Grandview Park Riot, Commercial Drive Block Party | Hits and Misses at Schema : more than ethnic

Grandview Park Riot, Commercial Drive Block Party | Hits and Misses

A crowd gathered at Grandview Park tonight for a Commercial Drive Block Party, organized to protest redevelopment of the area. I was there for some of the party. I was not there for the spraypainting, window-breaking and fire-starting that ensued. I did come back and I got to see the after-effects.

Construction of Grandview Park is scheduled for July 2010 at which time the park will be closed for a year after. According to information posted on the Facebook group 'BLOCK PARTY on the Drive', 'the official complaints in favour of redevelopment' are a thin guise for eliminating poorer people from the area. Though it has been pointed out that the redesign is not radical (in that the park will still be a park, have trees, and probably have a few more paths), the official complaints cited (without a listed source) are, for the organizers, indicative of the intention on the part of the city authorities to gentrify the area.

On the website Defend Grandview Park, the alleged presentation the "Friends of Grandview Park" made to the Vancouver Parks Board is taken apart point by point. Good counterarguments are made. Action is called for. Back on the Facebook group, guerilla action is the kind intended, specifically taking the streets and wreaking havoc. Now, I may be nitpicking here, but isn't havoc a bit contrary to community welfare?

Don't get me wrong: the energy tonight, especially before midnight, was great, and the cause, when articulated well, seems worth its while. I've been to this park a couple times for the annual Parade of the Lost Souls and it's always magical. Vancouver needs places like this where people can gather. Community spaces that are for everyone, that are not exclusive. The music at the Block Party was bumpin'. People danced, and lay or sat sprawled on towels, smoking (case in point, Vancouver Parks Board: GP is for soft drugs) and drinking and making merry. All sorts came out. Though there were mostly twenty-somethings in all their hipster garb, hippy glory, or quirky undefinables, older people did join in, and a child or two was spotted. Even a fluffy park pooch that seemed to answer to no one, kinda in keeping with the spirit of the evening.

A man took the mike and encouraged people to take to the street. He said something about either banners or bans. As about half the crowd dribbled on to Commercial, we knew the police would be around soon. We danced with those who remained in the park. Then a woman spoke over the music, telling us she had been in a protest earlier today, preventing the mayor from cutting ribbon at a residence inauguration. She told us the homeless had been promised 75% of an allotment of new housing post-Olympics in Vancouver and (I believe she said) those actually receiving it were cops. People booed. More took to the street.

Shortly after, we left for another event. Past 2 AM we returned to see if the party was still on, and found cop cars lining the road. There were a few ambulances and fire trucks, too. As we got kitty corner to the park, a man announced for us that the protestors/partiers had started a fire in the middle of Commercial Dr. Sure enough, there was a large, tarry patch square in the middle of the road. Police lined the edges of the street and the park. There was some sort of passive aggressive standoff between remaining protestors and cops apparently still in progress, as the former would occasionally shout something about the park, but took no other action, and the cops stood there.

Apparently all the violent action was diffused before we returned. We saw a few windows that had been cracked, shot with something like a paintball gun. On closer examination, I discovered that this was the address of the 'Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General' and 'Vancouver East Community Correction'. The irony, and intended 'sticking-it-to-the-man', are almost ham-handed.

A group that was, according to a bystander, dressed and masked very like the anarchists who had attacked store-fronts downtown during the Olympics, was responsible for this window. They were a minority of the people who filled Commercial Dr. tonight. However, the fire had something to do with 'hippies' according to the same abovementioned bystander. So I'm not sure who was responsible for it. There are gaps to be filled. All in all, a lot of people who wanted the rush of a full-fledged protest got their fix, it seems, even if violence was not intended by the majority.

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