DNC General Meeting - April 7th, 2012

DNC Monthly General Meeting

April 7th, 2012

Chairs: Jen, Herb

Meeting Minutes: Jada

(Meeting begins at 2:30pm with food and screening of the Beat TV Show and music video on the downtown eastside)

AGENDA

1) Opening

Kelvin

• Does Openings

Board Members introduce themselves

Herb

• Introduces the agenda. Adopt the agenda
• Blaine moves, second by Pat.
• 1 abstention

2) Announcements

a. Plague of Prisons

Ann

• Introduces poster
• Fellow is coming from New York City, involved in methodone in NYC
• Comparing prisons to epidemics of disease
• Having local people who are working against mass incarceration
• We have a committee under the DNC to end prohibition, stop criminalize people who are addicted to drugs
• Show up on Monday, 7pm, stat holiday, at Pivot Office at 121 Heatley

b) Stop Displacement/Stop Pantages

Dave D.

• Sequal 138
• Old site of the Pantages, across from the Balmoral
• 79 condos, $250k each
• 20% social housing, half of that is at welfare, then $800/$900 for rent
• 9 units of social housing would be at $375/month
• This project came in a year ago, the community came together, created a coalition
• We did some street petitioning, talked to artist groups, develop boycott campaign
• Then we tried to slow the project down
• The demolition phase was terrible, affected peoples health
• Terrible dust, so toxic
• The owner has no regard to this community
• We managed to stop that site for a while
• The thing went to city hall for approval, then it went to the urban design panel, was rejected
• Went to the director of city planning, no development permit
• Then the owner needed help, took it to a few people, got the project on track
• Now it went from 100% rejection to 100% approval
• No its going to development permit approval
• The director of planner got fired, and there is a new city council in, and we need to figure out how to stop it
• Tuesday at 11am there will be a rally, groups have written declerations, they want the project stopped
• It’s going to cause massive displacement
• It’s going to allow more condos to come in
• This is where we draw the line
• We have other events coming up
• We are going to escalate our campaign

c) Wonder Palace

Charles

• Moment silence, because we hope George Wolsey dies in hell

Ivan

• Charles is enthusiastic about this!
• There is good and bad news
• George owns the Palace and the Wonder hotel, one of the worse landlords in the neighbourhoods
• Illegally evicting people
• 25 complaints against him
• City has an injunction against him
• $2.5million mortgage for renovations, he just put paint up
• This Sunday his 2 buildings were taken away from him by the bank
• His home was also taken away from him
• Bad news – now they are owned by a bank, the bank doesn’t want to run them as low-income housing, they want to sell them
• IMO group
• Held by a receiver, ability to kick people out of the building
• Tenancy act doesn’t take into effect during foreclosures
• We’re going to organize rally, shame on them to not evict people
• Get the city to buy them and keep them at low-income housing
• Law does not defend low-income people

John Doe

• We’re doing a survey for anyone who has ever stayed in a shelter
• Survey about the shelters
• Steven will help you out
• David will help you out, it will help with our work
• We are doing this to find out how the shelters operate, policies
• This is the best way to find out how they operate
• One more thing, resolution to keep an overnight shelter at First United Church
• Collecting signatures to keep it open, if you have time to sign it, we appreciate it

d) Thank Cooks

Tami

• Thank you Dave and Teresa for the wonderful food!
• Totally awesome

3) Cop/Policing Discussion

Tami

• Beat TV is performing to the camera
• Going to have Jen and Ivan come up for a discussion

Jen

• What do we think?
• The reason the Beat team is done here, the cops screwed up during the missing women
• They want the police to look better

Audience

• It’s working
• I think it’s a good thing
• They’ve always been polite to me

Jen

• I run Vancouver Cop Watch
• Meet with people to do outreach, and people submit complaints to me
• Me and Jon Doe did outreach last night
• Came across the Beat TV team, ask them what they are doing
• Found out that we were handing out crack pipes
• We asked a lot of questions
• One guy got really aggressive, threatened to assault Jon
• By you going around showing our community like this, people are watching this for entertainment, drug addiction and poverty and prostitution is a form of entertainment, people don’t care about our social issues
• I explained residential school system, survival sex trade, and explained that they are putting people in danger by dehumanizing people
• Vancouver Cop Watch wants to shut down the Beat
• Going to battle it out with the media, and embaress them

Ivan

• We want people’s perception of this, and what this does to the neighbourhood, and what experience people are having
• Clearing the streets is a form of gentrification
• Police are playing a front line roll in this

Elvis

• That one cop got promoted, yesterday, Toby, he was arresting someone at Dunlevy and Hastings
• I said I’m from Vandu, even coming here there were 2 cops
• Describes his interactions with cops, there is one really nice cop that is manning at the DNC street market

Audience

• My response, it paints us all with the same brush, we’re al addicts, we don’t kow what to do, we’re in trouble all the time, it’s unfair
• We need balance view of the DTES, people going on trips

Herb

• This is part of the reason why we formed the DT East

Kelvin

• This type of communication for the VPD is very bad
• Portrays us as addicts and alcoholics
• I haven’t drank in 19 years
• Many of you here haven’t drank in 5 years, I lift my hand to you
• I buried my brother in 2003, I don’t see that as much down here
• Each one of you I consider a brother, a sister, a family, my family for this area
• Those pictures that they show on the tv, on the computer, is disrespect
• We’re human beings, I’ll stand beside you as family

Audience/Vandu member

• A lot of the young cops come here because it’s notorious, they get time on their record, helps them get promoted and get time off
• They get rewarded for spending down here, it’s a career ladder for a lot of cops who come down here
• You notice a  lot of guys down here are young guys, something to think about

Kevin

• Innocent before proven guilty

Audience

• Makes me really angry when they imply that they are trying to help
• I recognize a few of them in the movie
• Some of those cops beat me up
• It’s bullshit tactic, we need to be really alert to that
• They lie, they are pushing us out of our neighbourhood, they need to be held accountable
• They will twist the truth, we need to take over the television network and play that hip hop movie with a realistic picture, it could be an action

Tami

• Cowboy cops performing for the camera
• It should be our responsibility to take the cops out of business
• We can take care of ourselves
• They are here to protect capital
• Police infringe upon peoples rights everyday, beating people up, taking their things
• The idea is that we’re going to take care of our own

Dianne

• The point of the beat is to present is that there are more nice cops then there really are
• The Beat shows what a great job they are doing, and getting points for it

Rob Morgan

• With Illicit Drinkers Group
• There is a group of us to sit in front of First United to have a gathering
• We feel safe because it’s first united security that saved my life once when my heart stopped
• All of a sudden cop car came up, he dumped my drink out
• That’s how we are treated as a group of aboriginals

Audience

• We’re going to be misrepresented all the time
• We need to use PHS newspaper, Carnegie Newspaper, we have access to do shaw cable, there are lots of tools
• We can video tape the cops

Wendy

• The Portland Hotel let them use their camera at Jackson and Hastings
• We can write a letter to all the agencies to not cooperate or work with the Beat Tv
• The police are being paid millions of dollars a year to criminalize poverty
• When I see my neighbour, how dare the police, they lose their privacy and dignity, they are exploiting dignity
• They are using this as a promotion the get more dollars, instead of putting that money into housing and other services
• The DNC can have a strong roll and a campaign for that

Dave H.

• Last Christmas, we have a cleanup crew at the DNC street market
• Camera crew comes through, I didn’t know who they were
• We did a really good interview with them, how important the market is
• They were filming as I was cleaning, and they got me to sign something
• I didn’t realize it was the Beat
• The I saw them as the Beat, they said they have a lot of footage, and they chose not to show this positive part of the community
• They are filming our community, they should show all sides of it, and show them supporting the street market

Stella

• I stroll around in my scooter
• I was on Gore, and there was a guy running and tripped
• Police officer came over, bent his arm, handcuffed him
• I asked if that was necessary, he told me to f-off
• I asked if he would like his arm bent like that, he didn’t say anything
• This other cop booted him in the face, he told me to f-off
• I said I was going to take a video of them doing this
• They said you can’t do that
• I said why, I want to protect my community
• You guys are allowed to video us, it’s more legal for me then for them
• I watched a documentary last night on TV about drug dealers and drug takers
• They come from all over
• A lot of our drugs are poisoned, it’s killing our people
• It talked about our community, it spoke about people who are suffering and hurting, but nobody is listening to them, why they are here

John Paup

• I watch for any actions by the police that are harmful for our community
• They kick people awake on the streets, at 5am
• Every time I see them in the morning, I’d watch over them
• The cops approached me on the corner, they were trying to clear out the Carnegie
• What law are they using to kick people off the street?
• I represent part of the community
• Cop was instructed by the higher-ups that they have to break up the gatherings of people
• It’s coming from the top-down
• Lots of pressure put on us
• They have it going on both sides of us, squeezing the 100 block
• I’m ready to go to jail, I’m ready for civil disobedience, lets stop construction, lets get together

Ivan

• What we’re looking at the Beat Tv show is not happening all by themselves
• When we see it on 100 block, it’s a critical corner, cops are pushing them off that corner
• Calling for agencies for no cooperation with the Beat TV
• It covers up the oppression
• System has failed people, instead we get a story about crime, and how our community is bad
• When we are organized, they treat us better (like when we say we’re part of Vandu or DNC)
• We are training ground for rookie cops
• (summarizes discussion)
• Cops trick people to sign forms, and get people to sign by intimidation or they are too drunk or too high to know what they are signing
• We need to look after the 100 block, and all low-income spaces, where the community can support each other, we need to look after these spaces because these are all we have left
• This discussion ties into all the other work with what we’re doing

4) LAPP Update

Wendy

• There is a group of us working on getting a plan for the DTES
• Convinced the city to do a planning process here, with half the seats for low-income residents
• The City are recognizing gentrification, and the area around Woodwards is pushing people East
• We’ve been so vocal about it
• They decided to have a new zoning policy, we went into high gear, we argued with them to have strong controls against the developers and high-end chi-chi retail shops
• We heard the most passionate people speak at City Council
• They made a decision at the end of Council
• We won a tiny victory!
• In the Oppenheimer, developers have an imaginary line on how high they can build
• City Council decided that in 5 areas that they can’t build this high unless they include 60% social housing (instead of Chinatown and Victory Square)
• We changed their mind on one thing – Oppenheimer is the last place we can build social housing, every developer who wants to build in Oppenheimer, they have to put in 20% social housing
• The City wanted only 10% (or half of that) to be at welfare rates, we need 100%!
• They said they won’t decide
• We will send the “definition of social housing” back to the LAPP Committee to discuss
• We don’t want developers to have a formula for development, we don’t want 10%, so we kinda won
• What we didn’t win, we did not stop, there are 688 condo units that are coming into the DTES, more than whats at Woodwards, they are still going to come
• We didn’t get the definition of social housing definition at welfare rates
• It’s very technical
• We still have to fight gentrification
• We should strategize, put less energy into the LAPP and fighting the technical, and more energy into the street fighting and the protest

Audience

• Have there been any mixed developments that have actually worked? Olympic Village and Woodwards is poison

Wendy

• Woodwards is 80% condos, 20% social housing
• This is going to start happening in Chinatown
• It could happen in Oppenheimer area, we are trying to save it, and the Pantages at the 100 block

Audience

• I live in Chinatown
• I care about fellow residents in Chinatown
• Compare job we have to do as the greeks do in Grace, they’ve just about been foreclosed as a country
• Suicide rate has doubled, demoralized, they demonstrated, if they have the strength so do we!

Wendy

• Recommendations
• DNC members agree that we should focus most of our energy on street activism to stop the things that we didn’t win at city council
• The second is the DNC will remain as Co-Chair, reduce our coordination of the low-income groups, but continue to participate in the technical side of things
• DJ moves, Stella seconds.
• I’ll organize a discussion strategy group.
• 1 against, 2 abstains.

Jen

• Motion to go to 312 Main Street to protest the Beat TV

Ann

• It drives me nuts that when we do a protest and the policemen get overtime pay for it
• Figure out the people who advertise and make money off of this

Herb

• We’ll table this, organize a motion and bring it back at the next monthly general meeting

5) Pantages

Ivan

• Dave announced the rally on Tuesday, 11am at the Carnegie Theatre, make a strong declaration
• Pack the theatre, Mayor will be there, the media will be there
• 5th great displacemet: first colonial 1887-1913, the city of Vancouver made it illegal for Indians to camp in the city, the city planners destroyed indian tents.
• 1907-1913 women who were working the sex trade in Chinatown ad Japantown, City smashed it, women were scattered over the city and imprisoned, women have been preyed upon since then
• 1941-1947 the Japanese community was displaced out of Japantown, carried out by the City
• The black community, in hogons alley, destroyed in 1970 and paved over for the viaducts, and now the black community is displaced
• Everyone of these displacements happened during a real estate boom, and carried out by City  Council
• This is the 5th great historical displacement, matching the language that is matching the historic displacement
• Pantages will allow the 5th great historical displacement

Herb

• Displacement.
• Pantages developer says he’s going to only displace drug dealers and rats
• They are building the rich before the poor

Audience

• Important that we have an overall mission statement or view of what the DTES is about
• It’s about a community, once gentrification comes in, people move in and pushing us out
• Declare that the DTES is a poor neighbourhood, and the stuff that is coming in should be tailored to us the low-income people, the stores should be affordable, housing should be affordable

Audience

• I appreciate the LAPP
• I appreciate the Sequal 138 program also
• I’d like to propose that the property at Princess and Alexander, old Maria Gomez building, it’s been sitting as an empty lot, with fencing around it
• It’s a pit, has garbage in it, they promised it would be social housing by 2015
• It was 590 Alexander Street, then will be 100 Princess street with new address
• We should use that lot as a staging lot to do protest and events
• Directly behind Strathcona Health Centre, use it as a statement point

Delanie

• I live in social housing across Oppenheimer Park
• I think they already did the water and wiring there
• What’s happening in social housing right now, I didn’t think it would affect me personally
• Every year they will evict people out of my building
• Everyone need to be careful so that they won’t get kicked out of their building

6) Shelters Bill of Rights

Jon Doe

• Peoples lives depends on this
• We’ve talked to a lot of people to create a Homeless Shelter Bill of Rights

Roland

• Fighting for the most vulnerable residents in the neighbourhood
• 1) You have the right to feel safe
• 2) You have the right to be treated humanly with respect all times
• 3) You have the right to be free from discrimination of all forms
• 4) You have the right to understand rules under which you live
• 5) You have the right to have written policies and procedures clearly communicated to you
• 6) You have the right to due process
• 8) You have the right not to be discharged without a viable option presented to you
• 9) You the right to privacy and personal property and personal space
• 10) You the right to have your medical needs respected
• We meet every Monday night at Jacobs Well at 6pm, join us if you want to say something

7) New Business?

8) Close.