Up in Ontario

The Changing City

The Duck sent me this link from the City of Vancouver website, Community Services Planning division.

The Changing City

Vancouver in 1978 and 2003

In 1978 the city was photographed from a variety of viewpoints for a planning study. Today, those photographs are a valuable record of how the city has been transformed by recent planning intiatives.

Juxtaposed against the 1978 photos are recent panoramas, shot from the same locations and at the same angle. The resulting photos give the viewer a literal snapshot of the passing of time. To see Vancouver in 1978, a logging and mining town, a hint of prosperity on the horizon, is to see a part of the story of this place. Yet it is a story few recognize. Almost no one here is from Vancouver. We are all strangers to this past.

I've always thought of Vancouver as a mirage of a city, a city where a city should not be. People gather here, at the bottleneck of the natural pathways: river, rail, air, road. Some stay for good and some linger for a few of their young years. Many only visit.

Having lived in Vancouver for just over 5 years now, I notice that everyone who arrives in Vancouver feels some marvel at this city that should not be. I mostly meet other Canadians arriving from the prairies or Ontario or the maritimes. They notice the cost of houses, the weather, all those asians. I don't know how to tell them that I like it here without sounding smug or too pleased with my present state of affairs. I show them around: the beaches, shops, mountains, clubs, landmarks, parks. I tell them the stories I know about the place. We hear the echo off the mountains when the nine o'clock gun goes off.

Soon we are all on our way again, left to wonder what to make of it all, this city that smells of saltwater but not of the sea, so mild, the seasons just degrees of moderation. What will we remember of this place? What will we find when we return twenty-five years from now?