[chowhou]

In an effort to go against the inevitable complaint tide...

I find the Lonsdale corridor to be much more vibrant than it was when I was a kid. It used to feel like Kingsway, now it feels like Robson. The slow and steady de-prioritization of cars on Lonsdale has not been uncontroversial, but I think it's easily been for the better.

It used to be that when you went for a walk or bike up in and around the Lower Seymour Conservation Area (Demonstration Forest anyone?) you might not see a single person for a while, now you'll definitely see a few along the way. Could be a plus or minus depending on the person. Certainly feels safer to me.

As a kid I used to spend time in East Van where I now live, and at the time there existed this concept known as the "crack house" which little kids were not supposed to go anywhere near. They seem to have all but gone extinct now that derelict 1920s houses rent for much more than what a couple of junkies can afford. Sure they're no longer cheap housing, but it's a little nice that they're kept up and don't have smashed glass and tires in the unmowed lawns anymore.

The culinary choices have expanded greatly. Asian restaurants used to be pho, Westernized Cantonese restaurants, and sushi roll places. Now we have damn near every cuisine on the globe available in Vancouver.

Active mobility has become more and more viable in the city. People might think I'm talking about bike lanes, but I'm even talking about just plain sidewalks. There are still streets in Vancouver that don't even have sidewalks, and there were far fewer when I was a kid. It's nice to be able to walk through my neighbourhood on sidewalks that I know didn't exist when I was a kid. The steady creation of the Vancouver biking network has been great too.

Transit has changed from being a service for the poors to being the bedrock for a lot of people's lives (even the rich!) and the service reflects that. I have friends that individually earn well above and beyond six figure incomes and would generally prefer if we meet at Skytrain stations rather than drive to destinations. Skytrain trains and stations and busses are no longer rickety cheap-o material things and are made to be nice pleasant places to be. Another plus or minus, I personally wouldn't mind going back to building cheapo gets-the-job-done Skytrain lines.

In fact, when I was a kid, Skytrain was still a controversial subject and hard to get approved. It's crazy to think that a couple of decades ago opposing Skytrain expansion in Vancouver was a viable platform for municipal politicians. Now it seems every single municipality is clamoring if not begging for Skytrain expansion.

Ironically, Vancouver felt a lot bigger back then. Maybe it's because I was a kid but Coquitlam and Richmond and Surrey felt so far. Now I can just hop on the Skytrain and get shuttled over without a second thought.