Monday, May 19, 2025

California Forever, Vancouver Never

 



California Forever, Vancouver Never: A Wake-Up Call from the Edge of Gentrified Utopias

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

They promised us utopias.
They promised us opportunity.
But all we got were evictions, unaffordable rents, broken communities, and tents on the sidewalks.

From Silicon Valley to East Vancouver, I’ve watched the same story repeat like a tech demo on loop — just shinier each time, with fewer real people invited.

I once had a friend from San Francisco. He lived in the Mission District, where we both saw — and felt — what was coming. As rents exploded, small family-run shops vanished, replaced by trendy hipster cafés. Shuttles came for tech workers who barely knew the neighborhoods they slept in. The rest? Displaced. Gutted. Gone. I felt that same thing happening here in Vancouver. And it only got worse.

The "California Forever" Lie

Now there’s a new story being sold: a project called “California Forever” — a billionaires’ dream to build a “city of the future” on farmland in Solano County. They say it’s for everyone, but who’s really being invited?

They promise jobs, prosperity, green living — but we’ve heard this before. Just like Amazon’s arrival didn’t save the DTES, just like Airbnbs didn’t help renters, and just like condos sitting empty don’t house the unhoused.

It’s a tech utopia for the rich, sold with a smile to a public desperate for change.

Meanwhile in British Columbia…

Let’s not pretend we’re immune.
BC is being carved up. Developers and investors circle like vultures over unceded land. People are living in tents on sidewalks, in ravines, on beaches — while glass towers rise for foreign portfolios and billion-dollar tax shelters.

David Eby’s new housing bills fast-track development but often sideline Indigenous consent and local input. It’s the same playbook with a different cover.

They tell us “everyone will benefit,” but benefits seem reserved for the ones already at the top.

Tech, Water, and the AI Problem

These new cities — in California, in BC, in the minds of tech billionaires — rely on the fantasy that there’s enough for everyone if we just innovate hard enough.

But here’s the truth:

  • BC is facing water shortages.
  • AI and server farms devour energy and water.
  • The more tech we use, the more land we consume.

Who pays the price? Not the billionaires building bunkers or digital fortresses. It’s those who can’t afford the next rent hike, who rely on tap water from overdrawn watersheds, who are already being displaced.

Colonialism in New Packaging

This isn’t new. It's just repackaged.
BC is mostly unceded land — land that has never been rightfully surrendered. And now it’s being sold off, developed, and cleared for profit, often under the excuse of “progress.”

The “California Forever” model is a modern colonialism dressed in solar panels and minimalism aesthetics.

Let’s not forget whose land this really is.
Let’s not forget who is being pushed out — again.

We Need to Speak Now, or Lose Everything

This blog post is a warning and a hope.
A warning that we’re walking the same path as San Francisco — tech-fueled gentrification, erased histories, and deepening inequality.
But also a hope — that we can say something, do something, change something.

Ask yourself:

  • Who is your city really being built for?
  • Are Indigenous voices centered in land decisions?
  • Is housing a human right or a billionaire’s commodity?
  • Will you act before your neighborhood becomes a “development zone”?

My Friend, the Mission, and the Memory

I lost touch with my friend from San Francisco. Our bond was built on shared outrage, on empathy for the working-class and the dreamers being pushed out. I don’t know where he is now, but I hope he’s okay. I hope he sees that more people are finally waking up.

Because the world is watching California Forever.
But they should be watching Vancouver.
And they should be listening to the people being pushed aside — again and again.

It’s time to fight for what’s real.
With art. With words. With truth.
And yes, even with AI — as a weapon for the people.



Want to share

Here’s a curated list of hashtags you can use at the bottom of your blog posts to help it reach more people across platforms like Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn:

General Awareness & Activism

#HousingCrisis

#UnhousedNotInvisible

#RightToHousing

#Gentrification

#StopDisplacement

#LandBack

#UncededTerritory

#SocialJustice

#EnvironmentalJustice

#WaterIsLife

#ClimateJustice

#ResistColonialism

#TechForGood

#EthicalAI

#ReclaimTheFuture


Location-Specific

#VancouverBC

#DTES

#BritishColumbia

#BCPoli

#VanRe

#SolanoCounty

#CaliforniaForever

#MissionDistrict

#WestCoastVoices

#UncededCoastSalishTerritory


Art & Storytelling

#Zipolita

#TinaWinterlik

#Artivism

#VoicesOfChange

#StorytellingForJustice

#BloggersForChange

#IndieMedia

#TruthTellers


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