Investigation: Is Vancouver’s Chinatown dying?
By Mike Howell, Vancouver is Awesome, Jun 17, 2021
Pandemic-triggered increases in store closures, street disorder and anti-Asian racism have slammed the historic community, with a contrasting mix of unease and optimism among those who remain and those who left.
For more than a year now, Helen Chu has stood behind the counter of her flower shop in the Chinatown Plaza and hoped for something that rarely occurs these days: a visit from a buying customer.
On a recent Monday morning, over the space of three hours, Chu received four online orders for small flower arrangements, but no walk-in customers. Read more…
A man walks by a heavily graffitied business on Keefer Street in Chinatown, which had a commercial vacancy rate of more than 23 per cent in 2020. Some community leaders suggest the rate is even higher this year.
Photo Credit: Mike Howell
