The Daily Scot

I found this really interesting to see all the patterns of when things were built in the city, clearly displayed on this map. You can see a patch of very old buildings in Gastown and Strathcona, surrounded by mostly newly built areas in downtown and False Creek. It seems all the highly desirable places in the centre of the city have been mostly rebuilt, with only a handful of truly prized heritage structures surviving, such as the Hotel Vancouver or the Bay building downtown. Then there’s this middle ring, old enough to be built early in the city’s history but not too central to have been rebuilt, which holds most of our heritage stock. It seems to me this ring that is nowadays most threatened with destruction, as gentrification creeps outwards from the core.

I found this map incredibly sad and frustrating. The amount of heritage destruction in Vancouver in the past and present is unbelievable. Look at the West end, what was once a perfect mix of mansions turned rooming houses, row homes and old brick apartments has been bulldozed where hardly anything is left. What could have been today a restored historic neighbourhood similar to Chicago or Brooklyn is a collection of concrete towers floating in either parking or grass.

Not to mention the single family suburbs and the massive demolision on swaths of old bungalows in the 80’s and 90’s. Pan around Portland Oregon on street view and see how all the bungalows are in tact and weren’t torn dorn in the 70’s-90’s like here.

I am worried about the old buildings in japantown, Powell & Cordova streets and around Oppenheimer park, they are falling into decay for a number of reasons and this will be an excuse by a developer to knock down entire blocks and rebuild losing the fine grain street elevation that adds so much character.