Land of Destiny makes clear that Vancouver has always been a developer's paradise
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2020 20:22:16 +0000
By Jesse Donaldson (Anvil Press, 2019)
$16 | 160 pp
Land of Destiny cover.
In February 1886, the recently rebranded township of Vancouver had 100 buildings. In April that year, the region incorporated, requiring by law that a civic government be established.
The power brokers of the day came up with a game plan that has never changed.
“The real estate industry needed aldermen who could represent their interests. They needed a council with a development agenda. And, most importantly, they needed a mayor they could trust,” Jesse Donaldson summarized in his book Land of Destiny: A History of Vancouver Real Estate.
By May, there were 600-plus buildings. And, by the end of 1889, The Vancouver Daily World devoted a story to how well this scheme worked out. The newspaper noted that 130 people owned 85 per cent of the property, with 50 per cent of this held by only 20 individuals. The remaining 15 per cent were left to divide between the city’s other 10,000-plus inhabitants. The press, which benefited from realtor and developer’s advertising, concluded: “Our Real Estate is Well Distributed.”
How times haven’t changed in 130 years.
Reading author Donaldson’s concise history of the real estate industry in Vancouver, it’s impossible not to laugh cynically. The degree to which speculation and global capital has defined the development of every aspect of life in this “world-class” area is less a case of history repeating itself than a continuous case of nips and tucks to that original 1886 plan to refine it even further to benefit the haves at the detriment of others.
It’s also difficult to contain the fury and disgust that follows after reading how corruption and complicity among civic, provincial and federal government officials and the wealthiest members of society have led to repetitive housing-affordability and availability crises, continued offshore absentee ownership for purposes of speculation, desperate living conditions for everyone from the lower-middle to the working classes and barbaric disregard for those left homeless by these cycles. The city is — quite literally — named for its realtors and developers. Walter Gravely, David Oppenheimer and George Keefer are a few of the earliest industry leaders.
“When I was first explaining the idea of the book to people, they were generally going, ‘Wow, that sounds depressing,’” said Donaldson. “And it is, in many ways, but also illuminating, to know that it’s what people have been talking about here for the past 130 years. The history of real estate is the history of displacement, and it’s particularly so here.”
From humble beginnings at the behest of the members of the Coal Harbour Syndicate to its present status as one of the world’s least affordable cities, Land of Destiny is a fascinating and frustrating dive down the rabbit hole of how “before Vancouver became a city it was — first and foremost — a real estate investment.” The book takes its title from a 1910 magazine story promoting the place to land investors, in an attempt to drum up more of the only really consistent business that has driven the Lower Mainland’s economy.
The truth is, be it boom or bust, there really has never been a bad time to be a realtor or developer here. No matter what kind of noise comes out of the industry during periodic downturns, it has always recovered and made some major money.
“Land has been the biggest industry and the biggest commodity here since the beginning when the CPR’s speculators and developers first arrived here exercising powers and plays that would have modern people in the industry salivating,” said Donaldson. “They could move or make entire neighbourhoods as they wished, operating like some Walmart or Amazon on steroids.”
Almost without exception in the years the book covers, continued population growth fuelled repetitive building booms and, in the real estate and development industry’s defence, employed a lot of tradespeople, small businesses and so on. This is true of many other global addresses that are facing severe housing shortages, but “what sets Vancouver apart are its generally low wages, and an economy virtually dependent on development cash,” which has been described as both a “global cautionary tale” and “debacle” for politicians, activists and residents.
Factor out real estate and development and this dream destination could become destitute dramatically fast.
“That was one of the issues that motivated the even bigger renewed push for developer interest in the 1980s with Expo, because we were going through what appeared to be an unstoppable economic downturn,” he said. “The solution ever since has been to keep injecting more money into more development bringing in money from all over the world. It seems now to be a bit naive that anyone thought that if you let incredibly rich people in to do whatever they like it will probably all be fine.”
It’s a story that echoes across the headlines of history in Land of Destiny, and one that only shows occasional moments of hope. Balanced against the manifold backroom dealings, abolishing wards to remove the voice of neighbourhoods and working people from civic politics, legislated racism and spectacular profiteering, the scales are tilted very much in one direction.
As early as 1976, Donald Gutstein’s Vancouver Ltd. warned of the city becoming a “high-density prestige ‘executive city’ — a Manhattan with mountains,” unless there was a complete about-face “toward providing adequate housing and a decent environment for all classes of people.”
This debate still rages on, and Donaldson says there doesn’t appear to be any indication that change is coming. He notes his research had led him to ask how gullible previous generations were, only to have to look at today.
“There seemed to be so many moments in time where people just appeared to be eager to excuse all of the corrupt goings-on as business as usual,” he said. “But then you dig a little deeper and realize that people were plenty (ticked) off about all of it, but it’s a very hard system to fix. There have been these blips, from TEAM and COPE — to the earlier heroism of Alderman Helena Gutteridge — that have shown there were always those willing to work hard at trying out something new.”
Some of those new ideas generated successes such as the original False Creek development, with its mix of multiple-income-level housing in highly livable arrangements. Cynics in the room will note that those same lands are soon destined to become a major election issue as the lease runs out.
By far, the biggest question posed by Land of Destiny is, Where are we now? Donaldson says he’s not sure where people are in terms of pushback. He doesn’t think that the measure of opposition to the present state of affairs is up to a level where the people who need to take notice are noticing.
“I expect that we will go through the whole song and dance again of giving a bunch of money to developers, and it won’t result in much,” he said. “It seems like the cycle that repeats is so overwhelmingly negative and exploitative, but what I hope happens is that the very profoundly unsexy work of really deep policy change and regulation to rein in developers comes about. It’s either that or pitchforks, I suppose.”
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