Commercial Drive Vancouver Lives

Time passes quickly and much changes in our lives. Looking back just a few years and I recognize how many areas of my life, my values, my habits, my social network, and others have changed. What I don't always see is how much the world around me has changed.

No more than four years ago I would visit Commercial Drive regularly. I'd visit one of the many coffee shops, maybe grab some Sushi or Mexican, occasionally a nice Greek dish, and with rare company wine and dine at one of the hip joints with the trendy ambiance of the new crowds. With major relationship and career changes, I also ended up downtown without a vehicle and my habits and haunts changed.

Now closer to Commercial Drive, I had my real first opportunity to walk The Drive and see the changes. I walked from almost at Venables, all the way past Broadway a half block, and back again. You know what? The only time I tripped along the route was when I stepped off a curb once. It was my own clumsiness, not the myriad of heaved sidewalk cracks I remember littering Commercial Drive.

At the corner of Venables and Commercial Drive, a commercial / residential development property has long been completed and is occupied with new businesses and residents. The life of Commercial Drive is clearly vibrant and extended in length further North than it used to. Even Venables feels more vibrant around this corner.

As my walk ventured south of 1st Ave along Commercial Drive, I always expected some life but not with the same vibrancy and pizazz of the stretch north of 1st Ave up to the area around Grandview Park. There was a restaurant, well-known and liked, right at that corner across from Joe's coffee shop that had burned down. I forgot to notice what was there today, but down to about here and back to 1st Ave was my favourite stretch.

Today though, I discovered a whole new vibe along Commercial Drive right up to and past Broadway. Businesses had brightened up, new faces and fronts lined the street, and a stronger cultural diversity was presented to the passerby. I was having a great time soaking in the senses, sights, and sounds. This brings me to my one gripe.

Motorists, by and large, are quite comfortable wrapped warmly in their metal cocoons ripping along the streets of 1st Ave and Commercial Drive. A lot of the motorists I witnessed in the two hours I strolled The Drive were aggressively impatient and dangerously reckless, not to mention obnoxious. I like the Car Free idea and see why it would be so popular along The Drive. I think drivers need a reality check; that might solve a few more city-wide problems.

East Vancouver Crawled by Artists and Visitors

This has been a busy fall season in the lives of many. We've watched Thanksgiving come and go, heard the howling laughter of Halloween fade into the night, saw record numbers Crawl the streets of Strathcona for a lot of Culture at this years Culture Crawl, and enjoyed the Downtown Eastsides Heart of the City Festival thanks to the folks at Vancouver Moving Theatre. And Christmas is just around the corner!!

Live In had the opportunity to speak with Valerie Arntzen, the Culture Crawl's event coordinator for the past nine years, about this years Crawl. Record crowds exceeding 10,000 strong crawled the Strathcona, East Vancouver area to visit 48 venues and almost 300 local resident artists of Strathcona. This is a vibrantly enriched arts community living and working in Strathcona which has elevated the attractiveness of the neighbourhood through the beauty of the art, crafts, and skills. We are truly blessed.

There is much more to say about this subject. Live In wishes to share more about the experiences of the Crawl from an insiders perspective. As well, the Strathcona community is changing, gentrification is spoken of in mixed ways, and the impact on the arts community seems an anomoly needing exploring. Such an incredible gift that enriches our lives and community is to be cherished and protected. At the same time, I suspect some residents might find reason to complain about having 10,000 outsiders roaming their neighbourhood for a local event. Ironically, the success of such events can be a major contributor to increasing popularity of a community as a place to live.

Whatever side of the fence you choose to stand on, remember that choosing sides means someone loses. Live In suggests examining more than one's own view, and seek balance and opportunity that will allow the fence to come down. The answers are in us and right here in our neighbourhood.

We'll chat more soon!

CirKids present Cirque de Spa

CirKids is about the circus of storytelling, imagination, and performance. We blend traditional circus arts with athletics, dance and theatre in a safe, collaborative, and very fun program.

This year, CirKids is pleased to present Cirque de Spa, the major fundraiser for the CirKids Annual Spring 2008 performance in Vancouver May 1, 2, 3, & 4.

Invited guests of Cirque de Spa will enjoy an afternoon treating themselves to a variety of spa treatments. Services available will include:

• Manicures
• Chair Massage
• Reflexology
• Indian Head Massage
• Make-up Lessons / Makeovers
• and much more!

Date: November 18th, 2007
Times: 12:00 noon - 6:00 pm (doors open 11:45am)
Location:Garden Auditorium, PNE grounds (home of CirKids - 2901 East Hastings St.)

The CirKids Annual Spring 2008 Performance will be possible through your participation in Cirque de Spa. The annual performance provide a place for our elite performance troupe to showcase their skills as circus artists. As a non-profit organization, we rely on the generosity of the people of the Lower Mainland to help grow performing arts culture.

Thank-you for supporting CirKids!

While attending Cirque de Spa, guests can enjoy refreshments between treatments while enjoying performances by our kids.

Commercial Drive | Live on The Drive | Community | Web Portal

Commercial Drive, affectionately referred to as The Drive, was originally referred to locally as “Little Italy.” Now it's home to a diverse multicultural collection of people, businesses, art galleries, performance venues, coffee shops, and more.

A favorite destination for both tourists and Vancouver-wide locals, Commercial Drive consists of close to 300 businesses that are most often single location, owner-operated, offering a product mix of dining experiences, produce, entertainment and services completely unique to the Drive. Commercial Drive has consistently bucked the trend towards homogeneous franchised malls and big box warehouses.

With a multicultural diversity and vibrant arts community, The Drive is the perfect fusion of community, art, and commerce. Did you know Utne Reader's rank Commercial Drive with North America's 15 hippest neighbourhoods? Georgia Straight readers consistently vote The Drive as one of Vancouver's best neighbourhoods.

The Vancouver East Cultural Centre is home to many professional arts performances. European heritage lingers amongst the coffee shops, and a mix of East-West intermingles during World Cup competitions. Many arts are expressed along Commercial Drive venues, including visual arts, poetry and spoken word performances and competitions, music appreciated and performed indoors and out, open-mike nights, and wall space for the budding artists and photographers. Our own Photos page shows off many astounding photographs of the area and events.

Each year there are numerous events that reinforce The Drive's sense of community. The Directory page lists various community events, organizations, business related links, parks, and other important services and information for living in the city. You'll find everything you need from Parade of Lost Souls, Commercial Drive Community Festival, the Farmer's Market, Eastside Culture Crawl, your local MLA & MP, and so much more.

With such an active community committed to Life on The Drive, the community portal Discussion Forum is a great place to keep informed. Registration is free and content added to the Forum feeds the news for this web-page. Write a bio – a personal or professional profile – that promotes the skill, commitment, achievement, art, words, involvement, profession, or even hobbies and interests. The community is made up by all the people, businesses, interests, and flavours represented in many faces.

Welcome to Commercial Drive and Live on The Drive. Tell your story today.

Getting Information to You

Rick Stonehouse is a Vancouver Realtor born to the business. Myself, I'm a local writer and dabbler contributing to my communities. Getting involved here allows me to help bring communities together online so they can also become more together offline in the days of the information age.

Getting behind a vision is an easy thing when values line up.

Rick, a prominent Vancouver Realtor, has enjoyed serving thousands of Vancouver residents over the years. His success, in part due to his service excellence, has been made possible by all of these wonderful customers and friends trusting him with fulfilling their home purchase or sale. Seeing proud homeowners experiencing the joy of buying their dream home, and enthusiastic sellers grinning over the equity gained, makes his job very exciting and very rewarding. His values line up, and yes, he enjoys the fruits of his labours.

With an eye to the future and the trends of the public, Rick has taken a pioneer's leap through the development of community portal websites for the neighbourhoods he serves. While it serves a unique business purpose, helping potential home-buyers with their online research, it goes beyond and serves the entire community. The benefits are extraordinary!

What's coming

• Community Discussion Forums
• News Features - local artists, business, associations, events, promotion, etc.
• Event Calendar
• Classified Listings Feeds
• Get Your Blog Feed publishing here!!
• Promote your photography - Feed from Flickr
• much more!!
  

Keep watch as the Live on The Drive site evolves.