Gordon Brent INGRAM Ph.D., environmental planning Guest Lecture „ York University Faculty of Environmental Studies „ March 1995

"Open" space? Reconstructing the (queer) commons Introduction „ The discussion considers the increasingly strategic nature of public space to various communities of marginalized sexualities / sexual minorities. „ The "queering"1 of the village / town / neighbourhood "green" is become a major activist and design project. „ A broader paradigm of "queerscape architecture" requires an interdisciplinary reordering of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, regional planning, and public art-making. Oddly, much of the practice for a queerscape architecture will come from new developments in "public art."2

Problem statement „ With postmodern "dislocation," there is increasing importance of the public space and the neighbourhood / village / town "commons" as a focus of our social lives, particularly for people not in "family" units. „ Within contemporary lesbian and gay activism, there has been an increasing emergence of divergent tendencies: between „ assertion and "reterritorialization"3 / claiming / queering of public space versus „ inclusion and integration of sexual minorities and between creation of „ private queer space versus „ public queer space. 1

See page 32 of David Bell, Jon Binnie, Julia Cream, and Gill Valentine, "All hyped up and no place to go," Gender, Place and Culture (1994) 1(1), 31 - 47. 2

For an overview of new developments in public art, see Suzanne Lacy's 1995 anthology, Mapping The Terrain: New genre publc art. Seattle, Bay Press; Richard Meyer, 1995, "This is to enrage you: Gran Fury and the graphics of AIDS activism," In But Is It Art? The spirit of art as activism. edited by Nina Felshin. Seattle, Bay Press. pp. 51 - 83; Douglas Crimp's 1990, AIDS demo graphics, Seattle, Bay Press.

3

See page 237 of John Paul Ricco's 1993, "Jacking-off a minor architecture," Steam 1(4): 236 - 243.

"Open" space? Reconstructing the (queer) commons Gordon Brent Ingram „ Guest lecture „ March 1995 York University Faculty of Environmental Studies

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„ The means for programming by / for the marginalized has become a central question in urban design, and landscape architecture and architecture, in general, in this decade.

Political and cultural movements and divergent strategies and designs for public space „ With the increasing globalization of capital in urban centres, there has been a "privatization"4 of public space. „ There have been persistent efforts to use public space to better transmit key information such as related to survival, as with safer sex educational materials, and the identification and making of communities. „ There is a broad movement to reclaim and reconstruct public spaces for a broader set of social groups.5

Gendered versus eroticized space „ Under "patriarchy," public space is gendered, and usually dominated by males, before it can ever possibly be transformed to become sites of interaction (with an erotic aspect). „ I am not particularly thinking of sex in the streets or any other form of "public sex,"6 but any kind of public space where people can meet, observe and "play." „ By having those eroticized spaces already gendered, a huge amount of social life is either suppressed or censored especially for women and marginalized sexualities and cultures. „ This patriarchal space is usually maintained through a combination of the following factors: laws and police, economics, violence and the threat of violence... „ Any theory of sexual orientation and outdoor space, at the present time, is largely derivative of feminist critiques of designed space7. Any theory of queers in space must first function to recognize the role of gender of different queer experience and access to space. „ Landscape architect Louise Mozingo8 looked at the increasingly insecure position of women in 4

For an example of contemporary processes of de facto privatization of formally public open space, see Mike Davis, "Chapter Four. Fortress L.A." In City of Quartz: Excavating the future in Los Angeles. (New York: Vintage, 1992), pages 221 - 264. 5

See the essays by Elizabeth A. T. Smith, M. Patricia Fernández-Kelly, and Gwendolyn Wright in the 1994, Urban Revisions: Current projects for the public realm. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press. 6

Pat Califia has a 1994 book of essays called Public Sex produced by Cleis Press of San Francisco.

7

For an early discussion of gendered space, see Jos Boys' 1983 "Women in public space," In Making Space: Women and the man made environment, edited by MATRIX, London, Pluto, pages 37 to 54.

8

See Louise A. Mozingo, "Women and downtown open space," Thesis for a Master of Landscape Architecture degree, University of California, Berkeley, 1984, on file University of California and L. Mozingo, "Women and downtown open space," Places vol. 6 n. 1 (1987), pp. 38 - 47.

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downtown areas as related to diurnal patterns. A contradictory set of relationships of women in the city9 emerges as places of both personal freedom and sites of intensified repression and conflict. The concept of the "spatial caste system," and its relationship to gender disparities, was articulated by Leslie Kanes Weisman when she stated that, "Space, like language, is socially constructed; and like the syntax of language, the spatial arrangements of our buildings and milieus reflect and reinforce the nature of gender, race, and class relations in society. The uses of both language and space contribute to the power of some groups over others and the maintenance of human inequality."10 She posits that, "dual realms of male superiority and female inferiority...protected and maintained through man's territorial dominance and control."11 Environmental experience of marginality „ Minorities often experiences outdoor environments in substantially different ways than more privileged groups. This "difference"12 is often associated with forms of "marginality." „ It is often difficult to describe and ascertain this range of different experiences of environments and "cognitive maps" are often a good starting point. „ One of the most seminal discussions, Frederic Jameson posited "The Need for Maps" with "the aesthetic of such new (and hypothetical) cultural form as an aesthetic of cognitive mapping."13 But as Keith and Pile noted, "Cognitive mapping is in some sense recognized to be both imaginable and impossible...Nevertheless, it is also meant to allow people to become aware of their own position in the world and to give people the resources to resist...These spaces need to be `mapped' so that they can be used by 9

See Elizabeth Wilson, 1991, pp. 6 - 8.

10

See L. K. Weisman, Discrimination by Design: A feminist critique of the man-made environment, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), p. 2.

11

See page 23, L. K. Weisman, 1992.

12

In the rapidly expanding discussions of postcolonial `difference,' the following discussions are particular relevant to considering sexuality and equity: G. C. Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in cultural politics, (New York, Routledge, 1987); J. Terry, "Theorizing deviant historiography," differences: A journal of feminist cultural studies vol. 3 n. 2 (1991), pp. 54 - 74; and Craig Owens, Beyond Recognition: Representation, power, and culture, S. Bryson, B. Kruger, L. Tillman and J. Weinstock (editors), pp. 218 - 235, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). 13

For the clearest relationship between postmodern theory and the notion of cognitive mapping, see Frederik Jameson's "Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism" (New Left Review 146 (July-August 1984), pages 53 to 92.

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oppositional cultures and new social movements against the interests of capital as sites of resistance."14 „ In his 1993 "Queer Spaces, The Space of Lesbians and Gay Men of Color in Los Angeles"15 Eric Estuar Reyes explored the implications of cognitive maps for queer theory and activism and asks, "Just as there is a physical structure of the spaces we inhabit, there is a cognitive structure that we use to locate ourselves in the landscape. For queers and for queers of color, what is this cognitive structure? Is it spatial? How is this important to being, becoming, or negating a queer individual and / or communal identity?"16 „ How we frame identification of a sexual minority, of "coming out"17, and subsequent "spatial contextualization of queerness"18 has tremendous implications for both our identities and our collective relationships to those environments such as through planning, design, and activism.

New (queer) identities and alliances: Some opportunities for re-examining public space and communities „ The terms "queer" is no longer used as the pejorative as it was pre-Stonewall (1969).19 „ "Queer" in this essay is used for the grouped category of lesbians, gay males, bisexual, transsexuals, and transvestites and suggests a departure from earlier lesbian and gay male movements in its implicit and indefinite construction of a "de-centered" `community of difference', and the positing of a "new stance for opposition."20 „ Simon Watney noted that 14

See page 3 of Michael Keith and Steve Pile's 1993 "Introduction. The politics of place. Part 1," In Place and the Politics of Identity, London, Routledge, pages 1 to 21. 15

A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993. 16

Eric Estuar Reyes, 1993, page 93.

17

See Martha Gever in "The names we give ourselves," In Out There: Marginalization and contemporary cultures. R. Ferguson, M. Gever, T. T. Minh-ha, and C. West (editors). 191 - 202, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1990). She began to explore the different roles of identification and coming out, within the context of difference for lesbians and gay men. 18

Gordon Brent Ingram, 1994. Lost landscapes and the spatial contexualizaton of queerness. UnderCurrents: Critical environmental studies (Toronto) (May 1994): 4 - 9 (issue entitled "Queer Nature").

19

For an example of a pre-Stonewall use of the term "queer" for sexual minorities, see Albert Reiss in his 1961 essay, "The social organization of queers and peers," Social Problems 9 (1961): 102 - 120.

20

See Lisa Duggan, 1991, in "Making it perfectly queer" Socialist Review vol. 22 n. 1 pp. 11 - 31.

"Open" space? Reconstructing the (queer) commons Gordon Brent Ingram „ Guest lecture „ March 1995 York University Faculty of Environmental Studies

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"The great convenience of the term `queer' today lies most immediately in its gender and race neutrality. This is only to remark that for many young Americans [Watney differentiates this from the British usage of `queer'] the term `gay' is widely understood to mean `white,' `male,' `materialistic,' and `thirty-something.' On the contrary, `queer' asserts an identity that celebrates differences within a wider picture of sexual and social diversity."21 On page 26 of the same essay, he warned that "`queer' identity recognises that no single term including `queer' can ever resolve all the epistemological and political problems that are inscribed within the current dominant rationality of sexuality and sexual identities." For a more critical comment on the uses and development of `queer' see page 133 in David Bell.22 „ For a discussion of a notion of ‘queer’ from Montréal, somewhat influenced by language politics, see Julianne Pidduck.23 „ (Postmodern) notions of (queer) "communities" 24 and "neighborhoods"25 emphasize the fluid nature of alliances across areas.

Queer space / queer site / queerscapes „ Bell et al. (1994) state that, "Straight space thus becomes the underlying frame with which we work: the space that gays subvert and the place that lesbians cohabit." 26 21

See page 15 of Simon Watney's 1994 essay "Queer epistemology: activism, `outing,' and the politics of sexual identities," ((London) Critical Quarterly 36(1): 13 - 27).

22

David Bell, 1994, "Bi-sexuality - A place on the margins," In The Margins of the City: Gay men's urban lives, Stephen Whittle (editor), Brookfield, Vermont, Ashgate Publishing, pp. 129 - 141.

23

Julianne Pidduck, 1994, "Montréal nouveau-queer communities: Uneasy alliances, trendy activism, and marginality in the balance." in Canadas, semiotext(e) / marginal editions, Peterborough, Ontario, pp. 246 - 255. 24

For a range of usage of the concepts of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual "communities" see John D'Emilio's 1983, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, Chicago, University of Chicago Press; M. Lauria and L. Knopp's 1985 "Towards an analysis of the role of gay communities in the urban renaissance," Urban Geography 6(2): 152 - 169; Anthony Di Augelli and M. M. Hart's 1987 "Gay women, men and families in rural settings: Toward the development of helping communities," American Journal of Community Psychology 15(1): 79 - 93; and D. Wolf's 1979 The Lesbian Community, Berkeley, University of California Press.

25

For a seminal discussion of gay male neighborhoods, see page 161 of M. Lauria and Larry Knopp, 1985, "Towards an analysis of the role of the gay communities in the urban renaissance," Urban Geography 6(2): 152 - 169.

26

See page 32 of David Bell et al, 1994.

"Open" space? Reconstructing the (queer) commons Gordon Brent Ingram „ Guest lecture „ March 1995 York University Faculty of Environmental Studies

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(Ingram's bolds) Note that the gender disparity, in use of public urban space, is altering, though overall vioence is increasing, in many North American cities. Lesbian and gay male communities are tending to be increasingly overlapping even while more specific neighbourhoods are forming. „ The notion of "queerscape" is inspired by Pat Califia's 1991 essay, "The city of desire," which was republished in 1994, with its concepts of a "sex zone" and the related "urban marketplace" (page 205). Pat Califia attributes many of these ideas to the work of Gayle Rubin (pers. comm. 1994). A "queerscape" is not only a landscape, as based on the Flemish root schap, with queers but also one that is decentered, in terms of "supporting" sexual minorities and not exclusively in ways that marginalize, ghettoize, or assimilate. Investigations of the current state of a queerscape can be part of identification of crucial relationships and gaps and to lay the basis for strategizing to counter both homophobia and to build aspects of particular communities and respective spaces.27 „ A queerscape embodies constellations of sites of queer space that are inherently marginal and decentred whatever the dominant sexual epistemology. The concept can be traced back to Barbara Weightman's 1981 essay 28 which outlines "gay spaces" (Page 107) with gay community elements including: time, space, interaction and relationships, knowledge of heterosexual worlds, and "certain unique psychic and experiential dimensions of the gay world." „ More recently, Cindy Patton proposed three "uses" of and political strategies for queer space which she conceived as "complex sets of practices that lead to alliances across space." 1. With greater visibility, bodies marked as queer create queer space around them. 2. With large numbers of people identified as queer, space is created where `queer' is the "norm" and everyone who enters that space is "queered". 3. There is the creation of conflicts and ruptures in space, usually through architecture, that force reassessments and reconstructions. Such jarring landscapes and sites could contribute to the transformations of sexualities, the development of alliances, and the countering of homophobia. This, the most utopian use of the concept of `queer' `space' has rarely been applied.29

27

For a feminist "reading" of "landscape" that is particularly adaptable to both female and male queerscapes, see Gillian Rose' 1993 "Looking at landscapes: The uneasy pleasures of power," In Feminist Geography, London, Routledge, pages 86 to 112.

28

Weightman, B. 1981. Commentary: Towards a geography of the gay community. Journal of Cultural Geography 1: 106 - 112. 29

(Panel discussion "Queer Space 1," Storefront Art and Architecture / Cafe Architettura, New York City, June 19, 1994).

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„ Henry Urbach has noted the dynamic and contradiction embedded in the term as queer with `same-sex-sex,' on one hand, and `queer' as estranged and marginalized on the other hand. He sees a corollary contradiction with space. He also noted the activistic nature of the concept and noted that "Architecture not only represents a stage of social relations but is also a politicized protagonist."30 The functions and inequities in public and private (queer) space „ The crucial issue in the making of queer space, and in the identification of the lack of it, is the nature of the social regulation of "the private use of public space"31. „ Gay male "ghettoes" 32 , gentrification 33 , and outmoded modes regulating the public and the private. „ Private and semi-private queer space includes homes, bars, discos, cafés, services... „ Public queer space is more "shared" and can include streets, parks, promenades, train stations, airport, transport, some of the same businesses mentioned before. „ There is a shift to privatized space that was only mildly countered by ACT UP! / Queer Nation34 / Lesbian Avengers activism. For example, Henry Urbach (1993, page 93) describes the dilemma. "In his 1977 book, The Sexual Outlaw, John Rechy wrote about public gay sex in Los Angles. Rechy's characters endlessly rove...They constitute a 30

(Panel discussions, Queer Space 1). For an overview of the concept of `queer space,' see Manifestos: Queer Space, New York, Storefront Art and Architecture, June, 1994. 254 pp. and Queer Space, New York, Storefront Art and Architecture, (broadside), 4 large newsprint pages. Herbert Muschamp's review of the exhibition in Architecture View, "Designing a framework for diversity," (The New York Times, Sunday, June 19, 1994, Sunday Arts Section page 32 (full page)) notes "`Queer space' is a catchy term, but what does it mean? Don't ask, don't tell, one is tempted to say." In what is probably veiled reduction of queerness to sexual acts, Muschamp notes "Queer space can be ghettoized social or sexual playgrounds."

31

see L. K. Weisman, 1992, pp. 67 - 84.

32

One of the most seminal discussions of the "gay ghetto," even though the term had already been in use for well over ten years, is Martin P. Levine, 1979, "Gay ghetto," In Gay Man: The sociology of male homosexuality, pp. 182 - 204.

33

For some key discussions of gay male gentrification in North America, see Larry Knopp, "Some theoretical implications of gay involvement in an urban land market," Political Geography Quarterly vol. 9 (1990), pp. 337 - 352, M. Lauria and Larry Knopp, 1985, "Towards an analysis of the role of the gay communities in the urban renaissance," Urban Geography 6(2): 152 - 169, and Anne-Marie Bouthillett, 1994, "Gentrification by gay male communities: A case study of Toronto's Cabbagetown," see David Bell, 1994, "Bi-sexuality - A place on the margins," In The Margins of the City: Gay men's urban lives, Stephen Whittle (editor), Brookfield, Vermont, Ashgate Publishing, pp. 65 - 83. For an example of the discussions of gay male-related gentrification in the liberal North American press, see Karen De Witt, 1994, "Gay presence leads revival of declining neighborhoods," The New York Times Tuesday, September 6, 1994: A14.

34

Geltmaker, T. 1992. The Queer Nation acts up: health care, politics, and sexual diversity in the County of Angels. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (10): 609 - 650.

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loose coalition of renegades united in rituals and codes of sexual practice...The scenes described by Rechy may continue to occur somewhat, but, in the context of AIDS and increasingly violent gay-bashing, sex clubs have emerged as an alternative: for a fee, queers gain access to enclaves of semi-public sex that are free of police, bashers, and unsuspecting passersby." [word emphasis by Ingram]35 „ Public queer space does not have to involve a direct charge (but may such as the cost of entrance to a park) whereas semi-private queer space is getting increasingly expensive. Truly public queer space is being squeezed by the privatization of public space, in general, and the need to commodify services by getting people to spend money (e.g. cover charges). Towards an (activist) queerscape architecture „ The notion of an architecture of queerscapes with such functions (broader programme elements) as enhanced: equity between queer / nonqueer groups and between queer communities (as related to gender, race, language, culture, age, disability...) safety freedom of expression protection of privacy transmission of information options for making contact diversity of services „ The need for interdisciplinary environmental design. "Is it planning? Is it architecture? Is it landscape architecture? No, it's queerscape architecture." „ Integrating queerscape architecture issues into broader design and planning frameworks. Reconstructing the queer commons: Three examples from Vancouver Stanley Park „ English Bay and Stanley Park comprise a well-loved Canadian queerscape but is one that is also an arena for gay-bashing and assaults on women. The park is adjacent to one of the largest concentrations of gay men in Canada, the West End. Women do not use the park anywhere near as much as men except for some relatively safe, well-manicured promenades along the sea. While violence is nowhere near the levels of comparable parks in other North American cities, the areas has become something of a landscape of fear at night. Night male sex in "The Enchanted Forest" is at such concentrations that there is a relatively safety in numbers. But the culture and fetishization of anonymity may be on the decline or at least have peaked for a while. „ The promenade at sunset is also a major arena for cruising along with many other park users. The presence of recent immigrants and refugees, with their own traditions of public open space, make the social interplays increasingly diverse. The well-lit edges of the park have become increasingly commercialized and because of greater use have become safer queer 35

Urbach, Henry. 1993. Spatial Rubbings. Sites Architecture 25: 90 - 95.

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spaces. Housing stock in this neighbourhood, which for over 50 years has been oriented to the single adult, is some of the most expensive in Canada and is increasingly given to postmodern spectacle in a time of superficial wealth coupled with political uncertainty.36 One café, with a view of English Bay, has been especially redesigned, through Disneyesque techniques, to celebrate the disparities of view, access, and sex at this Canadian terminus. But even coffee and café society, as the Canadian standard of living declines, can be expensive. There is always a price for enjoying this queerscape. „ More lighting will be necessary as probably will be call boxes. The increasingly ubiquitous presence of mountain bicyclists deters some violent crime in the forest but can also be dangerous and cause further damage to the degrading forest. Controls on "trampling" may be necessary to protect the roots of large trees. Wreck Beach „ Vancouver is graced with one of the largest nude beaches in the world. From sunny days from April to October, up to 5,000 people use the beaches at the north side of the mouth of the Fraser River near The University of British Columbia. There is Wreck Beach, which is the most crowded and especially heterosexual, where hundreds of people congregate while dodging frisbees amidst a carnival atmosphere. Along a more remote beach, closer to the river and an ecological reserve for the Great Blue Heron and a few vestiges of ancient forest, is a strip of four linked queer male nodes. Nearby is an industrial seascape with extensive log booms and barges with sawdust being exported to the U.S. and Japan. These lands are managed by the Greater Vancouver Regional District while being claimed by the Musqueam Nation which has a village on a traditional site a few kilometres further along the shore. There is also another beach on open sea near Wreck Beach, called Tower Beach, where the shore is more abrupt, where people are less numerous and are often in small groups. This is the area that lesbians have tended to use. „ The current spatial apportionment of Wreck Beach formed about 25 years ago at the time of the beginnings of the social changes brought with the sexual revolution, the counterculture, women's liberation, and gay liberation. The main beach became something of an arena for male desires for women and was never very friendly to dykes. Gay men began congregating in "the flat area" off Wreck Beach which has been extended to the forest and nascent marshes formed by the construction of the breakwater for the booms and barges. Daytime cruising and public male sex became established and the old-growth rain forest has been trampled and sculpted ever since. As the number of men has increased, the system of beaches, trails, clearings, and natural props has expanded. The area has become a regional centre for gay men with some people driving up regularly from Seattle. „ Different gay male communities have formed and reformed including "Glamour Beach" / "Attitude Point," depending on one's mood, where coiffures and configurations of facial hair have tended to closely follow fashion trends and are remarkably uniform at any one time. Glamour Beach involves a different access point and is difficult to find for people taking buses while "the flat area" has been more connected and vulnerable to the vagaries 36

For an indication of the picturesque and the role of the interplay of the landscape and big, postmodern buildings in the current Pacific Canadian condition, Jeff Derksen noted that "the centripetal nature of national identity has to turn away from its own oppressive history...In this ideological grid, the landscape safely stands as a façade for larger themes, or exists as "pure" image - condensed and docile but unable to enter a socio historical dialogue that would make it illegitimate. As Pat Lowther notes in the poem `Coast Range': `The land is what's left / after the failure / of every kind of metaphor.'" (Derksen 1994, page 149).

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of the masses at Wreck Beach. The trails are labyrinths of mud and thick forest and on a warm day will have hundreds of men taking walks many of which having sex along the way. The intimacy of passing strangers, many with slightly-more-than-flaccid penises, along the narrow forest trails, give new meanings to the term "gendered spaces." There is also a "drive-by" sex area above the cliffs and these areas are used by older gay men. „ For nudity and picnicking, lesbian and other women's communities have tended to use Tower Beach or more remote beaches outside of the city. Some women have suggested that if harassed or attacked they would feel more secure in asking for the assistance of women in families and heterosexual couples that to their "gay brothers." Another beach, north of Vancouver, has been increasingly used by more courageous dykes but the neighbours have been vicious and have pressured the RCMP into a number of busts. In contrast, nudity on Wreck Beach, including the plethora of well-exposed penises, has been legal for over a decade. Not surprisingly, the gaze of the penis dominates the best sites of the Wreck Beach area. While the spatial-gender inequities have been long recognized, there has been little discussion and much of it, on the part of some gay men, has been appallingly mysogonistic. Occasionally, a few well-pierced young dykes, dressed in nothing Mr. Marten books, tattoos, and multiple piercing, march along the trails but this has been largely for theatre. „ In reconstructing this queerscape, for equity and diversity, a few possibilities emerge. A concentrated dyke presence in one of the gay male nodes would probably "demysogonize" it rather quickly but would involve a lot of work unless a community of lesbians had formed expressly for public sex. But given the rising level of mysogonistic violence in Canada, the undergrowth along the trails will remain frightening. Creation of a lesbian enclave near Tower Beach might be more viable and probably would involve less confrontations with "dicks." In terms of management of biophysical factors, limits will be necessary for trampling and trail expansion. Some kinds of policing might also give more space to groups of lesbians. In the long-term, the Musqueam Nation may well take back control of the area that includes the gay male beaches or at least will start making a presence to limit activities around sacred sites. And many Native governments in the region are now charging for access to beach access on traditional lands. Commercial Drive „ As Vancouver expanded and its west side become more expensive, in the 1970s, the women's and lesbian movements coalesced into a loose community. Because many of the associated services and institutions were modest and underfunded, they were forced to gravitate to a part of the central city that had cheap rents and, at the time, this was the Commercial Drive area. In Vancouver, there is a west side / east dichotomy similar to other west coast cities, notably the San Francisco Bay area, with lesbian spaces forming in less affluent neighbourhoods east of the city center. The Commercial Drive area37 with older houses from before WWI, is one of Vancouver earliest ethnic neighbourhoods with well-established Italian, Portuguese, Croatian, Chinese and a number of other eastern and southern European and Asian communities. Feminist and counterculture businesses and institutions were established less than a decade before gentrification would begin to push these and other less affluent groups out. And these often educated and native English-speaking women were readily integrated into the early phases of gentrification. 37

Serafin, Bruce. 1994. Cultural workers and moslem hats - Notes on Commercial Drive. In Vancouver Representing the Postmodern City. Paul Delany (editor). pp. 144 - 161. Vancouver, Arsenal Pulp Press. pages 81 - 96.

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„ While the Commercial Drive area continues to have some of the most vibrant street life in Vancouver, many businesses, offices, and employers without large financial resources are gradually being pushed south and east to areas that are more car-oriented and suburban in densities and the delivery of services. Women's institutions have tended to try to stay in the neighbourhood but as the onslaughts of government funding cuts continue, lesbian presence remains scattered and diluted. „ Women with children often "hang out" less in public open space unless at playgrounds and between services. "The Drive" as a promenade connecting a number of strategic service nodes is the heart of this queerscape. And these are is exactly on the lines of contestation for a range of other groups. Lesbian visibility becomes crucial to assert a positive queer space but because many women and their families have less disposable income, many of the associated businesses are forced to cater to more heterosexual groups as well. For women, this queerscape still works on the classic, invisibility / visibility dynamic explored by Lesbian Avenger founder Maxine Wolfe (1992) though the one women's cafe recently went out of business and there are few bars in the area. But effective queerscape architecture, for this centre within a region which is the largest lesbian urban enclave in western Canada, will require looking at the linkages between national and provincial policy and the global impacts on an increasingly vulnerable domestic economy. „ The following are some key elements of a strategy to protect this queerscape. Lesbians and their families will require cheaper housing than is currently available in the area. Land values have become too expensive. The federal subsidies for housing coops were stopped by the previous Conservative Party government but have not been revived. Coops on cheaper pieces of land in the area could maintain and increase lesbian presence. Expanded bus service will be necessary. Expansion of the queerscape into the cheaper margins might be possible when numbers increased. But new businesses would have to compete with aggressive chains such as the cafés of the Starbucks Corporation and various grants and other supports might be necessary. And the level of street crime would have to be kept low in order for those women and their families to be able to assert more of a public presence. There are a number of inclusive organizations and ceremonies, such as a summer lantern festival organized by the Public Dreams Society in a park that often has drug dealing, that have tended to confirm the presences of lesbians and their families.

Conclusions: The broader implications for environmental planning and design „ Queerscape architecture is but one result of shifts in geography, environmental planning, and design in response to marginality. „ The need to create spaces clearly programmed for communities of sexual minorities is due in part to the decline in importance of older framings of class and ethnicity. But queerscape architecture can in no way lessen the continued importance of these other divisions and identifications in our lives. „ There has been the creation and appropriation of sites of homosexual contact for over well over a century but these spaces were previously hidden and marginalized. Queerscape architecture is part of a process of demanding for adequate and equitable distribution of resources related to security, access, aesthetics, and "space." „ The long-term impact of queerscape architecture will be not only in its strategies for expanding

"Open" space? Reconstructing the (queer) commons Gordon Brent Ingram „ Guest lecture „ March 1995 York University Faculty of Environmental Studies

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inclusion and minimizing disparities between queer and less marginalized space but also in providing a basis for looking at disparities between lesbian and gay groups, of various ethnicities, languages, ages, disability etc., in the various enclaves that are forming.