Green Light for DTES Plan
After three years of community input, on Saturday the city council approved the Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan. (Now what is the community going to talk about? Sports?) It calls for significant new social housing and a revitalization of the area’s heritage character. The plan also calls for an economic revitalization of Hastings as a mixed-use corridor and “local serving” retail hub. More than 18,500 residents live in the DTES, with up to 67% categorized as low income (median household income is $13,691).
At a cost of $1B over the next 30 years--with half to come from the federal and provincial governments and non-profits--some worry it's not realistic. City assistant director of planning Kevin McNaney says the plan is as “flexible as possible.” He points to several mechanisms where this could be achieved—including the “leveraging of existing public lands, innovative approaches to financing, rent stipends from the province, or federal tax incentives.” (If we had a nickel for every time "innovative approaches to financing" turned out to be our friend Marty playing spoons on the subway for money, we'd have two dollars worth of cents to contribute to DTES.)
