Downtown Eastside

Carnegie Community Centre is located at 401 Main Street at the corner of Hastings Street, in the old Carnegie Public Library building in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1901 Vancouver requested $50,000 from industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie for the purpose of building a library. Carnegie agreed, provided the City of Vancouver supplied the site and contributed $5000 a year. The original public library was completed in 1903. For decades, the top floor was the home of the Vancouver Museum. The Vancouver Public Library moved into a more spacious building at 750 Burrard Street in 1957 and the Carnegie building eventually fell into disrepair. Neighbourhood poverty activists from the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association convinced city council to turn it into a public space for local residents, and it opened as the Carnegie Community Centre in the 1980s. It now houses recreation facilities, a low-cost cafeteria, a branch of the Vancouver Public Library, and a variety of services and programs for the neighbourhood, which is one of the poorest in Canada. The Carnegie Centre is a drug- and alcohol-free place. The Carnegie Community Centre is owned by the City of Vancouver and funded by the Social Planning Department. It is open 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., every day of the year. The centre is run by Vancouver City Staff in cooperation with the board of directors of the Carnegie Community Centre Association, a non-profit society. Directors are elected annually from the members of the association. Membership costs one dollar per year and is available to neighbourhood residents. All the centre's programs are free to members. Carnegie Community Centre has a gymnasium, a weight room, a theatre (aptly named Carnegie Hall), a cafeteria with very reasonably priced meals, a seniors lounge and a pool room. There is also an Adult Learning Centre on the top floor, which provides informal one-on-one tutoring. There is a computer lab containing multiple computers for educational use located inside the centre as well. The Carnegie Centre publishes a bi-monthly newsletter with articles concerning the Downtown Eastside Community. The Institute for stained glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at Carnegie Community Centre.The Carnegie Centre supports and provides a home for a number of projects, including the political group known as CCAP (Carnegie Community Action Project), which has recently been associated with the anti-gentrification protests in the DTES.

The Vancouver Police Museum & Archives (formerly Vancouver Police Centennial Museum) opened to commemorate the centennial of the Vancouver Police Department and the City of Vancouver, British Columbia in 1986. Located at 240 E. Cordova Street adjacent to Vancouver's Gastown, the museum is housed in a building that was purpose-built in 1932 for use by the City Coroner’s Services and includes the Coroner's Court, morgue and autopsy facilities (until 1980) and the City Analyst’s Laboratory (until 1996). In 1935, the Coroner's Court was used as a makeshift hospital by police during the Battle of Ballantyne Pier. It was designed by architect Arthur J. Bird, and today it is a municipally designated class "A" heritage building. The museum is run by the Vancouver Police Historical Society, a non-profit organization established in 1983 with the mandate to foster interest in the history of the Vancouver Police Department and to open a museum for this purpose. The catalyst for the project was the museum's first curator, Joe Swan, a former police sergeant and amateur historian. Swan wrote the department's official history book, which was published by the Vancouver Historical Society in 1986, entitled, A Century of Service: The Vancouver Police, 1886-1986. The museum is located on the top floor of the city-owned Coroner's Court building and permanent exhibits include the original morgue and autopsy suite. The museum maintains a collection of approximately 30,000 objects. This includes archival documents, photographs, publications, confiscated firearms and other weapons, counterfeit currency, and various other artifacts and memorabilia, of which an estimated 40% is on display. The museum offers educational programs for children and youth that are focused on forensic investigation. The museum has a small book shop featuring a curated collection of books written by local authors and publishes a quarterly newsletter. The museum is self-funded through admission and program fees, membership fees, donations, book shop sales, and project grants; the museum receives no direct funding from the Vancouver Police Department or the City of Vancouver but gratefully receives their in-kind support.

The Vancouver riots occurred September 7–9, 1907, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. At about the same time there were similar anti-Asian riots in San Francisco, Bellingham, Washington, and other West Coast cities. They were not coordinated, but instead reflected common underlying anti-immigration attitudes. Agitation for direct action was led by labour unions and small business.: 163  No one was killed but the damage to Asian-owned property was extensive. One result was an informal agreement whereby the government of China stopped emigration to Canada.

Fortune Sound Club is a nightclub, established in 2009, which is located in Chinatown, Vancouver, BC.

The Ovaltine Cafe is a traditional diner in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, known for its traditional decor. The cafe was opened in 1942 and has served as a set for movies and television shows that want to film in a restaurant with an old-fashioned appearance.On September 15, 2018, Craig Moss, a travel writer with the London newspaper The Telegraph, in consultation with a team of experts, published a list of the world's 50 best cafes, which included the Ovaltine.Keith McKellar devoted a chapter to the cafe in his book Neon Eulogy, calling it "easily Vancouver's most prized antique cafe."Randall Wong, the first Chinese-Canadian federal judge in Canada, worked at the Ovaltine in his youth. At that time the Ovaltine was near a court and a police station, and Wong attributed his interest in the law to his conversations with patrons who worked in law enforcement.

Chinatown is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is Canada's largest Chinatown. Centered around Pender Street, it is surrounded by Gastown to the north, the Downtown financial and central business districts to the west, the Georgia Viaduct and the False Creek inlet to the south, the Downtown Eastside and the remnant of old Japantown to the northeast, and the residential neighbourhood of Strathcona to the southeast. Due to the large ethnic Chinese presence in Vancouver — especially represented by mostly Cantonese-speaking multi-generation Chinese Canadians and first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong — the city has been referred to as "Hongcouver". However, most immigration in recent years has been Mandarin-speaking residents from Mainland China. Chinatown remains a popular tourist attraction and is one of the largest historic Chinatowns in North America, but it experienced recent decline as newer members of Vancouver's Chinese community dispersed to other parts of the metropolitan area.

Insite is the first legal supervised drug injection site in North America, located at 139 East Hastings Street, in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. The DTES had 4700 chronic drug users in 2000 and has been considered to be the centre of an "injection drug epidemic". The site provides a supervised and health-focused location for injection drug use, primarily heroin. The clinic does not supply any drugs. Medical staff are present to provide addiction treatment, mental health assistance, and first aid in the event of an overdose or wound. In 2017, the site recorded 175,464 visits (an average of 480 injection room visits per day) by 7,301 unique users; 2,151 overdoses occurred with no fatalities, due to intervention by medical staff. The site also offers a free checking service so clients can check their substances for fentanyl and carfentanil. Health Canada has provided $500,000 per year to operate the site, and the BC Ministry of Health contributed $1,200,000 to renovate the site and cover operating costs. Insite also serves as a resource for those seeking to use a harm reduction approach for people who inject drugs around the world. In recent months and years, delegations from a number of countries are on record touring the facility, including various U.S. states, Colombia and Brazil. 95% of drug users who use Insite also inject on the street according to a British Columbia health official.

Mon Keang School is a Chinese language school located in the Wong Benevolent Association Building at 121 East Pender Street, in the Chinatown of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Kissa Tanto is an Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant in the Chinatown neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The 80-seat restaurant, which opened in June 2016, is on the second floor of 263 E Pender St. Its name comes from the Japanese word kissa, referring to the jazz cafes of 1960s Tokyo, and the Italian word tanto, meaning "a lot" or "so much". Kissa Tanto is co-owned by restaurateur Tannis Ling, executive chef Joël Watanabe, and sous chef Alain Chow, who collectively envisioned it as an escapist, anachronistic concept. The restaurant's visual design was as central to its development as the menu. The unobtrusive exterior was left in a state of slight disrepair, and is marked only by a small awning and neon sign. The restaurant's interior is inspired by the mid-century modern design movement, with curved banquettes, banker's lamps, extensive use of maple and walnut, and polished brass fixtures. It references the jazz cafes which inspired its name with a glossy coved ceiling and stacks of vinyl records behind the bar in place of the traditional bar mirror. Kissa Tanto serves a modern fusion of Italian and Japanese cuisine, a pairing that appears unusual, but has some historical and culinary basis. Both cuisines focus on simplicity, umami flavors, and local ingredients. The fusion style is flexible and intuitive; traditional ingredients from each cuisine are added to dishes from the other as required rather than attempting to follow a strict formula. The whole fried fish has been singled out by reviewers as the restaurant's signature dish. Since its launch, Kissa Tanto has garnered positive reviews for its romantic, retro-style design philosophy and innovative menu. It has been highly ranked on several Canadian "best restaurant" lists, including the Canada's 100 Best list. In its first year, several critics named it "best new restaurant".

The Firehall Arts Centre (also called the Firehall Centre for the Arts) is an arts centre in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The building also falls within the borders of Gastown. Firehall is a small building, originally built as a fire station in 1906. Three theatre companies are based out of Firehall: Touchstone Theatre, Firehall Theatre Company, and Axis Mime. Firehall is devoted to exhibiting dance, performance art, and new plays. Firehall is Vancouver's foremost exhibitor of experimental theatre. The theatre has a 150-seat capacity. St. James Anglican Church is diagonally opposite the intersection from Firehall. Every year, Firehall hosts a dance festival called "Dancing on the Edge" that lasts two weeks.

CFRO-FM, licensed and owned by Vancouver Co-operative Radio, is a non-commercial community radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is a legally registered co-operative and is branded as Co-op Radio. The station broadcasts on 100.5 MHz FM and have studios and offices on Columbia Street off Hastings Street. in Vancouver's Downtown East Side, while its transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour. CFRO is a member of the National Campus and Community Radio Association.

The Kuomintang Building (Chinese: 國民黨大樓), also known as the Chinese Nationalist League Building, is a historic four-storey building in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southeast corner of the city's Chinatown, at the intersection of Gore Avenue and Pender Street. Opened in 1921, it originally served as the Western Canadian headquarters of the Kuomintang, a Chinese nationalist organization. The Chinese Nationalist League of Canada, the Kuomintang's affiliate in the country, was the original owner of the building. The building has historically been used for various social and commercial functions in addition to political activities.