plan. Even as our property values rise exponentially (303% as councillor Reimer noted) and as development pressures turn our homes into what one realtor called this week, "prime real estate," what can be created through the provision of social housing is an opportunity for Canada's most disenfranchised citizens to live a better life and on their own terms.

I urge you to look at the CMHS's At home Chez Soi project. With secure housing, it is shown, people with severe addictions, mental illness and chronic homelessness can begin to take control of their lives once they're given a home. This is the first principle: Housing First. The fact that the human tragedy of homelessness has been normalized throughout our country and in Vancouver in particular, is an indictment of all of our values as Canadians .. Property in the LAP , thus, housing is the foundation of the plan and the most critical part of the plan . Spending money to solve this crisis is the duty of all levels of government whether they say so or not. The housing crisis extends not only from homelessness but from people living in dangerous and inadequate SROs who spend more than half their incomes on their rent and on their housing.

Building and maintaining social housing at social assistance rates should justly be the overarching concern of the plan. Now it is true that the shelter rate is too low. The provincial government has not increased the rate since 2007. It obviously has not kept pace with the cost of living or the real price of decent housing. I remind Council and the gallery of the UBCM resolution U 55: Whereas the amount of support given to individuals on disability welfare and Old Age Security is inadequate to support people's basic human needs in terms of adequate shelter, clothing, food, and other basic necessities, based on today's cost of living, therefore be it resolved that the UBCM request the provincial government to increase the basic support allowance given to these individuals to a level that reflects the true cost of living in our country. And I would add, the basic dignity of all .

The LAP's call for a 60 40 ratio of social housing to secured market rental in the Oppenheimer District has also been characterised as ghettoising. Some quick points on this. If low income people have indeed been concentrated in one area it's

because we have been effectively priced out of the rest of the city. Housing afford ability has constantly been cited as the major challenge of Vancouver. And this plan represents the first actual attempt to deal with it.

Our values in the DTES are not mainstream and we're proud of that. We don't read a person's value by their bank account or their job. We understand that if someone lives with a mental illness or addiction, that person deserves respect. Sadly these are not, as I noted, mainstream. We are also aware that as we work and play and live in the DTES we are on unceded Coast Salish territory. Nor, sadly, is that awareness mainstream.

If Vancouver is to maintain itself as a diverse city, people with low incomes must be able to live here too. Meaningful diversity of all kinds is proper to a healthy city and a healthy city strategy. The LAP can, if implemented carefully, keep land values low in the Oppenheimer district using the 60-40 formula. The success or failure of the rest of the 30 year plan depends entirely upon it. As a plan it bucks the trend of letting the market determine our homes and our future. I support that. This is a rare opportunity for Vancouver to embrace a philosophy of planning that is inclusive of its citizenry and an attempt to improve the quality of life for Canada's most marginalized citizens. And it can be done.

Reimer: we should get you to do 'one more sentence' workshops. That was very good. I have a few questions for you . You were talking about how you feel safe in the DTES and there are personal reasons for that. At the same time you and I both know that there's lots of people who claim to feel unsafe, not necessarily residents but people who are in the area . Can you please talk about what that discussion was like at the LAP? I know you were, I mean everybody was heavily engaged. You were heavily engaged in terms of the number of hours put in . The open drug market isn't fully referenced in the document.

Could you talk about what would address that in the plan if anything?

Karen: I think there are several points. The first one I would put to Council is that the drug market profoundly affects all of Vancouver. There are geographical reasons for that, I think, which are obvious. And I would add that as I see it the war on drugs has failed. And drug use prevails across the city. The so-called street disorder that is evident in the DTES brings to mind the scene on Granville St. actually on Fri and Sat night, which I find much more unsafe and a typically different class of people enacting their lives in a different way with licit drugs..

I would add that no one as a very young person says I hope that I grow up to be a hard core drug user in the DTES of Vancouver. Every one of us is somebody's baby and terrible things have happened-trauma and pain and tragedy unimaginable. From a medical context it's called self medication. The open drug.market is something that's less open in other parts of the city. And when people live in infested 10X10 rooms, as my colleague Herb Varley noted, your life becomes so much less private. Everything you do is on the street. Everything you don't do is on the street. Everyone you associate withyour friends and your neighbours-you can't meet them inside anywhere, you meet them outside. I would put to you that the perceived safety as a result of the general disorder of the DTES is something that is a result, primarily, of poverty, and oppression and when I take a step back I recall how Vancouver is the terminal city. And I think a little bit about my own past and how I wound up here. And the stories I've shared and how a lot of us are running away. We've run away as far as we can and now we're here. We've been displaced from everywhere else. We've been excluded from everywhere else. And this is the first and last place we can find home. And some of us emerge within this space and some of us take longer. It's true, there's ongoing public pain. And if people find that hard to bear, they should.

Reimer: this question is around the SRO task force, the city's recommendations: It's within the city's jurisdiction to try to deal with the issue of poor maintenance, the landlord situation. How would that relate to people in social and supportive housing?

Karen : I think that's an excellent question. Thank you for that. I would draw council's attention to point H in your policy report, subsections 2 and 3, to direct staff to implement an information campaign to educate tenants and landlords on their rights and responsibilities in relation to City Bylaws and the RT A. The problem I see here is that the housing that's being built right now is supportive housing and that's not covered by the RTA. I live in supportive housing and there are a lot of disputes. There are concerns around privacy, coercion, problems between tenants who are patients and clients and have no recourse to deal with those complaints. They're dealing with building management and building staff. And indeed intra-tenant disputes. This subsection seems to me to be a little dangerous because there does need to be some sort of ombuds procedure for people in supportive housing because they're very vulnerable and their rights are constantly abrogated. So I would very much urge council to amend that section. I would also exercise great caution in the choice of non-profit society or perhaps another structure could be come up with. That subsection does concern me.

Carnegie Community Act1on Project (CCAP) Newsletter Read CCAP reports:

http://ccapvancouver.wordpress.com

April1, 2014

What the new Local Area Plan CLAPl means for the law-income community On Saturda). March 15,20 14. C ity Council voted to approve the new DTES Local Area Plan (L\P). with 25 pages of amendments. after three days or ~peaker'\.

Over 80 people took the stand to speak in fa vour of CCAP and/or the Low-Income Caucu<; position. We dominated City Hall and reminded Counci l that low-income DTES re'>idents wi ll ~land up for their neighbourhood. \llany people \\'ere cnttcal of the LAP. In 30 years. if the plan is implemented. mo<.,l restJcnh wdl he condo owners or mtddle income renter~. not lm\ income people.

Thousands or lmvincome people could be displaced with no guarantee'> of atrordable hou<;ing m othct parts of the city. The sense of communtty. belonging. and acceptance that lowincome people have now could he gone.

fhe community that fights for social justice and d ignity for lnw-inf'nnw penplc cnu!d also he gone. But it \vasn't all bad new., and we do have hope lo keep struggling for our precious DTES. Here路., CCAP's ana lyst'> of what was passed in the DTES LAP. and what it means lor the low-income communtty.

1. The "no-condo" zone One nf the moM debated parts of the LAP was a no-condo zone the Oppenheimer Art'a.

The propo"al \va-; that ()OC'~ of all new housIng in the Oppenheimer Diqrict would h;l\c to be social housing and 40o/r market rentals.

The 60/40 zoning rule faced a lot of oppo,ition from developers. real estate speculator<;. some business owners and :-ome homeowners. Speaker after speaker at the Council meeting stepped forward to defend the proposal. We were told that the proposal might not pass. but it d1d .

The 60/40 zoning rule means that property \'alues will be lower than if the area was t.oned for condos. Because toning out condos holds prope11y values down, the rule will act to keep rents lower in pnvately-owned SROs. Jt will also make huying land for more social housing less expensive in the Oppenheimer Area than other area'. It will slow gentrification down a bit. CCAP considers this zoning rule to be a victory that the lowincome community fought for in the LAP.

2. The definition of "social housing" The problem with the 60/40 zoning- and the LAP in general- is that social housing is not really social housing. CCAP. the Low-Income Caucus. the Social Hc)ll-;ing Alliance. and many other groups working on housing argue that ALL social housing MUST be available to people who arc on ~

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CCAP I'Oiunteer Wilson Liang takes the stand at City Hall welfare. basic pensions, and/or have very low in~omes. The LAP pub forward a ne\\ definition of social hou::.ing. For the Oppenheimer Area. Strathcona, the Hastings Corridor, Victory Square, Gastown. Ki was sa, and part of Thornton Park, one third of all "::.ocial housing" has to be at the wei fare or basic pension rate of S375. The other t\vo-thirds can be at any rent. Without government funding. it is very likely that rents for t\vo-thirds of 路路soc ial hou:-.ing" will be much higher than s:ns. This is why people arc saying that despite the zoning proposaL only 20~ of

C\\ hnus111,..., h ult 1'1 th~.: Oppenhetm~r Dt'-lrH.: t will .tctually he '"social housing路路

ror til~ rec;t of the D I J-:S and th~ cit}. one thu路d of .dl <>Octal hou.c,ing umb mu::.t be at HILS rate, which I'- ahout ~850 for a bachelor ap<u1mcnt in the neighbourhood r~ght now. In Victory Square, developers can huild I0-storcy buildings filled ~ntird) '' ith high-end rental units and no social hou<>ing.

ho 1 1 e unit. t ur.aftordabl unit'> \'Vdl t budt. We need 5.000 '>RO room~ replaced and how.ing Ior TJ. I homeles:, people right no\\ m the DTES. \mere l..f67 units over ~0 years ts not nearly enough. !'he City i:-. planning to di-;place at least of the low-income people who now

J()cr,

When we walked in to City I fall at the start of the DTES LAP on March 12th. there was no requirem~nt for any -;ocial hou-;ing unit in the DTES to be

so many people had opposed the City's first definition.

The CCAPILow-Income Caucus "Paint-In "for an Ahorir;ina/ HcalinrJ and We/Inns Centre on March 9, 2()J.+

TillS llC\\ definition or social housing will slow escnlating land values- and gentrification- .1 bit. But it'' illm~an thJ.t two thirds or the hOll'-111!! that the City consider<; to be "social hou-;ing" ''ill not he available for people nn welfare. ha'-IL pension or ver) low incomes.

It abo means that nut of the 4,400 ~ocial housmg units that Cit y plans to build in the next 30 year:-.. only 1.-+67 will he at shdtcr rate. ror C\ cry one atTordabk social

li\c in the DTES to other areas through rent subsidies and "<>cattered-sitc" ~ocial housing. None ol the social housing m any other neighbourhoods has to rent at shelter rate. This doesn't even account for all those who arc continually being priced out of the neighbourhood due to gcntrifll.:ation and the subsequent rising r~nts. It is \cry unclear where the City expects these rcsicknts to go except out or the DTES.

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3. SROs One of the most outrageou':i part-; of the I \P i5 that the Ctt) mtght be subsidiztng th~.: gentrification or SRO roomc;;. ·r he City i~ offering substdics to ··upgrade'' 1.000 SRO units. If kttchcns .md bathrooms arc .1ddcd to units. two existing rooms might have to he combined to make one new unit.

The Carniml Ro/1({ at the Paint-In

., his would he fine if enough social housing was being built to replace the lost room'i and if Council \\a::. making a municipal rent control program.

Yet none of the upgraded SRO units are guaranteed to be at o.;hclter rate. The City has only set ''targets"' for affordahility in SRO room'i. The targets arc one thml at shelter rate. one third at no more than the average SRO rent (which i" $450 now) and one third

4

t a bow aver· ' R ) r rt Wi h )Ut r ·n control and no rcLJUirement tor any umtc; to be at -..hclter rate, the Ctty could be paymg tnr the upsLaling of SRO rooms .md the gentriflcatlOil of the neighbourhood.

CCAP has been .1sking the City to reform the Single Room Accommodatton (SRA) bylaw to make converting SRO rooms from lm\-income to higher income hous1ng ill ega l. The City is ··considering" tymg rent increases to the units rather than the tenants. hut nothing is confirmed because 1t would mean changmg the provincial Residential Tenancy Act. CCAP recommended that Council reform the SRA bylaw to make sure landlords and the Cit}' arc accountable for SRO conditions. Council did not add this recommendation to the LAP. ;;:-:..:~~~ The LAP proposes a one-time $40,000 grant to a non-profit for tenant/landlord methation. hut this amount will not even cover one years' operating costs. The LAP does commit to an informal tenants" right~ education program, hut give::. little- if anythmg- in terms on maktng education trano.;late to rights.

4. Unit size The LAP\\ ill mean that most of the socwl hou'iing unih huilt in the next lO years will be only 250 squ.1re feet. If ne\\ housmg

,.., huilt in the Oppenhem1e1 Distnct the social housm!_: un1ts will be squect.ed into 40% ol thl.' lloor an.:a. with the rt.:ntal unit<; taking up()()% or the building area. Remember that the zoning for new developments in the Oppenheimer District is 60 1/o social housmg and 407c market rental. This means that even though 60% or the units will be social housing (with only 20% at shelter rate), the rental units will take up 601J( of the building space.

ensure that it is built ,md run bv , Indiaenou e People and not bureaucrat<..

The LAP also creates a new category of housing: ''micro-dwelling units" (as small as 250 square feet). The min1mum unit size in the DTES before the LAP \vas 400 square feeL which could be '路relaxed" to 320 square feet if certain amenities were for built. CCAP will continue to fioht '=' liveable unit sizes for social housing.

5. Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre Many of the speakers at City Hall called for creation of an Aboricrinal Healincr0 and c Wellness Centn;, with intergencrational housing on top. to be run by aboriginal people hut open to all. As a result. Council passed a motion to "direct start to report hack to Council with a strateav 1::.1 aimed at engaging needed partners in an Aboriginal Health and Wcllncss Centre.'' This c;uld be a victory but people will have to monitor it carefully and continue to fioht '=' for it. Low-Income caucus members arc continuing to work to\\'ards the Centre and

Conclusion The LAP is a recipe for displacement for the lo\\'-incomc community. That said, \Vithout the tremendous show of force over the course of the LAP and at City Hall, the plan would sure Iy have been worse.

Although the LAP itself is passed, the recommendations that Jcnl with business gentrification and the bylaw amendment hearings are still to come. The fight for the DTES is far from over. but the strength and fkrct..:ncss that the IO\\-incomc com1;,unitv and its supporters brought to City Counci-l will resonate for years to come.- TH 5

Watch o t for Living Balance II you IJve tn a pnvately O\\ ned hotel, watch out for the~e name:-: Stephen Ltppman. Geoffrey Howe-... Li\ tng Balance. If these people or thi-, company huy the hotel you arc living Ill . you could be in trouble .

tct people. renovate. and r.ttse rents a lot. some of their hutldmgs rent for .ts much as $67"i. Almost all the renovated room-.. arc over $500.

C\

Room~ m

I Jere arc some reasons they often usc to c\·ict people: • We need the room for the manager to ltvc in: • You haven "t paid your rent, even if it was to the previous landlord: • You haven't cleaned your room: • You· r~ .t drug dealer: • You ha\ e too much stuff in your room.

Several people have told CCAP that they were paid hundreds ol dollars to leave.

According to the Restdenttal Tenancy Act. a landlord can raise the rents as much as Protest owside the York Rooms. wr SRO that he likes for a new tenant. Sometimes they Livtng Balance upscalcd get tenants to sign a form saying they arc leaving by mutual agreement-so watch out for what you sign.

Stephen Lippman owns a company called Living Balance. Geoffrey Jlowes is If you kno\v ot' any builclmgs tlwt are being their manager of building cle\'elopmcnt. bought hy Lippman or Livmg Balance.

Howes i. in a You fuhe video s,tying. please come to the C'C'A P off]ce on the "renting to welfare individual.., is truly lose lose because not only do the room<; seconJ floor of Carnegie. or call 604 72<} 2180 \\'e can get you he I p to fi ~Ill .tn) get destroyed. hut there is no n:venue to do any kind of repairs ... and that "s not a cvtctions and help organize tenants tn the busmess model that we're interested m:· huild1n~ to tlght rent increases.

TillS owner has hnught ten hotel-,. that we arc aware of. in the Downtown Ea-..tstdc.

If Lippman and other gcntnfiers keep including the Lotus. Alexander Cow1, hu) ing up hotel-; and raising rents there Sh,umock. Picadilly. Thornton Parle \\ill hl' nowhere for low income hotel rc-..idcnts to go that they can afford.- JS Station, American. and York.. They otkn ()

Nadine Anderson's Speech to City Council Nadine u m· o11c of 01 er 80 people u·/w 1pokc at City !-fall durin[.: the LAP mcetinRs in support o/th(' CCAP and Loll'lncome Caucus po.\ition. We're co/lectin~ peoples· speeches. and {/you hm·cn't 1·cnt 11.1 your.\· already. please do. Here is port (~l ll'hat Nadine fwd to say.

Good evening. My name is Nadine Anderson and I'd like to state that we arc on Unceded Coa'>t Salish territory belonging to the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam. rirstly I'm a rcrson on disabilitv. I live with ·t severe disability. I'm grateful to be 111 social housing. I support the rosition of the low income caucus.

You really need to pass the 60- 40. You need to prevent the low income community from being disrlaced or wiped out.

Housing is absolutely crucial. We need to have housing for all people regardless of their income. I'm fortunate as I have decent housing. I have a terrible fear of being displaced. I'm concerned that in l 0 years t1mc they:'re going to want to do the same thing They're going to stm1 to ktt:k people out of their o.;ocial housing because you· re building this playground !'or pcopk who have money and who arc able to bring in a substantial income. And what arc we'?

Going to be kicked to the curb and lose all or the community that we have? It's a terrible fear and to have it imposed on you when you're trying to rewver your health is just a nightmare.

And r m one of the Joucky ones. I can't even imagine what tis like for those that arc living out on the streets or living in absolute squalor with bugs and rodents and rats and everything else. These arc third world condttions that people arc living in.

And tiHS is Canada? I don't get it. People that arc living on welfare and disability need to haYC 5000 units built. And we need it now. not over 30 years. That ·s absolutely ndt.:u lous. We have over 700 people on the streets. Sleeping in doorways. In the enid. People die.

4000 people arc li\ ing in those horribh:

conditions. The city i'> causing homelessne .;s. And I voted for our Mayor twice hccause he said he was going to get

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tid of homekssnc<;s. He dtdn t. 700 people .trl lt\tn!! on the strceh And \\hen \ou'1e II\ 1ng with rats and bedbugs. that's not nk. ~

J

It is a commun1ty down h~rc. People need lOilllllllllil). Th~'v can'ljust h~ thn)\\'n nut In till' curb. out In CSurrey. out to here. out to there. If they want to leave that\ fait enough. hut people nc~:d their communtty.

And then~ arc <.,Cn'icc., that arc already established there like ln ., ite. VA!\'DU. Carnegie. Gachet. Th~re ·., many services then.~ that people need and rely on Some would he ahsol utcl lmt \\tthout them .

I I\\.

I don't know hO\\ anyone is supposed to l111d c1 juh \\hen they· r~ (Ill \\~I fare, t11l 5,61 0 And feed thcmsel\ cs .md cl01he lhem<.clves. and arc they suppmcd to go withoul teeth too .1 I mean there arc ccrtmn th1ngs that are required to get a job. AnJ proper nutrilion.

Jagrup Btat the MLA. did the wdfarc challenge and he couldn't think straight.

I absolute!) support the Ahoriginal I lcaling and \Vcllnes" Centre :\nd not a tourist centre. A Well ness Centre that is designed for healing people ol the DTES: people that arc '-tCh., in need of healing or do not want to dea l with the western model of medicine.

Yuu real!) need to fight the pro\ ince for us to have the rate.'> improve<..l because 1magine if it were your own family memher. Imagine ir it \\en.! ) ou. It's just not ok. Its ahsolutcl) a proven fact that povert) crcall.:s disease, mah.cs 11 next to impossible for anyone to heal themseh·es. N~\er mind the fact that the money is so ina<..lcquate. when you factor in the ... ickness you ahsolutcl) have to ha\·e an healthy nrga111c. diet. And it costs so much more to keep people sick. We knm\ that so why arc we still doing 11'!

Displaccmcntj ust nMkcs silk pc< 1ple sid.ct and sick people need an oppottunity to heal.

I think that ) ou need to lohh) fll'rcd~ tn get CCAP (/Jid tire Main/(11/dC'r are collecling our rates 1aiscd. Its ah.,olutcly rid iculous to put <Ill) body in th~ (111'-ollinn or trytng (() IJ\'C pt•oplc\ · \pet•ches. 1\lore nnn lll'\111/0IIIh.' on ~610 a month. What is that? J mean its insane. If J \\'ere a counctlmcmbcr J \\ntlld he absolutely <hhamed thai there w~rc reopk in my c1ty li\ mg in that kind Support for this project does not necessarily of po\'crty.

Vancity

1mply Vancity's endorsement of the findings or contents of tl1is newsletter

2014 Neighbourhood Small Grants I Greenest City Grants - HAVE YOU APPLIED YET? Go on the Internet and apply online.Type <2014 Neighbourhood Small Grants> on Google. All the stuff required is there.

Carnegie Classics Beethoven Serenade, opus 25 Mozart Devertimento, K. Anh 229, no. 3 Haydn London Trio, Hob. IV:1

--@ ----@) -Carnegie Theatre Workshops - Let 's get together to read -

The Komagata Maru Incident

by Sharon Pollock

Saturdays"' April 5, 12, 19, 26 lpm- 4pm Carnegie Theatre ! Everyone reads a part; everyone welcome ! We'll present a staged reading for the public, date tba.

Led by Teresa Vandertuin

Elizabeth McBurney, flute Johanna Hauser, clarinet Angela Cavadas, violin Rick Dorfer, viola Finn Manniche, cello

Friday, April 11, at 1:00 PM Carnegie Theatre

During the summer of 1914 - I 00 years ago - the Japanese ship Komagata Maru, carrying mostly Punjab and Sikh would-be immigrants, was turned away from Vancouver after three-months anchored in Burrard Inlet. In the mid-1970s Canadian playwright Sharon Pollock wrote a play as an allegory and a personal dilemma to explore history,路 to recognize the past, to change the future.

A lunch for or with the mayor cost $25,000 to attend.

It was to show Robertson who his employers are &/or let him thank them personally. (See GREED)

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YOUR PRICELESS TIME, DISTRACTION & CANCI<..K Ten billion bars of gold cannot buy even 10 minutes of time, yet meddling mayors and councillors and planners and bureaucrats--the same people who begged you for their job to protect you-consume everyone's priceless time with needless conflict, as though all your priceless lost time could be bought back at the s upermarket. These fork-tongued double-dealing life-wasters pollute the community with un-wanted conflict, un-wanted development, and un-wanted over-development while they inflict citizens with Time Cancer, Worry Cancer, Stress Cancer, Distraction , and they call it 'seeking input,' 'engaging the public,' 'consulting the people.' And all the while these life-wasters have their noses sniffing for another Land Kil I to justify, conscripting another Army of Developers to back their campaign for re-election in the next election.

GREED & YOUR COMMUNITY GREEN SPACE Developers loot the land, even precious arable land. And when they can't plunder any more of that, they return with their Army of architects, lawyers, financiers, planners, contractors, supp liers, landscapers, tradesmen, and traitors, to plunder the community green space. Armed w ith their calculators and cranes, their spin and their shovels, they set out to loot green 6pace. habitats, neighbourhoods, the quality of life. What holds them back are the walls of the community fort--the bylaws of the community--that were firs t erected to protect the community from future raids by invaders armed with their money and their greed. For Greed, enough is never enough.

WHY THEY ATTACK THE OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN Bylaws are like the posts that make up the walls of the community fot1-spread some of those apart, take even some ofthose down , or lower a few, and the waiting enem y w ill rush right in, with a flood of applications for up-zonin g. Community bylaws were established to protect people's habitat and quality of life from these attacks. What do developers want? An openin g in the wa ll of the community fot1. A variance. A development variance permit. A re-zoning. But best of all wou ld be some doubledealing politicians who will do their work for them and re-write the Official Community Plan allowing g reater dens ification (they'll call it 'smart growth'). One ally inside the fort, one Mayor or Co uncillor or Planner, can do more harm than a thousand developers outside. Beware of anyone wanting to "update" any bylaws which prevent dens ification, by amending the Official Community Plan to promote it.

YOUR HABITAT IS THEIR TARGET Developers looking for a land-kill are looking for a vulnerable neighbourhood. land held by a population that can't defend itself against the onslaught, so they can "move forward." Time is money.

Best for deve lopers is when they can find some politicians who wi ll usurp the people's power and work for them from the inside, who will make holes in the fort wall, open the door to the community fort by ame nding zoning by laws so the invaders can trespass, raid and loot the land. Beware of anybody who \.vants to rewrite the Official Community Plan with up-zoning, so developers don't have to fight w ith their v ictims every time they want to loot the land scape.

Identify them. Expose them. Name them, blame them, shame them.

Densification, Over-Development, Amalgamation, 'Smart Growth' What is densiflcation? Densification means more development: pristine wilderness becomes ranches, ranche become farms, farms become estates, estates become house lots, house lots become neighbourhoods; buildings get bigger, lots get smaller -200x200 becomes l 00x200, I 00x200 become 50x l 00, 50x I 00 becomes 25x I 00, then single family homes become duplexes, duplexes become townhome complexes, town home complexes become apattment buildings, apartm ent buildings become towers, a few towers become too many towt>rs, and they start calling too much growth 'smart growth.'

When does densification--more development--become over-development? Densification is over-developmen when it takes away the green space, the breathing space, the wonderfit! blue sky, the heartwarming sunlightthe personal neighbourhood, the refreshing green grass and trees, the rising and setting sun, the horizon and its rolling hills, the silent si lver moon, the shining stars. the water sparklin g with sunlight like stars at night, and all the inspiring vistas that belong to you and everyone and ALL future generations until the end of time.

Densification is over-development when it pollutes the community, destroying habitats with imposing impersonal buildings, higher walls, bigger shadows, narrower setbacks, less quiet, less privacy, more isolation, increased congestion. Profiteers plunder a priceless quality of life giving token amenities in return. All so developers can package everyone's sunlight, blue sky and breathing space, and sell it to anyone who will pay them for a front-row view in the sky in one of their over-sized box towers.

Developers tell their victims no one has a right to a view. Then let them build their box towers without windows, or below ground, or in their spacious green neighbourhood.

Densiftcation is over-development when it is done on an inhuman scale, and they leave you more dead concrete and dark cold shadows, artificial lighting and reflective glass, lifeless coloured brick and barren black pavement, congested bus lanes and dungeon-like underground parking, with some green plants and tinkling running water to make you feel like you still have the open green space you'll never have again.

Why do municipalities do this? Because politicians dig their communities into debt with over-spending on pay, perks, pensions, and any projects that will win them votes or take long enough to complete to be a workin-progress that will get them through the next election, until finally the payments can only be paid for by more debt, higher taxes, and more taxes from more construction. More construction, bigger buildings, narrower setbacks, taller buildings, longer shadows, more concrete canyons, le!>s privacy, less quiet, more congestion, more scars upon the land. More densification and" smart growth." Huh? Then amalgamation, if the swindlers can get away with it, to dwarf the opposition and hide their mess and the impending financial disaster inside the labyrinth of a bureaucracy so complex nobody will be able to fix it, stop it, or even challenge it.

The bigger the government, the smaiJer the people.

Over-development is a crime against Mother Earth, a crime against the Community, a crime against Humanity. But before the shameless politicians responsible can be held accountable for the mess they've created, they parlay their experience and move on to the next level of meddling- higher office. More development, more spending, more debt, more taxes. When will it stop?

It won't until you demand politicians make up-zoning stop. Not until you replace rotten double-dealing politic ians with real public servants, whose first priority is to see the community run effectively, efficiently, affordably. But first find those double-dealers. Identify them. Expose them. Name them, blame them, shame them.

Don't think complaining helps. Wolves are never bothered by the bleating of sheep.

Then unite and support politicians who will stop this over-development, stop this urban pollution, stop this urh;~n c.rime. s too this so-called' smart growth. '

BROKEN HEART BROKEN HEART An Exhibition on Trauma "The Thin Veneer of the Lost Limbic" Does The Male Have a Psyche?"

By Montana King

OPENING NIGHT AT THE CARNEGIE CENTRE 401 Main St. 3rd floor FRIDAY APRIL 4111 5:30-8:00 pm.

The Finer Points of Dying Well , when you first contract whatever we got all sizes, colours, descriptions & types got one-size-fits-all, the whole enchilada or piece by piece, wasting away, but for godsakes don't tell anyone about it gotta be furtive and secretive, stoic about being all gangrene on the inside inside where it outta stay buddy don't be blurtin out 'I got cancer' to one 'n all makes people nervous, comin too close with your dread d isease ya never know next maybe me for god sakes, me shaddup 'bout it.. in a sea of trouble you think you got trouble buddy I'll show you troule, your piss-ass l'il tumour shit you're just startin' the long procession into the operating room last flash of light Jo~ Go~all last thing you see buddy we just beginni n' to begin

.. Empty Orchastra Recidel Like an episode of The Real Housewives of Africa no house, husband, dead, 4 of her 8 kids turned blue the others wear their skins like unwashed shirts soon they' ll be dead so how are we feeling today? More people caught in mankind's know ledge in making big things in many pieces of small yet big enough to be proven in a court of flaws we know how to destroy, what's the point of making friends whose here tomorrow will be completely different than today, like an . upper right cross to the face but you keep getting up why a ll of you with more than just faith somehow we keep getting by but just in a couple hundred thousand years w ill there be conviction & purpose on whoever who is in charge's stonelike face or will it be back to th e Stone Age with tears and blood on that face any arc heolog ical digs would be used for mass graves you see man and his kind are a bust, yes there will still be courage and love but rocks the size of the moon will continue to fall from above of course our mutinous harmony is our crossing sign leading us across the red sea ofred tape I isten up empty people or we are doomed to repeat, immortality gets the better of us all the broken words are there to describe every rise and fall now if Ziggy Stardust

could do it and he did v,;e should be able to take the fall and land on our feet, like how many doors get kicked in on an average cop show 3 or 5 or two dozen or more then someone like Officer Down who thinks people should be hung in gas chambers or beheaded by firing sq uad yeah he knows just about everything except your rights, of those he chooses not to care let alone use to him world wars 3, 4 & 5 will be his friends' sanctuary where they can fully display our abuse starting with the present being shredded your business is their show business feel confined to enjoy the show there go the lights ...

We now move on to a Real Housewives of the Downtown Eastside I see those little children whose games include crying and wake up and hide disadvantaged with some learning booze is good and anger mixed with fear can come out in pens or a musical instrument or your fists, they are systematically creating a ghetto then theyu destroy that it's been proven over and over in their court of flaws yeah sure I will drink to that a human gesture gives one the time to pause if they can't gimme shelter then for all of us gimme skelter and have the decency to at least try and coexist.

By ROBERT McGILLIVRAY "An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak and imp~ssible to be silent." -Edmund Burke .. .for all the Pizza Boy Kill as out there ...

Out your mind you are you think I'm scared of dying mutha l welcome it don't think for one minute I miss all this shit every day Out your mind you think! miss the penny-ante rip off the wannabe tough guy oh ya 'I usta work for da Mob did contracts' oh ya pisano when you weren't busy diddlin' choirboys don't think for one bloody second you bozos impress anyone ' cept yaself when they pull the pin brutha won't be no tears when this rider rides off nothing but relief this ol' boy buys the farm AI

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The Real Irish American Story Not Taught in Schools Published by Zinn Education Project

by Bill Bigelow '"Wear green on St. Patrick's Day or get pinched." That pretty much sums up the Irish-American '"curriculum·· that 1 learned when I was in schooL Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing.

To support the famine relief effort, British tax policy required landlords to pay the local taxes of their poorest tenant farmers, leading many landlords to forcibly evict struggling farmers and destroy their cottages in order to save money. Sadly, today's high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, despite the fact that it was responsible for unimaginab le suffering and the deaths of more than a million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in history Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and present y ct there is no shortage of material that can bring these dramatic events to life in the classroom.

By contrast, Holt McDougal's U.S. history textbook The Americans, devotes a flat two sentences to 'The Great Potato Famine." Prentice Hall' s America: Pathways to the Present fails to offer a single quote from the time. The text calls the famine a "horrible disaster," as if it were a natural calamity like an earthquake. And in an awful sing le paragraph, Houghton Mifflin's The Enduring Vision: A History ofthe American People blames the ··ravages of famine" simply on "a blight," and the only contemporaneous quote comes, inappropriately, from a landlord, who describes the surviving tenants as '·famished and ghastly skeletons." Uniformly, social studies textbooks fail to allow the Irish to speak for themselves, to narrate their own horror.

These timid slivers of knowledge not only deprive students of rich lessons in Irish-American history, they exemplify much of what is wrong with today's curricular reliance on corporate-produced textbooks.

First, does anyone really think that students will remember anything from the books' dull and lifeless paragraphs?

Today's textbooks contain no stories of actual people. We meet no one, learn nothing of anyone's life, and encounter no injustice, no resistance. This is a curriculum bound for boredom. As someone who spent almost 30 years teaching high school social studies, I can testify that students will be unlikely to seek to learn more about events so emptied of drama, emotion, and humanity.

Nor do these texts raise any critical questions for students to consider. For.example, it's important for students to learn that the crop failure in Ireland affected only the potato-during the worst famine years, other food production was robust Michael Pollan notes in The Botany of Desire, " Ireland' s was surely the biggest experiment in monoculture ever attempted and surely the most convincing proof of its folly." But if only this one variety of potato, the Lumper, failed, and other crops thrived, why did people starve?

Thomas Gallagher points out in Paddy's Lament, that during the first winter of famine, 1846-47, as perhaps 400,000 Irish peasants starved, landlords exported 17 million pounds sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultry- food that could have prevented those deaths. Throug hout the famine, as Gallagher notes, there was an abundance of food produced in Ireland, yet the landlords exp01ted it to markets abroad.

The school curriculum could and sho uld ask students to reflect on the contradiction of starvation amidst plenty, on the ethics of food exports amidst famine. And it should ask why these patterns persist into our own time.

More than a century and a half after the "Great Famine;' we live with similar, perhaps even more glaring contradictions. Raj Patel opens his book, Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System: "Today, when we produce more food than ever before, more than one in ten people on Earth are hungry. The hunger of800 million happens at the same time as another historical first: that they are outnumbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight" Patel's book sets out to account for "the rot at the core of the modern food system." This is a curricular journey that our students should also be on- reflecting on patterns of poverty, power, and inequality that stretch from 19th century Ireland to 21st century Africa, India, Appalachia, and Oakland; that explore what happens when food and land are regarded purely as commodities in a global system of profit.

The Real Irish American Story Not Taught in Schools Published by Zinn Education Project

by Bill Bigelow "Wear green on St. Patrick's Day o r get pinched." That pretty much sums up the Irish-American ''curriculum" that !learned when Twas in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Fam ine, but it was mentioned on ly in passing.

To supp01t the fam ine reli ef eff01t, British tax policy re quired landlords to pay the local taxes of the ir poorest tenant farmers, leading many landlords to forcibly evict strugg ling farmers and destroy their cottages in order to save money. Sadly, today's high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, desp ite the fact that it was respo ns ible for unimaginabl e suffering and the deaths of more than a million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in history Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and present.

Yet there is no shortage of material that can bring these dramatic events to life in the classroom .

By contrast, Holt McDougal's U.S. history textbook The Americans, devotes a flat two sentences to "The G reat Potato Famine." Prentice Hall's America: Pathways to the Present fails to offer a single quote from the time. The text calls the famine a "horrible disaster," as if it were a natural calamity like an earthq uake. And in an awful single paragraph, Houghton Mifflin' s The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People blames the '' ravages of famine" simply on "a blight," and the only contemporaneous quote comes, inappropriately, from a landlord, who describes the surviving tenants as "famished and ghastly skeletons." Un iforml y, social studies textbooks fail to allow the Irish to speak for themselves, to narrate their own horror.

These timid slivers of knowledge not only deprive students of rich lessons in Iri sh-American history, they exemplify much of what is wrong with today's curricular rel iance on corporate-produced textbooks.

F irst, does anyone really think that students will remember anything from the books' dull and lifeless paragraphs?

Today's textbooks contain no stories of actual people. We meet no one, learn nothing of anyone's life, and encounter no injustice, no res istance. This is a curriculum bound for boredom. As someone who spent almost 30 years teaching high school social studies, I can testify that students will be unlikel y to seek to learn more about events so emptied of drama, emotion, and humanity.

Nor do these texts raise any critical questions for students to consider. Fo11 example, it's important for students to learn that the crop failure in Ireland affected only the potato-during the worst famine years, other food production was robust. Michael Pollan notes in The Botany ofDesire, "Ireland' s was surely the biggest experiment in monoculture ever attempted and surely the most convincing proof of its folly." But if only this one variety of potato, the Lumper, failed, and other crops thrived, why did people starve?

Thomas Gallagher points out in Paddy's Lament, that during the first winter offamine, 1846-47, as perhaps 400,000 Irish peasants starved, landlords exported 17 million pounds sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultry-food that could have prevented those deaths. Throughout the fam ine, as Gallagher notes, there was an abundance of food produced in Ireland, yet the landlords exported it to markets abroad.

T he school curriculum could and should ask students to reflect on the contrad iction of starvation amidst plenty, on the ethics of food exports amidst famine. And it should ask why these patterns persist into our own time .

More than a century and a half after the "Great Famine," we li ve with s imilar, perhaps even more glaring contrad ictions . Raj Patel opens his book, Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System: "Today, when we produce more food than ever before, more than one in ten people on Earth are hungry. The hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical first: that they are outnumbered by the one billion peopl e on this planet who are overweight."

Patel's book sets out to account for "the rot at the core of the modern food system." This is a curricular journey that our students should also be on- reflecting on patterns of poverty, power, and inequality that stretch from 19th century Ireland to 21st century Africa, India, Appalachia, and Oakland; that explore what happens when food and land are regarded purely as commodities in a global system of profit.

But today's corporate textbook-producers are no more interested in feeding student curiosity about this inequality than were British landlords interested in feeding Irish peasants. Take Pearson, the global publishing giant. At its website, the corporation announces (redundantly) that ''we measure our progress against three key measures: earnings. cash and return on invested capital.'. The Pearson empire had 2011 worldwide sales of more than $9 billion-that's nine thousand million dollars, as I might tell my students. Multinationals like Pearson have no interest in promoting critical thinking about an economic system whose profit-first premises they embrace with gusto.

As mentioned, there is no absence of teaching materials on the Irish famine that can touch head and heatt. In a role play, "Hunger on Trial," that I wrote and taught to my own students in P01tland, Oregon-included at the Zinn Education Project website- students investigate who or what was responsible for the famine. The British landlords, who demanded rent from the starving poor and exported other food crops? The British government, which allowed these food exports and offered scant aid to Irish peasants? The Anglican Church, which failed to denounce selfish landlords or to act on behalf of the poor? A system of distribution, which sacrificed Irish peasants to the logic of colonialism and the capitalist market?

These are rich and troubling ethical questions. They are exactly the kind of issues that fire students to life and allow them to see that history is not simply a chronology of dead facts stretching through time.

So go ahead: Have a Guinness, wear a bit of green, and put on the Chieftains. But let's honor the Irish with our curiosity. Let's make sure that our schools show some respect, by studying the social forces that starved and uprooted over a million Irish-and that are starving and uprooting people today.

Flamenco Dance Workshops at Carnegie Community Centre!

Fridays in April & May (except April 1S) 3 - 5 PM In Carnegie Theatre This workshop is part of an ongoing series of Flamenco, which is an exciting and fiery form of dance and music from Southern Spain. At these classes, expect to hear new kinds of music and learn percussive hand clapping (palmas). We will have occasional guest guitarists and singers join us as we explore this expressive art form.

Get ready to shout 'Ole!'

Kelry has et!Joyed sharing her love rifjlamwco 1vith the Camegie communiry for the last threeyears. She plqyed ajlamenco daming Minotaur in Vancouver i\1oving Theatre's 2010 production ofTbe Minotaur Dreams: The Downl01v11 EastJ-ide Laryrintb Projed. Sbe iJ im;o/ved lVitb the Hearl of tbe Ci!J restival, organi:{jng the Bcmio !'lamenco omu路ert serieJ 路路elebratit;g the po1Ver qfartistJ and cutisans in the Downtown EastJide. S be bas taug/;t.flamenco dano-e JV01kJ路hopJ at EHielpriJing Women Making /Itt, and IIIOJ! reo-wljy a/ Carnegie Com1711111iry Centre.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever bas." -Margaret Meade THIS NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITRY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles respresent the views of individual contributors and not of the association.

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WANTED: Artwork for the Carnegie Newsletter

Next issue: SUBMISSION DEADLINE

-Small illustrations to accompany articles and poetry -Cover art: Max.size-17cm(6T)wide x 15cm(6')high -Subject matter pertaining to issues relevant to the Downtown, 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.

FRIDAY, I APRIL 11TH make submissions to Paul Taylor, Editor.

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