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Chinatown business group cancels 2018 Night Market to protest ‘neglect’ by city

CHERISE SEUCHARAN, StarMetro, April 29, 2018

VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association (VCMA) has cancelled this year’s Night Market to protest what it calls the city’s “neglect of Chinatown’s merchants.”

The group alleges that the city is pandering to “anti-development” social housing activists who dont’ have a real stake in the historic neighbourhood.

In news conference held with the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Area Society (VCBIA), the merchants’ group said it was concerned about Vancouver’s development policy update for the area, calling the plan “detrimental” to the success of the neighbourhood. Read more…

The Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association has announced they will be cancelling this summer’s Chinatown Night Market. The annual event, pictured here in 2013, attracts thousands of visitors to the neighbourhood. ( HELEN ANDERS)

Museum, shops and seniors’ housing: The 105 Keefer that might have been

Jen St. Denis, Metro, Jun 14 2017

Council’s decision to turn down an application to build a 12-storey condo in the heart of Chinatown has some thinking about what could be, although the fate of the site is still very much up in the air.“There was a site that had been vacant for a long time and it was the last large, vacant site left in the community,” said Nathan Edelson, a former Vancouver city planner who worked with the late architect Joe Wai on an alternate vision for the site at 105 Keefer St. Read more…

Beedie Living’s proposal to build a 12-storey condo at 105 Keefer St. (currently a parking lot) was denied by council on June 13.

Is a condo building like a tree? Speakers have their say on controversial Chinatown proposal

Jen St. Denis, May 26 2017

It’s a condo building proposal that has come to represent the gentrification fears of an entire community. Tonight is the third night of public hearing for a 12-storey building proposed for 105 Keefer. In return for extra height, Beedie has offered to sell 25 apartments to BC Housing for low-income seniors and offer a discounted rate for a seniors’ cultural centre space on the ground floor. Read more…

Chinatown is home to many businesses that sell traditional and affordable Chinese food. But those shops have been disappearing as commercial rents rise in the neighbourhood. (WANYEE LI)

Chinatown residents rally to oppose condo beside memorial

Wanyee Li, May 18 2017

Chinatown advocates are once again readying themselves for a fight to protect their way of life in a corner of the neighbourhood that holds special meaning to the community. The proposed 12-storey condo would be built next to the Chinese-Canadian memorial at 105 Keefer St.. But many current Chinatown residents won’t be able to afford to live next to the very memorial dedicated to them and their families, said advocate Beverly Ho, with the Chinatown Concern Group. Read more…

Beverly Ho stands beside the memorial dedicated to Chinese-Canadians in Vancouver’s Chinatown. (JENNIFER GAUTHIER/METRO)

Chinatown neon rooster sign search becomes … a B.C. election issue?

David P. Ball, Feb 08 2017

Great-granddaughter of Chin Wing Chun society founder joins the quest to find missing sign that once adorned the building’s Sai Woo restaurant. Ninety-nine years after Kim Chan Logan’s great-grandfather Quai Chan co-founded a benevolent society in a Vancouver Chinatown building, she’s now joined a public search for a piece of that building’s history. The Sai Woo restaurant — a modern fusion eatery in the same space as its 1920s-founded namesake — posted a $500 reward for its predecessor’s giant neon rooster sign on Jan. 24. Read more…

Kim Chan Logan holds an image of Sai Woo Restaurant’s original neon rooster sign as she stands in the eatery on Tuesday. Behind her is a mural depicting her great-grandfather Quai Chan, who in 1918 co-founded the Chin Wing Chun society which owns the heritage building. She’s running for the BC Liberals in May’s provincial election. DAVID P. BALL / METRO