11/19/2009
The City of Vancouver is trying to encourage small business development along a seedy stretch of the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown by offering grants to help clean up and enhance deteriorating store fronts.
The Downtown Eastside Renaissance Program has so far paid 50-thousand dollars per facade for six buildings in phase one of the pilot program.
Councillor George Chow says, "You know people look at the storefront and they say wow this is a ghost town. They would never come down. You really need some vitality so that people when they are travelling they say hey there's something here, and they will come down to explore."
Today council approved $700-thousand dollars for the program.
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