"He would rent rooms to a new kind of young people he had noticed."

"Back in Vancouver in 1968 Killam started acquiring evil-smelling Gastown flophouses while real estate salesmen clapped each other on the back. Boulder Rooms, on Cordova Street, had been on the market for more than two years at $47,000. Killam picked it up for $19,000 and was considered a very foolish young man. Its market value is now $125,000. Killam’s invariable strategy was to kick out the derelicts and scrape away dirt and plaster to expose original beams and brick. He would rent the rooms to a new kind of young people he had noticed."      -- Jon Ruddy, Maclean's, January 1st, 1971

Gastown's "Gassy Jack" Deighton is the kind of character settlists (settlers who operate from an unexamined position of privilege) hold up as an emblem of fun. Shortly after the commissioned copper statue of Deighton and his beer keg was erected by real estate developer Larry Killam in 1970, its head went missing, only to be returned months later for a $50 reward. More recently, the statue has undergone a form of social stigmata -- the blood on its hands coming not from within but from without.