I grew up in Vancouver. My grandmother and my mother grew up in Vancouver.
Throughout my school and young adult years, I attended many productions at the Slocum House Theater and had friends who have been long-time players with this company. It is a true treasure and anchor for the arts in Vancouver. To lose it because the Slocum House Theater can no longer afford the artificially inflated rent that the downtown gentrification process has caused would be a real shame.
Every time I return, I see more change, and most of it is for the worse. Subdivisions and strip malls, elite communities along the Columbia where we used to pick blackberries. … Greed has taken our pretty little town with its unique history and turned it into a cookie-cutter copy of every other bedroom community across the country. Reckless zoning laws and lack of planning has created a vacuum with which most Vancouverites cannot keep pace.
Hopefully, for Slocum House Theater and for Vancouver, a lease agreement can be reached that is an acceptable compromise that will allow this fine company to retain its home. Vancouver institutions are disappearing fast, and if a person has a way to stop that from happening, that is the right thing to do.
Laurie Smith, Fairbanks, Alaska
