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- New DTES group launches as grassroots police oversight
New DTES group launches as grassroots police oversight
Plus, the future of our view cones

Good morning,
After a gloomy June, I’m happy to see some sunshine to start our July! But as a Very Burnable Human, I plan on wearing a lot of sunscreen this weekend. I hope you are too! And don’t believe any of those myths out there. As CBC noted this week, there’s a lot of misinformation going around about — well, honestly, everything, but more specifically for our purposes right now, sunscreen! Remember: Sunscreen prevents skin cancer — and there’s no scientific basis for claims it causes cancer.
Don’t burn!
With that out of the way, today we’ve got grassroots police accountability and certain cones that are getting a lot of attention in Vancouver right now.
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WEATHER
Friday: 25 🌡️ 15 | ☀️
Saturday: 27 🌡️ 18 | ☀️
Sunday: 29 🌡️ 18 | ☀️
Monday: 28 🌡️ 20 | ☀️
POLICING
New DTES group launches as grassroots police oversight
What: A group of Downtown Eastside advocates are launching a research project that will collect stories of people’s interactions with law enforcement “to advance processes of police accountability” in the city.
The group is planning on holding weekly drop-in sessions on Wednesday mornings in which community members can share accounts of their interactions with law enforcement.
Who: The project, called Police Oversight With Evidence and Research (POWER), is being launched by members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS), and calls attention to “a lack of recourse and access to formalized police complaint processes for people in BC.”
The long-term project said in a news release Thursday that it is intended to build on “generations of … activism and advocacy” in the DTES “in order to analyze public knowledge of police practices, create public education and resources, and develop community-based police oversight.”
“The police are not held accountable for the way they behave in our community. We want real public safety – and police oversight is sorely needed,” WAHRS board member Harley R said in the news release.
History of investigations: The group says VANDU has helped lead “numerous” community investigations into police violence in the DTES, including ones where the Independent Investigations Office has cleared officers involved.
That includes the death of Chester Libo-On, who was killed by gunfire within seconds of police arriving. At the time VANDU members questioned why the mental health car didn’t respond instead, and why officers didn’t use less-lethal force, like Tasers or bean bags.
POWER also cited the police officer who hit Dennis Hunter with his car, and the death of Chris Amyotte, who was shot with bean bags within seconds of police arriving, while he writhed in agony from being bear sprayed. (The IIO hasn’t yet made any findings in Amyotte’s case.)
‘Evaded’ accountability: Part of VANDU and other community-led work on those investigations has been to find witnesses and publicize their accounts of the incidents, and collect video evidence of the cases. But “real accountability has been evaded in every instance,” noting the fine of just $2,000 for the officer who hit Hunter — a fine that was shortly followed by another VPD officer hitting another pedestrian.
Police response to complaints: Police have defended their actions in use-of-force cases, including recently defending an officer punching a handcuffed woman in the back of the head saying she had a grip on the officer’s finger, something the woman denied. They similarly denied the BC Civil Liberties Association’s allegations that the police force was excessive when responding to a pro-Palestine protest, calling the claims “absurd and unproven.”
They’ve also denied claims the force seized drugs below the decriminalization threshold after January 2023.
‘Police violence is ordinary here’: The group said in its press release that it isn’t just high-profile killings or serious injuries that are in question, saying harm “is perpetuated with every pill seized, pipe smashed, unhoused person swept, slum tenant evicted.”
In 2020, the Tyee reported that, while actual charges for drug possession were rare, drug seizures remained common — and seizures cause harm to the community. That includes seizing medications, but also street-level violence that results from it. But studies have also shown that drug seizures are associated with more people dying from overdoses.
Not just VPD: The group says it’s not just looking at VPD interactions. “Park rangers, bylaw officers and transit police contribute to daily displacement, profiling and violence in the city,” POWER said in its news release. The group’s announcement comes at a time when Stop the Sweeps has been decrying a “war against unhoused people” in CRAB Park.
Diverging narratives: The group says there’s a “clear gap” between the understanding of policing by drug users and unhoused people and the popular narrative of policing, with drug users saying they don’t feel safe around police — especially when no one is recording.
“VPD officers cause disorder in the communities where I do outreach work, and then campaign against disorder for bigger budgets from the city. They target our clients, and when outreach workers strive to work in solidarity with communities we work in, they target us too,” said Fraser MacPherson, a registered nurse and member of Care Not Cops, in the news release.
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VANCOUVER NUMBERS
📉 19.1%: The number of homes sold in June fell by this much year-over-year, and was 23.6% below the 10-year average for June, according to the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, even as listings in the region grew by 42%. [The Canadian Press]
🏢 9.7%: Office space vacancy in the region rose to nearly a tenth, with developers considering shifting mid-construction from offices to hotels or residential. The vacancy was particularly high downtown, with a rate of 10.8% compared to 8.4% in the suburbs. [Vancouver is Awesome]
😭 $128,000: How much a 250-square-foot “uber luxury, private and secure” storage space is on sale for in Vancouver House. Among the luxuries? Electricity! Water! A drain in the floor! One should be so lucky. [CTV]
🏘️ 3.67: By 2021, there was one rental unit in Metro Vancouver per this many renter households — up from one unit per 2.85 renter households in 2011, after slow growth in the intervening decade. [Vancouver Sun]
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CITY HALL
Cone zone plan bemoaned
Vancouver’s famous view cones are back on the chopping block next week in council, with a staff report proposing the city cut a large portion of the view cones and relax restrictions around others.
Background: If you’ve paid attention to city politics in the last decade, you know the cones. Pro-development types have long advocated for them to be reduced or removed, while others have opposed the change noting that it’s the views of the North Shore mountains that help make the city iconic.
The view cones have been back in the news in the last year or so, as the new, developer-friendly ABC party majority city council voted last October on two motions that called for staff to re-evaluate the view protections in the city — and now, staff are reporting back on their findings.
How much: The city currently has 38 view cones, each originating from one of 18 points, according to the Vancouver Sun city staff report, up from the original 26 cones first created in 1989. The staff report recommends eliminating 14 cones and relaxing restrictions around 11 more, and reducing the origin points down to 16.
Proposed cuts: While the cuts are too numerous to recount here, you can find a full list on page 17 of the report. But some notable cuts include: a view of the famous Canada Place sails from Cambie Bridge, one of two views of the North Shore mountains from Cambie Bridge and reducing the other by about a quarter, the view of city hall from Cambie Bridge, and a view of downtown from Queen Elizabeth Park.
A public benefit: The report acknowledges that when a building blocks a view, that view “is only accessible to people in that building and is no longer a public benefit,” and says this is why there still needs to be some preservation of public views — but that this needs to be balanced with “meeting other critical community needs.”
That other critical community need, as you’ve likely guessed, is increasing development potential. The report says its recommendations “attempt to strike a pragmatic balance between supporting the delivery of housing units, job space, and hotel rooms while ensuring Vancouver continues growing as a liveable, equitable and vibrant community.”
The view cones amendments could open up a development capacity of 108 million square feet or more, according to Daily Hive. Josh White, the city’s director of planning, said on Twitter that city building is “rarely binary,” and that the city can “be more enabling of development and have valuable public views in our city.”
Opposition: That comment from White didn’t land well with everyone. Twitter users noted that you don’t need to get rid of view cones to develop the city — and that reducing Vancouver’s views serves developers while leaving out residents.
White “thinks it’s ok to shrink Vancouver’s iconic postcard public mountain views … to almost nothing,” tweeted Melody Ma, a member of Save Our Skyline YVR. “Once public views are destroyed, you can never get it back. You should be ashamed.”
City planner Sandy James tweeted the city should “build smarter,” while Eric Chapman called White’s tweet a “Conehead comment” and CityHallWatch called attention to White’s former employment with developers.
Zoom out: While the view cones will enable more development, there are large swaths of the city — we’re looking at you Shaughnessy and Point Grey — that have yet to be developed and could increase the overall housing stock.
THE AGENDA
🏞️ The Vancouver Park Board is marking the restoration of the historic, long-buried First Creek in Kitsilano after starting on the project in 2016, something a board commissioner said only happened because of an elected park board. [CityNews]
💊 A Vancouver pharmacy has been shut down while it is being investigated by the College of Pharmacists of BC over allegations it violated federal drug laws by, among other things, having people not registered with regulators delivering drugs to treat opioid use disorder. [CBC]
💻 Landlords evicting tenants for their own use of a unit — whether for a family member or caretaker to move in — will have to do so through a government portal, rather than just handing the tenant a paper and never registering it with the Residential Tenancy Branch unless the tenant disputes it. But advocates say this should apply to all evictions, not just landlord use evictions. [Glacier Media]
🚝 TransLink will be receiving $825 million as part of the Canada Community-Building Fund — about half of the $1.6 billion coming to the province from that fund — to build and maintain critical infrastructure. [CBC]
🏢 The City of Vancouver’s push for Broadway to be a “great street” is setting the city up “for failure, if not ridicule,” columnist Douglas Todd argues, saying the towers that will form the “second downtown” will “tend to generate dark urban canyons” and create wind tunnels. But is he right? [Vancouver Sun]
☀️ Environment and Climate Change Canada says temperatures this weekend and through next week will reach the upper 20s and low 30s, and overnight lows in the mid- to upper-teens could require heat warnings — but there remains “a great deal of uncertainty about how long this hot stretch will persist.” [The Weather Network]
💰 An investigation by BC seniors advocate Dan Levitt found the number of seniors facing illegal rent hikes have “more than doubled in the last year,” with some landlords telling their tenants the Residential Tenancy Act doesn’t apply to them, or that rent increase rules don’t apply to monthly fees, such as meals and cleaning fees. [CBC]
FOOD NEWS
🍚 As much as it’s a staple in many dishes, rice isn’t typically the centrepiece of a dish. But Casa Molina, a new Spanish place on Manitoba St., has made at least one repeat customer with its paella.
🍜 If you’re looking for a new Vietnamese spot to check out on Main St. — mauve you want to shake things up from Anh and Chi — check out Ivy’s Kitchen. Just be prepared for the spice.
🍣 There’s no shortage of fusion cuisine in Vancouver, but one new business is betting on there being room for at least one more — Yume Dining, a Japanese fusion restaurant opening on July 7. [Daily Hive]
🌮 If you’ve got a particular soft spot for Mexican food, Barra Gitano has opened up on Davie St. — where Mary’s used to be — with Mexican and Spanish cuisine. [Daily Hive]
EVENTS
Khatsahlano Street Party | West Fourth Avenue | Tomorrow | The annual street party returns with a lineup curated by Zulu Records, including Hotel Mira and Babe Corner | Free admission
Vancouver Chinatown Festival | Keefer and Columbia | Jul. 13-14 | Celebrate Vancouver’s historic Chinatown for the 22nd annual event | Free admission
Brock House Society Summer Fair | 3875 Point Grey Rd. | July 13 | Artisans, social events (happy hour!), picnic lunches, vendors and more | Free admission
Create! Eastside Arts Festival | Various locations | Jul. 22-28 | Public art, workshops, beer gardens, art sales, live music — what more could you ask for? | Price depends on event
Carnival Del Sol | Jonathan Rogers Park | Saturday and Sunday | For 16 years, this festival has celebrated Latin Americans in Canada with music, dance, heritage and food | Tickets $20-40
Queers & Beers | The Birdhouse | Jul. 6-7 | A Queers & Beers double feature this weekend — just in time for the sunny weather! | Tickets $11
Swahili International Day Festival | Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza | Jul. 7 | Celebrate East African culture, language and traditions | Free admission
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Downtown Vancouver in 1984 from on high.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
Fourth Avenue will be closed tomorrow for the Khatsahlano Street Party between Burrard and Macdonald streets. [Daily Hive]
Science World will be getting some upgrades to increase its lifespan. [CBC]
Major Vancouver intersections sure have changed a lot over the years. [Daily Hive]
You know that “VANCOUVER” sign? That one that’s, well… It’s very, uh… You know… Loud? It’s bright pink? Big, blocky letters? Well, it’s here for a bit longer yet. [Daily Hive]
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GAME TIME

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