I believe that Vancouver's Parks and Community Centres can play a larger role in alleviating the hardships of poverty and could do more to reduce the separation and isolation felt by so many in our modern city.
Unregulated survival vending is practiced throughout most of the City, if more concentrated in the Downtown Eastside due to the large percentage of people dependent upon government assistance. Our parks could be opened up to community groups that could create events and swap meets that would complement the existing system of Farmer's Markets.
As coordinator of the DTES Street Market, I have fought for the rights of hundreds of vendors to make a modest living in Pigeon Park on Sundays, and I will continue to fight for the acceptance of the informal economy of binning and recycling and to be included in the civic dialog. Please vote for me on November 15th, 2014.
Roland Clarke was born in Hamiliton, Ontario.
He obtained a BSc in Advanced Mathematics and Physics at Trinity College, University of Toronto. On a full scholarship, Roland received a PhD in Physics from Stanford University.
During college, he spent a summer tree planting in Northern BC, and fell in love with the Province.
In 1998 Roland took a leave of absence from graduate school to form a green enterprise specializing in supplying recycled semiconductor grade materials for IBM.
In 2004 Roland founded a homebrew biodiesel co-op in Palo Alto, California and purchased zero fossil fuel for his diesel Mercedes for over 6 months. He has since installed biodiesel processors for farmers as far away as Chile.
Living in Vancouver since October 2010, Roland divides his time between teaching Mathematics and Physics and supporting the low income residents of the Downtown Eastside through community organizing.
“As Coordinator of the DTES Street Market, I promote the empowerment of marginalized low income residents of Vancouver and teach independence, declientization, and entrepreneurship. With ideals of fostering Micro Enterprise and Greening the Inner City, The DTES Street Market has grown into an essential community festival and social enterprise with 52 events per year at Pigeon Park.
The DTES Street Market is peer run, and is the longest running event in DTES history. This market provides over $500,000 per year ($10,000 per Sunday X 52 markets per year) of direct economic injection into the hands of the poorest residents of the DTES, and removes more than 20 tonnes of waste annually from landfills.
The vendors collect their items from the garbage bins all over the City of Vancouver, and come from the most marginalized population in Canada. One third of our vendors are women, many current or former sex trade workers, roughly half are native, a significant minority are from the nearby Chinese retirement community, and a majority are either homeless or under-housed in the surrounding infamous SROs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.”
The Street Market is currently incubating a tool share library sponsored by the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association (HXBIA).
Facebook: facebook.com/RolandClarkeforParkBoard
Twitter: twitter.com/Clarke4Park
Website: clarke4park.wordpress.com/
