1.
Neighbourhood
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A neighbourhood, or neighborhood, is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members, the Old English word for neighbourhood was neahdæl. ”Most of the earliest cities around the world as excavated by archaeologists have evidence for the presence of social neighbourhoods. Historical documents shed light on life in numerous historical preindustrial or nonwestern cities. Neighbourhoods are typically generated by social interaction among people living near one another, in this sense they are local social units larger than households not directly under the control of city or state officials. In addition to social neighbourhoods, most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts used by officials for taxation, record-keeping, administrative districts are typically larger than neighbourhoods and their boundaries may cut across neighbourhood divisions. In some cases, however, administrative districts coincided with neighbourhoods, for example, in the T’ang period Chinese capital city Chang’an, neighbourhoods were districts and there were state officials who carefully controlled life and activity at the neighbourhood level. Neighbourhoods in preindustrial cities often had some degree of social specialisation or differentiation, ethnic neighbourhoods were important in many past cities and remain common in cities today. One factor contributing to neighbourhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in past cities was the role of rural to urban migration and this was a continual process in preindustrial cities, and migrants tended to move in with relatives and acquaintances from their rural past. Neighbourhoods have been the site of delivery or service interventions in part as efforts to provide local, quality services. Alfred Kahn, as early as the mid-1970s, described the experience, theory and fads of neighbourhood service delivery over the decade, including discussion of income transfers. Neighbourhoods, as an aspect of community, also are the site of services for youth, including children with disabilities. While the term neighbourhood organisation is not as common in 2015, community and economic development activists have pressured for reinvestment in local communities and neighbourhoods. Community and Economic Development may be understood in different ways, and may involve faith-based groups, urban sociology even has a subset termed neighbourhood sociology which supports the study of local communities and the diversity of urban neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods are also used in studies from postal codes and health disparities. Neighbourhoods are convenient, and always accessible, since you are already in your neighbourhood when you walk out your door, successful neighbourhood action frequently requires little specialised technical skill, and often little or no money. Action may call for an investment of time, but material costs are often low, with neighbourhood action, compared to activity on larger scales, results are more likely to be visible and quickly forthcoming. The streets are cleaner, the crosswalk is painted, the trees are planted, visible and swift results are indicators of success, and since success is reinforcing, the probability of subsequent neighbourhood action is increased. The social support that a neighbourhood may provide can serve as a buffer against various forms of adversity
2.
Vancouver
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Vancouver is a coastal seaport city in Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2016 census recorded 631,486 people in the city, the Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2,463,431 in 2016, making it the third largest metropolitan area in Canada. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada with over 5,400 people per square kilometre. With over 250,000 residents, Vancouver municipality is the fourth most densely populated city in North America behind New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City according to the 2011 census. In that census, Vancouver was one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada, Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city. In 2014, following thirty years in California, the annual TED conference made Vancouver its indefinite home, several matches of the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup were played in Vancouver, including the final at BC Place Stadium. From that first enterprise, other stores and some hotels quickly appeared along the waterfront to the west, Gastown became formally laid out as a registered townsite dubbed Granville, B. I. As of 2014, Port Metro Vancouver is the third largest port by tonnage in the Americas, 27th in the world, the busiest and largest in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America. While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, archaeological records indicate the presence of Aboriginal people in the Vancouver area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The city is located in the territories of the Squamish, Musqueam. They had villages in various parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey, the city takes its name from George Vancouver, who explored the inner harbour of Burrard Inlet in 1792 and gave various places British names. The explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his became the first known Europeans to set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they travelled from the east down the Fraser River, perhaps as far as Point Grey. The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought over 25,000 men, mainly from California, to nearby New Westminster on the Fraser River, on their way to the Fraser Canyon, a sawmill established at Moodyville in 1863, began the citys long relationship with logging. It was quickly followed by mills owned by Captain Edward Stamp on the shore of the inlet. This mill, known as the Hastings Mill, became the nucleus around which Vancouver formed, the mills central role in the city waned after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s. It nevertheless remained important to the economy until it closed in the 1920s. The settlement which came to be called Gastown grew up quickly around the original makeshift tavern established by Gassy Jack Deighton in 1867 on the edge of the Hastings Mill property
3.
Harbour Centre
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Harbour Centre is a notable skyscraper in the central business district of Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Lookout tower atop the building makes it one of the tallest structures in Vancouver. With its 360-degree viewing deck, it serves as a tourist attraction with the Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant. During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, it served as the headquarters for several up and coming tech firms, including Stormix Technologies, NetNation and others. Designed by WZMH Architects, the building is listed as being 28 stories tall, there is some disagreement as to the buildings height. According to the Vancouver Lookouts website the observation deck is 168 m above the street level, the CTBUH however lists the buildings architectural height as actually being 147 m. Furthermore Skyscraperpage lists the height to the roof as being only 139.6 m. This is stated to be the height from the Hastings Street entrance while the height from the entrance on Cordova Street is 146 m. It also lists the buildings height to the tip of the antenna as being 170.1 m. In any event it remains one of the tallest office buildings in the city, the building was British Columbias tallest measured by pinnacle height until the construction of Living Shangri-La in 2009. Harbour Centre is located at 555 West Hastings Street in Downtown Vancouver, simon Fraser University operates its downtown Harbour Centre campus in the adjoining Spencer building and houses the Center for Dialogue and Canadas World. The downtown Simpsons-Sears department store was located here before it closed in 1987, there is also a red Santa hat on the spire that lights up during the holiday season. Vancouver Coast Guard Radio operates from Harbour Centre, providing distress watch and vessel traffic services to the North Arm Fraser River, Burrard Inlet, Indian Arm, English Bay, glass elevators whisk visitors 168 meters skyward from street level to the Observation Deck in 40 seconds. - A group of teenage girls ride the famous glass elevator to the top to dine at the fictional Above the Clouds restaurant. Harbour Centre can be seen in the Arrow episode Dark Waters List of tallest buildings in Vancouver Lighthouse of Alexandria, Harbour Centre Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant
4.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
5.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, 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. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the 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 the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. 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 and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
6.
Central business district
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A central business district is the commercial and business centre of a city. In larger cities, it is synonymous with the citys financial district. Both the CBD and the city centre or downtown may also coincide with the central activities district, a citys CBD is usually typified by a concentration of retail and office buildings. The CBD usually has a density higher than the surrounding districts of the city. The CBD is often also the city centre or downtown, Mexico City also has a historic city centre, the colonial-era Centro Histórico, along with two CBDs, the mid-late 20th century Paseo de la Reforma - Polanco, and the new Santa Fe. The shape and type of a CBD almost always reflect the citys history. Cities with maximum building height restrictions often have a historic section quite apart from the financial. It has been said that downtowns are therefore distinct from both CBDs and city centres. CBDs usually have very small resident populations, for example, the population of the City of London declined from over 200,000 in the year 1700 to less than 10,000 today. In some instances, however, CBD populations are increasing as younger professional, the Buenos Aires Central Business District, is the main commercial centre of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The actual area was the point of first European settlement and its north-south axis runs from Monserrat in the south to Retiro railway station in the north. Its east-west axis runs from Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve and Puerto Madero, the district is the financial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina. Its port is one of the busiest in South America, navigable rivers by way of the Río de la Plata connect the port to northeast Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. As a result, it serves as the hub for a vast area of the southeastern region of the South American continent. Tax collection related to the port has caused political problems in the past. The Buenos Aires Human Development Index is likewise high by international standards, the term is used to refer to the business and financial area of a state capital city such as the Sydney CBD, Melbourne CBD, Brisbane CBD, Perth CBD and Adelaide CBD. The city centres of some cities, such as Townsville, Bendigo. More recently, in cities the city centre, which may or may not be distinct from the CBD, is increasingly separately identified
7.
Chinatown, Vancouver
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Chinatown in Vancouver, British Columbia is Canadas largest Chinatown. Main, Pender, and Keefer Streets are the areas of commercial activity. Chinatown remains a popular tourist attraction, and is one of the largest historic Chinatowns in North America, however, it went into decline as newer members of Vancouvers Cantonese Chinese community dispersed to other areas of the metropolis. It has been more recently overshadowed by the newer Chinese immigrant business district along No.3 Road in the City of Richmond, many affluent Hong Kong and Taiwanese immigrants have moved there since the late 1980s, coinciding with the increase of Chinese-ethnic retail and restaurants in that area. Chinatown was once known for its neon signs but like the rest of the city lost many of the signs to changing times. The last of these was the Ho Ho sign which was removed in 1997, current focus is on the restoration and adaptive reuse of the distinctive Association buildings. Chinatown is becoming more prosperous as new investment and old traditional businesses flourish, today the neighbourhood is complete with many traditional restaurants, banks, open markets and clinics, tea shops, clothing and other shops catering to the local community and tourists alike. The Vancouver office of Sing Tao Daily, one of the citys four Chinese dailies, OMNI British Columbia had its television studio in Chinatown from 2003 to 2010. A significant development since the 1980s onwards has been the increase of transnational awareness among the Chinese and their heightened mobility of capital, information, people and commodities stretching over territorial boundaries and distance challenged the traditional meaning of migration. Compared to Chinatown itself, more Chinese immigrants settled in Richmond BC for its house prices, considerable concentration of Chinese retailers. Murality, a local non-profit, is installing a mural on East Pender Street with the aim to bring colour and vitality to the neighbourhood. The growth of Chinatown that occurred in most of the century created a healthy. Noticing local businesses suffering, the Chinatown Merchants Association cited the lack of parking and restrictive heritage district rules as impediments towards new use, more residential projects around the community and a lowering of property taxes helped to maintain a more rounded community. Reinvigoration was a discussed topic along government members, symbolically embedded in the Millennium Gate project which opened in 2002, the market business today predominantly consists of lower order, working class goods, such as groceries, tea shops, and souvenir stores. Examples include the closing of some restaurants and shops, sometimes in instances where the family did not have successors, attracted to the lower rent and the buildings heritage status, younger businesses have moved in, often with Caucasian owners who also settle in apartments above the shops. As a result, the activity is increasingly becoming more diversified, dotted with Western chain stores such as Waves Coffeeshop. Vancouver planners surveyed 77 businesses and found that 64 percent reported a decrease in revenue between 2008 and 2011, the majority of consumers,58 percent, are local residents with 21 percent from elsewhere in the Lower Mainland. On the lower end of the scale, tourist spending accounted for 12 percent of Chinatown customers
8.
Gastown
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Gastown is a national historic site in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside. I. Gastown was Vancouvers first downtown core and is named for Gassy Jack Deighton, the Canadian Pacific Railway terminated on piles on the shore parallel to Water Street in 1886. From this the area became a hive of warehouses, carrall Street was particularly swampy owing to it being low ground between False Creek and Burrard Inlet. Bridges overcame this obstacle, and the low ground and beach was slowly filled in with refuse, in 1886 the town was incorporated as the City of Vancouver. It fell victim to the Great Vancouver Fire that same year, losing all, hastings and Main was the traditional centre of town, and the foreshore became an important staging area with the North and West Vancouver Ferries, and Union Steamships all having docks there. Evans, Coleman, Evans, a merchandiser, had a warehouse, Fleck Brothers. Department stores such as Spencers, Hudsons Bay Company warehouse, Woodwards, Fairbanks Morse, Army and Navy stores, Gastown found new life as the centre of the citys wholesale produce distribution until the Great Depression in the 1930s. It was also the centre of the citys drinking life, there were 300 licensed establishments the twelve-block area of the former Granville, Gastown was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2009. Gastown is a mix of hip contemporary fashion and interior furnishing boutiques, tourist-oriented businesses, restaurants, nightclubs, poverty and newly upscale housing. In addition, there are law firms, architects and other offices, as well as computer and internet businesses, art galleries, music and art studios. In February 2013 The Gastown Gazette began publishing news and stories about the ongoing protests against gentrification in the Downtown Eastside. The community paper has since gathered provincial and national attention for reports on the neighborhood, Gastown has become a hub for technology and new media. It has attracted companies such as Zaui Software, Idea Rebel, MetroQuest, BootUp Labs Entrepreneurial Society, SEOinVancouver, popular annual events that take place on the cobblestone streets of Gastown include the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix international bicycle race. In June 2004, Storyeum opened in Gastown and it was a lively theatrical 65-minute show that re-enacted the history of BC using eight sets that were all located below street level. Unfortunately, due to mounting debt, the attraction closed its doors in October 2006, gastowns most famous landmark is the steam-powered clock on the corner of Cambie and Water Street. It was built in 1977 to cover a steam grate, part of Vancouvers distributed steam heating system, as a way to harness the steam and its original design was faulty and it had to be powered by electricity after a breakdown. The steam used is low pressure downtown-wide steam heating network that powers a steam engine in its base. The chain lift moves steel balls upward, where they are unloaded, the weight of the balls on the descending chain drives a conventional pendulum clock escapement, geared to the hands on the four faces
9.
Yaletown
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Yaletown is an area of Downtown Vancouver approximately bordered by False Creek and by Robson and Homer Streets. Formerly a heavy industrial area dominated by warehouses and rail yards, since the Expo 86, the marinas, parks, high rise apartment blocks, and converted heritage buildings constitute one of the most significant urban regeneration projects in North America. As with much of Vancouver, the Canadian Pacific Railway had a influence on the shaping of Yaletown. As the line was extended to Vancouver, these Yale residents followed it to the city, as the years progressed, the proximity of False Creek and the railway meant that Yaletown became heavily industrial. Many factories, rail buildings and warehouses were built, many of which survive to this day, after the real-estate boom and bust cycles of the 20th century, the area became shoddy and contaminated, and was bought up by the city. After the 1986 Worlds Fair, held on neighbouring former-industrial land, the site was sold to a Hong Kong-based developer Li Ka-shing, setting in motion the redevelopment process which continues to this day. Thus there are areas set aside for parks, waterfront access, community centres. Along the shore of False Creek, the Stanley Park Seawall linear park has continued through the area. While little or no original housing from the 19th century survives, hamilton Street and Mainland Street are the most significant, comprising two intact streetscapes from that era. They are lined with handsome brick warehouses built on rail platforms and these have been converted into loft style apartments and offices, with boutique stores, bars and restaurants at the ground level. During the latter years of the dot com boom, these streets housed Vancouvers multimedia gulch similar to the SOMA area of San Francisco. In another tribute to the history of the area, it also houses Engine 374. Most of these buildings are apartment blocks, the Aquabus and False Creek Ferries provide passenger service from Yaletown to various stops around False Creek, including Granville Island and Science World. Yaletown is served by the Yaletown-Roundhouse SkyTrain station of the Canada Line, the Yaletown waterfront is also home to Elsie Roy Elementary School, the first new elementary school to be opened in an inner-city Vancouver neighbourhood since 1975. Yaletown is also home to a number of English language schools
10.
West End, Vancouver
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The definition of the official neighbourhood of the West End, according to the city, is the area west of Burrard Street, east of Denman Street, and south of West Georgia Street. Like all of Vancouver, the West End was originally a forested wilderness, when those plans failed they sold a good portion of the area, by then known as the Brickmakers Claim, to Victoria investors who in turn tried to promote its development as New Liverpool. The only thing that happened with that scheme was a subdivision plan registered with the Land Titles office in New Westminster, another name used for the property was the Brighouse Estate. Later, with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway, with its terminus at nearby Coal Harbour, many of these families lived along Georgia Street, known at that time as Blue Blood Alley for all the posh mansions built there. Later mansions were built in then remoter areas of the West End as the districts land values displaced the high-toned residences. This role was dropped with the increasing vogue for the upscale Shaughnessy neighbourhood. The West End is bordered by downtown on the one side, Stanley Park on the other, the West End is home to a mixed population, old and young, of Canadians, immigrants and international transient residents. Like other downtown neighbourhoods, the West End is very densely populated, close to 45,000 people of all ages, incomes, ethnicities, and sexual orientations live in the West End. The age group of 20-39 years consistently ranks the largest at 48%, followed by 40-64 at 34%, 65+ at 13%, containing 7. 4% of the City’s population, the West End welcomed 14% of new Vancouverites between 2001 and 2006. The West End is also home to Western Canada’s largest LGBTQ community, Vancouvers gay village, called Davie Village, is centred primarily on Davie Street between Burrard and Bute. The share of single-parent families in the West End is about 12%, statistics also show that the West End is home to many children — the downtown peninsula now has more children than traditional family neighbourhoods such as West Point Grey or Kerrisdale. Lord Roberts Annex offers kindergarten to grade 3, the student population of Lord Roberts Elementary School represents 43 countries and 37 languages. King George Secondary School celebrated 100 years in 2014, West End residents have been very active in shaping their neighbourhood and maintaining its liveability. In the 1970s, residents banded together to calm traffic that was using the neighbourhood as a shortcut between downtown Vancouver and the suburbs of the North Shore, across the Lions Gate Bridge. They also staged a successful Shame the Johns campaign to rid the West End of the prostitution that was prevalent in the neighbourhood. This campaign was aided by a 1984 injunction granted by then-B. C, supreme Court Justice Allan McEachern which banned prostitutes from working west of Granville Street. The West End is particularly famous among visitors for Robson Street, many restaurants and shops can also be found along Denman Street closer to Stanley Park, and Davie Street between Burrard and Jervis streets. Numerous parks and beaches can be throughout the West End including Alexandra Park, Cardero Park, Nelson Park, Stanley Park
11.
Metro Vancouver Regional District
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Metro Vancouver is a political body and corporate entity designated by provincial legislation as one of the regional districts in British Columbia, Canada. Now officially known by the name of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. Further, it was known as the Regional District of Fraser–Burrard for nearly one year upon originally incorporating in mid-1967, the MVRD is under the direction of 23 local authorities, it delivers regional services, sets policy and acts as a political forum. The regional districts most populous city is Vancouver, and Metro Vancouvers administrative offices are located in the City of Burnaby, the MVRDs boundaries match those of the Vancouver census metropolitan area as identified by Statistics Canada. The Greater Vancouver Water District and the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District were established in 1924 and 1956 respectively, the Government of British Columbia incorporated a regional district for this western portion of the Lower Mainland named the Regional District of Fraser-Burrard on June 29,1967. Just under a later, the regional district was renamed as the Greater Vancouver Regional District on June 13,1968. In 2007, the GVRD applied to change its legal name a second time to simply Metro Vancouver. The regional district was formally renamed a second time by the Government of British Columbia on January 30,2017 to the Metro Vancouver Regional District. The Metro Vancouver Regional District is located east of the Strait of Georgia, the boundaries of the MVRD match those of the Vancouver CMA. 5% from its revised 2011 population of 2,313,328. This regional district comprises 23 local authorities as members,21 municipalities, one electoral area, note, Abbotsford is a member for parks purposes only. Electoral Area A comprises all unincorporated land within the district boundaries. There are also seventeen Indian reserves within the area that are not subject to governance by local authorities or the regional district. Abbotsford also participates in the Metro Vancouver regional district, but only for parks purposes, each of these is governed by a board of directors. The board of the MVRD has 38 directors coming from the 23 local authorities who are MVRD members, each board director is an elected official of one of the local authorities, with the exception of the representative for Electoral Area A, which has no elected council. As of 2017, the organization had about 1,500 employees, the principal function of Metro Vancouver is to administer resources and services which are common across the metropolitan area. The Metro Vancouver Board has defined its strategic priorities for 2015 through 2018 in its Board Strategic Plan, the organization categorizes its work into eight action areas, as described in the following subsections. However, 84% of the budget is spent in three of those areas - the three utilities. Metro Vancouvers commitments and its members commitments to each area are outlined in eight board-approved management plans as referenced below
12.
Stanley Park
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Stanley Park is a 405-hectare public park that borders the downtown of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada and is almost entirely surrounded by waters of Vancouver Harbour and English Bay. The park has a history and was one of the first areas to be explored in the city. The land was used by indigenous peoples for thousands of years before British Columbia was colonized by the British during the 1858 Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. For many years after colonization, the park with its abundant resources would also be home to nonaboriginal settlers. The land was turned into Vancouvers first park when the city incorporated in 1886. It was named after Lord Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, unlike other large urban parks, Stanley Park is not the creation of a landscape architect, but rather the evolution of a forest and urban space over many years. Most of the structures present in the park were built between 1911 and 1937 under the influence of then superintendent W. S. Rawlings. Additional attractions, such as a polar bear exhibit, aquarium, and miniature train, were added in the post-war period. Much of the remains as densely forested as it was in the late 1800s, with about a half million trees. Thousands of trees were lost after three major windstorms that took place in the past 100 years, the last in 2006, significant effort was put into constructing the near-century-old Vancouver Seawall, which can draw thousands of residents and visitors to the park every day. The park also features forest trails, beaches, lakes, childrens play areas, on June 18,2014 Stanley Park was named top park in the entire world by TripAdvisor. Archaeological evidence suggests a human presence in the park dating back more than 3,000 years, the area is the traditional territory of different coastal indigenous peoples. From the Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound regions, Squamish Nation had a village in the park. From the lower Fraser River area, Musqueam Nation used its natural resources, where Lumbermans Arch is now, there once was a large village called Whoi Whoi, or Xwayxway, roughly meaning place of masks. One longhouse, built from cedar poles and slabs, was measured at 200 feet long by 60 feet wide and these houses were occupied by large extended families living in different quadrants of the house. The larger houses were used for ceremonial potlatchs where a host would invite guests to witness and participate in ceremonies, another settlement was further west along the same shore. This place was called Chaythoos, meaning high bank, the site of Chaythoos is noted on a brass plaque placed on the lowlands east of Prospect Point commemorating the parks centennial. Both sites were occupied in 1888, when residents were forcefully removed to allow a road to be constructed around the park
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