Author: Vinnie Yuen

Residents of Marpole expressed strong opposition against the Marpole Safeway redevelopment plans presented by the City of Vancouver Planning Department at a meeting on Monday.  Not one resident out of an estimated 200 attendees stood up to voice their approval of the rezoning application during the question and answer period.

During the question and answer period, many residents said they were unhappy with the height of the proposed building, the increased traffic to the area, and the implications for local businesses.  They were also concerned with the lack of community space and green space.

The plan proposed by Henriquez Partners Architects is to redevelop the current site at 70th Avenue and Granville Street to include four major building elements: replacement of the Safeway grocery store on Granville Street; a 24-storey rental tower; a 14-storey market condominium tower; and a 9-storey slab building consisting of townhouses at street level and condominium units above.

Gwen Ingham compiled a petition of 225 signatures of Marpole residents over the weekend.  A majority of the people who signed think the new buildings should be no more than four storeys high.  Several disagreed and think they should be no more than nine storeys high.

“We feel that the fundamental character of Marpole is threatened by this [project],” said Ingham.

“No major development or rezoning should happen without an updated community plan and revisioning,” said Gudrun Langolf, president of the Marpole-Oakridge Area Council Society.

“The question of the traffic in the area has to be addressed, the problem of the schools and other facilities has to be addressed, but most importantly, a community plan has to be done first,” said Sylvia Taylor, a resident of Marpole since 1972.

Ron Loui-Ying has been living in Marpole for 14 years and previously lived in Hong Kong.  He disapproved of the large number of towers going up around the neighbourhood at Cambie Street and Marine Drive, as well as near Oakridge.  “If the city can’t afford to give us a [community] plan,” said Loui-Ying, “maybe they should spend some money and change Marpole into Mar-Kong!”

Brent Toderian, Director of Planning, assured the audience that this project is in its early stages and still needs to be approved by Council.  The planning staff is open to the community’s feedback.

“It’s not black and white for us,” said Toderian. “We’re still in the process of listening to the community’s perspectives on the nature of the application and we haven’t taken a position on whether the application is premature.”

The McDonald’s in Kerrisdale, usually a calm place where many members of the elderly community eat in the day time, transformed late last night into a loitering place for young adults under the influence of alcohol.  At 2 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 18, a police car was parked in the parking lot of the McDonald’s fast food restaurant at 41^st Avenue and West Boulevard.

This building is a hub for activity.  It is the largest fast food restaurant in the area, and it stands two stories high at a major intersection.  It is open for business 24 hours a day.

A group of twelve boisterous teenagers sat in booths next to the window late last night.  The teenage boys laughed and chased each other throughout the restaurant.

A small bottle of Crown Royal stuck out of the back pocket of an East Indian teenager with a faux hawk.  He occasionally spiked his soft drink with the alcohol.

An Asian male teenager wearing a tight white tee shirt and earings stared menacingly across the room at the employees. There was obvious tension.

They left the restaurant and shortly after, a police car arrived at the parking lot.  The officer questioned a few of the teenage boys and recorded their names and phone numbers.  The officer declined to comment on what happened.  He said, “They’ll tell ya,” and left promptly.

James Huang said a cab driver reported to the police that he was assaulted by a male passenger and a female passenger who refused to pay their fare.  Huang saw the two passengers flee after the incident.  “They kicked him and ran away,” said Huang.  “[The officer] just wanted to talk to us because we saw.”

Huang said he had to go and quickly left with his friends.

It is unclear as to whether this group of teenagers knew the passengers who committed the alleged assault.

More young adults filed into the restaurant at 2:30 a.m., presumably after drinking and partying.  Several young women looked intoxicated.  One young lady slouched over in her seat alone while others ordered their fast food. Strewn about on the tables were food wrappers, cups, and empty ketchup containers.

Steve Hyatt, a volunteer at the Kerrisdale Oakridge Marpole Community Policing Centre, said violent crimes are usually rare in Kerrisdale.

Patrick Yacyshen stood alone in front of London Drugs in Kerrisdale on a weekday afternoon, selling copies of Megaphone, a magazine sold on the streets of Vancouver by homeless and low-income vendors.

Men in suits and ties chatted on a bench nearby while well-dressed elderly women walked in and out of the drug store.  The streets are calm.  Occasionally, a BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus drove by.  Polite chatter in low volumes and occasional voices of children walking by can be heard.

Yacyshen, in his clean tan-coloured shirt, jacket and pants, did not appear to be out of place.  He wore a hat with the label “John Deere” and brown shoes that seemed relatively new.

If it wasn’t for the distinct name of the magazine he was holding with his well-groomed hands, he could easily be mistaken for another middle-class working man.

Yacyshen is from Saskatchewan and he moved to Vancouver in 1994.  He used to work as a draftsperson, drafting anything from oil rigs to pipelines. He was laid off when natural gas prices were lowered a couple of years ago.  Now he works as a vendor of Megaphone magazine, and even writes for it occasionally.

Yacyshen said that most vendors work downtown, but he prefers to work in Kerrisdale because it has a more “relaxing” atmosphere.  He makes the trip to Kerrisdale daily to sell the magazines.  He said he can be found in front of London Drugs Monday to Friday and in front of Shopper Drug Mart on Saturdays.  He tries to take Sundays off.

Copies of Megaphone are bought by vendors for 50 cents each, but Yacyshen said there are plans for this price to be raised to 75 cents each.  The suggested donation for a magazine is $2, but he said many customers donate up to $5 to $10.

Yacyshen stays downtown at the Yale, a hotel that is known for its rhythm and blues nightlife scene.  He said rent is $460 a month and luckily, he has access to his own bathroom and shower.

Through uneven but clean, white teeth, Yacyshen said he is still quite healthy.

A block away, a man sat with several bags of his belongings in front of the Liquor Store and played music on his shiny wooden guitar.

While apartments and townhouses are in the process of being built, homeless individuals in the area of Marpole struggle to find a place of refuge.

“Rezoning Application”, said a glaring yellow sign stood in front of the large Safeway parking lot on Granville Street. At 3pm in the afternoon on Saturday, September 11th, a homeless man in a black hoodie laid underneath this bright-coloured board. He glanced up briefly to look at others passing by or reading the sign, and then quickly went back to sleep.

The Marpole Safeway is a locus for activity. It is the only large chain grocery store in the area. Families shop here for groceries. The homeless often beg for change in front of its entrance and hang out in the parking lot.

According to the sign, there are plans for the Marpole Safeway to be re-developed. This project is being conducted by the City of Vancouver Planning Department Rezoning Centre. According to the website displayed on the sign, this project involves “redevelop[ing] the site with four major building elements which includes replacement of the Safeway grocery store on Granville Street, a 24-storey rental tower, a 14 storey market condominium tower, and a 9-storey slab building consisting of townhouses at street level and condominium units above.” This project is considered under the Short Term Incentives for Rental Program, which responds to low vacancy rates and the lack of new purpose-built rental housing.

A few months ago, the ATM machines inside the Bank of Montreal branch at Granville Street and 67th Avenue were removed and replaced by a machine outside the building. A customer service representative said that there was a problem with homeless people sleeping inside the bank in front of the machines, and customers could not get access them.

Laura Poon, Manager of Customer Service at the HSBC branch a block away, said that they do sometimes discover homeless people sleeping inside the bank in front of the ATM, especially when the weather is cold.

Rick Hofs, the homeless man on 70th and Granville said there had been trouble in the past with the Royal Bank branch in the neighbourhood, as “guys from downtown” would sleep in there. An employee inside this branch, Stephanie Merinuk, said this problem happened a few years ago, and they no longer had this problem.

Hofs said he usually sleeps behind the stores on Granville Street in his blue sleeping bag.

Despite being a 30 minute drive from the Downtown Eastside, a visible homeless population roam about in Marpole amidst the ethnic restaurants, chain coffee shops, banks, and grocery stores on Granville Street between 60^th and 70^th Avenue.

On this cloudy Saturday afternoon, Rick Hofs sat against the brick wall of the Royal Bank of Canada branch on the corner of Granville Street and 70^th Avenue.  He watched the passerbys as he smoked his cigarette.

Hofs spoke in a slow, calm manner as he told his story.  He exposed a set of brown teeth with large missing gaps.  Hofts is originally from Hope and came out to Vancouver to find employment a few years ago.  He worked as a carpenter, but could no longer work when he began having seizures.  He said has had numerous blood tests done, but he is not yet cured.  “I’ve had so many blood tests, I almost have no blood left in me!” Rick joked.

Hofs compared himself with other homeless people who sometimes come from Downtown.  He said that the “guys from Downtown” usually cause a “ruckus” and are often on drugs.  “I don’t do that,” Rick said with bloodshot eyes.

A group of homeless men chatting boisterously on benches in front of the Safeway parking lot.  Hofs said that they have been drinking for the past few hours.  He advised others, especially young women, not to go over there, as they will most likely be subject to their “verbal abuse”.  “You don’t deserve that,” Hofs said to this student journalist.

A woman sat in front of the Liquor Store entrance that shouted, “Spare change?”, whenever someone walked by.  Hofs told me that he likes to take on a more passive approach than this woman.  “I mean, I’m here. You know why I’m here,” he said.

When asked if he is able to make a living in the neighbourhood, Hofs shrugged and said, “I survive.”  He likes it here in Marpole, describing it as a real “community.”

A woman drops off a bag with oranges, apples, and a big bottle of V8 juice. When asked who the woman was, Hofs shrugged and said it was just someone in the neighbourhood.

Hofs said he regularly hangs out here, up against the north wall of this Royal Bank of Canada branch.