Simon Button, a young engineer and urban chicken enthusiast in Victoria, sends this dispatch on the topic of gentrification in the country’s oldest Chinatown.
The ‘g-word’ has long been a topic of heated debate in the world of neighbourhood development.
One project in Victoria seems to have rejected the negative connotation of the ‘g-word’ and presents its heritage building conversion to the public as “a gentrification project”. This is either an extremely tin-eared development team or one willing to embrace the positive side of the debate. Maybe both.
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The conversion project will be connecting a group of heritage buildings in Victoria’s Chinatown, providing street level commercial space on both Pandora and Fisgard. The buildings on the two parallel streets will be connected by an interior courtyard and their height will not change. The condos upstairs will apparently be priced around $300K, a price tag which is likely achieved by having a floor area of only 400-500 square feet and not providing any parking.
To me, the advertising of this as a gentrification project seemed to be either a misuse of the word gentrification or alternately a very honest declaration of intent from the developer. Or perhaps the word has developed a broader use and is not quite as provoking as it once was.
I remember the large lots next door to Bean Around the World extending from Fisgard to Pandora sat vacant and derelict for about 20 years. One or two development schemes fell through in that time. Then one succeeded, and its fit is actually quite good. Fisgard especially is a lovely, deeply historic and wonderfully active street in a completely walkable neighbourhood.
Now with another development in the works for the adjacent buildings, it’s called “gentrification” in both the positive and negative connotations.
There is something desperately cynical when a locus goes from derelict to “gentrified”, even with relatively good design and sound urbanism.
I agree. The neighbourhood has no chinese left other than a few restaurant and shop owners. Also the neighbourhood has only recently started to claw back after the drug treatment centre near the water closed 5 years ago and moved to Duncan. Before that I was told the area had some very sketchy characters.