Vancouver's West End, located between Stanley Park and the commercial/administrative enterprises of the central business district, quickly emerged as the city's prime residential neighborhood during the late 1880's. Until approximately 1912 Vancouver's leading citizens resided in the West End, shaping its growth and that of much of the city. Coming predominantly from Eastern Canada and Great Britain and arriving in Vancouver before or just after the turn of the century, Vancouver's West End elite created a residential landscape that reflected the architecture, institutions and urban images of the late Victorian Age. The transplant of a sophisticated and established urban culture to a pristine urban environment allowed Vancouver's upper class quickly to create a comfortable residential environment in a new, West Coast urban setting. In short, the West End was an identifiable neighborhood that reflected the processes of social and spatial sorting common throughout the late nineteenth century industrial urban world, and it provided a secure social and geographical base where the ambitious upper class could build and manoeuver to structure their future in British Columbia. While the West End portrayed status and functioned as an environment in which upper class social interaction and cohesion could be initiated and sustained, it was only part of the larger civic arena within which the elite population operated. This larger setting included the elaborate institutional network of corporations, exclusive clubs and recreational associations within which members of the elite consolidated their socio-economic ascendancy. An understanding of the institutional basis of elite power in Vancouver is essential to gaining an understanding of the elite's impact on the social and geographical environment of the city. Chapter three concentrates on the development of the elite's network of voluntary associations while chapter four examines the corporate connections and activities of the elite. In conclusion, the study examines the beliefs and commitments that helped to endorse the vast socio-economic power of the business dominated elite in early Vancouver. It is suggested that most immigrants to pre-1914 Vancouver saw the city as the land of private opportunity, a place where prosperity could be attained by everyone who adhered to the rules of hard work, thrift and common sense. A widely shared commitment to material progress and urban expansion helped to inspire a deferential attitude towards those businessmen who were leaders of expansion in the city's private sector and, more specifically, it sanctioned the rapid demise of the West End as an upper class single-family neighborhood. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Gastown, Vancouver's birthplace, is a small historic district embedded within the broader community of the Downtown Eastside. Over the past 25 years Gastown has been slowly upgrading; refashioning itself as a loft style residential neighbourhood and central tourist destination. Over the same period the Downtown Eastside's reputation as the city's "skid road" has become firmly entrenched. The pace of this community's upgrading and downgrading has quickened over the past five years and resulted in a current geography where we find loft-style condominiums, cappuccino bars and rising affluence interspersed with needle exchanges, homeless shelters and deepening disadvantage. What we see within the Gastown/Downtown Eastside community is a convergence of the spatial processes of social polarisation and the kinds of conflicts and negotiations that result. Polarisation, most broadly defined, describes a growing socio-economic and spatial divide between the "haves" and "have-nots" of Western societies and cities. While considerable attention has been paid to polarisation's conceptual meaning and empirical definition at the national and intra-urban levels, little focus has centered on how the process can be identified and analysed at the intra-community level. In the same way that polarisation at broader scales of analysis can be viewed as the sociotemporal coincidence of pauperisation and professionalisation, this dissertation defines intracommunity polarisation as the simultaneous occurrence of socio-spatial upgrading and downgrading. Using quantitative data from the census tract level, this dissertation investigates the empirical evidence of social polarisation within Gastown/Downtown Eastside. Using qualitative data the study explores the extent to which both revitalisation and deterioration are competing for the community's future and this polarisation is being experienced and negotiated by the varied residents and stakeholders of this urban community. Ultimately this dissertation sheds light on how the characteristics and causes of community based polarisation differ and parallel those at other scales of inquiry. It also outlines the truly local factors that affect polarisation's development, entrenchment and impact and illuminates the process' inconstant character and the time lag that exists between its qualitative experience and its quantitative identification.

Gastown, Vancouver's birthplace, is a small historic district embedded within the broader community of the Downtown Eastside. Over the past 25 years Gastown has been slowly upgrading; refashioning itself as a loft style residential neighbourhood and central tourist destination. Over the same period the Downtown Eastside's reputation as the city's "skid road" has become firmly entrenched. The pace of this community's upgrading and downgrading has quickened over the past five years and resulted in a current geography where we find loft-style condominiums, cappuccino bars and rising affluence interspersed with needle exchanges, homeless shelters and deepening disadvantage. What we see within the Gastown/Downtown Eastside community is a convergence of the spatial processes of social polarisation and the kinds of conflicts and negotiations that result. Polarisation, most broadly defined, describes a growing socio-economic and spatial divide between the "haves" and "have-nots" of Western societies and cities. While considerable attention has been paid to polarisation's conceptual meaning and empirical definition at the national and intra-urban levels, little focus has centered on how the process can be identified and analysed at the intra-community level. In the same way that polarisation at broader scales of analysis can be viewed as the sociotemporal coincidence of pauperisation and professionalisation, this dissertation defines intracommunity polarisation as the simultaneous occurrence of socio-spatial upgrading and downgrading. Using quantitative data from the census tract level, this dissertation investigates the empirical evidence of social polarisation within Gastown/Downtown Eastside. Using qualitative data the study explores the extent to which both revitalisation and deterioration are competing for the community's future and this polarisation is being experienced and negotiated by the varied residents and stakeholders of this urban community. Ultimately this dissertation sheds light on how the characteristics and causes of community based polarisation differ and parallel those at other scales of inquiry. It also outlines the truly local factors that affect polarisation's development, entrenchment and impact and illuminates the process' inconstant character and the time lag that exists between its qualitative experience and its quantitative identification. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Downtown Vancouver is becoming a spectacular place. Reflecting dominant trends found in many restructuring Canadian cities, its landscape has become increasingly aestheticized, privatized, consumption-based, and regulated. Since the late-1960s, boosters have worked to strengthen Vancouver's position in the international scene by staging it as a world class city, an inviting and exciting destination. To attract desired publics, downtown has been framed as the alluring gateway, the spectacular centre, the glittering jewel of Vancouver. Making this convivial centre—which I call Happyland—has involved remaking and reimaging downtown to 'upgrade' its perceived 'decay'. Like many North American central cities in the 1960s, with the advent of suburbanization and general economic decline, downtown Vancouver's role as the major shopping and entertainment centre of 'respectable' citizens seriously waned. New landscapes took shape as into the marginalizing spaces new publics made their places and inscribed their cultures. Parts of downtown became widely stigmatized as degraded and neglected, as taken over by 'undesirables'. Thus, making Happyland has largely been about 'civilizing' downtown—involving not only dramatic redevelopment, but also heavy marketing and increased policing. I read the remaking of downtown—Robson and Granville Streets in particular—by analyzing the changing landscape, local media, City decisions, place marketing, and the voices of various actors from multiple sources, including personal interviews. While the dominant narrative celebrates an urban renaissance, I argue that downtown is being purified, whereby a tightly scripted order is being fixed in which certain people, cultures, signs are 'out of place' and subjected to increasing levels of regulation. In particular, street youth have been identified as 'pests' who 'spoil' the desired clean, ordered, happy image. I see the demonization of street youth as reflecting wider relations of power. I argue that the narrative of Happyland, the dominant public culture being fixed downtown excludes other narratives, experiences, visions. Street youth narratives—from personal interviews and their own writings in a local 'zine—are testimony of this diversity. I argue that for this city and society to be truly inclusive and livable, as the rhetoric claims, such voices of citizens have to be given space and validity.

Downtown Vancouver is becoming a spectacular place. Reflecting dominant trends found in many restructuring Canadian cities, its landscape has become increasingly aestheticized, privatized, consumption-based, and regulated. Since the late-1960s, boosters have worked to strengthen Vancouver's position in the international scene by staging it as a world class city, an inviting and exciting destination. To attract desired publics, downtown has been framed as the alluring gateway, the spectacular centre, the glittering jewel of Vancouver. Making this convivial centre—which I call Happyland—has involved remaking and reimaging downtown to 'upgrade' its perceived 'decay'. Like many North American central cities in the 1960s, with the advent of suburbanization and general economic decline, downtown Vancouver's role as the major shopping and entertainment centre of 'respectable' citizens seriously waned. New landscapes took shape as into the marginalizing spaces new publics made their places and inscribed their cultures. Parts of downtown became widely stigmatized as degraded and neglected, as taken over by 'undesirables'. Thus, making Happyland has largely been about 'civilizing' downtown—involving not only dramatic redevelopment, but also heavy marketing and increased policing. I read the remaking of downtown—Robson and Granville Streets in particular—by analyzing the changing landscape, local media, City decisions, place marketing, and the voices of various actors from multiple sources, including personal interviews. While the dominant narrative celebrates an urban renaissance, I argue that downtown is being purified, whereby a tightly scripted order is being fixed in which certain people, cultures, signs are 'out of place' and subjected to increasing levels of regulation. In particular, street youth have been identified as 'pests' who 'spoil' the desired clean, ordered, happy image. I see the demonization of street youth as reflecting wider relations of power. I argue that the narrative of Happyland, the dominant public culture being fixed downtown excludes other narratives, experiences, visions. Street youth narratives—from personal interviews and their own writings in a local 'zine—are testimony of this diversity. I argue that for this city and society to be truly inclusive and livable, as the rhetoric claims, such voices of citizens have to be given space and validity. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Safer injection facilities (SIFs) provide a clean and supervised environment, thereby reducing health risks to drug users. Potential benefits include fewer overdoses, decreased rates of HIV, Hepatitis, and other blood-borne viruses, a reduction in open drug use, increased opportunities for health services and treatments, and cost savings to society. A pilot safer injection site is expected to open in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in September 2003. This study assesses community attitudes and concerns with respect to SIFs. Focus groups with police officers, street nurses, and injection drug users in February and March 2003 revealed that they are supportive of the sites. Concerns related to the community impacts, external supports, administration, process, safety, and special populations (e.g. women, youth) were indicated. Special attention should be paid to the involvement of injection drug users in planning and programming, the inclusion of peer workers, the relationships between injection drug users, the wider population, and the police, and safety for marginalized populations. Recommendations to address concerns and ensure inclusive processes are provided.

Since the late 1960's, fundamental changes in Canadian immigration policy, encouraging more middle-class/professional immigration in an effort to create employment and to boost the nation's skill profile, have precipitated a shift in orientation of population and capital flows into Canada. In particular the countries of the Pacific Rim have risen in relative importance as source regions of both international finance and migrants. These trends have had an uneven impact across Canada, and Vancouver in particular has come to play a significant role as a "gateway city". This thesis considers some of the ramifications of the emerging social geography of this elite portion of the wide spectrum of immigrants entering Canada. In focusing on neighbourhood change within the upper middle-class suburb of Kerrisdale, situated on Vancouver's elite West Side, it examines the cultural politics surrounding perceived social change. It explores a contested sense of identity and place, showing how these are informed and invigorated by a diverse set of social struggles evident in conflicting landscape 'tastes' in the neighbourhood of Kerrisdale. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

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