Addressing parallel systems

Recommendation 5: Establish cultural knowledge/skills sharing hub that works off of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) Article 14(a), where each State Party shall endeavour, by all appropriate means, to ensure recognition of, respect for, and enhancement of the intangible cultural heritage in society, in particular through:

• educational, awareness-raising and information programmes, aimed at the general public, in particular young people;
• specific educational and training programmes within the communities and groups concerned;
• capacity-building activities for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage, in particular management and scientific research; and
• non-formal means of transmitting knowledge.

Policy recommendations

Shifting systems level beliefs and behaviours

Recommendation 16: Improve social cohesion and decreasing social distance

As shown in this report, parallel economic and social systems exist and are pronounced in Chinatown. While there are multiple parallels in existence in all neighbourhoods to a degree, we believe that it is highly pronounced in this neighbourhood due to its demographics, history, and recent changes.

As identified in the Resilient Vancouver Phase One Engagement Report (2018), social cohesion and community connectedness were of key interest to the City. The engagement report explores several reasons as to why there are high levels of social isolation, including the “lack of understanding about Vancouver’s history and cultural heritage.” This cultural blindness contributes to the reinforcement of injustices and inequitable flow of knowledge and resources.

To fully recognize historic ethnocultural spaces and parallel social and economic systems will:

• Meaningfully shift the orientation of policy from “Place-making” to “Placekeeping;”
• Support the maintenance and growth of Chinatown’s social infrastructure as something critical to residents, businesses, and other groups; and
• Broaden the definition of “food assets” to include cultural food assets for their role in ensuring residents have access to healthy, culturally appropriate, and affordable food, along with a place for community identity and social connection.

This approach should be applied across the city to historically significant and culturally specific neighbourhoods where there are clear parallels in social and economic systems. We recommend that there be further public discourse to recognize the histories and relations with the Coast Salish peoples, along with Hogan’s Alley due to the community’s shared space and history

As our findings showcased and we have discussed in our conclusion, integration is not always possible nor is it ideal. Policies should start to recognize these parallels and their histories; measures of social cohesion and social distance both reflect the segregation that we rarely talk about as a city.

There are also UNESCO implications beyond just recognizing and valuing diversity through intangible cultural heritage; “within the context of globalisation, 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.” Intangible cultural heritage, as UNESCO states, will contribute “to social cohesion, encouraging a sense of identity and responsibility which helps individuals to feel part of one or different communities and to feel part of society at large.”

While several actions are discussed in the recommendations to “Addressing Parallel Systems,” we believe that focusing on increasing civic and public knowledge of our history and cultural heritage will result in an emergence of strategies and tactics that will reflect a more equitable reality.

Policy recommendations

Refinement and refresh of existing policies

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:

1. “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.
2. “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.
3. “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.
4. 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.
5. 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.