Cambie Street
Cambie Street is a street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is named for Henry John Cambie, chief surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway's western division. There are two distinct sections of the street. North of False Creek, the street runs on a northeast-southwest alignment; as such, the street runs perpendicular to the Cambie Bridge, there is no seamless connection between the two. Instead, Nelson Street carries southbound traffic onto the bridge, Smithe Street carries northbound traffic away from the bridge; the downtown section of Cambie Street runs from Water Street in Gastown in the north to Pacific Boulevard in Yaletown in the south and is a two-way street for its length. South of False Creek, the street is a major six-lane arterial road, runs as a two-way north-south thoroughfare according to the street grid for the rest of Vancouver; this section of the street was named Bridge Street, was first connected to Cambie Street after the first Cambie Bridge opened in 1891. Between King Edward Avenue West and Southwest Marine Drive, the street has a 10 metre wide boulevard with grass and many well established trees on it.
When proposals to build the SkyTrain Canada Line subway along Cambie Street first emerged, they were protested by residents and business owners who wanted to keep the street as a heritage boulevard. They argued in favour of using the existing Arbutus Street rail corridor instead. Once the decision was made to use the Cambie alignment for the Canada Line anyway, residents along the corridor persuaded authorities to put the rail line in a tunnel instead of running it as a surface route, to dig the tunnel using a tunnel boring machine. However, due to cost concerns, the winning bidder decided to use a cut-and-cover method to build the tunnel - which introduced disruption to traffic and business along the corridor during the construction; as such though it cost less than using a tunnel boring machine, the plan drew heavy criticism from area residents and businesses. Gregor Robertson, who became the mayor of Vancouver, was a strong supporter of Cambie Street merchants and spoke about hardships from the Canada Line construction.
He called the handling of the rail line construction an "injustice."On March 23, 2009 Robertson testified in a lawsuit brought by the Cambie Street merchant Susan Heyes, owner of Hazel & Co. in the B. C. Supreme Court regarding damage to her business from the construction, a lawsuit for which she was awarded $600,000 by the B. C. Supreme Court due in part to the fact that there was insufficient action to mitigate the effects of Canada Line construction on Cambie Street merchants; the award for damages was reversed at the British Columbia Court of Appeal, which determined that while the project had resulted in a legal nuisance to the claimant, the government had acted within its authority and was therefore not liable for damages. Leave for further appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was subsequently denied. On the Canada Line opening day of August 17, 2009 Robertson said Greater Vancouver needed more rapid transit but the Canada Line was a "great start" and that he was a "Johnny-come-lately" to the project.
During the years 2006 to 2009 portions of the street south of False Creek were closed to traffic to allow for construction of the line. The cut-and-cover tunnel runs underneath the east side of the street for most of its route. South of West 63rd Avenue, the line emerges from the tunnel and runs on an elevated structure across the Fraser River; the Gastown steam clock, located at the street's northern end, at its intersection with Water Street Victory Square and cenotaph, located on the west side of the street between Hastings and Pender streets The downtown campus of Vancouver Community College, located at the intersection with Pender Street The Vancouver City Hall, located on the street between 10th Avenue and 12th Avenue The Park Theatre, at 18th Avenue, in "Cambie Village" Queen Elizabeth Park, located east of the street between 29th Avenue and 37th Avenue Oakridge Centre, shopping centre at 41st Avenue Langara College, a community college at 49th Avenue Cambie Street Grounds Cambie Seymour Hostel Cambie Street Directory GVTV Cambie Boulevard Cambie Village Business Association
Granville Street
Granville Street is a major street in Vancouver, British Columbia and part of Highway 99. Granville Street is most associated with the Granville Entertainment District and the Granville Mall; this street cuts through suburban neighborhoods like Shaughnessy, Marpole via the Granville Street Bridge. Granville Street runs north-south through the centre of Vancouver, passing through several neighbourhoods and commercial areas, differing appreciably in their land value and the wealth of their residents. Granville runs northeast-southwest: Through Downtown Vancouver from the Waterfront at West Cordova Street to Robson Street Through a pedestrian-friendly area known as the Granville Mall with part of it formally designated as the Granville Entertainment District. Through Shaughnessy Near Kerrisdale and Oakridge Through Marpole Near the Fraser River, where it merges with another section of South-West Marine Drive Finally, Granville Street ends near the Fraser River at the approximate location of 72nd Ave. merges with S.
W. Marine Drive and continues southeasterly towards the Arthur Laing Bridge that leads to Richmond and Vancouver International Airport; the community was known as "Gastown" after its first citizen - Jack Deighton, known as "Gassy" Jack. "To gas" is period English slang for "to boast and to exaggerate". In 1870 the community was laid out as the "township of Granville" but everybody called it Gastown; the name Granville honours Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, British Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time of local settlement. In 1886 it was incorporated as the city of Vancouver, named after Captain George Vancouver, who accompanied James Cook on his voyage to the West Coast and subsequently spent 2 years exploring and charting the West Coast. During the 1950s, Granville Street attracted many tourists to one of the world's largest displays of neon signs. Towards the middle of the twentieth century, the Downtown portion of Granville Street had become a flourishing centre for entertainment, known for its cinemas, clubs, the Vogue and Orpheum theatres, arcades, pizza parlours, pawn stores, pornography shops and strip clubs.
By the late 1990s, Granville Street suffered gradual deterioration and many movie theatres, such as "The Plaza, Paradise, Granville Centre have all closed for good," writes Dmitrios Otis in his article "The Last Peep Show." In the early 2000s, the news of the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic Games, to be hosted in Whistler, a series of gentrification projects, still undergoing as of 2006, had caused the shutdown of many more businesses that had heretofore become landmarks of the street and of the city. Otis writes that "once dominated by movie theatres, pinball arcades, sex shops by nightclubs and bars, as transforms into a booze-based'Entertainment District'." In April 2005, Capitol 6, a beloved 1920s-era movie theatre complex closed its doors. By August 2005, Movieland Arcade, located at 906 Granville Street became "the last home of authentic, 8 mm'peep show' film booths in the world". On July 7, 2005, the Granville Book Company, a popular and independently owned bookstore was forced to close due to the rising rents and regulations the city began imposing in the early 2000s in order to "clean up" the street by the 2010 Olympics and combat Vancouver's "No Fun City" image..
Landlords have been unable to find replacement tenants for many of these closed locations. While proponents of the Granville gentrification project in general claim that the improvements made to the street will only benefit its residents, the customers frequenting the clubs and the remaining theatres and cinemas, maintain that the project is a temporary solution, since the closing down of the less "classy" businesses, the build-up of Yaletown-style condominiums in their place, will not eliminate the unwanted pizzerias, corner-stores and pornography shops - and their patrons - but will displace them elsewhere. Granville Street is the second most expensive property in the game Canadian Monopoly. Chapman, Aaron. "The End." 12 April 2005. The Vancouver Courier. "Granville Street Redesign." 14 June 2007. City of Vancouver. Stamp, Graeme. "Granville Street Redesign." 18 November 2004. A letter from the Chair and Chief Elected Officer to Mayor Larry Campbell. Otis, Dmitrios. "The Last Peep Show." 31 August 2005.
The Vancouver Courier. Tupper, Peter. "Granville's Closing Chapter." 10 August 2005. The Vancouver Courier. "1920s Granville Street." 2005. Tom Lee Music Co. Selected phot
British Columbia Highway 99
Highway 99 known as the Fraser Delta Thruway south of Vancouver, the Sea to Sky Highway, the Squamish Highway, or Whistler Highway north of Vancouver, is the major north–south artery running through the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia from the U. S. border, up Howe Sound through the Sea to Sky Country to Lillooet, connecting to Highway 97 just north of Cache Creek. The number of this highway is derived from the old U. S. Route 99, with which the highway connected; the highway connects with Interstate 5 at the international border. The total length of Highway 99 from the U. S. border to the Highway 97 junction is 409 kilometres. In 2006 the UK's The Guardian newspaper listed the Sea to Sky as the fifth best road trip worldwide. In the south, Highway 99 begins at the British Columbia – Washington State border crossing at Douglas, on the Canadian side of Peace Arch Park, as a continuation of Interstate 5; the highway begins with a four-lane freeway configuration. Highway 99 travels through Surrey 12 kilometres due northwest from the border, through four interchanges, turns west for 4 kilometres before reaching the junction with Highway 91, marking the highway's entry into the City of Delta.
Four km west, Highway 99 reaches its junction with Ladner Trunk Road. Eight km north, Highway 99 reaches a junction with Highway 17A. Another 2 kilometres northwest, Highway 99 crosses into Richmond through the George Massey Tunnel known as the Deas Tunnel or Deas Island Tunnel. From Surrey to Delta, the speed limit is 100 kilometres per hour. Through Richmond, Highway 99 travels 7 kilometres north from the Steveston Highway interchange, at the north mouth of the tunnel, to a junction which connects to the Westminster Highway, Knight Street, western end of Highway 91. Another 4 kilometres northwest, the southern freeway section of Highway 99 ends as the highway crosses the North Arm of the Fraser River, over the Oak Street Bridge, into Vancouver; the 30-kilometre long route through Vancouver's city streets starts off going north on Oak Street to the intersection with West 70th Avenue. Highway 99 goes west on West 70th Avenue, north along Granville Street for 7 kilometres, 41st Avenue is used as an alternate signed connection between Granville and Oak Streets.
It crosses over False Creek into the downtown core. Highway 99 north goes through the downtown area by way of Seymour Street and Georgia Street, through Stanley Park, over the Lions Gate Bridge into West Vancouver at Marine Drive. In West Vancouver, Highway 99 goes west on Marine Drive and north on Taylor Way, to Highway 1. Highway 99 shares the Upper Levels Highway with Highway 1 for 12 kilometres west, diverging from Highway 1 near the BC Ferries terminal at Horseshoe Bay; the "Sea to Sky Highway" is the name given to the section of Highway 99 from Horseshoe Bay to Pemberton. From Horseshoe Bay, the highway travels along the coast of Howe Sound, it continues for 12 kilometres to Lions Bay, north for another 21 kilometres, crossing into the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District en route to Britannia Beach, north for 11 kilometres to Squamish, at the head of Howe Sound. From Squamish, it continues north for another 58 kilometres to Whistler, to Pemberton 32 kilometres where the Sea-to-Sky Highway ends and Duffey Lake Road begins.
After going for 100 winding kilometres in steep mountains where sometimes the speed limit is 30 km/h, Highway 99 reaches the junction with Highway 12 at Lillooet, goes northeast for another 75 kilometres to its northern terminus at its junction with Highway 97, just north of Cache Creek and just south of Clinton. The speed limit of the Sea-to-Sky Highway ranges from 80 to 100 kilometres per hour with 60 kilometres per hour sections in Lions Bay, Britannia Beach and parts of Squamish; this highway received the "99" designation, matching U. S. Route 99, in 1942 after completion of the King George VI Highway to the U. S. border. It shared an alignment with Highway 1 from Surrey to Vancouver via the Pattullo Bridge and Kingsway; the current freeway alignment of Highway 99 between 8th Avenue in South Surrey and the North Arm of the Fraser River opened in 1962 as Hwy. 99 and was called the Deas Throughway. Between 1964 and 1973, the freeway alignment of Highway 99 was designated Highway 499; the Oak Street Bridge was built in 1957 to cross the North Arm Fraser River, the Deas Island Tunnel was built 1957–59 to cross the Fraser River.
Tolls were collected at the crossings until April 1, 1963. A freeway between the tunnel and the American border was completed in the early 1960s. In 1957, the northern end of Highway 99 was moved from downtown Vancouver, across the Lions Gate Bridge and west to the village of Horseshoe Bay, following Marine Drive through West Vancouver. Highway 99 was re-aligned via Taylor Way, just east of the Park Royal Shopping Centre, to the Upper Levels Highway and extended to Britannia Beach one year extending to Squamish in 1959, to Pemberton in 1966. In 1992, the just-paved Duffey Lake Road between Pemberton and Lillooet was made part of Highway 99, the section of Highway 12 between Lillooet and Highway 97 was re-numbered 99; the portion of the highway between Lillooet and Pavilion was part of the route of the Old Cariboo Road. The Sea to Sky Highway section of Highway 99 has a checkered history. Built on a steep cliff overlooking Howe Sound, it was a two-lane undivided highway with no outside barrier.
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Burrard Bridge
The Burrard Street Bridge is a four-lane, Art Deco style, steel truss bridge constructed in 1930–1932 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The high, five part bridge on four piers spans False Creek, connecting downtown Vancouver with Kitsilano via connections to Burrard Street on both ends, it is one of three bridges crossing False Creek. The other two bridges are the Granville Bridge, three blocks or 0.5 km to the southeast, the Cambie Street Bridge, about 11 blocks or 2 km to the east. In addition to the vehicle deck, the Burrard Bridge has 2.6 m wide sidewalks and a dedicated cycling lane on both sides. The architect of the Burrard Street Bridge was George Lister Thornton Sharp, the engineer John R. Grant; the bridge's two close approach spans are Warren trusses placed below deck level, while its central span is a Pratt truss placed above deck level to allow greater clearance height for ships passing underneath. The central truss is hidden when crossing the bridge in either direction by vertical extensions of the bridge's masonry piers into imposing concrete towers, connected by overhead galleries, which are embellished with architectural and sculptural details that create a torch-like entrance of pylons.
Busts of Captain George Vancouver and Sir Harry Burrard-Neale in ship prows jut from the bridge’s superstructure. Unifying the long approaches and the distinctive central span are heavy concrete railings topped with decorative street lamps; these pierced handrails were designed as a kind of visual shutter, so that at a speed of 50 km/h motorists would see through them with an uninterrupted view of the harbour. The effect works at speeds from about 40 to 64 km/h; the Burrard Street Bridge, opened July 1, 1932, was built to provide a high-level crossing from Vancouver to the southwestern neighbourhoods in Kitsilano, by connecting Burrard Street to Cedar Street. After completion, Burrard was extended through to the base of downtown and Cedar Street disappeared. A snip of a pair of golden scissors in the hands of Mayor Louis D. Taylor, Vancouver's $3 million Burrard Street Bridge was opened to the public Friday afternoon, July 1... Hardly was the ribbon cut in front of the devouring eyes of movie cameras thousands of pedestrians and hundreds of cars surged across the magnificent white structure in a procession of triumph, celebrating another step in Vancouver's progress At the opening ceremony, entertainment was provided by two bands, the Kitsilano Boy's Band and the Fireman's Band.
An RCAF seaplane flew under the bridge and a sugar replica of the bridge was unveiled at the civic reception in the Hotel Vancouver. G. L. Thornton Sharp, of Sharp and Thompson, was the architect responsible for the distinctive towers on the bridge and its middle galleries. "Both central piers," Sharp told a reporter, "were designed and connected with an overhead gallery across the road. This helped to mask the network of steel in the truss from the two approaches, has been treated as an entrance gateway to the city." Along their other axis, the full height of the piers above the water serve to frame a sea entrance gateway, notably for pleasure craft: "by sea and land we prosper". The piers have provision for a rapid transit vertical lift span beneath the highway deck, never installed. Burrard Street Bridge has been assessed by heritage consultants retained by the City of Vancouver as being in the top category of historic buildings in Vancouver; the bridge appeared on a stamp issued by Canada Post in 2011, in a series showcasing five notable Art Deco structures in Canada.
When constructed, the Burrard Street Bridge did not have dedicated lanes for cyclists, who shared the bridge's six vehicle lanes with motorists. As traffic volume grew and speed limits were increased on the bridge to 60 km/h, cyclists were directed to share the bridge's sidewalks with pedestrians. Over time, the volume of pedestrians and cyclists on the 2.6 m sidewalks created a dangerous situation, with several accidents occurring, which resulted in at least one successful lawsuit against the city. Since the mid-1990s, the city of Vancouver has investigated various options to rectify the situation; the two most prominent options were 1) to introduce bicycle lanes on the bridge's vehicle deck by reallocating one or more vehicle lanes, 2) to build horizontal extensions on the outside of the bridge to create additional sidewalk space. Other options have included building an new pedestrian and/or cyclist only bridge, building another deck on the bridge below the existing deck. Heritage advocates have been opposed to the construction of outside sidewalk extensions, which would alter the historical character of the bridge.
Fiscal conservatives have been opposed to high costs associated with this option. Many motorists and others have opposed reallocation of vehicle lanes to bicycle lanes, believing that the reduction in vehicle carrying capacity would create excessive traffic problems both on the bridge and on and around alternate crossings, such as the Granville Street Bridge. Beginning March 26, 1996, in a six-month trial by the City, one commuter lane was closed to automobile traffic and made into a temporary cyclist lane. However, after one week, the City was forced to revert the lane to its original purpose, due to outrage by some motorists. On May 31, 2005, a detailed engineering and planning report was presented to Council, reviewing the situation broadly, presenting alternatives, offering recommendations; that day Vancouve
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.016 million as of 2018, it is Canada's third-most populous province. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, which gave rise to the City of Victoria, at first the capital of the separate Colony of Vancouver Island. Subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Moody was Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for the Colony and the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia: he was hand-picked by the Colonial Office in London to transform British Columbia into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west", "to found a second England on the shores of the Pacific". Moody selected the site for and founded the original capital of British Columbia, New Westminster, established the Cariboo Road and Stanley Park, designed the first version of the Coat of arms of British Columbia.
Port Moody is named after him. In 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, Victoria became the united colony's capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the sixth province of Canada, its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu. The capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for Queen Victoria, who ruled during the creation of the original colonies; the largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371; the province is governed by the British Columbia New Democratic Party, led by John Horgan, in a minority government with the confidence and supply of the Green Party of British Columbia. Horgan became premier as a result of a no-confidence motion on June 29, 2017. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871.
First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties, the question of Aboriginal Title, long ignored, has become a legal and political question of frequent debate as a result of recent court actions. Notably, the Tsilhqot'in Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the 2014 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Tsilhqot'in Nation v British Columbia; the province's name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i.e. "the Mainland", became a British colony in 1858. It refers to the Columbia District, the British name for the territory drained by the Columbia River, in southeastern British Columbia, the namesake of the pre-Oregon Treaty Columbia Department of the Hudson's Bay Company. Queen Victoria chose British Columbia to distinguish what was the British sector of the Columbia District from the United States, which became the Oregon Territory on August 8, 1848, as a result of the treaty.
The Columbia in the name British Columbia is derived from the name of the Columbia Rediviva, an American ship which lent its name to the Columbia River and the wider region. British Columbia is bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean and the American state of Alaska, to the north by Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories, to the east by the province of Alberta, to the south by the American states of Washington and Montana; the southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, although its history is tied with lands as far south as California. British Columbia's land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbia's rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres, includes deep, mountainous fjords and about 6,000 islands, most of which are uninhabited, it is the only province in Canada. British Columbia's capital is Victoria, located at the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of Vancouver Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is populated.
Much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by temperate rainforest. The province's most populous city is Vancouver, at the confluence of the Fraser River and Georgia Strait, in the mainland's southwest corner. By land area, Abbotsford is the largest city. Vanderhoof is near the geographic centre of the province; the Coast Mountains and the Inside Passage's many inlets provide some of British Columbia's renowned and spectacular scenery, which forms the backdrop and context for a growing outdoor adventure and ecotourism industry. 75% of the province is mountainous. The province's mainland away from the coastal regions is somewhat moderated by the Pacific Ocean. Terrain ranges from dry inland forests and semi-arid valleys, to the range and canyon districts of the Central and Southern Interior, to boreal forest and subarctic prairie in the Northern Interior. High mountain regions both north and south subalpine climate; the Okanagan area, extending from Vernon to Osoyoos at the United States border, is one of several wine and cider-produci
Commercial Drive, Vancouver
Commercial Drive is a roadway in the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada that extends from Powell Street at its northern extremity, near the waterfront, south through the heart of the Grandview–Woodland neighbourhood to the Victoria Diversion near Spartacus Books and Trout Lake. The neighbourhood is so dominated by the businesses, cultural facilities, residents along Commercial Drive that the area is far better known as "The Drive" than by the civic boundaries; the district is one of Vancouver's Business Improvement Areas. The district is served by many different bus routes, as well as both the SkyTrain's Expo Line and Millennium Line at Commercial–Broadway Station. Commercial Drive is a mixed residential-commercial area with a high proportion of ethnic and vegetarian restaurants and public housing; the area has low property prices compared to the westside of Vancouver, yet has good city services and is a local transit hub. It has been the destination for generations of immigrants to Vancouver and has significant Italian, Latin America, East Indian, African communities.
As of the Canada 2001 Census, English is a minority language in Grandview-Woodland, though still the most common. Commercial Drive has a large number of local ethnic stores and community groups, Edwardian-style heritage buildings, European-style cafes and alternative shops and entertainment venues; as of late August 2007, there are 93 restaurants on Commercial Drive between Venables and Broadway, of which 19 are coffee bars. It is home to an active street festival culture, it plays host to Vancouver's only queer spoken word and musician performance night, Unsweetened. The Drive is a popular place for Vancouverites who want to experience a safe version of North American counter-culture; the Drive was a skid road for dragging logs to the harbour. It was named "Park Drive" but renamed "Commercial Drive" in 1911 to avoid confusion with other Park Drives in Vancouver. Commercial Drive ends in the south at 16th Avenue, the former end of Vancouver/start of City of South Vancouver, when it diverts to Victoria Drive.
A limited light industrial Commercial Street carries on to 22nd Avenue, around the Selkirk school there, until 54th Avenue as a residential street. In 1891 the Drive became part of a streetcar line; the streetcar line encouraged the growth of local businesses and residences, an influence, still felt today. Two streetcar lines ran down Commercial—there was the Interurban line to Westminster along Kingsway, the Interurban line via Burnaby Lake. There were numerous city lines, which continue today as trolleybuses; the Interurban ceased operation in 1954. During the pre-World War One period, a number of speculators—including McSpadden and Odlum -- attempted to turn the Grandview neighbourhood, centered on the Drive, into a real estate area comparable to the West End and the newly opened Shaughnessy Heights; the global financial collapse around 1913 put an end to their hopes. Commercial Drive was the centre of a prosperous suburb during the 1920s, but declined during the Great Depression and never recovered until World War II.
One result of this is a significant number of historical residences in the area. Commercial Drive was closer to the centre of town—town being located at Main and Hastings. Since the focus of town has moved west. Commercial Drive included market gardens and door factories, light industrial, rooming houses, dairies and open fields. In the urban sprawl of the 1950s the open areas were filled in. After World War II many Italian immigrants settled in eastern Vancouver, the northern part of Commercial Drive came to be known as "Little Italy". A sizable Portuguese community came to the area as well. During the 1960s, immigration from Asian countries began to dilute the European influence. A wave of Latino immigrants came in the 1980s as a result of the turmoil and civil wars in Central America. Many came from South America as well—the Mercosur Republics. Vietnamese nationals immigrated as well. Throughout the 1980s, The Drive attracted a large counter-culture demographic, including political activists, hippies, punks and artists.
Around the turn of the millennium, local outlets of multi-national companies became the target of the anti-globalization movement and civil disobedience campaigns. SkyTrain opened into the neighbourhood with Broadway Station in December 1985. Market forces and the ongoing squalor and crime of the nearby neighbourhood Downtown Eastside spilled over to the Drive with an increase of panhandling, heroin use and trafficking and filth. Meanwhile, gentrification came to the district with new condominium housing projects and new storefronts replacing old wood-frame stores. In 2002, many restaurant owners were upset with the infamous "dancing police". In late 2004, Commercial Drive gained national notoriety when the media complained that several cafes there were selling marijuana; as of 2005, there are still few large retail or restaurant chains on Commercial Drive. The Da Kine, an Amsterdam style cafe, was raided by police and owner Carol Gwilt charged with trafficking, she was sentenced to prison. The issue has publicised the city's lack of enforcement of Canadian drug laws, demonstrated a commitment to its stated "Four Pillars" drug strategy.
In early summer 2005, Commercial Drive hosted its first car-free festival, in which 16 blocks were cleared
Art Deco
Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. Art Deco influenced the design of buildings, jewelry, cars, movie theatres, ocean liners, everyday objects such as radios and vacuum cleaners, it took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes held in Paris in 1925. It combined modern styles with rich materials. During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour and faith in social and technological progress. Art Deco was a pastiche of many different styles, sometimes contradictory, united by a desire to be modern. From its outset, Art Deco was influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism, it featured rare and expensive materials, such as ebony and ivory, exquisite craftsmanship. The Chrysler Building and other skyscrapers of New York built during the 1920s and 1930s are monuments of the Art Deco style. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the Art Deco style became more subdued.
New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel, plastic. A sleeker form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s. Art Deco is one of the first international styles, but its dominance ended with the beginning of World War II and the rise of the functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style of architecture that followed. Art Deco took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925, though the diverse styles that characterize Art Deco had appeared in Paris and Brussels before World War I; the term arts décoratifs was first used in France in 1858. In 1868, Le Figaro newspaper used the term objets d'art décoratifs with respect to objects for stage scenery created for the Théâtre de l'Opéra. In 1875, furniture designers, textile and glass designers, other craftsmen were given the status of artists by the French government. In response to this, the École royale gratuite de dessin founded in 1766 under King Louis XVI to train artists and artisans in crafts relating to the fine arts, was renamed the National School of Decorative Arts.
It took its present name of ENSAD in 1927. During the 1925 Exposition the architect Le Corbusier wrote a series of articles about the exhibition for his magazine L'Esprit Nouveau under the title, "1925 EXPO. ARTS. DÉCO." which were combined into a book, "L'art décoratif d'aujourd'hui". The book was a spirited attack on the excesses of the lavish objects at the Exposition; the actual phrase "Art déco" did not appear in print until 1966, when it featured in the title of the first modern exhibit on the subject, called Les Années 25: Art déco, Stijl, Esprit nouveau, which covered the variety of major styles in the 1920s and 1930s. The term Art déco was used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in the Times, describing the different styles at the exhibit. Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major academic book on the style: Art Deco of the 20s and 30s. Hillier noted that the term was being used by art dealers and cites The Times and an essay named "Les Arts Déco" in Elle magazine as examples of prior usage.
In 1971, Hillier organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book about it, The World of Art Deco. The emergence of Art Deco was connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, who until late in the 19th century had been considered as artisans; the term "arts décoratifs" had been invented in 1875, giving the designers of furniture and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs, or SAD, was founded in 1901, decorative artists were given the same rights of authorship as painters and sculptors. A similar movement developed in Italy; the first international exhibition devoted to the decorative arts, the Esposizione international d'Arte decorative moderna, was held in Turin in 1902. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration and L'Art décoratif moderne. Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, in the Salon d'automne.
French nationalism played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts. In 1911, the SAD proposed the holding of a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912. No copies of old styles were to be permitted; the exhibit was postponed until 1914 because of the war, postponed until 1925, when it gave its name to the whole family of styles known as Déco. Parisian department stores and fashion designers played an important
