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Recommendation 12:
Establish a food-focused business incubator space (e.g. test/pop-up kitchen) to reduce barriers to small business startup.
- Encourage and incentivize a focus on cultural specificity in kitchen set up and training programs.
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Recommendation 2:
Encourage greater participation and engagement from all businesses with Chinatown-wide events & festivities.
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Recommendation 15:
Development and application of an Equity Framework
UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) calls for the “[adoption of] a general policy aimed at promoting the function of the intangible cultural heritage in society, and at integrating the safeguarding of such heritage into planning programmes.”
At a high level, we recommend that the City of Vancouver develop an equity framework to better include and understand the needs of Vancouver’s existing and growing diverse populations. The topics discussed in this report do not exist in a vacuum, but rather have complex intersectionalities, which can only begin to be understood from a framework of equity. For example, conversations about contributing to Chinatown’s character must be rooted in an understanding of the cultural blindness of orientalism and racial stereotyping.
The equity framework would apply to all aspects of municipal governance, such as services, outreach and engagement, decision making, hiring, and other key functions of the City. Multiple forms of equity, such as gender, race, disability, and economic, should be taken into account.
This framework would include a holistic recognition of culture (beyond Arts & Culture) and from there, approach policy-making and implementation through a culturally appropriate lens. As discussed in our Vancouver Chinatown Food Security Report (2017), we recommend that the City recognize the importance of culture and enact culture as the 4th pillar of sustainability. Similar equity-based approaches can be found in UNESCO’s definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage where culture “is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it—without their recognition, nobody else can decide for them that a given expression or practice is their heritage.” This speaks to the self-determination approach where a healthy community is one that has the right and the ability to shape their own present and future.
This equity framework will be critical in our collective work to further define Chinatown’s intangible cultural heritage—a key part of the community’s bid for a UNESCO designation. UNESCO states that intangible cultural heritage “has capital importance as it allows cultural diversity to be maintained through dialogue between cultures and the promotion of respect towards other ways of life.” The phrasing “other ways of life” comes from principles of recognizing that diversity is beyond a settler-centric celebration of perceived differences; it’s about meaningfully working alongside diverse people towards empowering their autonomy and actualization.
This gives credence to the understanding that there should be more emphasis put towards the community’s right to self-determine their future. Further work will need to be completed to design a tangible and measurable framework that covers the various forms of disparities that our communities face and hold.
UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) calls for the “[adoption of] a general policy aimed at promoting the function of the intangible cultural heritage in society, and at integrating the safeguarding of such heritage into planning programmes.”
At a high level, we recommend that the City of Vancouver develop an equity framework to better include and understand the needs of Vancouver’s existing and growing diverse populations. The topics discussed in this report do not exist in a vacuum, but rather have complex intersectionalities, which can only begin to be understood from a framework of equity. For example, conversations about contributing to Chinatown’s character must be rooted in an understanding of the cultural blindness of orientalism and racial stereotyping.
The equity framework would apply to all aspects of municipal governance, such as services, outreach and engagement, decision making, hiring, and other key functions of the City. Multiple forms of equity, such as gender, race, disability, and economic, should be taken into account.
This framework would include a holistic recognition of culture (beyond Arts & Culture) and from there, approach policy-making and implementation through a culturally appropriate lens. As discussed in our Vancouver Chinatown Food Security Report (2017), we recommend that the City recognize the importance of culture and enact culture as the 4th pillar of sustainability. Similar equity-based approaches can be found in UNESCO’s definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage where culture “is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it—without their recognition, nobody else can decide for them that a given expression or practice is their heritage.” This speaks to the self-determination approach where a healthy community is one that has the right and the ability to shape their own present and future.
This equity framework will be critical in our collective work to further define Chinatown’s intangible cultural heritage—a key part of the community’s bid for a UNESCO designation. UNESCO states that intangible cultural heritage “has capital importance as it allows cultural diversity to be maintained through dialogue between cultures and the promotion of respect towards other ways of life.” The phrasing “other ways of life” comes from principles of recognizing that diversity is beyond a settler-centric celebration of perceived differences; it’s about meaningfully working alongside diverse people towards empowering their autonomy and actualization.
This gives credence to the understanding that there should be more emphasis put towards the community’s right to self-determine their future. Further work will need to be completed to design a tangible and measurable framework that covers the various forms of disparities that our communities face and hold.
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Recommendation 18:
Cultural organizations should respect the basic human rights and occupational health of Indigenous and Black artists during COVID-19. Arts organizations may consider shifting to a service provision model at this time. But also accepting that artists may not be able to travel in the upcoming months (years even). Organizations should find alternative ways to feature and service the artists they represent.
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Recommendation 81:
Create a cohesive system of youth-specific supports that continues to provide in person services for at risk youth to ensure they don’t slip through the cracks. While the pandemic pay for essential service staff is useful, providing long-term pandemic pay increases will allow the sector to hire qualified staff to respond to the increased needs of youth.
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Recommendation 70:
Continued access to phones, computers, and personal-protective equipment in order to maintain a quicker recovery response in the event of a second wave.
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Recommendation 17:
Chinatown Economic Revitalization Plan and Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan
In the Memorandum issued on June 22, 2018 from General Manager of Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability, Gil Kelley, to Mayor and Council, an update was provided as to the status of implementation of the Economic Revitalization Strategy Actions in the Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan and Economic Revitalization Strategy (2012). While it was recognized that “many actions were completed or are underway,” there are key actions that have yet to be implemented that would support and alleviate some of the challenges identified within our research.
Specifically for Chinatown’s food retail environment, we recommend refinement of several of the strategic actions:
In the Memorandum issued on June 22, 2018 from General Manager of Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability, Gil Kelley, to Mayor and Council, an update was provided as to the status of implementation of the Economic Revitalization Strategy Actions in the Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan and Economic Revitalization Strategy (2012). While it was recognized that “many actions were completed or are underway,” there are key actions that have yet to be implemented that would support and alleviate some of the challenges identified within our research.
Specifically for Chinatown’s food retail environment, we recommend refinement of several of the strategic actions:
- “Tenant recruitment strategy” could benefit from selective recruitment of businesses that would contribute to the Chinatown character that many of our business interviewees and consumers have identified as ideal additions to the neighbourhood. These were often described as “Chinese businesses” but further work would need to be completed to assess neighbourhood fit in regards to socio-economics and accessibility of these business.
- “Tenant retention strategy.” As with the experience of the BIA, the “lack of succession planning makes retention challenging.” Due to the contributions that traditional businesses make to the neighbourhood character, through intangible values with the social and cultural connections they hold, we recommend that a working group be formed to come up with options that the City, other levels of government, as well as other stakeholders can implement to assist with succession planning of these businesses. Namely, to explore how traditional businesses can succeed in becoming community- and membership- owned entities. Applying cooperative values can serve the community/membership as well as democratizing ownership and economics of the business.
- “Tourism and Marketing Strategy.” More specifically for Chinatown’s Marketing Strategy, we recommend actions including measures to build social and cultural relationships between traditional and non-traditional businesses. As our research has shown, there are missed intra-neighbourhood economic opportunities due to parallel and segregated economic and social systems. Marketing opportunities within the neighbourhood to businesses across cultural lines would contribute to neighbourhood connectivity. The external aspects of the Tourism and Marketing Strategy would also benefit from a more socially cohesive business environment in Chinatown.
- From our findings, there is also a desire from business operators for further “clean-up of public spaces with local business”. Current actions are not satisfactory based on our interview findings. This ongoing challenge can be attributed to larger systemic issues. We stress that ‘clean-up’ does not mean increasing police presence in the neighbourhood.
- Include a Community Economic Development strategy that is based entirely from a culturally and community specific lens. This recommendation includes legitimizing and uplifting the survival economy, informal economy, and other systems that have been pushed to the margins, with measures to increase opportunities for more equitable and inclusive employment.
While housing was not specifically researched for this report, housing has significant impacts on neighbourhood food retail and social environment. Market-based development in Chinatown and its surrounding areas have created and reinforced actors in parallel systems, economically and socially, for both businesses and consumers. These systems draw out the social distance between community members and limits the potential of socially cohesive communities to thrive. It is recommended that housing be addressed with culturally specific needs in mind, including culturally specific seniors housing. Development guidelines such as frontage, use, size of retail units, and other zoning and permitting should be explored as ways to direct the types of businesses and ownership that will end up occupying retail spaces in the neighbourhood.
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Recommendation 3:
Appoint a business ambassador to support the relationship building process between traditional & non-traditional businesses, and to work directly with businesses on local procurement.
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Recommendation 74:
An opportunity to connect with other organizations and a community of practice to support the sector’s ability to look into the future.
Recommendation 14:
All political parties should, in response to individual’s requests for their own personal information, provide all of the requestor’s personal information under the control of the party, information about the ways in which that personal information has been and is being used by the party, and to whom the information has been disclosed.
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