Kerrisdale was a major residential/commercial area back when Vancouver still had the street car. It was a neighbourhood created from elite classes (primarily wealthy British citizens) and they would have their elaborate sprawling mansions built in the area as it was as far as the street car could take them away from downtown (which was then full of railyards, slaughterhouses on False Creek and such - not as pretty as it is today). So as far as Vancouver history goes, Kerrisdale is actually an old Vancouver neighbourhood... which is why it feels more urban than you might expect.
The neighbourhood is historically very white (British) and upper class, and a lot of its residents have been there for generations.
Of course, then the late 80's and early 90's came around and Hong Kong immigrants started to flee the future communist reign of their city and started to move to Vancouver by the tens of thousands. During this time lot of older character homes with mature gardens/shrubs were demolished to create even larger houses that were designed for the Hong Kong market... aka: the pink stucco-clad boxy "monster house" (complete with a paved front yard). And of course, Kerrisdale residents were very upset about this sudden change to "their" neighbourhood, and it's well-documented:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4D6113FF93AA25751C1A967958260
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=011b7438-172c-4126-ba42-2c85828bd6ce&k=44011
But that's a non-issue today.
Nowadays Kerrisdale still has very beautiful homes along the side streets, and a lot of what were independent restaurants and shops (catering to the upper class British demographics) have since been replaced by sushi joints, Baby Gap, Nike, and the like. Lots of gentrification in the past 5-10 years. Of course, there are still a few local institutions, like Hills of Kerrisdale, and Thomas Hobbs Florist, which most people think of when they think of Kerrisdale.