Category: Fraserview

The Fraser Street Market extends from 41^st Avenue to 51^st Avenue along the Fraser Street. No matter whether it’s a weekday or weekend, the market looks equally vibrant. Most, but not exclusively, the shopkeepers and customers here are Asian immigrants.

On a September Saturday evening, the market was busy as usual. Most of the shops were open as only a few were closed for the weekend. The shoppers, customers and workers were engaged in their own tasks. The Punjabi Market that extends from 48^th Avenue to 51^st Avenue on the Main Street was, however, not as busy as the Fraser Market in terms of people’s presence.

With no immediate end in sight to the controversy surrounding the HST in British Columbia, merchants on Fraser Street and Main Street said the HST had no immediate impact on businesses but it would harm the economy if the uncertainty prevailed.

Many shopkeepers were busy handling their customers and they would not talk to you if they knew that you were there not to purchase goods/services.

But there were also people who were willing to talk. Dinesh Sharma who owns a grocery said HST has no impact to his business. He said it could have affected big property dealings as the uncertainty over the tax hangs but there was no impact on existing businesses.

Naresh Shukla, a businessman since 1974 at the Punjabi Market, said HST had no negative impact on existing businesses. But he is not happy with the way the B.C. government handled the issue.

He said HST was not in the agendas of Premier Gordon Campbell before the 2009 elections. “They think citizens are idiots, and announced the tax immediately after winning the elections.”

With referendum called next September on HST, the uncertainty over the controversial tax is here to stay. Shukla said this uncertainty will slacken the economy as people won’t spend money until the controversy ends.

“Had the government had guts, it should have called referendum on the issue within three months,” Shukla said.

Another businessman Madan Dhingri also said HST has made no much difference to existing businesses. On the fate of HST, Dhingri is confident that people will reject it in referendum. “If any tax is taken to people for decision, it will fail. Period,” he said.

Dhingri said the Liberal party utterly failed in handling the HST issue and calling referendum a year later has created uncertainties and kept things in limbo for a year. “This (referendum) is a waste of money. Premier Campbell is trying to buy time. But he is done. He will never win how hard he may try.”

Sewer upgrade work has led to the closure of the road to 50^th Avenue from Main Street for over a week. The intersection is the site proposed some two years ago for the construction of an India Gate to pay a tribute to the first Indo-Canadian community that settled in Vancouver nearly a century ago, according to media reports.

Two years later, there is neither a gate nor any sign of its construction which was supposed to be completed before the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are construction materials and ‘sidewalk closed’ signs on the road, but they are not for the construction of the gate, but for the sewer upgrade.

Local merchants believe that construction of such a gate at the center of Punjabi Market (that extends from 48^th to 51^st avenues) would add to the attractions of the market.

In was in 2008, a year before the B.C. provincial elections that the issue of construction of the gate was reportedly raised by politicians including Premier Gordon Campbell.

Madan Dhingra of Mona Cloth Warehouse said he did not believe that the construction was anymore on the cards. “It seems, they (leaders) will talk about it again when elections come,” he said. He said he had found neither the neighbourhood association nor his fellow businessmen talking about it these days.

Dhingra believes that anything like the India Gate that would add to the value of the area would help the business in the Punjabi Market.

Naresh Shukla, another merchant in the area, said there was never a plan to build such a gate. “It was just put on the air by some political leaders to woo votes from certain section of the community,” he said. “It was just a political stunt.”

But he also believes that construction of such a gate would add to the attractions of the Punjabi Market.

Dr Nitya Sharma who lives a few blocks southwards said he had not heard about the plan for India gate. But Jyoti Nijjar who owns a business near the proposed site for India Gate had heard about the proposal. “But after the election, I have not heard a single word from any one about it,” she said. Nijjar and her husband Paramjit both agreed that the gate, if built, would help the business in the market by adding touristic value to the area.

But Sarabjit Chandan who is also a migrant from India and owns a store at Main Street had a different opinion. He said there was no point in building an India Gate here. Rather, he said, the community, business and political leaders should focus on the problems of high rents and parking space to give a boost to the business in the market.

It rained throughout Saturday night (Sept 18). At 10 a.m. on Sunday, when Dr Nitya Sharma was watching a TV show at his house at 54^th and Main Street, he got a call from one of the tenants living on the basement floor of his house. Lucky Chauhan, the tenant, informed Sharma that the carpet on the passageway of the floor was soaked with water.

Sharma rushed to the basement floor and asked what the tenants did. Chauhan told Sharma that they had done nothing wrong. Both Chauhan and Sharma inspected the taps in kitchen and bathroom of the floor so as to check if all the taps were off. Then Sharma checked the adjacent room where a washing machine was kept to find that the pipe system in that room was also fine.

Sharma put his right hand on his forehead and said “the sewer must have been choked.” The moment Sharma guessed the cause of the problem, his wife Manju said there was similar problem in the neighbouring houses. She said she called her neighbours and confirmed that it was because of a blockade in the drainage system.

Sharma said he witnessed the problem for the first time in seven years since he started living at 54th.

Sharma then called a restoration company asking it clear the mess. The company sent two staff to clear things at Sharma’s house. They reached there only in the evening. David Armstrong, one of the staff, said it was a busy day for them. He said the sewer water had overflown in around 35 houses in the locality at the 54^th alone.

The staff from the restoration company removed the carpet, checked the dampness on the walls, sprayed some disinfectant on the floor and fitted a machine that would absorb the moisture from the floor and walls throughout Sunday night.

On Monday, a staff from a claims company that works in between the restoration company and the insurance company came to inspect, investigate and adjust the damage caused by the overflow of drainage water.

David Copp, an adjuster with Brouwer Claims, said they had 80 cases on Sunday in different parts of Vancouver including Burnaby, West Vancouver and Surrey. He said the problem of drainage overflow appears in mostly old and lower parts of the city where the drainage for rain water and drainage for sanitation are interconnected. He explained that when first big rainfall after the summer washes off leaves and other dirt, it may lead to choking of the drainage system and the drainage water may overflow into the houses.

Copp said the problem is not new. Similar problems are reported two to three times every year. He suggested having separate drainage for rain water and sanitary drainage.

‘For Rent’ signs were displayed in front of many stores, while a few stores were empty at Punjabi Market or the Little India of Vancouver along the Main Street.

What could be the reason? Madan Dhingra, a fabric shop owner, said no new people want to open a shop here anymore because of high rents while those who occupied the space in the past have moved to Surrey where a bigger South Asian population has settled.

There were not many people in the market that the shop owners said saw a boom in 80s and 90s. The market located in between 48th and 51st avenues, where many immigrants from South Asia and mainly Punjab (India) have settled, was a shopping hub in the past, Dhingra said.

Sarabjit Chandan, who owns a Sabji Mandi or a vegetable store, said business started falling some four years ago when people (traders) started moving to Surrey to cater to a bigger South Asian immigrant population there.

“This year was worst (in terms of business),” Chandan, who moved to Canada from Jammu and Kashmir state of India and who is in business at the Main Street for the last six years, said.

Though his “business is sustaining”, Chandan said high rents and lack of parking spaces have aggravated the problem for the businessmen in this little town.

The rents were high when the business was at peak. They have not been brought down even when the business started falling, Chandan said. “Nobody wants to open a shop because of high rents. That is why you see many stores empty or displaying ‘For Rent’ signs,” he said.

Unlike in Fraser Street, the Main Street stores do not have parking spaces behind them. “Parking is a big problem here. There should be parking space behind each shop,” he said.

Jeffrey Smith, whose wife has been running a coffee shop for eight years and he looks after the business at times (mostly in the evening) when she is busy, also said business has seen a fall in this area. He said the hike in HST has also aggravated the problem. “Business goes drastically down especially during the summer,” he said.

But for some traders, business is as usual. Carlos Montana, who is originally from the Philippines and running a grocery store, said he has not felt the heat.

Likewise, businessmen at the nearby Fraser Street market, which has a bigger size of businessmen from Punjab than at the Main Street, said they are doing well.

Dinesh Sharma who owns a grocery at 52^nd and Fraser said business is good there. “May be there is a fall (in business) at the Main Street. I have not felt so here.”

Joe is probably not the only homeless person in Vancouver. According to Streetohome Foundation, there are about 3,700 homeless people in Vancouver.

On Sept 9 evening, when the hustle bustle at 47^th and Fraser was reducing, Joe was sitting on a bench at a street corner, pleading with the passers-by “Any change, please?”

Reluctant to talk at first, he said he does not have a name and later identified himself as Joe. He does not have a place to call home and is living like this for the last 30 years in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. That particular night he had a plan to go to a friend’s place somewhere in SW Marine Drive but he did not tell the name of the friend or his exact address. At other times, he said, he passes the night wherever on the street-side he likes.

He said he does not know his age and later said he is 57. “I don’t know. I have lived day to day in this jungle. I guess I am 57.”

He lighted a cigarette and added, “I just wandered; and I don’t know from where and when I came here.”

He said he is a born Canadian. He was born in East Coast. His six brothers are living in the East. According to him, they are into fishing and probably “surviving.”  Joe is never married. His brothers know he is somewhere in Vancouver but not exactly where.

Dressed in a worn-out jacket and jeans, Joe said he has no idea whether the government has opened any place for homeless people. But he said the government provides some money for people like him. However, he has never got the money. “The government gives money if I can work but I cannot work,” he said, and showed a long scar on the wrist of his right hand. He could not recall how it happened.

When he was young, he was also into fishing in the East. He used to earn enough for a survival. He said he had to quit it and become jobless as “there are no more fish in the East.”

Joe does not look like a mugger as portrayed by some websites like virtualtourist.com where beggars, homeless and junkies have been called a security risk in Vancouver.

Nicole Adams, director, Communications and Community Relations, Streetohome Foundation, says she had no data to support that homeless people are a security risk in Vancouver. “I have no data on this,” she said.

At 8:30, when night started prevailing, Joe  was still asking “Any change, please?” And, sure, he needs change.