Beef ribs are in the oven, braising, and laundry is done (thought not yet put away). I've had a coffee run, and I'm contemplating baking. Conrad will be home in about 6 hours. A summary of my day right there.
The last batch of Vancouver photos, pulling into the blog some disjointed things and thoughts.
The first bunch of photos are from a week ago yesterday. We had arrived late the day before, touching down in the midst of heavy, wet falling snow. To borrow from FXK: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Snow? In Vancouver? In mid-April? Apparently it set a record for latest snowfall, and the Island was hit far worse than we had it. Most of it was gone the next morning, but the effects could be seen in the freshly whitened mountains, the flower petals knocked off the trees, and the patches left partly unmelted in shady areas. By mid-afternoon, all was sunshine and spring again, but it was a jolt for as long as it lasted.
The second set of photos are from the Monday morning drive to the ferry. Not far from us - between our home and downtown, really - is an unsavoury (rather too savoury?) part of the city. We've walked through there late in the morning before, and it's not an area to linger. Many street folk loitering, drugs being bought and sold before your slightly disbelieving eyes, shuttered storefronts on long-neglected buildings. Conrad was at first rather upset that we had bought so close to the area without realizing it, but to be honest, I knew it was there. Our postal code "prefix" is one of the poorest in Canada, in fact, though perhaps not for long. Our little nook of the neighbourhood has already sprouted numerous shiny new condos, more go up nearby in Chinatown, and with the development of
the old Woodwards store into a set of condos, the shabbiness is gentrifying and pricing up. Beyond that, the real downtown rises quickly above the street.
So what happens to the street folk? I don't know. I suspect that, much like in any other city, they end up in another neighbourhood or two, and I'm of two minds over that based on my conscience and on my real estate holdings. For now, though, not all of inner Vancouver is quite so prosaic as everyone seems to think. Walk on over to our place and see what I mean.
The last set of photos are from a part of the city that has successfully renewed itself. The Wicker Park of Vancouver, perhaps - hip, trendy, getting more expensive - is Yaletown. Hmmm, maybe it's more like the South Loop given the proliferation of glass towers. I do recall a visit a handful of years ago, with Conrad, when we walked past so many construction sites in early stages. Now it's mostly filled in. The former
Expo '86 grounds are quite unrecognizable as former industrial land, and once the Olympic Village fills in the opposite shore of False Creek, pretty much all of that stretch of waterfront will have been redeveloped. Credit to the city for keeping it accessible and walkable, though, at least. And there are nice touches: these shots are from a poem embedded in the sidewalk, recalling an earlier incarnation of the area.
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