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In the last week, picketers have also begun massing outside Cuchillo, a nearby Latin American restaurant.

“I got a sense it was a bunch of yuppies from out of the neighbourhood because I’ve never seen them around before,” said Rob Morgan of the Pidgin protesters.

One of the people who read out the Pigeon Park statement, he is a former DTES squatter who now lives in the Woodward’s Building, a nearby complex that mixes social and high-end housing.

Fern Jeffries, a representative of the Crosstown Residents Assocation, called the protesters “middle-class kids from North Van,” referring to a high-income municipality located just across the Burrard Inlet.

“It’s not like the protesters are actually poor residents,” said Ms. Jeffries, adding there are better ways to advocate for the poor than “destroying the personal business aspirations of a few entrepreneurs who have hired local people and contributed to the development of the community.”

Many of the new businesses in Canada’s poorest postal code certainly do not seem to fit the bill as traditional gentrifiers.

Some of them, such as Save on Meats, are downright idealistic. The combination butcher shop/diner hires local people, marshals local food donations and provides meeting space for community organizations.

Nevertheless,in March Save on Meat’s sidewalk sandwich board was stolen by a group calling itself the Anti-Gentrification Front, whose members said they were actors in a “ghetto revolt.”