Planning, policy and polarisation in Vancouver's downtown eastside

Abstract

ABSTRACTWidely known as Vancouver's ‘skid road’ the Downtown Eastside struggles with the pressures of socio‐spatial polarisation. While the neighbourhood has experienced deepening poverty, widening disadvantage, the entrenchment of an open air drug market, epidemic levels of HIV/AIDS and rising crime rates, it has also undergone extensive residential and commercial revitalisation. This paper explores, qualitatively, the City of Vancouver's policy and planning role in the spatial and temporal collision of both upgrading and downgrading within this single urban neighbourhood. Particular attention is paid to the unintended geographic and social impacts of municipal policy and the challenges faced by the city in attempting to address the conflicting expectations of community interests and the possibility of diametrically opposed, yet equally possible, neigh‐bourhood futures. The paper points to the necessity of continued research on the local dynamics, policy implications and scale of intra‐urban socio‐spatial polarisation.