Strathcona Neighborhood, Vancouver

"CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever" (carsoffortlangley)
02/22/2018 at 21:01 • Filed to: VancityOppo, COFLWriting

Strathcona is the neighborhood that makes up a portion of the infamous Down Town East Side or if you’re in Vancouver, the DTES. A part of the city known around the world for drugs and poverty. I walked around this neighborhood today and stayed around for a couple hours thinking about how it symbolized Vancouver as a whole and how the cars in the area reflect the changes.

Vancouver is a tough place to live, perhaps one of the most expensive in North America. We pay the most for gas, some of the highest real estate costs, high taxes and high vehicle insurance costs. I know myself and the other Vancouver Oppo’s are always looking for a way out.

There are 3 things in Vancouver that make headlines more than anything else: The fentanyl/heroin crisis, gentrification and Chinese investment. Strathcona is a neighborhood that brings all of those sharply into focus.

Strathcona is only 1.1 square miles in area with a median income $15,000CDN. However the property value is well north of $1M for your most basic run down home. The largest ethnic group in the area is Chinese (43%), there is a disproportionate amount of First Nations residents and the rest are mostly caucasian. Street signs, the school signage, the community centre are all bilingual Mandarin Chinese and English.

The area represents the changing demographics across Vancouver, usually poorer working class families being unable to afford to live in areas that historically have been poorer while the property is either bought by foreign investors or torn down to make condos for well off white collar workers from the downtown core. The heritage homes that remain are usually divided into 3-4 smaller condos on the inside.

A Strathcona heritage home

The area also shows how Canada’s multiculturalism immigration policies are shaping the Country’s future. This brings many wonderful contributions to our society, but also leads to tensions and animosity by some in our population.

The poverty and drug addiction in the neighborhood shows how much we as a country and a city are failing our most vulnerable members of society with over 300 dying over overdoses in Vancouver last year, most in the DTES.

A key message

Then comes the cars, Downtown Vancouver is in general, anti car. Bikes and transit are the primary mode of transportation in the city. With the cost of living so high and the lack of land, it is tough to be a Jalop. Yet, on my walk, I still found some interesting cars.

DISCUSSION (21)

DucST3-Red-1Liter-Standing-By > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 21:22

Spend a week a couple years ago with a mission trip to the DTES. Eye opening experience to say the least.

What floored me is one of the kids one day left the door open to our rental Lincoln navigator next to needle park for a good hour. Ran back out expecting the worst, but it was just sitting there, no one touched it.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > DucST3-Red-1Liter-Standing-By
02/22/2018 at 21:22

Yeah, it is an area filled with horrifying poverty, yet I always feel 100% safe.

fintail > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 21:25

I attribute the housing price tensions to local governments seeking tax revenues rather than basic multiculturalism. Vancouver is a leading destination for money launderers, and it’s not a desire for cultural diversity that allows it. Now an entire generation of locals and all to come are priced out without luck, parental aid, living in a small condo, or having a “single family house” with a “suite” or to in order to stay afloat.

And now it’s coming south.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > fintail
02/22/2018 at 21:27

Very true, this area specifically is more on the multicultural side of things. The ethnic chinese people that live here are not as well off as the ones buying up our property. The proximity the Chinatown brought them here generations ago.

In fact, they are at times the ones protesting the gentrification.

fintail > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 21:33

Yep, those are locals. They may be Chinese by heritage, but they aren’t linked to embezzling low-mid level party officials who have amassed a fortune and escaped before the axe falls - as they know neither Canada or USA will vet the funds, and both offer pay to play residency. Then you end up with loads of empty housing in the midst of an affordable housing crisis as these people buy up property to park their ill-gotten funds, and ride the wave. Those people here for generations are stuck in the mess with the rest of us.

I wouldn’t even call it gentrification. It’s really just dirty, but in a different way.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > fintail
02/22/2018 at 21:36

There is gentrification in the neighborhood for sure, but it isn’t driven directly by overseas investment

LOREM IPSUM > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 21:40

Very well said. We should take oppo on a tour of Hastings one of these days, though photos and video don’t really convey what the area is really like. It’s a sad situation with no resolution in sight, but the people there do take care of each other.

Frankly, with housing costs and the overall cost of living increasing at a frightening rate, more working class citizens are going to end up on the street right next to them... and they won’t even need an addiction to put them there.

I should take a trip down 135a on Surrey and document it. Between fallout from addiction, mental health, and general poverty there are roughly 100 tents lining the eastern-most sidewalk, and a few had appeared on the west side of the street as well.

There was a news story not long ago that said the majority of people in our area are $200 away from not being able to pay their bills at any given time, and I believe it.

vicali > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 21:42

I was just reading about the luxury tax introduced this week.. +5% on $55-100, then +10% up to $155, then +15% after that..

All I see are Lambos in the rain..

fintail > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 21:54

People pushed out (via prices) of other areas? It’s happening around Seattle too, where areas once seen as rough or too distant have gone insane, as the earlier preferred areas are finished for the normal buyer.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > LOREM IPSUM
02/22/2018 at 22:04

I know that I would probably fall into that category. Its a tough place to eek out an existence.

It’d be cool to do a drive one day! DTES isn’t prime driving area at all though. Maybe gastown, Granville island or Olympic village?

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > vicali
02/22/2018 at 22:15

It’s a city of have and have nots with little to no in-between that’s for sure

gmctavish needs more space > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 22:44

I love Strathcona and Chinatown, I’m fairly often in the area, it’s also one of my favourite areas for car spotting

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/dots-strathcona-chinatown-1793647488

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/things-that-caught-my-eye-today-1819268063

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > gmctavish needs more space
02/22/2018 at 22:47

Lol, we both got the Plymouth. It’s a great area. One I need to frequent more. My wife was there for a job interview and I tagged along.

I saw one or two others in your pics there too, but I was driving

gmctavish needs more space > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 22:50

Check out Space Lab at Pender and Main if you want to see lots of cool old stuff.

Yeah I love that Plymouth, I’ve been seeing it parked within a block of where we both saw it for the past 6 years or so.

LOREM IPSUM > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2018 at 23:20

My wife just saw this on Facebook. Thought you locals might appreciate it:

Kinja'd!!!

Lol

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > LOREM IPSUM
02/22/2018 at 23:23

Seems accurate lol

BaconSandwich is tasty. > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/23/2018 at 00:18

A coworker of mine has a Delica just like the second to last photo. I keep meaning to do a write up of it.

I always thought East Hastings was the bad part of town.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > BaconSandwich is tasty.
02/23/2018 at 00:25

It is the bad part, yeah

gmctavish needs more space > BaconSandwich is tasty.
02/23/2018 at 00:52

This is a little ways east from the really gnarly part. Strathcona borders/overlaps with the DTES.

Stef Schrader > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/23/2018 at 11:30

I love those cars and that big mural, though. The world could use more murals.

There’s a mural off North Loop down here I keep thinking of using as a backdrop the next time I have a review to do, but it seems like someone’s always parked there when I remember it.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Stef Schrader
02/23/2018 at 11:32

I agree, more murals would always be better. Thanks for reading!

I wish I had talent so that I could paint something