Vancouver's Urban Apartheid

I was struck by the term "urban apartheid" used in the article by Davis, "LA Fortress". Then when he went further to describe the "swaggering white cop" I was immediately reminded of a recurring theme in downtown Vancouver where both terms seem accurate. The instant visual for me was of the security guards of the downtown businesses which swagger up to skater kids and urban riders who trespass on their property and force them to stop having fun and go on their way. In one case I witnessed a guard turning a garden hose on the skater kids that he was having difficulty convincing to leave the premises.

The guards have video surveillance cameras which they monitor the business fronts so that they can quickly respond to the undesirables on their doorstep. These undesirables are just typical teenagers enjoying a sport together. I never thought about it in the sense of a segregation of society before but it does seem to apply. These kids likely live with their families in downtown condominiums. That makes downtown as much their neighborhood as the businesses, perhaps more so because they are actually "living" here. The kids' activity is typically after 5 p.m. when the businesses have closed for the day. It makes one wonder where the harm is.

Architects are planning ways to "skate" proof the foyers in front of their buildings to go even further to prevent youth from making use of this space. This further entrenches the sense of segregation, not unlike that which is described in the Davis article.

In a world where children grow up in a concrete jungle, I wonder where we expect them to play? If we continue this form of “urban apartheid” then I wonder what kind of culture our children are expected to develop. Why not turn the cameras on the so called planned urban spaces to see why they aren't used by youths? Maybe if urban planners study visuals and statistics of the drug addicts in Andy Livingstone Park and the young urban professionals and their dogs that frequent the park spaces in both coal harbour and and Yaletown, they can understand why the youth turn away from these parks. Then maybe we as a society can consider better options for youth within their neighborhoods instead of just shutting them out.