Chinatown lions vandalized again as City asked to offer "urgent" help
One of the Millennium Gate lions in Vancouver’s Chinatown was vandalized yet again with racist graffiti Tuesday, as City Council prepares to muster urgent help for the neighbourhood.
The lion statues have been vandalized many times with racist graffiti, emblematic of the simultaneous racism, crime, and drug addiction problems that have dimmed the neighbourhood’s vibrancy in recent years.
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On Tuesday afternoon, Daily Hive saw someone had written “thanks China for fentanyl” in blue marker on one of the lions shoulders.
Daily Hive Vancouver
Daily Hive Vancouver
Fentanyl is a potent drug that’s been tainting the opioid supply in Vancouver, leading to more and more deaths from toxic drugs. The primary source of fentanyl imports is China.
Lorraine Lowe, executive director of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, doesn’t deny that fentanyl is a problem — but it doesn’t justify vulgar messages scrawled on the Chinatown statues.
“I can say that the nature of the comment is offensive,” Lowe told Daily Hive. “Given the motion brought forward today by Councillor [Sarah] Kirby Yung, I am hopeful this offensive… graffiti will be swiftly removed.”
Vancouver’s new City Council is meeting for the first time Tuesday, where Councillor Kirby Yung will ask the City to create an action plan for “urgent measures to uplift Chinatown.”
Potential measures could entail “enhanced support” from City crews for street, laneway, and sidewalk cleaning, and garbage and needle pick-up, as well as new graffiti removal strategies, placemaking, and new public art murals.
Community leaders and Vancouver Police Department members visited San Francisco this summer to learn how the California city turned the tide on a similar crisis facing its Chinatown, and Kirby Yung hopes staff can turn to that delegation for guidance.
Council is expected to approve the ABC Party councillor’s motion, after the same party won a majority in last month’s election with Mayor Ken Sim at its helm.
With files from Daily Hive’s Kenneth Chan
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