Help prevent Chinatown Plaza Mall from gentrification (TODAY & May 12)
A call for community-accountable revitalization of the City-owned Chinatown Plaza Mall
The City of Vancouver, in partnership with the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association (VCMA) and the Chinatown BIA, is currently exploring a major transformation of Chinatown Plaza Mall that’s owned by the City of Vancouver — and it needs your voice now.
VCMA and the BIA have repeatedly publicly supported the gentrification of Chinatown, including their backing of the gentrifier condo development by Beedie at 105 Keefer. We cannot let them shape this process without strong public input from those who actually live, organize, and care for this community.
There’s a drop-in session TOMORROW, May 8 (11am–1pm) at the Plaza, and an online survey open until May 12.
This is a critical moment to make sure any reimagining of Chinatown Plaza centres the needs and dreams of the community — not developers, not tourists, and definitely not gentrifiers.
Without community input and accountability, this project could steer in a direction that accelerates the economical displacement of low-income residents and small culturally appropriate businesses, and erases Chinatown’s culture and public spaces.
There’s already been a troubling incident where the Plaza mall management policed seniors from practicing tai chi in the city-owned space — a space that is largely unused most of the time. This is just one example of the threat to public spaces in the neighbourhood.
Here’s what you can do:
Attend the drop-in session at the Chinatown Plaza Mall TOMORROW, May 8 (11am–1pm) if you can
Fill out the survey thoughtfully
Speak out for the Chinatown we want and need
Here’s what Chinatown actually needs at the Chinatown Memorial Plaza:
Free, accessible public space for cultural organizing and everyday community use
Simple, low-barrier event processes and supports to ensure neighbourhood grassroots organizers can easily access and activate the space
Grants to support community-led arts, food, and cultural programming
Affordable lease rates for non-gentrifying, culturally rooted businesses — reviewed through a representative community stewardship committee and transparent public process
Dedicated spaces and support for culturally-appropriate informal Chinatown merchants — often gendered, racialized, and low-income — to transition into stable, dignified business opportunities
Community accountability and real decision-making power in Plaza planning — not just top-down control by the BIA or developers
Year-round, community-centred activation that serves the people who already live, work, and care in Chinatown