After Canaan by Compton Wayde;

Author:Compton, Wayde;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Essays, Multiculturalism, Post-racialism
ISBN: 634469
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Published: 2010-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Jacobs asserts that the corrective for slum conditions lies in the communities themselves, which need “encouragement rather than destruction” (1961, 271). She points out that, “the people who do stay in an unslumming slum, and improve their lot within the neighbourhood […] seem to think that their neighbourhood is unique and irreplaceable in all the world, and remarkably valuable in spite of its shortcomings. In this way they are correct, for the multitude of relationships and public characters that make up an animated city street neighbourhood are always unique, intricate and have the value of the unreproducible original” (279). It is also important to note that Jacobs’ model is different from gentrification in that it advocates the public funding of improvements that benefit the class already living there, rather than the encouragement of upscale development that will ultimately price out locals. Both Jacobs’ criticism of paternalism and her notion of long-time residents especially valuing a potentially unslumming slum is echoed by Dorothy Nealy’s statements about the implementation of the Marsh Plan and its impact. In an interview, Nealy says,

When we heard of city council’s plans for the neighbourhood, we were horrified, we just screamed. They intended to put high-rises all over here, like the West End. But the people that lived here, we just took up a petition. We got thousands and thousands of names. And we stopped them. The Vancouver Resources Board met with city council and they met with different organizations. They met with SPOTA. You see, it wasn’t just SPOTA that fought for this East End. There was the churches and all kinds of people got involved. The whole neighbourhood got involved. Because we were satisfied with our neighbourhood. But the people from outside came in, and told us we shouldn’t have these houses, we should live in housing projects, we should live in high-rises. But what was wrong with living here? They didn’t live here, I don’t know what they were so worried about. As I said, I’ve lived here for thirty-three years. I wouldn’t want to live anyplace else. But somebody comes over from Dunbar district, looking down their nose at this end of town. It’s just like the Christians going to Africa, trying to convert you to Christianity when you already have your own tribal laws and religions and everything else. And that was their attitude when they came down here.

They interviewed every individual and they had all kinds of books. And they’d go from room to room. First thing they’d ask, “Wouldn’t you like to move out of here?” We’d say, “Move where?” “Well, out of this neighbourhood.” No, nobody wanted to move out of here. It was just like a village, just the same. You went out the back door, you stood on the back verandah, and somebody’d wave at you, over there. Even if you didn’t know them, you’d wave back. And when you walked down the street, you nodded your head. Sometimes you said, “Hello,” or you just nodded your head and smiled and kept going.

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