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I can't say I love Vancouver, but I did try and live away from it and I'm back. I live right downtown a block or two from central Crackville. I like the way this town has cleaned up, I don't want it affordable it will just get messy again. I got my home the only way a long time Vancouverite can (inherited), I haven't seen anyone pee on the side of my building in over a year nor do I see junkies shooting up in my immediate area on a daily basis (just occasionally).
I have photo of myself and my brother taken in 1967 sitting on Santa's knee, the photo was taken at Woodward's just a block from here. My mother drove to Woodward's in her New Yorker wearing an expensive persian lamb fur coat, it was safe and that's where you came to shop when you wanted nice things. Just east of Woodward's on Hastings street was a custom tailor that my father would have suits made back in the 50's.
I don't think Vancouver is being gentrified, I think it is being reclaimed.
I lived away for 10 years and during those years the film industry grew and blossomed, many of the local artist that used to paint and sculpt for a living are working on films, forgoing their own creations.
In my opinion the flakiness that Vancouver has acquired came when the "industry" moved in (yes Vancouver now has an industry). I don't knock the "industry" the artists need it.
If you own a home here, it is quite affordable, because everything else costs about the same as everywhere else. If you live downtown you don't need a car here which is a considerable monthly savings on your cost of living, but yeah you can't go anywhere between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. so I chose to sleep. There are not many cities in North America that you can truly forego a vehicle.
For what it's worth, 2 weekends ago I was snapping photos of Commercial Drive...
Yet another day on Commercial Drive | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/robynobotica/5534832855/ - broken link)
Click on that link above and then keep clicking "older" to see the photos from that day. Most of the photos are from the International Woman's Day parade.
I currently live in Fort Langley but the West End is .....where everybody knows my name. My kids went to Lord Roberts and KG and they have children of their own now. I still see their teachers and friends on the street when I go home for a weekend. I plan to be in a seniors place there when I can't drive anymore.
Two weeks ago, we walked down Robson to Denman and then up to Checkers then all the way downtown and back. We stopped lots and talked lots to all kinds of people. Even the kids in working the streets from Surrey.
Must admit, my elderly mother is now afraid to walk on street and takes the alleys and she's lived at Robson & Bute most of her 85 years. The kids at the language school on Robson push and shove her and she's fallen more than once. They don't even stop to pick her up. I told her to get a big stick and pretend she's blind and wave it back and forth in front of her.
This problem is not only in the West End. Every neighbourhood on the lower mainland has rude, aggressive, spitting on the sidewalk, "peeing in gutters" people that come from different lands with different cultural values. Hell...some of them were even born here. They're called rednecks and they live east of Chilliwack usually.
Us old indigenous elders have to get more aggressive or we'll be pushed out of our homes and put out to pasture somewhere in (god forbid) the Fraser Valley where they thump bibles.
Keep your sense of humour (Canadian style and spelling) and your mind open and visit Vancouver. It's a fun place.
PS
I lived on the Drive for a while because I always wanted to try it and I found the people fabulous but the filth was beyond my ken. Now if we could just move those people to the West End....nirvana.
PPS
Don't ever let anybody tell you Yaletown is the West End. If you move east of Burrard and wear yoga gear, your friends will disown you until you get a grip.
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