Artists Gather

"Artists and art students give something to a community that no one else can."

Ten years ago Mary-Francis was a reporter for the Westender. 

She wrote about how the Finning lands were just sold to build a development. The new area would be reserved for schools and art colleges. 

She knew right then and there that land values would ‘rock it’ (her words) and that this would be the most vibrant neighrbourhood in Vancouver.

So she bought in.

Now the predictions are coming true.

Mary-Francis lives on 1st and Main Street: The most happening part of town. She's been there ten years. Now the artistic developments she anticipated are front page news. Emily Carr is moving in, and you can't walk a block without running into a beard or ironic tattoo. Artists gather below Broadway, and above Terminal, on Main.

This area is called SoMa (South Main) and it's home to many media, creative and artistic people like Mary-Francis.

I caught up with Mary to ask her a few questions about SoMa. She writes for the Vancouver Sun now. I wanted to know what a creative professional like herself thought about life in SoMa.

Tell me about the best shopping on Main.

"Well, I start at 19^th and Main walk up the hill. From there you will find nine or so really cool gift and fashion stores: Front and Company, Welcome Back, Welks. It's all within walking distance."

You seem to want to tell me about an awesome Yoga College.

"Prana Yoga is across the street from Great Northern Way. There are only 3 people in my class, it's really great."

You said you are really into the Art Galleries on Main. What are some of your favourites?

"Catriona Jeffries and Equinox"

So what are your favourite places to eat?

"Cranky’s Café. The Narrow Lounge. The Whip, I always go to the Whip." 

What's the best part about the area?

"It’s so close to everything. I'm in walking distance to everything I need. Nothing is more than a ten minute drive. I can be downtown in ten minutes. False creek seawall /Olymic village, it's great for children and within walking distance. I can be in Chinatown in 5 minutes. Buy-Low is a five minute walk.

Really, you don’t need anything else. Nothing that I would ever need is outside this area. It's so freakin’ walkable and convenient (her words)."

So what do you think about Evan?

There is a lot of digital media here and amazing artists. They are restless and creating. The best part about Evan is that it is basically across the street from Emily Carr.

Why do you love SoMa?

SoMa has a future of being the hipster/artist place to be. Artists and art students give something to a community that no one else can. SoMa is the most hip, young, vibrant, artist community in Vancouver.

Mary-Francis Hill is a columnist for the Vancouver Sun and a resident of SoMa.

Culture Crush: The Fate of the Waldorf Hotel

This past week, news came in the form of tweets, blogs and national articles, that the Waldorf Hotel, recent cultural hotspot, would be closing its doors for good by the end of the month. This was a serious blow to the Eastside arts community that used the Waldorf as a showroom for their creative productions. It was also a shocker, to the many patrons, fans and casual guests of the Waldorf, who witnessed the resurgence of the tiki themed hotel.

The newly created arts hub was the passion project of a local management team that together, with renowned architect Scott Cohen, remodeled the once derelict hotel into a multi-venue establishment.

The hotels original 1947 tiki theme was maintained and a number of different commercial spaces sprung to life offering music, visual art, foodie delights, souvenirs and even a hair salon. 

The Tikki Bar itself was retooled and remains one of the oldest in North America; Nuba Cafe moved in and provided causal diners with falafel treats and other Lebanese fair; Another eatery, the Leeteg Room, opened, offering a more upscale food experience; Barbarella, a love-child of our own Main Street vibe, set-up shop in the lobby; Two new nightclubs began to thrive; Cabaret shows were booked and a souvenir shop opened.

I know! All that under one roof..?

With all this bustle, management still had time and space to create the Black and Yellow visual art gallery, in Room 106. A number of local artists have since opened shows here; the latest is KT Kilgour.

But all this progress in reviving the arts may be lost. It's sad, but true.

This weekend, the community responded. A Love-In was planned and hundreds showed up to vocalize their support for a venue firmly dedicated to promoting the arts in Vancouver.

Multimedia artist Paul Wong was one of the presenters whose words remained long after the crowds dispersed: "If we don't have a place where the good, the bad and the ugly can come together... where can we intermingle and meet great people and talk and do things, we're not going to be a city that creates a great sense of ourselves and who we are."

The Sergio Leone reference was bit over the top, but the passion was there in force.

Even the Mayor stepped up, releasing this statement:

"The Waldorf closing is a big loss to Vancouver's growing creative community. They built a great culture hub, and it's my hope that they'll be able to re-launch and return in some form in the near future. Supporting Vancouver's dynamic arts and culture sector is a top priority of our City Council, and the City is exploring ways to support the Waldorf continuing as one of Vancouver's most unique and vibrant cultural spaces."

In a year that saw the sudden liquidation of The Vancouver Playhouse, the city cannot afford to lose another cultural mainstay.

As a Vancouver building project that places artistic space as a top priority, we would like to congratulate the community for their sudden and heartfelt response. We are behind you a hundred percent. The Waldorf needs representation and we are here to provide it.

Evan Living Scores A 97/100

When it comes to choosing a place to live, there are many considerations that go beyond cost and square footage. There are also intangibles like design, height of the ceilings, layout, the views, age of the building, and of course location.

The old adage of location, location, location is as true today as ever. However, when most people think about that saying - they think about a neighbourhood. They're thinking Kitsilano vs. New Westminster, and by the furthest extension of the adage, they think about corner lots and proximity to the park or beach.

But there is another form of location that is also important, especially in a green city like Vancouver. And it is equally, if not more quantifiable than the "location" we usually expect, as defined by a dot on a map. There is location that boils down to your basic ease of living.

It's all fine and well to be nestled in the British Properties, or tucked away in the woods in Deep Cove, if you don't mind driving everywhere that you go. Shaunessy Heights may afford a sprawling home with a yard for the children, but all of this is hinged on owning a car and using it for trips for just about everything, from going to the corner store, to commuting to work, chauffeuring the kids to school and picking up your mail in town. There is going to be a lot of time spent sitting behind the wheel.

There's a tradeoff. You can own a in "good" location, but at the cost of not being close to the places you actually go. This, in a sense, makes it a "bad" location for you personally. It seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it? It's like you are living by someone else's standards and not your own.

For those who see location as proximity to places they visit frequently, MLS has introduced a measurement called Walk Score. It's a simple idea, based on the insight that if you are within walking distance of amenities, that's superior to having to drive there.

If you look at Evan on MLS you will see that it has a near-perfect Walk Score: 97 out of a possible 100 points. The reason for this is obvious, you can be at work downtown in fifteen minutes. There are parks within three blocks, Science World is four blocks away, as is the bus depot and Skytrain. Plus, there are a host of restaurants, coffee shops and bars all within one or two blocks. There isn't a single big city convenience, from sporting events to concerts, circuses and casinos that you cannot reach on foot.

There are also Transit Scores and Bike Scores, Evan scores extremely high on those as well with an 89 out of 100 for each.

One of the most tangible benefits of a good Walk Score (besides time saved) is health. It has been shown that those who live in an area with a high Walk Score are 6 to 10 pounds lighter than those in poor Walk Score areas. There is more community involvement, and generally, people who walk more and drive less are not as stressed out, and happier.

Vancouver has recently been labelled as having the worst traffic conditions in Canada and the second worst in North America, just behind the smog capital, Los Angeles. Every day you spend in a line of stalled vehicles trying to live up the the hype of your West Van enclave, you are adding to the problem.

Last week we talked about the cost of owning a car in Vancouver, and the outrageous amount of time that most commuters in the Lower Mainland spend behind the wheel. The extra bedroom for the mother in law and the fenced yard for Fido comes at a hefty price when you're commuting in from Surrey every morning. And for those thinking that Point Grey is prime location have never reflected on how horrible the radio ads are during the drive at five.

If you have to get in the car to go for a run, or drive to take the dog for a walk, it might be time to rethink what makes a prime location so prized.

The Cost Of Owning A Car In Vancouver

Have you ever added up how much your car really costs you?

Beyond the obvious, tangible expenses that show up in the mail such as your monthly financing bill, insurance and gas bills, there are many other ways that your vehicle is wreaking havoc on your pocketbook (not to mention the environment).

This website estimates that the cost of owning a car, in general, is $740.33 per month.

Let's break down the true cost of owning a car in Vancouver.


1. Gas - right now gas is hovering around $1.25/litre. The average Volkswagen Jetta gets about 40 miles/gallon (17.0057 km/L), so you are paying a dollar for every 13.6 km, and that's with a really fuel-efficient machine. Given that the average commute is 30 km each way, you are looking at almost $6/day in fuel alone, $120/month for the commute + $80/month for weekends and evenings.

Here's a useful website to find the cheapest gas in the city, btw: Vancouver gas prices.

Cost of gas/month: $200


2. Tolls - the Port Mann Bridge does more than just pummel vehicles with falling ice and create ten-car pileups at the first sign of snow, it also digs deep into those pockets as well. The toll each way is $3.00, or $6 per day, $120/month.

Cost of tolls per month: $120


3. Insurance - In BC, vehicle insurance is all handled through the public sector. ICBC is not cheap. Decent insurance will set you back $100/month.

Cost of insurance per month: $100


4. Parking - If you don't have your own parking space, it can be killer to drive to work every day. Downtown Vancouver is up to $8/hr in some spots. Parking without a pass in a lot can be $23/day. Hopefully you get a monthly pass. The median price of parking in Vancouver is $277.82 per month.

Cost of parking per month: $280


5. Repairs - No car is indestructible. Transmissions falter, brakes fail and once in a while you might even have to change the oil. Factor in some dosh for that over time.

Cost of repairs per month: $50


6. Tickets - Parking tickets, speeding tickets, seatbelt tickets, driving frustrated in the HOV lane with no one else in the car to avoid a major traffic jam tickets, they happen.

Cost of tickets per month: $25


7. Financing - Finally, the cost of the vehicle itself. We're assuming you have a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta by the way, because it's good on gas and it's affordable enough. Want something flashier? Crunch your own numbers.

Cost of a vehicle per month: $175


8. Time - your time is valuable. And it shouldn't be wasted sitting in traffic breathing in carbon monoxide while the world passes your by. Vancouver has one of the worst commutes in the world. The average commute time is a staggering 67 minutes. That works out to an incredible 32+ working days spent in traffic. That is a lot of time listening to bad radio ads.

Cost of time: Invaluable!



So based on my rough calculations, the Cost of Owning a Car in Vancouver is $950 per month + Time Wasted In Traffic



According to this interesting website the cost of commuting (just the commuting part) every day from Surrey to Vancouver is $521.34 per month. That's $6256.10 per year, just getting to and from work. When you calculate the loss of earning potential it works out to $13,760 a year! Factor in the effect that has on your mortgage. Are you really saving money living out in the suburbs? Think of how quickly that $200,000 savings will be gobbled up compared to living closer to the city centre. Think of your own time. Your time with your family. Not to mention the environment.

If you live at Evan - there is no reason to own a car.

You can bike to work downtown in less than ten minutes.
You can even skateboard, rollerblade, or walk in fifteen.
You can bus dowtown in ten minutes.
Buses 3 (Main-Downtown), 8 (Fraser-Downtown), 19 (Metrotown-Stanley Park), and stop at Main and 2nd every five minutes.

And if you need a Zipcar. There are three parked on Main and 6th. That will take you a whopping seven minutes to reach downtown.

Ah, the joys of car-free living. You can enjoy a cocktail guilt-free after work. You can spend more time on your hobbies, or watch that late night show. And even better, you can sleep in an extra half hour each day, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars and bits of ozone you'll save.