James Bussey's model for the proposed townhouses will sit on the empty lot behind the Nichol mansion.

Shaughnessy residents have given up their fight to stop the building of new townhouses on the outskirts of the neighbourhood.

They caved in after three years of opposing a development they fear will open the way for more high-rise buildings throughout the wealthy neighbourhood.

The area has traditionally been made up of individual homes, rather than buildings with multiple homes.

“It’s a slap in the face of what people think Shaughnessy is,” said David Cuan, resident and secretary of the Shaughnessy Heights Property Owners’ Association. “The development will assault your senses. It’s a good design but it’s inappropriate for the area, like wearing a gown to a picnic.”

The City of Vancouver approved the development in a final public hearing on Sept. 22 and the residents have decided not to appeal the decision.

A long battle

The 16 townhouses will sit on heritage property behind the Nichol mansion at the corner of West 16^th Avenue and Granville Street. Three years ago, developer, Brian Bell, bought the land and agreed to save the heritage house.

“The driving issue is compensation, which is legally mandated in any heritage issue,” said Richard Keate, part of the Vancouver Heritage Commission, in an email. “He should be congratulated for this heritage salvation.”

The Nichol mansion and it's front gardens have been preserved while development will occur behind it.

The city allowed Bell to increase the density of his development inside the lot following his decision to save the Nichol mansion. Townhouses maximize the number of homes that can be built within the area available.

The decision sparked an outcry from residents, who organized petitions and sent letters to the mayor and planning departments. These are available on the Shaughnessy homeowners’ website.

Residents’ concerns

Residents fear the developments encourage future townhouses and high-rise buildings, threatening the character of historic Shaughnessy.

“It will affect how the street will develop, becoming a precursor,” said Cuan. “It’s the wrong precursor for First Shaughnessy.  The city said it won’t be a precedent but they also defined precedent quite literally: Sure, this exact incident won’t happen again. We need to look at the impact of today and how that will predict the future.”

They also worry that these developments and future ones like it may affect quality of life in the area.

“This will increase noise, traffic and stress levels. It would be wonderful if the land could be used as a sanctuary where air can be filtrated,” said resident and registered shiatsu therapist, Vanessa Wiebel.

Asthma and other respiratory diseases trouble her patients at the Holistic Therapy Centre. Wiebel expects an increase of rates in respiratory diseases as more land is developed.

Townhouses and other buildings with multiple dwellings don’t fit with the current image of Shaughnessy, according to residents.

“They think it’s not a big issue because it’s on the edge of the neighbourhood and the corner of a busy street,” said Cuan. “But if they keep letting these edges bleed out, each neighbourhood in the city will blend and lose their distinct characters.”

Looking towards the future

The empty lot behind the Nichol mansion will be paved for the townhouses early in 2010.

Development begins in 2010 to remove the wild trees growing erratically and to clear the litter that peppers the uneven ground. The land has been left unkempt and abandoned.

The townhouses have been designed by architect, James Bussey of Formwerks Architectural Incorporated. He said they will be in a style that suits the surrounding houses and the overall character of the Shaughnessy neighbourhood.

They represent the future, according to Bussey, where families dwell closer to places where they live and work, eliminating commuter traffic into the city.

This is part of an environmentally conscious trend in Vancouver known as EcoDensity, where density increases to minimize the ecological footprint.

“If you take 16 families and displace them, you’ve got this commuter traffic, contributing to green house gases,” said Bussey. “This is EcoDensity, it’s putting people where they want to live so they don’t have to spend days and hours commuting. It’s a save the world kind of thing.”

A shift towards townhouse developments and other multiple occupancy buildings is attracting growing interest in Vancouver. Approvals for adding secondary suites and basement apartments to existing buildings have increased this year.

A couple of them wore backpacks or carried grocery bags stuffed with their belongings.

Breakfast at Collingwood Neighbourhood House attracts roughly 70 impoverished Vancouver residents.

They represent a community on the move, and this is a Saturday ritual. Only 70 of them would get to eat a hot breakfast, and they worried about arriving late only to be turned away.

“Who the hell wants to eat soup everyday,” said one, referring to his options while they waited for a delayed train.

Collingwood Neighbourhood House draws a regular base of roughly 70 impoverished Vancouver residents to Joyce Street every Saturday morning – offering showers and a hot breakfast.

The program attracts people who cannot afford to live in the area, but instead commute from the Downtown Eastside, where many live in single-occupancy apartments or on the street.

Migrating to Collingwood

The train finally arrived just moments before dawn. The group squeezed into a suffocating car, full of delayed passengers heading out of the city.

The hungry riders attracted little attention in the train while a noisy group of teenagers discussed the previous night’s festivities. The kids talked about heading out to New Westminster, and going to McDonalds for breakfast.

After signing in at the neighbourhood house, the group – mostly men – congregated in the foyer, sipping bitter coffee, pleased to be out of the cold. Some of the visitors sifted through second-hand clothes, while others chatted with volunteers. The gathering mingled as if at a somber cocktail party.

They formed a queue and each received two pancakes and two hard-boiled eggs. In the simple dining room that smelled of cigarettes and coffee, volunteers provided toast, cereal and juice.

One person wandered around looking for syrup. The atmosphere calmed as they enthusiastically ate their food.

Finding food in Vancouver

Kenny Gill isn’t a regular, but dropped by because his “stomach told him to.” Gill lives in the Downtown Eastside where he gets by on government support.

He is struggling more than usual due to an electrical burn from two months ago that nearly took his life. He pulled up his shirt to expose jarring burns across his torso, and his arms.

Kenny Gill enjoys the break from the Downtown Eastside lifestyle

“It’s the attitude,” said Gill. It’s hard to tell who is working and who isn’t.” He appreciates that there is no religious affiliation at the neighbourhood house like with other food programs, and he enjoys the quality of food.

Craig Huntinghawk often travels from his one-room apartment in the Downtown Eastside to Collingwood.

“These people have good things to say,” said Huntinghawk. “It’s a positive environment. They don’t turn anybody away by how they look or the colour of their skin.”

The breakfast program is five years old with a capacity of 70 servings. Coordinator, Jo-Anne Stephens said that the winter brings in over 100 hungry people resulting in many receiving only a take-away sandwich.

Only 22 per cent of visitors live in Collingwood, while 30 per cent who are “well enough to make the trip,” migrate weekly from the Downtown Eastside. Most of the others have lived in the area or maintain family connections there.

The well-known Union Gospel Mission, located downtown at 616 East Cordova Street, also offers daily meals. It often faces a shortage of space and struggles to keep up with weekend demand.  Derek Weiss, spokesman for the mission, said that the cost of staple foods is rising at the same time that need in the community increases.

Despite serving lunches, dinners and evening bread lines, the UGM does not offer a weekend breakfast at its downtown location.

In Collingwood, the popular breakfast winded down. The dining hall emptied save for a few enjoying the warmth, and one young man passed out with his head on the table beside his empty plate. Most visitors wandered out to the front yard and savored their final coffee.

Breakfast finished by 9 a.m. The morning grew warmer, and Kenny Gill decided to head into Burnaby for the day. Others moved off into the neighbourhood in search of empties.

Most of the visitors, stomachs full, had already made their way back to the SkyTrain and migrated back to the reality of life downtown.

Huntinghawk, an experienced carpenter, said that this breakfast program is positive, but what he really needs is money for tools.

“I’m looking at myself right now, look at how dirty I am,” said Huntinghawk. “Next job I get, I’m keeping it. I’m not going to get up and walk away like I did before.”

Korean businesses on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver

James Min emigrated to Canada from South Korea 13 years ago. Like many Korean immigrants, he found it hard to find employment when he arrived. He spent three years working menial jobs before finally opening his own business.

Now, Min is the owner of the Robson Relax Centre, a massage studio located in the food court of the Robson Public Market in downtown Vancouver.

Min sits at a table talking to the owners of a nearby Korean restaurant. In this mid-sized food court, only two tables are occupied. At one table sits a paying customer, at the other is Min and his fellow business owners.

Min has owned the Robson Relax Centre for 10 years now, but he is not so relaxed these days.  He said that this past year has been “very slow.”

“Because of the recession a lot of businesses are having trouble,” said Min-Jung Kwak, an expert on Vancouver’s Korean community who teaches immigration at Ryerson University.

Many Canadians are feeling the effects of the global economic downturn, but Korean immigrants, despite being well educated for the most part, are experiencing even greater hardship than most.

The recession has compounded their challenges by increasing the level of competition for employment and decreasing the viability of Korean-owned businesses, which have traditionally helped new immigrants integrate into the labour market while they are learning to speak English.

Higher unemployment

Koreans face different challenges than other immigrant groups. Approximately 20-per-cent of all  immigrants to Canada arrive as skilled workers and principal applicants. That figure rises to almost 60 per cent by adding dependents and spouses. This is compared to 91-per-cent of Korean immigrants to the country, who arrived under the economic class, which is defined as individuals selected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada for their “skills and ability to contribute to Canada’s economy.”

Despite the fact that a majority of Koreans arrive as economic immigrants, many of them face challenges integrating into the Canadian labour market. The 2006 census showed a 9.5-per-cent unemployment rate among the Korean population in Vancouver, compared to a 7.1-per-cent rate for all visible minorities and a 6-per-cent rate for the city as a whole.

Related: Recession’s toll on Korean immigrants

Min said the biggest challenge he faced when coming to Canada was not knowing how to speak English, which made it hard to find a job with established Canadian firms – and when they do it is often at entry level. A  City of Vancouver study on the Korean community found that among employed immigrants, 39 per cent are working in low-wage sales and services positions and many more are self-employed.

Strip mall on North Road in Coquitlam

“They are highly educated but they are not good at speaking English,” said Kwak. “And, of course, for many immigrants their credentials are not recognized in Canada, so that’s another issue too. Most of them are having trouble finding good employment.”

The recession has made it even harder for Korean-owned businesses, as many of them are situated in distinct enclaves around Metro Vancouver and face steep competition between one another. “At this moment, Korean businesses, like restaurants, have much less numbers of Korean customers,” said Vancouver-based real estate agent Michael Lee, adding that some people are trying to limit eating out.

An additional strain for some Korean families is the fact that many families retain a foothold in Korea for economic reasons. Often, the father or breadwinner of the family will stay and work in Korea, sending money to his family in Canada.

Between two countries

In an era of increasing globalization, monetary changes can have a profound effect on cross-national families. The value of the South Korean won (the Korean currency) dropped 34 per cent in the past two years to 1,084 won to the dollar (Cdn) from 810 won. This means that it’s more expensive to support families living in Canada. According to Kwak, this has led to an increase in the number of people returning home to Korea.

Caren Kim is a Vancouver resident who emigrated from Korea in 1998 to go to school. She is now living in Vancouver with her brother, while her mother spends part of her time in Korea and the other part of her time in Vancouver.

“Goose father means a father who travels between the home country where he works and abroad where his family stays,” said Kim. “My Dad is a goose father too because he mainly stays in Korea to provide for the mortgage and so on. I haven’t seen him for three years.”

The reduced value of the Korean won combined with a faltering global economy has also led to a noticeable decrease in the number of Koreans looking to buy property in the Lower Mainland. “It’s almost like you having a cold shower. You’re showering with warm hot water and then suddenly the temperature changes to cold,” said Lee, of the current state of the real estate market.

“It used to be I was very busy meeting a lot of potential buyers, but now lots of time I spend time for potential sellers.”

However, despite the growing challenges faced by Korean immigrants, Lee remains optimistic for the future. “Most of them are very confident about the Canadian economy and particularly Vancouver. Most of them are very favorable. Most of them are happy to be here, to live here, including my family. It will be fine,” said Lee.

Drugs are openly traded in the Downtown Eastside

Six years ago Stetson was a high functioning Vancouver businessman and father with a daily cocaine habit, regularly scoring on Vancouver’s skid row in the Downtown Eastside.

“Many professionals get an easy hit, blocks from their downtown offices, while funnelling thousands of dollars into Main and Hastings and fuelling the drug economy,” he says.

The area is notorious for its homelessness, crime and open drug use, not the type of place one would expect to find white collar workers.

Stetson, a pseudonym, was typical of the one percent of Canadian professionals including lawyers, businessmen and women and doctors who are addicted to street drugs such as cocaine and crack, a solid smokable form of cocaine, says Dr Ray Baker.

A Vancouver-based addiction medicine expert and workplace consultant, Baker says these high functioning drug addicts easily slip under the radar because they don’t fit the stereotype: “It’s not necessarily what you see in the Downtown Eastside.”

White collar addicts are typically racked with guilt, shame, fear, depression and emotional volatility. “They develop this Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde secret life so to colleagues they appear aloof and distant but they look competent, even dedicated, a very very hard worker.” That is, “until they can no longer keep four balls in the air at the same time,” says Baker.

Last year 10 of the 375 lawyers who sought help from Vancouver’s Lawyers Assistance Program (LAP) were addicted to street drugs. Executive director Derek LaCroix says the LAP is “pretty much accepted in the profession as the place to go for addiction”, as well as alcoholism. The LAP also deals with mood disorders: “If you have someone with problems with addictions, they have problems with a lot of things.”

The Downtown Eastside is Canada's poorest postcode

LaCroix explains that the initial stage of recovery is most difficult for lawyers because they tend to be wrapped up in their professional image. “If they show weakness, they’ll be destroyed. Once they do get help, the recovery rate is good. Lawyers are smart and clever and good at following directions.”

Both Edgewood treatment centre on Vancouver Island and The Orchard on Bowen Island, just off West Vancouver, have lawyers and doctors and other white collar professionals as patients. The rates for those centres and Toronto area facilities, Homewood and Bellwood, which have similar clientele, range from about $300 to $480 a day. Typical stays are 28 or 42 days. Homewood is known for treating doctors from across Canada.

Towards the higher end of that scale is The Orchard. Executive director Lorinda Strang says, “Our clients can be West Vancouver housewives or business people who go to the Downtown Eastside to score crack.”

Strang says the drug scene at Main and Hastings is a big threat to downtown professionals who are trying to stay clean. The glossy office towers are mere blocks away from where addicts openly score and shoot up. “The drugs are so available on the Downtown Eastside. It’s dangerous for the recovering addict.”

Stetson, who is himself recovering from his addiction, can attest to that. “Part of my denial was that if I had a dealer I was regularly buying it, whereas if I went to the Downtown Eastside and purchased it as needed, it didn’t seem as bad.”

Related: Stetson’s struggle with addiction

LaCroix, who is a lawyer and a trained counsellor, was himself once addicted to cocaine. He says his clients will often get another addict to score crack for them at Main and Hastings which has changed since he first got to know it.

“Drugs were more expensive. In those days they were not selling crack that I know of. We had to cook our own. I bought large amounts and free based.” Today, crack is readily available in smaller, cheaper amounts.

Dr Baker says $100 of crack, “can get a good little binge going”. Both coasts and Toronto are considered ports of entry where good quality drugs such as cocaine and heroin are readily available and are not overly expensive, he adds.