The new season of meetings kicked off on Thursday with a good attendance. As usual, the discussion was wide-ranging and fascinating.
- We began as usual with our Around The Hood segment in which Eric leads us through an illustrated tour of various changes, sales, rumours etc within Grandview. This month we covered 17 properties. In many cases we looked at heritage properties that were or had been for sale; for others (such as 2111 Kitchener and 1102 Commercial) we wondered at the quick flipping of sites for huge short-term profits. We noted that three major apartment blocks on Commercial, each of which had supplied affordable rentals for decades, have now been or are being renovated with rental rates expected to increase dramatically.At 2088 Charles, we noted that this double lot was to be split as part of an HRA. Finally, we were pleased to see that 1003 Commercial (“The Peg”) which recently sold is having its roof repaired and thus seems likely to be preserved, at least temporarily. These tours always spur interesting discussions and often produce nuggets of genuine historical value.
- Eric has also transformed some parts of his earlier “Mechanicals and Materials” series into handy Life Hacks for Heritage presentations. Within the next short while they will appear on this site on their own page.
- We then spent some time reviewing and discussing the 2015-16 Centenary Signs houses. The map and the short descriptive listings are already up on the site. Some years we have had a cake to celebrate the houses; this year, Penny made peanut butter cookies which were at least as good as cake!
- Michael reviewed the new Heritage Register renewal project, and discussed the First Shaughnessy designation as an Historic Area. Michael doesn’t believe other areas of Vancouver will receive such a designation because, in neighbourhoods such as Greandview and Mount Pleasant, the current RT zoning seems to be working as a reasonable defence of heritage. This is not working so well, however, in commercial areas such as Main Street.
- Mount Pleasant Heritage Group is looking for assistance to find old pictures of the Triangle Building in their neighbourhood at Main & Kingsway. They can be contacted via their website.
- The next meeting is on 15th October. Jak will be presenting his database of Grandview properties.
grandviewheritagegroup.ca 