I watched the news tonight, which is something I rarely do these days.
They had a piece on the Bank Street BIA, and how they wanted to clean up the place by getting rid of pawn shops, money lenders, and other undesirable businesses. It was going to go well with the new condos popping up everywhere. Fast forward to shots of people, expressing how they want to see high end shops take their place. Not a single dissenting opinion was presented.
The message is clear: poor people are not welcome here. Businesses that cater to their needs are not welcome here. Affordable housing is not welcome here.
What really bothers me is that the lower-income residents here don’t even register as people. They are being driven out of their own neighbourhoods and no one cares. Instead the focus is on how driving them away will make it more convenient for all the wealthier folk taking their homes.
It really bothers me that making areas beautiful is synonymous with this movement to remove undesirables. That’s fucked up. So is our solution to income disparity and income-related issues: ignoring it, and when we can’t, hiding it away so that we then can. It’s like that with the bylaws we passed against squeegee kids and panhandling near some entrances.
And I get that condos are naturally going to come into a downtown as our population goes up, and I get that that will instigate gentrification, and I get that there’s lots at play here. But the attitudes we take as these things happen are emblematic of how we view parts of society, and how we view those with lower incomes is with some pretty fucking bad othering.
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One response to “Cleaning Up Bank Street”
I’ve lived three blocks from the Shepherds of Good Hope for nearly two years now, but most of the time, one would hardly be able to tell. I imagine some people might see them as a nuisance, but apart from asking for change at the King Edward & St. Patrick intersection, they aren’t bothering anyone.
The irony is that the Shepherds is there because there was a time, not long ago, when this area of the city was undesirable. But now, the Market is thriving and condo towers are popping up like dandelions on Rideau Street, and I wonder how long it will be until a “concerned citizens group” gets together to push the Shepherds out of the area.
I think the nearby presence of Ottawa U means that there will always be places around that cater to a lower-income clientele, but I know that there’s been talk about gentrifying Rideau Street for as long as I can remember, and the condos, of course, are the first step towards that. Ultimately, I think the poorer segments of the local populace will be pushed into Vanier – a poor enough area as it is.
The end result is that the gap between the richer and poorer areas of the city will widen.