The Vancouver Sun, Sept 12, 2025
For those of us who live, work and walk the streets of Gastown every day, the positive changes that have happened recently aren’t just welcome, they’re long overdue.
I’ve lived in Gastown for 10 years and have seen it at its most vibrant, and at its most vulnerable. Before COVID-19, this neighbourhood was a beacon of character: a meeting place of art, architecture, commerce, and a very cool community.
But when the pandemic hit, Gastown got hammered. Small businesses shuttered and the streets emptied. Then very quickly the weight of untreated trauma, poverty, addiction and organized criminal activity began to push in from the Downtown Eastside.
At times it felt like Gastown was under siege — not just from social disorder, but also from a growing sense that nobody was coming to help.
Gastown isn’t just a tourist attraction, it’s a living, breathing community. We are families, renters, artists, seniors, entrepreneurs and hospitality workers.
But for several years, we’d been quietly enduring a surge in visible violence, property crime, harassment and open-air drug dealing. We’ve had neighbours assaulted in broad daylight, shops broken into countless times and tourists chased away by chaos. That wasn’t the Gastown we know and love, nor the kind of neighbourhood anyone deserves to live in.
That’s why the Gastown Residents Association was fully behind Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s efforts to restore public safety, and his support for Taskforce Barrage, the Vancouver police initiative that has brought more beat cops to the DTES and has targeted the gangs who prey on Vancouver’s most vulnerable.
Taskforce Barrage has made a visible impact. The statistics announced at the mayor’s news conference are astounding, yet shouldn’t be surprising — policing works. Achieving the lowest violent crime rate in 23 years is no small feat, and the increased police presence has brought renewed hope to Gastown.
We also applaud Sim’s commitment and follow-through with opening a Community Policing Centre for Gastown. This is exactly the kind of infrastructure we need: a visible, approachable, community-facing presence that fosters trust, accountability and responsiveness between police and residents.
But policing alone won’t solve the root causes of urban decline. That’s why we continue to advocate for wraparound investments in mental-health care, treatment beds, affordable housing and local business support.
We need the province to step up and address the homelessness and open drug use. Street disorder is largely a provincial responsibility. They control health care, they control key parts of the judiciary and they control housing. Premier David Eby needs to take a page out of Sim’s book and get serious about long-term public safety.
Gastown is clawing its way back from the brink. Foot traffic is up. Events are returning. And the sense of shared purpose is stronger than it has been in years.
To the VPD officers on the ground: Thank you, your presence matters.
To the mayor and councillors who supported Taskforce Barrage: Thank you and please don’t let this momentum fade.
To the B.C. government: It’s now your turn to step up. Gastown isn’t giving up, so please don’t let us down.
Brian Davie,
President of the Gastown Residents Association.
Read the original article on The Vancouver Sun: [click here]
Photo by Valentin Laboda