Vancouver Police Museum

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness and sex work. It is also known for its strong community resilience, history of social activism, and artistic contributions. Around the beginning of the 20th century, the DTES was the political, cultural and retail centre of Vancouver. Over several decades, the city centre gradually shifted westwards and the DTES became a poor, although relatively stable, neighbourhood. In the 1980s, the area began a rapid decline due to several factors including an influx of hard drugs, policies that pushed sex work and drug-related activity out of nearby areas, and the cessation of federal funding for social housing. By 1997, an epidemic of HIV infection and drug overdoses in the DTES led to the declaration of a public health emergency. As of 2018, critical issues include opioid overdoses, especially those involving the drug fentanyl; decrepit and squalid housing; a shortage of low-cost rental housing; and mental illness, which often co-occurs with addiction. The population of the DTES is estimated to be around 7,000 people. Compared to the city as a whole, the DTES has a higher proportion of males and adults who live alone. It also has significantly more Indigenous Canadians, who are disproportionately affected by the neighbourhood's social problems. The neighbourhood has a history of attracting individuals with mental health and addiction issues, many of whom are drawn to its drug market and low-barrier services. Residents experience Canada's highest rate of death from encounters with police, and many vulnerable members of the community have low trust in the police. Since Vancouver's real-estate boom began in the early 21st century, the area has been increasingly experiencing gentrification. Some see gentrification as a force for revitalization, while others believe it has led to higher displacement and homelessness. Numerous efforts have been made to improve the DTES at an estimated cost of over $1.4 billion as of 2009. Services in the greater DTES area are estimated to cost $360 million per year. Commentators from across the political spectrum have said that little progress has been made in resolving the issues of the neighbourhood as a whole, although there are individual success stories. Proposals for addressing the issues of the area include increasing investment in social housing, increasing capacity for treating people with addictions and mental illness, making services more evenly distributed across the city and region instead of concentrated in the DTES, and improving co-ordination of services. However, little agreement exists between the municipal, provincial and federal governments regarding long-term plans for the area.

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.

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.

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 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.

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".

St. Lawrence is a French-Canadian restaurant in the Japantown neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. It opened in June 2017. Located on the ground floor of a heritage building at 269 Powell St, originally a Japanese general store, St. Lawrence serves a blend of traditional Québécois dishes and French haute cuisine. Executive chef and owner J.C. Poirier began developing the concept for St. Lawrence in 2013, and sought with both the menu and the décor to replicate the feeling of being inside a rural French home and eating a country-style meal. The interior, which features a blue and green colour scheme and numerous keepsakes and photographs, was developed by Vancouver-based studio Ste. Marie. The menu at St. Lawrence is primarily concentrated on rich, hearty fare served in large portions, running counter to the predominant stereotype of Vancouver cuisine as light and health-focused. Lesser-known dishes and uncommon cuts of meat like sweetbreads are featured in order to showcase Quebecois cuisine beyond its most famous dish, poutine. The plating style is deliberately basic, and presentation of many dishes incorporates playful touches inspired by the culture of Quebec, such as the tourtière, served with a miniature flag of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, a Quebecois cultural icon. St. Lawrence has been a critical success since it opened. It has been highly-ranked on several Canadian "best restaurant" lists, and was awarded one Michelin star in 2022. It has ranked on the Canada's 100 Best list since its first eligible year, and in 2020 it was ranked the second-best restaurant in Canada. Critics have highlighted the richness of the dishes, which many noted felt like "comfort food", as well as the rustic interior design. Some critics noted that the high menu prices came at an apparent contrast to the rustic aesthetic.

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.

St. James' Anglican Church (Saint James Parish of Vancouver, BC) is a unique church building in the Diocese of New Westminster of the Anglican Church of Canada located at the north-east corner of East Cordova Street (formerly Offenheimer Street) and Gore Avenue in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in what is now its east Downtown and Strathcona neighbourhoods containing the Downtown Eastside district (originally Japantown).The original building was completed in the spring of 1881 on Alexander Street (west of Main Street) in the Town of Granville (aka Gastown), Burrard Inlet to the north west of the present site and was sponsored by Captain James Raymur, the manager of Hastings Mill. Granville was renamed Vancouver and the town was incorporated as a city on April 6, 1886. This building burned down in the Great Vancouver Fire of June 13, 1886. The heat of the fire melted the church bell into a puddle that was eventually put on display at the Museum of Vancouver.The present (and third) church building was designed by Adrian Gilbert Scott who later designed the Church of St. Mary and St. Joseph, Poplar, London, England which has architectural similarities. The building is the second to be built at this location on land (east of Main Street) donated by the Canadian Pacific Railway after the fire. Its design is a combination of Art Deco, Romanesque Revival, Byzantine Revival, and Gothic Revival architecture. The walls are made of reinforced concrete, while the roof is made of slate. The building was constructed between 1935 and 1937 and consecrated in 1938. St. James was the first Anglican parish in Vancouver, formerly Granville (aka Gastown), until the establishment of Christ Church (local church), a daughter church, in 1888 that in 1929 became Christ Church Cathedral - the Diocese's second cathedral. Another daughter church, St. Paul's Anglican Church, was established in 1889, and later became a separate parish and is located in the city's West End. The worship tradition is Anglo-Catholic. Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer are said daily. Said (Low) Mass is celebrated daily except Saturdays. A Solemn (High) or Sung Mass is sung every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. The Rector of St James Parish of Vancouver is The Venerable (Father) Kevin Hunt, Archdeacon of Burrard. Andrew Campbell is the Rector's Warden. The other Wardens are Peggy Smyth and Leah Postman. In addition to the Rector and Wardens, the other voting members of the Parish's Board of Trustees are its Lay Delegates to Synod: Jenny Johnson, Pamela McDonald, Ross Hornby, and, its Non-Voting Trustees, the Secretary, Linda Adams, and the Treasurer, Reece Wrightman. The Parish Council usually meets quarterly and is chaired by Louisa Farrell and its secretary is Reece Wrightman. The Parish Vestry meets annually or more often as needed. The Vestry Clerk is Linda Adams.

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.

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

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.