A Brief History of Gentrification in Vancouver
October 7, 2013, 7:00 PM
Free
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre,
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Gentrification is one of the hot topics in contemporary Vancouver, but is it a new phenomenon?
Author/artist Michael Kluckner presents an illustrated historical overview, ranging from the ‘degentrification’ decades before the 1960s to the urban-renewal era and the beginnings, in Strathcona and Kitsilano in the 1970s, of the modern trend toward fixing up deteriorated old buildings in the city’s vintage neighbourhoods.
Some of the highlights:
- the eviction of the Coal Harbour houseboat community in the 1950s,
- the boutiquing of Gastown in the 1960s and the first attempt to “clean up” Pigeon Park,
- the Kitsilano housing battles of the early 1970s and the genesis of local area planning,
- the Expo evictions,
- the gentrification of Kerrisdale in the 1980s
- the saga of Woodward’s and the Downtown Eastside in the past 20 years.
The changing retail landscape on streets such as Robson provides a segue into the contemporary scene, where The Drive and Main Street have become restaurant and boutique backdrops for the painted-up heritage homes of Grandview and Hillcrest.
