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Originally Posted by someone123
Mount Pleasant is interesting in that it was a little less linear and more blob-like to begin with since it's where 3 streets converge, and now on top of that there's a lot of infill happening and a subway station going in. It will have a much more urban feel soon than an area like Commercial Drive and 1st, which is a strip of shops with single use residential around it.
It's impressive how far out you can find consistent strips of storefront shops in Vancouver along streets like Kingsway or Granville; I'd call all of those "street-based neighbourhoods". It wasn't a large city back when that type of development went out of style in most of North America.
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One of the things that makes Vancouver livable is the prevalence of pedestrian oriented commercial streets, which as you say, do extend out far from downtown, even in the suburbs.
Vancouver neighborhoods are usually not named for actual streets, the streets tend to be very long in length, so simply "Hastings" would not make much sense, Hastings Street stretches for 8 miles through Vancouver and Burnaby, but there is an area called "Hastings-Sunrise" to be more specific.
Some Vancouver neighborhoods began as land developments, and the names were chosen by them, and others were named for transit purposes, the name of tram stops or other facilities.
Mount Pleasant began as a land development, and is called after the birthplace of the land developer's wife in Ireland, but the trendy area of Main Street is sometimes called "South Main".
Kerrisdale is similar, and was the name of a tram stop to begin with, the birthplace of an early resident in Scotland.
Shaughnessy was named for the president of the CPR when it was developed as a high end residential land development, but some of the area adjacent is named for a commercial street, South Granville.
Kitsilano (Kits) is named for the Indian band that was originally there.
Strathcona was named for the school that already existed there, but it was originally just called "East End".
The Oakridge neighbourhood is named after the Oakridge Transit Centre, a facility established by B.C. Electric.