Popular culture
 | This section needs additional citations for verification .(May 2024) |
The Astoria has been featured in a number of movies and TV shows:
The Astoria Hotel is a historic hotel turned into single-room occupancy accommodations located at 769 East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver, Canada. The hotel was opened in 1913 as the Toronto House Apartments before becoming the Astoria Hotel in 1950. The main floor of the hotel serves as a bar and events space. The hotel is currently owned by the Sahota family. [1]
The Astoria, originally the Toronto House Apartments was built by Robert Aubrey Wallace, a developer from Ontario. The architects of the building were Braunton and Leibert. [2] Upon opening in March 1913, the Toronto House had 87 rooms for rent. [3] After opening, Wallace managed the apartments for a number of years. In June 1933, the apartments came under new management. [4] Wallace remained the owner of the property until his death in 1950. [5] Many of the early occupants of the hotel were working class, such as dock workers at Ballantyne Pier and loggers. [6]
In 1950, operations of the apartments were taken over by Alex Bayer and William Sawchuk, who ran the previous incarnation of the Astoria on West Hastings. The apartments were transitioned into a hotel, and the name of the building was changed to the Astoria Hotel. The number of rooms were increased to 88. [7] The newly renovated space featured the newly installed neon sign, two beverage rooms (split into a women's section and a man's section), air conditioning, heating, a walk in cooler, and a 50-car parking lot. The capacity of the main floor totaled to 400. [8]
In December 1961, a fire damaged portions of the basement and the back of the ground floor of the hotel. Guests were evacuated but no injuries were reported. [9]
In 1977, The Astoria Boxing Club (established 1966) moved operations to the hotel. The club practiced in the basement of the hotel until they moved to the North Burnaby Inn in 1998. The club aimed to help troubled and underprivileged youth from the nearby neighborhood, which was experiencing an economic downturn during the 1970s and 1980s. A number of members found success, such as boxers Dale Walters and Manuel Sobral. [10]
In 1984, Nolan Fisher bought the hotel. During Expo 86, Fisher guaranteed that rents of long-term guests would not be raised despite the influx of visitors to the city. At that time, the Astoria had 40 long-term residents who paid $220 monthly (equivalent to $570in 2023). [11] Many long-term residents were elderly and disabled. [12]
By 1999, the ownership of the hotel was transferred to the Sahota family, which marked a rapid decline in the conditions in the hotel. [13]
In 2005, the hotel, along with other single-room occupancy hotels the Lucky Lodge and Gastown Hotels, were subject to an undercover 10 week police sting. The investigation found evidence of drug dealing, welfare fraud, and possession of stolen goods. Living conditions in the rooms were also found to be sub-standard. [14]
In February 2022, an accidental explosion occurred in a second story suite of the hotel. No one was harmed in the incident, and minor damage was done to the hotel. [15]
In recent years the Astoria Hotel has been home to a number of reoccurring events, such as Coffin Club, The Dark Eighties, and an amateur strip night named Rent Cheque. [16]
In March 1953, a 28-year-old woman named Olga Rutkowski committed suicide by jumping off the third floor of the hotel. [17] [18]
In 1957, a 51-year-old man named Walter Alexander Mascotte shot himself with a .22 rifle in his room at the Astoria. [19] [20]
In March 1968 a man was found hanging from a doorknob in his room at the hotel. [21]
On June 2, 1975, a 61-year-old man named Kelso Dickie died from burns he suffered after his mattress caught on fire in his room. [22]
In November 1986, two men named John Wilfred Dyck and Matthew William Wilson died after the fire escape they were standing on collapsed. The two fell from the third floor to the alley behind the hotel and were instantly killed. Their deaths were ruled to be accidental as the two were heavily intoxicated on Chinese cooking wine. [23] [24]
On September 23, 1993, a 34-year-old man named Stephen Horvath was stabbed to death in the lobby of the hotel. He was taken to Vancouver General Hospital but later died of his wounds. [25] A resident of the hotel named Juan Carlos Gonzales-Mejia, originally from Guatemala was charged with second degree murder. [26]
During the 1990s, Robert Pickton was a regular of several Downtown Eastside bars, including the Astoria. Some reports state that one of his victims, Georgina Papin, was last seen at the hotel with Pickton in March 1999. She was not listed as missing by the Vancouver Police Department until 2001. In 2002, her remains were found on Pickton's farm. [27]
While standing outside of the hotel on August 31, 1998, a 49-year-old man named Raul Melgar was struck twice in the chest by a man wielding a piece of lumber. He was taken to Vancouver General Hospital for treatment but died of his injuries a day later. Melgar was a resident of the hotel and was originally from El Salvador. Despite multiple witnesses, police struggled to identify his attacker. [28] [29]
On the evening of February 6, 2018 a Coquitlam man named Martin James MacDonald was found unconscious in a bus stop outside of the hotel. He died several days later from wounds he sustained during a physical altercation. [30]
On September 16, 2020, two people were found unresponsive in a room at the Astoria. One of he victims was pronounced dead at the scene, while another was taken to the hospital and later died. The deaths were being investigated as a homicide. [31]
| | This section needs additional citations for verification .(May 2024) |
The Astoria has been featured in a number of movies and TV shows:
A skid row, also called skid road, is an impoverished area, typically urban, in English-speaking North America whose inhabitants are mostly poor people "on the skids". This specifically refers to people who are poor or homeless, considered disreputable, downtrodden or forgotten by society. A skid row may be anything from an impoverished urban district to a red-light district to a gathering area for people experiencing homelessness or drug addiction. In general, skid row areas are inhabited or frequented by impoverished individuals and also people who are addicted to drugs. Urban areas considered skid rows are marked by high vagrancy, dilapidated buildings, and drug dens, as well as other features of urban blight. Used figuratively, the phrase may indicate the state of a poor person's life.
Philip Walter Owen was the 36th mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia from 1993 to 2002, making him one of Vancouver's longest serving mayors. His father was Walter S. Owen, who was Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1973 to 1978.
Gastown is the original settlement that became the core of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and a national historic site and a neighbourhood in the northwest section of the Downtown Eastside, adjacent to Downtown Vancouver.
The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues, including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness and sex work. It is also known for its strong community resilience, history of social activism, and artistic contributions.
Davie Village is a neighbourhood in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is the home of the city's LGBT subculture, and, as such, is often considered a gay village, or gaybourhood. Davie Village is centred on Davie Street and roughly includes the area between Burrard and Jervis streets. Davie Street—and, by extension, the Village—is named in honour of A.E.B. Davie, eighth Premier of British Columbia from 1887 to 1889; A.E.B's brother Theodore was also Premier, from 1892 to 1895.
Single-room occupancy (SRO) is a type of low-cost housing typically aimed at residents with low or minimal incomes, or single adults who like a minimalist lifestyle, who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair, and sometimes a small desk. SRO units are rented out as permanent residence and/or primary residence to individuals, within a multi-tenant building where tenants share a kitchen, toilets or bathrooms. SRO units range from 7 to 13 square metres. In some instances, contemporary units may have a small refrigerator, microwave, or sink.
Strathcona is the oldest residential neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Officially a part of the East Side, it is bordered by Downtown Vancouver's Chinatown neighbourhood and the False Creek inlet to the west, Downtown Eastside to the north, Grandview-Woodland to the east, and Mount Pleasant to the south of Emily Carr University and the Canadian National Railway and Great Northern Railway classification yards.
Downtown Vancouver is the central business district and the city centre neighbourhood of Vancouver, Canada, on the northwestern shore of the Burrard Peninsula in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. It occupies most of the north shore of the False Creek inlet, which cuts into the Burrard Peninsula creating the Downtown Peninsula, where the West End neighbourhood and Stanley Park are also located.
The North Star hotel is a former hotel at the southern edge of Gastown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at 5 West Hastings Street, it is a four-story red brick Victorian Italianate construction completed at an unidentified date, between the 1890s and 1904.
Bruce Eriksen was an artist, social activist and founder of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA). Eriksen and DERA are recognised for materially improving the lives of residents in the Downtown Eastside (DTES).
Robert William Pickton, also known as the Pig Farmer Killer or the Butcher, is a Canadian serial killer, serial rapist, former pig farmer and possible cannibal who is suspected of being one of the most prolific serial killers in Canadian history. After dropping out of school, Pickton left a butcher's apprenticeship to begin working full-time at his family's pig farm. He is believed to have begun his murders in the early 1990s after inheriting the farm. Arrested in 2002, he was convicted in 2007 of the second-degree murders of six women and was also the subject of a lengthy investigation that yielded evidence of numerous other murders.
The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was a commission in British Columbia ordered by the Lieutenant Governor in Council on September 27, 2010, to evaluate the response of law enforcement to reports of missing and murdered women. The commission concluded its Inquiry in December 2012, and outlined 63 recommendations to the Provincial government and relevant law enforcement. The Inquiry itself received criticism from various civil society group and Indigenous communities, regarding its investigative structure, as well as, the lack of government action after the Inquiry to fulfill its recommendations.
Jim Chu, COM is a former-Chief Constable of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD). On June 21, 2007, Chu was named as the successor of Chief Constable Jamie Graham. On January 23, 2015, it was announced Chu was planning to retire after a 36-year career with Vancouver Police and he did officially do so on May 6, 2015, upon the swearing-in of his successor, Adam Palmer.
The Women's Memorial March is an annual event which occurs on February 14 in honour of the lives of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) across Canada and the United States. This event is also a protest against class disparity, racism, inequality and violence.
Trisha Baptie is a Vancouver-based citizen journalist and activist for the abolition of prostitution.
Harsha Walia is a Canadian activist and writer based in Vancouver. She has been involved with No one is illegal, the February 14 Women's Memorial March Committee, the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, and several Downtown Eastside housing justice coalitions. Walia has been active in immigration politics, Indigenous rights, feminist, anti-racist, anti-statist, and anti-capitalist movements for over a decade.
Unclaimed, released as On the Farm in some international markets, is a Canadian TV film starring Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Sara Canning, Patrick Gallagher, Kevin McNulty, Tantoo Cardinal, and Sarah Strange. It is a dramatic narrative adapted from journalist Stevie Cameron's 2010 book of the same name, examining the years leading to serial killer Robert Pickton's arrest and the court proceedings before his conviction.
Shelby Tracy Tom was a Canadian transgender woman who was strangled to death in North Vancouver, British Columbia, after 29-year-old Jatin Patel discovered that Tom was transgender during a sexual encounter.
Liz Evans is a Canadian nurse and harm reduction pioneer. She is the founder of the nonprofit Portland Hotel Society and a cofounder of North America's first sanctioned supervised-injection facility, Insite.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help){{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help){{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help){{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)