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Save On Meats owner accuses anti-gentrification activists of stealing sign
VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980)
Laura Baziuk | Email news tips to laura.baziuk@corusent.com
3/21/2013

It appears opponents of gentrification in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside have targeted another business.

Mark Brand, the owner of Save On Meats on Hastings Street has posted a photo online showing a man hiding his face and posing with the shop's sandwich board.

He says in an accompanying post: “These anarchists stole our sign. Yes I'm serious. They won't stop until the capitalists leave the neighbourhood.”

He claims they are trying to shut his shop down, and seeks help to try and find the sign.

Brand has taken criticism for a program he launched recently that allows patrons to purchase sandwich tokens, intended to be given to the homeless. Opponents claim this fuels the view that homeless people can’t be trusted with how to spend their money.

The apparent sign theft follows a possibly similar group taking credit for smashing the windows of a Commercial Drive pizzeria.

And earlier this month, protesters targeted the new high-end Pidgin Restaurant on Carrall Street.

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  • 24
  1. howards_1187 posted on 03/21/2013 07:30 AM
    Lets give these guys a new place to live jail.
  2. P.D posted on 03/21/2013 08:34 AM
    with all the good things freedom brings to a society, the down fall is letting low life junkies, who choose to live off the grid, and bring all of us down.

    try that in another part of the world and the garbage truck woukd come by and just clean up the mess.
  3. JohnO_1673 posted on 03/21/2013 08:46 AM
    Some ppl think its ok to get a window seat at that place and gawk and mock the poor that have to live there, they even have a term for it, PLAYING IN THE DIRT,
    1. LeonW posted on 03/22/2013 03:28 AM
      @JohnO_1673 You're full of sh@t. The kind of people who go there are apperently far more open minded than your lot who just want to constantly attack people whether they are doing good or not.
  4. 4645 posted on 03/21/2013 09:07 AM
    Instead of using all this energy to bring people and businesses that support them down, why not try to use it to lift those you're attempting to defend up.
  5. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/21/2013 09:17 AM
    Anything that helps the less fortunate should be celebrated, not made tougher to accomplish.
    Theft is theft, vandalism is vandalism.
    Are they upset because I buy a token so someone gets a sandwich, instead of giving them cash to buy drugs? (maybe from them)
  6. WDW1 posted on 03/21/2013 09:28 AM
    I don't get it. Save On Meats has been there since 1957 (according to their web site) so how can this be "gentrification"?

    Or are we saying that the protestors involved in anti-gentrification are also involved in the anti-coupon drive? The article seems to lump the two together whereas they are really two separate protests.
    1. MichaelD_10 posted on 03/21/2013 10:42 AM
      @WDW1 This is CKNW influence peddling, masquerading as news. I helps sell the more pure influence peddling. You will have to go elsewhere to read news.
  7. traza1 posted on 03/21/2013 11:11 AM
    You have my support Save on Meats,
    All these protesters do with their time is find fault with people who are trying to make a living. How do they have time for such action, do they work, do they have families to support, (or do we the downtrodden taxpayers look after all of that for them?

    Poverty is a business nowadays and a lot of people work in this industry , they have a vested interest is seeing Hasting Street and surrounding areas remain the way it is , after all what would they do if there was nothing to protest about,
    1. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/21/2013 12:49 PM
      @traza1 Will be buying meat and tokens next time I'm in the neighbourhood.
  8. KellyS_2296 posted on 03/21/2013 11:45 AM
    See, if we could have cameras installed then we would catch a-holes like these! But oh no, people think their privacy will be invaded. If you're not doing anything wrong, they won't be looking at you! But if your jerks like these guys, then you could be caught instead!
    1. KellyS_2296 posted on 03/21/2013 11:46 AM
      @KellyS_2296 Sorry... "if you're jerks like these..." bad grammar
    2. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/21/2013 12:46 PM
      @KellyS_2296 I don't get the privacy argument about cc cameras. How can your privacy be invaded by cameras, when you're in a public place and available to be seen by anyone walking by anyways? I think the greater common good (catching criminals, identifying demonstrators, and do-gooders, maybe even quickly finding people that roam away from senior's facilities etc) far outweighs any worries we'd have for being seen walking down the street picking our noses or adjusting our underwear. Much ado about nothing as far as cameras are concerned. Wow, we might catch a drug dealer, shoplifter, vandal or serious criminal and take away his privacy. Oops, didn't mean to offend their rights to get caught and prosecuted fairly.
    show more replies
  9. Horacio posted on 03/21/2013 12:51 PM
    Mark Brand never fails to seize the opportunity for free publicity. I question whether Sav-On was actually targetted in this current flap. It doesn't add up because they have been a constant source of high profile support for a completely disenfranchised community. Why would they attack an advocate and a benefactor?

    And while I think some of what Brand does is admirable and good intentioned, a lot of what he does falls into the category of bonehead-entrepeneurialism/self-promotion. Many of his hair-brained ideas seem to be better at garnering attention and raising hopes than actually achieving their stated goals.
    1. TeriR posted on 03/21/2013 01:22 PM
      @Horacio Mark Brand invested a lot of time and money into keeping Save on Meats, as it was, in the DTES. Sadly with that comes a lot of debt.

      That building has recently been sold to Anthem and the top four floors are going to be converted to Lofts/Office space. Save on Meats is reducing the meat shop side of things and will be increasing the diner.

      The token idea is a good idea and I read recently that Toronto is looking at mimicing it. I never give money to additcs or street homeless because more often than not, it goes to drugs regardless of what advocates think or feel what is right.

      Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

      These so called anarchists are just a bunch of lazy asses that are part of the problem versus part of the solution. They want to keep the poor, poor.
    2. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/21/2013 02:34 PM
      @Horacio At least he's trying to do something about the situation in the neighbourhood. He hires locals and trains them. He saved a shop that was for all intents and purposes gone.
      It's little businesses like this that keep a neighbourhood from further collapsing and possibly starting a renewal that will give a few more people living nearby another chance at moving forward.

      If he gets publicity for that, so be it.

      You don't think huge corporations "saving" polar bears, or planting a million trees someplace isn't done for promotion?
      Oh look, Coca Cola is saving the polar bears that arguably by many Arctic and animal experts, don't really need saving.
    show more replies
  10. TeriR posted on 03/21/2013 01:24 PM
    Some one should send this pic to Harsha Waila - betting she can identify them....after all, she supports their activites.
    1. RichardF_4221 posted on 03/21/2013 02:35 PM
      @TeriR Maybe ICBC can do facial recogniton practice on it.
  11. PhilW_2 posted on 03/21/2013 05:56 PM
    these dead beats need a size 12 dayton up the azz!!
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