Downtown Eastside - History

History

This area was the centre of the city at the turn of the 20th century, with the city hall, the courthouse, and the Carnegie Library all located there. The headquarters of the BC Electric Railway Company was also in the area, making the DTES the hub of rail transit not only of Vancouver, but the entire region. It was also the main shopping area for the city, which centred around the Woodward's department store. The surrounding stretch of Hastings Street was a major cultural and entertainment district. Prior to the Second World War, there was a large Japanese community in Japantown.

As the city centre shifted to the west, and suburban shoppers took advantage of new local malls, the DTES (or Skid Road as it was more commonly known until the late 20th century), began to decline. With the area already containing numerous cheap hotels and beer parlours, and with alcoholism already endemic, hard drug use began to become the norm along the Hastings "strip". With Eaton's moving its Vancouver flagship store from West Hastings in the 1970s, the decline in shopping traffic led to Woodward's shutting down in 1993. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, crack cocaine was becoming a serious problem in the city. Businesses began leaving the neighbourhood, a trend which was to last for many years. In recent times, however, certain types of local business have been making a comeback. There are tourist-oriented shops, knick-knack boutiques, low-cost household supply stores, restaurants, clothing outlets, a full-scale grocery store, many fresh vegetable retailers and butcher shops, as well as a multitude of convenience stores. Some storefronts along the DTES stretch of Hastings Street are still empty, with entire buildings often up for sale. New art galleries, convenience stores, fast food outlets, social service organizations and other small businesses continually open here.

In the 1980s, many of the street prostitutes in other parts of Vancouver, such as the nearby West End, were kicked out of the neighborhood after a community campaign led by Gordon Price and ended up in the DTES — now known to sex trade workers as the "low track" — and contiguous industrial areas near Vancouver's port. Many believe that this has exacerbated the problem of violence against prostitutes. Dozens of women associated with the DTES low track have gone missing since the early 1980s. Robert William Pickton has been charged with the murders of 26 of these women and convicted on six counts. The BC Missing Women Investigation is ongoing.