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Redressing Displacement and Building a Just City for Black Lives in Vancouver

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Redressing Displacement and Building a Just City for Black Lives in Vancouver Fight the Power: Redressing Displacement and Building a Just City for Black Lives in Vancouver by Stephanie Allen B.B.A., Okanagan College, 2002 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Urban Studies in the Urban Studies Program Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Stephanie Allen 2019 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2019 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Stephanie Allen Degree: Master of Urban Studies Title: Fight the Power: Redressing Displacement and Building a Just City for Black Lives in Vancouver Examining Committee: Chair: Anthony Perl Professor Karen Ferguson Senior Supervisor Professor of Urban Studies and History Peter V. Hall Supervisor Professor Frances Bula External Examiner Urban Issues Writer Instructor of Journalism Langara College Adjunct Professor of Journalism University of British Columbia Date Defended/Approved: June 12, 2019 ii Abstract Past and present planning practices impacting Black people in Canada are brought into focus in this master’s project that traces Hogan’s Alley, a Black community that existed in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood and that was displaced through a series of racially-motivated decisions spanning decades. The project documents the efforts made by the contemporary Black community to seek redress for the past displacement, and how the City of Vancouver reacted to those efforts. Engaging critical race analysis along with justice-based planning theory, the project uses auto-ethnography to document the specific justice-based interventions made by the author and other members of the Black community, including the proposal for affordable housing and a non-profit community land trust on the former Hogan’s Alley site. This work expands urban studies scholarship by including the histories and perspectives of Black communities, foregrounding the way race influences the ordering of cities and how city planning pedagogy, policy, and practice maintain white colonial hegemony. Keywords: redress; Black community; displacement; affordable housing; racism; Hogan’s Alley iii Dedication I dedicate this project to my mother Lynette Joseph Bani and my grandmother Stephanie Amelia Joseph, whose name I am honoured to carry. In recognition of the untold sacrifices hardships and brutality endured by all of the Black women and men in my ancestry and family who “perished daily but would not be moved” and who found laughter and generosity in times of bitter despair. I am because they were. For my brothers Stephen and Ezra who have been supportive and generous big heads even when we disagree. For my sister-mother-friend Erica Nicole whose kindness, curiosity, and one-woman comedy jam inspired me to take up this journey from there to here. And for Tom whose affection comes in whole paragraphs and has supported every. thing. from the first day we met till now J.T.M. iv Acknowledgements I acknowledge that I work and live on the traditional homelands and unceded territories of the skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) səl’ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musquem) nations. I stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples seeking to eliminate social, cultural, economic, and political oppression that our communities face and work for a world free where all peoples are able to live up to the fullest expression of their being. The work documented in this project was accomplished through a collaboration of Black people from across the African Diaspora living in the Metro Vancouver region who came together to dream big and develop a shared vision of community empowerment and celebration. These people included all members and participants in the Isokan Community Forum, Hogan’s Alley Working Group, and Design Advisory Committee, and who wrote letters and showed up with their contribution and support whenever possible. I thank them for their time, energy, and commitment to making a better life for Black people in this region. I’d also like to thank Andrea, Holly and Emory who did their best under challenging circumstances and understood the value of bringing their own vulnerability to the work of building more inclusive, equitable, and just cities. Shout outs to my peoples for being a lifeline when a sister needed a pick-me-up: Denise, Denika, Kneka, Uncle Mike, June Lisa, Kevin, Arash, Mat, Katelyn. Sincere appreciation for my colleagues on the board of the Hogan’s Alley Society. Lots of good work done and lots more ahead. To Karen, Peter, and Terri: heartfelt thanks for your support completing this project. I don’t think I would have made it without your encouragement. And to all the obstacles, setbacks, discouragements, hidden agendas, and systemic barriers: thanks for the invaluable lessons. Because of you I’m smarter, stronger, more capable, and better prepared to dismantle you and leave you for dust. v Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................ ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ iii Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vi List of Tables .................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures ................................................................................................................... ix List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................ x Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Project Methods ....................................................................................................... 4 1.2. Situating Myself in the Project ................................................................................. 6 1.2.1. Racial Identity & Economic Reality .................................................................. 6 1.2.2. Professional Capacity ...................................................................................... 8 1.2.3. Connecting to Hogan’s Alley ........................................................................... 9 1.3. Project Scope and Timeline ................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2. Essay 1: The Politics of Displacement, Recognition and Redress ..... 14 2.1. Canada’s Troubled Past of Displacing Black Lives ............................................... 16 2.1.1. Early Black Migration and Displacement in British Columbia ........................ 18 2.1.2. Preventing Black Migration and Disempowering Black Communities ........... 23 2.1.3. Black Strathcona: Racial Segregation Through Land Use Planning ............. 25 2.1.4. Hogan’s Alley: The Formation and Dispossession of a Community .............. 30 2.2. Recognition or Redress for Hogan’s Alley ............................................................. 42 2.2.1. Looking for Hogan’s Alley within Institutional Erasure ................................... 45 2.2.2. Self-Determining Redress ............................................................................. 49 2.2.3. Hogan’s Alley Guiding Principles & Community Land Stewardship: Towards a Vision of Redress and Self-determination .................................................................... 56 2.3. Conclusion Essay #1 ............................................................................................. 64 Chapter 3. Systemic Exclusion of Black Life from Vancouver Civic Policies and the Ongoing Fight for a Just City ....................................................................... 68 3.1. Excluding Black Lives: Our Absence from City of Vancouver Policy ..................... 69 3.2. Engaging Black Lives: Architecture as Redress? .................................................. 74 3.3. Evading Black Lives: Charrette Outcomes and Shortcomings .............................. 83 3.4. Assessing the Capacity for Redress in the Hogan’s Alley Block Design ............... 87 3.4.1. Design Response to Our Guiding Principles ................................................. 89 3.4.2. A Review of the NEFC Affordable Housing Policy and the Prioritization of Profit ....................................................................................................................... 93 3.4.3. Quantitative Analysis of Housing Affordability on the Hogan’s Alley Block ... 94 Housing Unit Sizes ................................................................................................... 96 Building Typology ..................................................................................................... 98 Review with the City ................................................................................................. 99 vi 3.5. Our Right to The City: Making Moves for Redress .............................................. 104 Chapter 4. Conclusions and Recommendations ..................................................
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