Metro Vancouver has (most likely) reached 3 million residents

[giallo]

According to the newest Statscan data, Vancouver reached 2,971,853 at the end of 2023, growing by over 120,000 people in a single year. By that metric, Vancouver has already surpassed 3 million people in 2024.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1...pid=1710014801

So how has the city changed in your eyes?

It definitely feels more busy on the sidewalks. Downtown between Robson, Granville, Burrard and Georgia used to be the only area in the metro that had a critical mass of people walking around, but that has spread to areas like Cambie and Broadway, Waterfront Station, Commercial/Broadway and around Metrotown Station.

Traffic doesn't seem any worse than it was ten years ago (it was bad ten years ago). I'm sure that has to do with WFH being a thing, and TOD developments still being a big part of our new housing stock.

[idunno]

A few of my observations:

- Vehicle delays to/from the North Shore via the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge have gone way up. I'm not sure that this is a massive increase in trips, as opposed to a moderate increase that just took the road system past its functional limits.

- Transit ridership pre-pandemic was increasing at a very high rate, and alongside it crowding/overcrowding. This has mostly returned in 2024 with more population growth. I think I saw a graph from TransLink at some point this year that showed transit service hours per capita has gone down since the early 2010s, which really explains the increase in overcrowding.

- WFH is still impacting the CBD significantly. The sidewalks/streets feel less consistently bustling with office workers 5 days a week.

[stump]

Car traffic is far worse for the routes I always take to and from work at least. That's either direction from Burnaby to Richmond.

[WarrenC12]

I don't commute by car, but the #1 highway can be brutal even during non-rush hour. The section between the 2nd Narrows to the Burnaby border is very busy. Don't even get me started on the Abbotsford area.

And it was expanded less than 20 years ago.

[giallo]

That's true. The #1 is a brutal stretch of road between Chilliwack and Surrey. I dread driving it during tourist season the most. No matter what day of the week, it'll be gridlock from around 7:30am to 7pm.

[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.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by idunno

- Transit ridership pre-pandemic was increasing at a very high rate, and alongside it crowding/overcrowding. This has mostly returned in 2024 with more population growth. I think I saw a graph from TransLink at some point this year that showed transit service hours per capita has gone down since the early 2010s, which really explains the increase in overcrowding.

Agreed. Crowding is considered acceptable here. I recently spent time around Helsinki and was shocked by how frequent and uncrowded their service is, for a metro population half our size. The commuter train system, the metro, the buses, none of them were at their limits. In fact, I wondered how they could afford the service level in place considering how we constantly come up against funding shortages. Part of me thought it was overbuilt but I think that’s the scarcity mindset we absorb here.

I also loved the services and shops. For example, a bus/metro interchange station had three grocery stores, so you have competition and choice, as opposed to a monopoly built into one brand’s contract with the developer/owner. Another topic would be highways, which really go beyond what we experience in BC. I couldn’t believe how many tunnels I drove through that would never exist here with similar topography, on low traffic highways that run through quite rural areas. Nice gas stations seemingly in the middle of nowhere as well, with good food, tons of selection.

[djmk]

Huge areas are better now than before.. Not just Lonsdale, but areas around the olympic village, David Lam park, Coal harbour are significantly better now.

People actually live on top of SFU and UBC creating cool little communities! This would be crazy talk in the early 90s

And it seems so much safer now as well. Lonsdale was once rough. Burnaby was rough. East Van rough. Sex workers were everywhere at one point.

Its also shocking how things stayed the same. Burnaby Heights has barely changed. North Van east of 2nd Narrows is exactly the same.

things that is really changed:
1) Vancouver is now too bougie for strip clubs. They were everywhere at one point
2) bike paths. The only one was the 7-11 trail under the skytrain
3) Metrotown... wow

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by djmk

And it seems so much safer now as well. Lonsdale was once rough. Burnaby was rough. East Van rough. Sex workers were everywhere at one point.

Ditto about things being safer. A friend of mine from university grew up in East Van and when we go out for dinner sometimes he'll point out that this pho restaurant or that dessert shop used to be no-go zones if you were part of the wrong gang. Remember that Yaletown used to be the bad part of town too!

Its also shocking how things stayed the same. Burnaby Heights has barely changed. North Van east of 2nd Narrows is exactly the same.

I somewhat disagree, Maplewood has been slowly but steadily growing despite council's best efforts to salt the earth, the reserve has been in a continuous building boom for the last 20 years, and we're starting to see new townhouse slowly radiate out from Parkgate along the Parkway along with the big new development happening at Lytton and the Parkway. The Deep Cove and Dollarton neighbourhoods are complete lost causes, but I'm not going to take this East North Van slander standing up!

1) Vancouver is now too bougie for strip clubs. They were everywhere at one point

I don't think that's just a Vancouver thing, talking to older generations I think that was just a 70s/80s thing.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Remember that Yaletown used to be the bad part of town too!

Yaletown was "boys town" with young male prostitutes ~25 years ago. It all changed when people moved into all of the Concord developments and others.

Originally Posted by chowhou

I don't think that's just a Vancouver thing, talking to older generations I think that was just a 70s/80s thing.

The two oldest(?) strip clubs are still in Vancouver. But I think it's more about the internet. Porn is widely available. Same story with prostitutes being basically gone too.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

The two oldest(?) strip clubs are still in Vancouver. But I think it's more about the internet. Porn is widely available. Same story with prostitutes being basically gone too.

Yup. The internet changed our cities so much it's not even funny. From sex to retail, we're still seeing the changes happen today. Now, it's the death of nightclubs as the new generations are happy to hang out with each other online, and meet partners on dating apps.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Yaletown was "boys town" with young male prostitutes ~25 years ago. It all changed when people moved into all of the Concord developments and others.

Rail town.

[RedArbutus]

Originally Posted by djmk

olympic village

OV has come so far. I remember being around there like....2012 and just thinking what a deadzone. I didn't have anything against the glass mid-rise buildings themselves but there was nothing going on there: no "street activation", no sense of community, nada. But by the late 2010s it really came into its own. Honestly I think the linchpin was the seawall which ironically came before OV. Even if the local residents make the community, the way that the seawall integrates with public space is just so well done. It's a great spot to be around in the summer.

[mcj]

Growing up in Surrey, there's been so much loss of natural spaces that were once giant backyards with huge trees on them. They still exist, but the impact of sprawl is crazy to think back on. Here's an interactive map showing what I mean

[BaddieB]

120,000 people in one year. Meanwhile last year there were only 33k housing starts in Metro Vancouver.

The housing crisis is a choice made by the Trudeau government. Curbing immigration during a housing shortage is the sane, rational thing to do (make exceptions for construction workers or nurses if you want to). Unfortunately, our leader, who doesn't think about monetary policy and balancing budgets, doesn't grasp supply and demand either. Or worse, he does, but just doesn't care because he will never have to struggle looking for a job or finding a home.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

The housing crisis is a choice made by the Trudeau government.

Started way before Trudeau. Hastings has looked like Hastings for decades. Increases prior to Trudeau were much more significant in detached housing and had levelled out since 2015 for the most part:

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Ditto about things being safer. A friend of mine from university grew up in East Van and when we go out for dinner sometimes he'll point out that this pho restaurant or that dessert shop used to be no-go zones if you were part of the wrong gang. Remember that Yaletown used to be the bad part of town too!...

Those issues essentially moved out to the Valley and even the interior.
https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/...-they-happened

The people priced out of the East Van crackhouses were basically pushed into the DTES . That's partly the reason why that one area has become so much worse.

Originally Posted by chowhou

...I don't think that's just a Vancouver thing, talking to older generations I think that was just a 70s/80s thing.

The internet basically made strip clubs redundant.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by mcj

Started way before Trudeau. Hastings has looked like Hastings for decades. Increases prior to Trudeau were much more significant in detached housing and had levelled out since 2015 for the most part:

Here's a more up to date chart. These are MLS benchmark prices, not adjusted for inflation.



Andrew Hasman

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Those issues essentially moved out to the Valley and even the interior.
https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/...-they-happened

Hahaha no, but it's funny you think that. Unless of course you seriously think the Coquitlam Centre Cactus Club is Red Scorpions territory and you shouldn't go there if you're wearing Punjabi Mafia colours. I know people who in high school avoided walking down certain streets in East Vancouver after dark because you might walk through the wrong gang's territory and basically be asking for a fight if you weren't careful. Times are very much different now. There were "rough" schools back then. Pretty sure a "rough" high school now just means the academic performance is a bit lower.

Originally Posted by Changing City

Here's a more up to date chart. These are MLS benchmark prices, not adjusted for inflation.

Adjusting for inflation would actually make the numbers look better for more recent prices.

[djmk]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

The housing crisis is a choice made by the Trudeau government. Curbing immigration during a housing shortage is the sane, rational thing to do (make exceptions for construction workers or nurses if you want to). Unfortunately, our leader, who doesn't think about monetary policy and balancing budgets, doesn't grasp supply and demand either. Or worse, he does, but just doesn't care because he will never have to struggle looking for a job or finding a home.

Trudeau? Below is a link to Harper's speech in Davos he made in January 2012.

https://globalnews.ca/news/204186/fu...conomic-forum/

Quote:
“We will also undertake significant reform of our immigration system. We will ensure that, while we respect our humanitarian obligations and family reunification objectives, we make our economic and labour force needs the central goal of our immigration efforts in the future.

“As I said earlier, one of the backdrops for my concerns is Canada’s ageing population. If not addressed promptly this has the capacity to undermine Canada’s economic position, and for that matter, that of all western nations, well beyond the current economic crises.

“Immigration does help us address that and will even more so in the future. Our demographics also constitute a threat to the social programs and services that Canadians cherish. For this reason, we will be taking measures in the coming months, not just to return to a balanced budget in the medium term, but also to ensure the sustainability of our social programs and fiscal position over the next generation."

Fast forward 12 years and the Boomers are approaching 80. Boomers are the problem. Not Immigrants