Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Get any two Vancouverites in a room and you can take bets on how long it will be be-
fore they start talking about house prices. Many locals will tell you they've been priced
out of the market and expect to be renting forever (or else moving to suburban Abbots-
ford). Those who do buy property appear to have healthy joint incomes but still only
just squeak by.
It's sometimes said that Vancouver has become the victim of its own success. It's re-
putedly one of the best places in the world to live - according to various global surveys
- and was thrust into the international spotlight as the host of a highly regarded 2010
Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. All of which means that even traditionally
grungy or cheap neighborhoods such as Gastown, Strathcona, Main St and Commercial
Dr - areas that have a long track record of housing the city's artists, bohemians and
low-income locals - have become trendy, sought-after spots that command prices un-
heard of in the city just a few years ago.
Gentrification
The city's sprawling Downtown Eastside district - which includes Gastown and Chin-
atown - has been rapidly gentrifying in recent years, with historic old buildings now re-
paired and repainted into live-work spaces and hip coffee shops. Heritage spaces are
being restored, but transforming grungy old neighborhoods into cool new hipster
havens has a flip side. The locals who have called this area home for decades - many of
whom have long-standing drug, poverty or mental-health issues - don't necessarily
want to leave and are in no mood to be priced out of the neighborhood. There are
dozens of social-housing developments in this area and there likely always will be.
While the mayor has stated publicly that the city will end homelessness in Vancouver
by 2015, the Downtown Eastside continues on a tense path of development, balancing
the needs of those who want to improve the area and those who have always lived here
and don't want their home to change.
No Fun City?
In the years leading up to the 2010 Olympics, Vancouver gained a reputation for bur-
eaucratic stickling that made it difficult for new events and festivals to take off, and for
existing businesses - especially those related to booze - to expand their offerings. The
phrase 'no fun city' emerged to cover what many saw as a small-minded, parochial ap-
proach, despite Vancouver's claim to being a world-class city. But the 2010 Games
were a turning point. Locals showed that they could party without causing trouble and
Search WWH ::




Custom Search