The Keefer House, a new gentrifier hotel next to the 105 Keefer/570 Columbia site, has filed an application for a massive 310-person rooftop bar that would operate until 4am, seven days a week — directly overlooking the Chinatown Memorial Plaza, a space meant for remembrance and for honouring Chinese veterans and railway workers.
Here’s the notice from the City:
The City describes the proposal as a “unique and upscale dining and social experience,” allegedly needed to meet “high-demand sports viewing,” complete with “dancing…and darts.” Why this kind of marketing language is appearing in an official City notice is deeply troubling.
This is coded language for gentrification: the transformation of a memorial site in a low-income neighbourhood into a late-night party zone designed for the gentry, at the expense of community respect and cultural dignity.
Keefer House has already slapped on a typical gentrifier mural with colourful, cartoonish figures in free fall, forming the shape of a heart. Titled Humanity Heals, they frame it as “a declaration of neighbourhood solidarity.”
And the hotel itself? The best room can cost over $5,000 per night after taxes during FIFA and almost $2,000 per night during the off-season.
Keefer House was constructed despite community resistance in 2018, which helped delay it. But just because it’s built, it doesn’t mean we can’t fight it.
We can stop a 300-plus-person rooftop bar from further accelerating gentrification in Chinatown.
Here’s what you can do right now until February 16th:
Write to the City of Vancouver at liquor.comments@vancouver.ca and state clearly that Keefer House at 123 Keefer St. should not be granted a 310-person liquor-primary licence.
奮鬥到底！
Our struggles in Chinatown today are connected to the struggles of the past. Our friends at 客家 HAKKA HOUSE are hosting a talk on The Chinese Times
《大漢公報》, Vancouver’s longest-running Chinese newspaper, exploring the often-forgotten emotional worlds and acts of resistance of early Chinese migrants from the late 1800’s to early 1900s. The talk will be presented in Cantonese by Dr. Yao Xiao.
Don’t miss this talk we’re co-hosting with veteran Chinatown activist and Hakka elder Sean Gunn’s reflection on organizing in Chinatown from the 1970’s to today.
This talk will trace key moments in Chinatown’s history of grassroots resistance — from the Chinese Benevolent Association democratization protests, to the firehall fight, to the pivotal Strathcona Freeway struggle, and the head tax reparations — told firsthand by someone who was on the ground during these defining battles.
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