Story by Sarah Stenabaugh
In a controversial decision that could jeopardize Downtown Eastside residents’ access to the new Woodward’s, city council has approved a staff recommendation to axe the amount of space previously promised to the non-profit W2 Media Arts Society in the historic building.
“At the eleventh hour, city staff are yet again recommending the rules be changed,” stated W2’s executive director, Irwin Oostindie, in a media release. “It’s a slap in the face for arts and Downtown Eastside community organizations working to be innovative and independent with our economic models.”
W2 is a collaboration of group and associate members that are expected to provide Downtown Eastside (DTES) residents with media arts training and apprenticeship programs at the new Woodward’s, beginning in the fall of 2009.
The redevelopment of Woodward’s is a key part of the city’s DTES revitalization plan to bring positive change to the neighbourhood by offering non-market housing, community amenity space and space for non-profit organizations.
Though council granted 7,800 square feet to W2, the space is just half of what was previously offered in March. The lost space was to be dedicated to W2’s youth media centre, disability arts studio and community room.
Most controversial was council’s decision to push W2’s planned social enterprise café into a Request for Proposal (RFP), meaning that other businesses can now apply to operate the space. This is a big blow to the non-profit, as the café was meant to provide W2 members with core funding and local residents with employment.
“[The city] didn’t feel we had the economic viability that they needed to feel safe,” said Oostindie. “We conceived of the café and we worked with an architect to design that space for our front porch. It’s not just one of our eleven components, it’s crucial to our cultural ecology.”
Many W2 associate group members oppose the idea that commercial corporations are also allowed to enter into the bidding process.
Simon Frasier University (SFU) Student Society’s representative, Alysia MacGrotty, expressed the society’s concern at the services and budget meeting.
“We envisioned art galleries, studios, meeting rooms, lounges and student space, not more commercial space where one has to pay to enjoy,” she said.
Councillor Ellen Woodsworth emphasizes that an open bidding process is fair and will allay the fears of people in the community that council is biased to W2.
“Other groups in the community want a chance at bidding on these different aspects of it and I think that’s fair, ” she said. “I think that council is pretty clear that we’d like it to be part of the revitalization of the DTES and I think that most people in the DTES that are going to use the café want it to be an organization that’s part of the community.”
“Running a café is difficult…There’s all kinds of things that have come and gone in the DTES that have to do with food that couldn’t make it,” she said. “They [W2] don’t have experience running a café and making it work and it should work. It’s important that it does work.”
W2 is set to submit their programs and café into further RFP’s.
Oostindie said that it is still too early to say whether or not W2 will move forward if their bid to run the café is turned down, but that it would send a clear message.
“It would signify a negative environment to progressive DTES organizations operating at Woodward’s,” he said. “It would signify that the project has become mired in petty DTES politics that tend to preclude innovation, new practices and new alliances.”
