Surprise! A new Chinatown Cultural District Framework by the City of Vancouver
Plus highlights to note
Surprise! There’s another Chinatown plan from the City of Vancouver that city council just passed yesterday called the Chinatown Cultural District Framework!
Yes, another plan, adding to a series of comprehensive Chinatown strategic plans over the years, specifically:
All of these plans have outlined similar goals, yet the results have been underwhelming as we can see. Read the new plan’s report and presentation.
Highlights from yesterday’s city council meeting (which you can view here) about the plan include:
Multiple councillors kept on saying there was “strong community support” for this plan. Huh?
We actually read this new plan for the first time a few days ago when we browsed the City’s website. No one contacted us about it. Were other grassroots community groups like Yarrow Society who provides critical services to neighbourhood seniors notified? Were low income residents and seniors in the neighbourhood notified? Interesting to note: Most of the folks who lined up to speak in support of the plan were also the folks who lined up to cheer on the gentrifier 105 Keefer condo (i.e. Chinatown Foundation of the Chinatown Storytelling Centre and Light Up Chinatown Festival, Chinatown Business Improvement Association of the Chinatown Festival, Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden, the Chinatown Merchants Association, and others). Coincidence?
No funding attached to plan.
There’s currently no funding attached to the new plan. And we know what that means: No funding = No action. In the last Uplift Chinatown plan passed by this city council, dedicated cultural funding for Chinatown turned into a big fat $0. Instead, hundreds of thousands of dollars were used for the City of Vancouver Chinatown Office that no one uses, 15 garbage cans, and poop cleanup. In fact, all the cultural events we at Chinatown Together hosts every month are majority funded through donations from community members like you (Please help us fund the rest of the events this year by donating here). Anyway, let’s keep our minds open and perhaps funding for this new plan will come through in the next budget cycle in 2025.
Cheaper parking in Chinatown didn’t yield significantly more visits, but lost a significant amount of money.
There was a prevalent theory that lowering parking prices in Chinatown would be the golden key to driving traffic and attracting visitors to the area. So, city council reduced parking fees to $2 per hour across the board last year. Buried in the report for the new plan, the results indicate that visits increased slightly by 2%, and the average length of stay also increased slightly. However, parking revenue dropped significantly by 20% ($262k). Regardless of where you sit on parking prices, at the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie — cheaper parking fees clearly isn’t the key to Chinatown revitalization as some thought it would be.
In a very uncomfortable moment at the city council meeting, Councillor Sarah Kirby Yung compared the new plan to the perfect soup dumpling (watch here):
It’s like the perfect recipe…you know when you go out and have the perfect soup dumpling, and it’s hot and the wrapper is just right, and you bite into it and a little steam comes out, and you sort of get soup dumpling, and everything about it just hits the spot, and is right…that’s how I feel about this plan and this moment in time today.
Perfect soup dumpling or not, whether this plan is the perfect plan remains to be seen.
There will be a new Chinatown task force (yes, another committee), and a new implementation plan for the new Chinatown plan (yes, more plans) that will come out in Q3 this year.
In the meantime, we’re not going to hold our breath for another city plan to save Chinatown and our culture. We know what works: doing the work on the ground — hosting accessible cultural events, bringing community together, facilitating intergenerational learning, putting money into the pockets of small businesses and community artists.
To demonstrate plainly:
While the city talks about striking a new task force to put together a new plan on how to use the underutilized Chinatown Plaza Mall more effectively, we’ve already hosted our seventh cultural event there over the past three months. In fact, we’re hosting our most elaborate event yet this Sunday, June 16, featuring Cantonese opera (RSVP here. Don’t miss it!)
And while the city, Chinatown BIA, and Chinatown Merchants Association talk about supporting the local economy and culturally significant small businesses, we’re already hosting our second edition of our popular Chinatown Seniors Mini Market this Sunday, featuring elders selling jewelry, knitted goods, tailoring services and even palm reading.
So while the city keeps planning, we need your help to keep us going. Help us reach our funding goal to continue hosting events twice a month until the end of the year. Please donate!
Cantonese Opera Performance + Seniors Mini Market in Chinatown (Sun, Jun 16, 2-5pm)
Don’t miss the last event of the Spring season from Chinatown Together!
Join us in celebrating Father’s Day, with special performances by 梨園之星 Lee Yuen Cheer Sing Cantonese opera troupe.
We will also be bringing back the popular Chinatown Seniors Mini Market, William’s Library and providing complimentary refreshments.
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🗓️WHEN: Sunday, June 16 2024, 2:00PM to 5:00PM
📍WHERE: Chinatown Plaza Mall - 106 Keefer Street