East Van sheds its bad rep and emerges as Vancouver's cultural heart

[SpongeG]

East Van sheds its bad rep and emerges as Vancouver's cultural heart

By JOHN MACKIE, Vancouver Sun January 5, 2011 6:21 PM Comments (6)

VANCOUVER -- East Van has had a bad rep for decades. It’s the poor side of town, a scary no-man’s land you steer clear of when the sun goes down.

Frankly, you get the feeling many people on the west side would rather live in Nanaimo than east of Main Street. But wait!

Rising rents and real-estate prices have pushed many people out of Kits and Point Grey and over to Main, Commercial and Strathcona.

Main Street has in fact become Vancouver’s main street, a vibrant strip humming with many of the city’s hippest new stores and restaurants. (Not the high-end, chi-chi places, but the most interesting ones.)

East Van’s coolest bar, the Waldorf, has been refurbished and reinvented as a hipster hangout. In tandem with the cheese mecca Les Amis du Fromage, it’s bringing life back to a long-dead part of Hastings.

Commercial Drive has been happening for years, an exotic blend of groovy restaurants and offbeat stores. Donald’s Market anchors a thriving shopping district around Hastings and Nanaimo.

In November more than 10,000 people trekked down to the Eastside Culture Crawl, a decade-old event where East Van’s many artists open up their studios to the public.

East Van even has its own icon, the giant East Van cross (Monument for East Vancouver) artist Ken Lum erected on the bluff at Clark Drive and Great Northern Way.

A shift in the public perception seems to be afoot. In many eyes, East Van has become the cool part of town, the cultural heart of Vancouver.

Lum says this is nothing new.

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Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Eas...l+heart/4065913/story.html#ixzz1AEDZ0kah