PHONETOGRAPHY

Little Mountain Housing, boarded up.

So my plan was for this post to be something about the criminality of excess, or maybe to lay a bit of groundwork about the fundamental flaws of free market capitalism.  I’ve found something more pressing: the closure of a (formerly) provincially-owned social housing project, Vancouver’s oldest.

After a long afternoon walk around my neighbourhood, I passed by the Little Mountain Housing complex, an architectural oddity that I’d found on a similar jaunt months before.  Something had seemed strange about it - it was a little dead, a little sad.  What I didn’t know at the time was that the complex had been sold (in April 2008) to Holborn Properties, for development.  I saw an article in the Georgia Straight a couple months later, which was when I first learned the name of the place.

In November 2008, the city boarded up all the units from which tenants had already been relocated (read: displaced).  In December, there was an “Art-In,” in which activists, tenants, and artists painted images and messages on the boards.  A few days later, a graffiti removal crew was sent to remove “objectionable” content - including messages like “Love still lives here,” “Poor people need homes too,” and “Don’t destroy our house.”

Of course, as I was walking, I didn’t know any of this.  Because of that article in the Straight, I knew that the area had been set for redevelopment - but it had slipped my mind until I saw the boards.  Seeing the (almost) deserted complex through the soupy winter fog was surreal.  The doomed melancholy of the paintings (plaintive calls for homes, names of the families that lived there, etc.) was surprisingly moving.

Still, I probably would’ve walked on in bemusement if I hadn’t happened upon a couple of older men, one up on a ladder with a paint roller - working away at another boarded window.  I asked to take their picture, and received a cheerful affirmative.  I almost left it at that, but (thankfully) decided to press a little further and find out what was going on.  That’s when I found out that of the 224 units, only 15 are now occupied.

The complex isn’t actually slated for demolition until over a year from now (after the Olympics), possibly longer, given the state of the economy.  In a city with a 0.3% vacancy rate, where homelessness is rampant, one wonders why the complex couldn’t be left open until the demolition actually happens.  You would be hard-pressed to describe the buildings as anything more than unsightly blocks - but really, there are more important things than aesthetics.

Apparently there will be a “stand” next saturday from 1:00-2:00pm, in support of the residents .  I know where I’ll be.

More info:
Community Advocates for Little Mountain (CALM)
Displacement at Little Mountain Housing (Flickr)
Little Mountain Art In (Flickr)
Vancouver Riley Park Little Mountain Neighbourhood Pool (Flickr)
Little Mountain Housing Showdown Looms (Georgia Straight)
Development of Little Mountain Housing complex unlikely (Georgia Straight)

(It turns out that the guy on the ladder was the man behind the De-Elect Emerson posters that populated my neighbourhood while David Emerson was still in office.  Their design left something to be desired, but I dug the message.)