Old East with a new face

We hear it occasionally. Murmurs from first year students who talk about the notorious Dundas Street and specifically focus on the drug or crime issues. We even hear certain residents of London espousing the same attitude. What is it about the Old East that has seemingly made it the most negative neighbourhood in all of London?

I asked myself that question when I first moved in. My interest sparked when I first started showing up at house shows (typically hardcore shows hosted by a house of people) in the core section of Old East Village. I took walks through neighbourhoods to get there and noticed the urban decay that was present.

But of all the things that I was told about this “sketchy” part of town, no one ever bothered me. In fact, I'm now a resident of this very area and I believe that it is one of the most precious parts of London.

Every city has its issues and the Old East is not made of pure perfection by any means. As the name suggests, it is one of the sectors of London that has been around for a very long time, and the houses show it. It's a part of the city where mostly low-income residents reside, but these residents could be your average worker, artist, student or family. They aren't malicious but arguably, they're awfully friendly.

The businesses in the Old East range from funky antique and art shops to skate co-ops to comic book stores and used bookshops. This section of the city is one of the few spots where you'll find more local businesses than chain outlets and this is partially due to the initiatives taken by groups like the Old East Village Business Improvement Area (OEVBIA or BIA for short) to work with the city in securing the funds they need to continue the revitalization process.

Their work was looked back upon by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and their recent review in the London Free Press looks at the past decade's improvements.

I met with long-time resident Matthew Elliot at the wonderful Root Cellar Organic Cafe in the Old East neighbourhood. Elliot is a freelance writer who has written for notthesingularity.com and he has followed politics as a whole for a long time. His incredible amount of information was almost overwhelming and definitely could not fit completely in this article.

Elliot discussed how, through 1985 to 1995, urban decay started to show its signs in the village. This was directly linked to the City of London's initiatives to build the popular Masonville and White Oaks shopping centres, which originally were difficult to get off the ground as London, along with Kingston, was one of the only cities in Canada that had a Board of Control (BoC). The BoC acted similar to a senate and any building plans in London had to go through them after all else was figured out. It was scrapped finally in 2007 as the city council, now dominated by developer interests, decided that it was unnecessary.

The retail outlets were a huge hit to the city's core. Residents from the suburbs now were one step closer to their needs and thus did not have much reason to go to other areas downtown. Foot traffic from students steadily declined and now some research has been shown that most don't even go past Moxie's on Central Street. Businesses closed and the Old East Village was having serious issues by the late '90s and early 2000s.

London formulated groups to develop the concept of the “Old East Village” and its progress is measured by the steady increase of community projects and stores. Elliot insisted, however, that even though the area has problems, we should be looking at the core issues that cause symptoms like crime. Drug abuse is most certainly predominant, but that's mainly because most of the methadone clinics are there and not in other sections of the city where drug use is almost evenly spread out.

Residents of those areas typically block any sort of progress being made and thus you find the influx of people with addictions in one area. As far as crime goes, drug addiction should not be considered such. Organized crime activity mostly operates in other areas of the city such as the White Oaks area and in the north end.

Things are developing and things are developing fast. Though this is the case, I take the stand with Elliot that the Old East is in a very volatile state and the fear is that the effects of gentrification might merely be perpetuating the inherent problems.

I think we need to welcome local business and we need to encourage folks to take part in supporting and prolonging them but there is business that might not be necessary. Are less fortunate folks going to be living in condos? Going to financial offices? Dining out on expensive meals? These are the things we need to question and be aware of as they affect the community as a whole.

The Old East is known for its heavy police presence and strong objections were held this year in response to the proposal to put up security cameras by city council member Stephen Orser. It's no surprise that opportunity is slowly coming around for corporate entities to prod at. This is expected and it happens in almost every similar situation. Though this is the case, I would like to reiterate, we will not “clean up” the Old East this way. In a practical sense, it's pushing the problem away to other parts without helping the ones who actually live there. We need to stop perpetuating the stigma that condemns this neighbourhood as the “sketchy” end of London. It hurts us all.

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