Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
This debate created complex issues of positionality. Left-wing critics like
Gutstein or Councillors Harry Rankin and Libby Davies had argued for years
for controls against outside profiteering that overruled local jurisdiction and
neighbourhood use-values. This had been the face of the city's reform politics
in the 1970s against local developers obsessed with the bottom-line, and it
continued through the 1990 electoral campaign of progressive Mayoralty can-
didate Jim Green, neighbourhood activist, whose election slogan 'the
Neighbourhood Green' evoked communitarian values and not the individual
ambitions of open borders. Their federal NDP counterparts had led the charge
against the FTA with the United States, so it was consistent that these politi-
cians would respond vigorously to the Regatta incident and what it stood for.
But in doing so they opened themselves up to charges of racism. As Libby
Davies acknowledged in an interview with Katharyne Mitchell in 1991, 'The
whole racism thing became very much the scapegoat and it kind of worked
both ways. Progressive people also got caught by it. Because we got character-
ized that way as well' (Mitchell 2004: 83). Mitchell's own authorial position is
also politically progressive, mindful and critical of the social effects of outside
investment including house price inflation and displacement of elderly ten-
ants. Does that make her account racist? And if she would understandably
differentiate her own position, should we not allow the same opportunity to
those on the ground who challenged the rapid pace of change?
19
For, as we
shall see, neighbourhood residents 'also got caught by it'.
The 'Monster House' Saga
A middle-class concentration of ethnic Chinese had gathered in the Oakridge
area by 1981, including both Canadian-born and recent immigrants. Over
the next 15 years new immigrants collected around this cluster and, by
1996, 20 percent of the population in four adjacent census tracts comprised
Chinese-Canadians who had landed in the previous decade (Figure 5.6).
This was an area of ageing European households, living in modest 1950s
bungalows and ranch-style houses, much of it in need of some updating.
Small speculative builders, initially with European, South Asian or, later,
Chinese principals, bought these properties one by one, demolished them,
cleared the site and built much larger houses, usually to the maximum per-
mitted by the lot size. With abundant demand from wealthy immigrants
there was no need for design subtlety or compatibility with the existing
neighbourhood and builders duplicated simple styles in serial reproduction.
The properties were typically two and a half or three stories, with over 4000
square feet of liveable space, square or rectangular with minimal façade
articulation, and lightly sloping roofs (Figure 6.2a). Symbols of success
often included classical columns, a massive double front door, a towering
