To the editor:
Re. "Property owner takes poll to find right business," Sept 28.
The story about two young entrepreneurs who have invited the community to give input on what kind of business they should establish at 243 Union St. is intended, I think, to be one of those upbeat, feel-good pieces that makes us all breath a sigh of relief: the spirit of community is still alive in our city. The article, however, leaves hints of another, darker reality that is neatly hidden from view. "Former tenant was a barber"; "The space... was vacated by a barbershop this summer." Tracing out these comments would reveal a local barber who offered his services to Chinese seniors and low-income residents of the area, but who was forced out by increasing real estate values and escalating rents due to the significant gentrification of the area (V6A, Ginger, the London Pub, etc.). The previous owner of the space kept increasing the barber's rent, and then sold the property for a handsome profit as a result of rampant upscale development on the block. Saying that the space was "vacated by a barbershop" sounds a lot more mundane or even "natural" than saying a low-income serving barber was forcibly displaced by the normalized violence of gentrification. It might be worth exploring this side of the story, and putting it on the front page of the newspaper.
Dave Diewert,
Vancouver
