A local filmmaker’s documentary chronicles the decline of a once thriving Black neighbourhood in Vancouver and the ongoing efforts to revive it.
Union Street, a feature-length documentary by writer-director Jamila Pomeroy, looks back on Hogan’s Alley — a three-block stretch at the edge of the Strathcona neighbourhood that was once home to much of Vancouver’s Black community.
The Vancouver filmmaker says she always wanted to tell the story of the neighbourhood.
“It really starts back as a child growing up, wondering why there aren’t a lot of Black people in Vancouver and seeing how my family were treated and it really created this sense of longing for belonging and searching for a Black community,” she told CBC’s North by Northwest host Margaret Gallagher.
The area around Vancouver’s Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts was once the heart of a thriving Black community established in the early 1900s known as Hogan’s Alley.
For decades, Hogan’s Alley served as a hub for Vancouver’s Black community before city planning in the 1970s led to the displacement of a once-vibrant neighbourhood.
“[It] was quite a vibrant Black community. We had incredible restaurants, there were a lot of speakeasies and informal businesses,” said Pomeroy.
Black settlement in the area dates back to 1858, when governor James Douglas introduced a policy welcoming Black Californians to British Columbia. The Great Northern Railway station nearby also meant many Black porters chose Hogan’s Alley as a home in the 1920s.
At one point, the neighbourhood was home to more than 800 Black community members and featured the African Methodist Episcopal Chapel, a residence for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, as well as the legendary Vie’s Chicken and Steak House — where Jimi Hendrix’s grandmother Nora, a vaudevillian performer and choir singer, worked as a cook.
Pomeroy says gentrification and urban renewal “to build a better city” led to the displacement of the Black community from the Strathcona neighbourhood.
Much of the area was razed to make way for the Georgia and Dunsmuir street viaducts, which opened in 1972.
“Black folks were denied business licences and liquor licences and mortgages. They were denied basic services like garbage pickup,” Pomeroy said.
“The actual destruction of the community was through racist city planning.”
Steps underway to revive the old neighbourhood
The City of Vancouver has acknowledged it implemented a series of actions between 1931 to 1971 to pressure people into leaving Hogan’s Alley.
The city says it is committed to addressing historical discrimination and redress efforts with Vancouver’s Black and African diaspora communities.
Part of its commitment has been the Northeast False Creek Plan (NEFC), which the city says aims to replace the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts with a new street network.
In an emailed statement to CBC News, the city said the NEFC plan, approved in 2018, is the first official city document to publicly recognize historic discrimination toward the Black community and their displacement from Hogan’s Alley.
North by Northwest15:20“Union Street” documentary explores history of Vancouver’s Black Community
<p>Award-winning writer/director Jamila Pomeroy walks us through Union Street, a new documentary that explores three generations of cultural erasure and reclamation of African Canadian history in the Lower Mainland. </p>
Almost six years since its approval, the project hasn’t made much headway, however.
“These projects have not progressed as quickly as envisaged when the plan was adopted,” the city wrote. “The timing of delivery is also dependent on rezoning enactments and other development conditions, so more exact timelines are not available at this time.”
The plan is anticipated to be implemented over approximately 20 years.
In 2022, Vancouver council also reached an agreement with the Hogan’s Alley Society (HAS) to deliver housing, public benefits and amenities on Hogan’s Alley.
The society’s executive director, Djaka Blais, said in an email to CBC News that the deal specifies that HAS will work with the city to develop rental housing, a cultural centre, child-care spaces and space for small businesses.
The agreement will provide a community land trust and mixed-use redevelopment to the society, for the land bordered by Main and Gore streets to the west and east, and Union and Prior streets to the north and south.
In return, HAS will provide housing, amenities and a cultural centre.
Pomeroy says Union Street not only takes a nostalgic look at the past, but also highlights a new generation of “Black Vancouver change-makers” trying to bring the neighbourhood back to its former glory.
“We have everyone from incredible business owners, chefs, artists, local DJs and musicians … Black folks are taking up space in the city, and it’s been really beautiful to witness.”
Union Street is streaming on Telus and is also screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival Centre on selected dates until March 8.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.