The High Drive

In 2002, there were by-law officers who ticketed any establishments that hosted dancing to live music - they were called the 'dancing police' and the merchants whose patrons to the music were understandably upset.

I don't know the reasoning for this but perhaps it has something to do with the noise by-law. I do know that the theme music to 'Footloose' is running through my head right now and I am seeing Kevin Bacon dancing on the drive!

The Drive gained national attention in late 2004 when the media complained several cafes were openly selling marijuana.

On  September 9, 2004,  one such cafe - Da Kine - was raided. The owner, Carol Gwilt, was arrested and sent to jail.

Da Kine Cafe opened in May of 2004, selling cannabis and hash to anyone who signed a form to join. (I read one report that said Gwilt only sold a small amount of pot to those over 19.) Carol ran her business with the help of volunteers and other activists. It was a public shop, reputable and neighbouring business claimed the Da Kine Cafe was an asset to them.

However, the B.C. Solicitor General was known to be opposed to cannabis and anti-prohibition demonstrations. It is surmised that, in an effort to please American law enforcement agencies, the Solicitor General called for unnecessary force to raid the cafe.

Gwilt was sentenced to 15 months in prison but was released on parole after six.

I think that Carol Gwilt may have just been a bit ahead of her time. Now there are medical marijuana clinics open on The Drive and I read one report in which a former solicitor general states that pot will probably be legal in the next five years.

In the past, I have covered a few of the festivals held on The Drive. Events like Car-Free Days, Italian Day and other activities bring the rest of the city - and many others - to our little neck of the woods.  Sometimes The Drive can be a lot of fun.

When I first moved here, I was told by someone a person could have a meal from every continent in one block on the Drive. I don't know if it is that easy but close!

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information on The Drive and to Cannabis Culture Marijuana Magazine for the information on Carol Gwilt.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

My Little Italy

Today I am going to show you more photos from Italian Days on the Drive. I am also going to tell you a little about this area of town.

Prior to the 1930s, Italian immigrants settled mainly in the Strathcona district of Vancouver. However, on the 40s and 50s, mainly of these newcomers moved to the northern area of Commercial Drive. The Italians who moved here opened businesses and restaurants and are credited with revitalizing the area.

Little Italy, as this part of town was known, became a real ethnic Italian enclave. By the 1960s, more Italian businesses were springing up in the Hastings and Nanaimo area although Commercial Drive remained the cultural core. Ethnic Italians were influential in this area from the 1940s to the mid 1970s.

A number of things changed during the 70s though. Many different cultures began to move into the Grandview-Woodland area. In addition, a schism in the Italian community led to the decline of Italian influence and concentration in the Little Italy.

I lived in this area, not far from where I am now, for part of 1984 and '85. There seemed to be more Italians in the area at that time then there are now. That doesn't mean that the Italian influence is gone because far from it. Not only does the Italian days still attract a lot of people but there are businesses on the Drive that have an Italian influence. From coffee shops to Italian bakeries - the influence of these earlier inhabitants is still strong. Sometimes, though not as often as before, I will still see little old Italian ladies doing their shopping at one of the numerous vegetable and fruit stores on the Drive.

So if you are in Vancouver, don't forget to visit Commercial Drive. It is a vibrant area full of restaurants where you can eat food from every corner of the world. It is an exciting mixture of nationalities and cultures. Hopefully, one of the many festivals held here will be on at that time and you can really see the personality of the area.

I want to thank Wikipedia for the above information.

 I hope you find the beauty around you.

Vancouver's First Residents

This building was built in the early 1920s.

Anthropologists believe that the first humans to settle what is now known as Vancouver did so about 10,000 years ago. This would have been about the time that the Wisconsin Glacial Episode, the ice age, ended. However the scientists don't agree whether they came by sea or land.

Some argue that the first inhabitants moved down a deglaciating coast and then followed rivers formed by the retreating Cordilleran ice sheet into the province's interior valleys in the search of fish and game that populated the area.

Others make the case that the peoples travelled and ice-free inland route then traversed the rivers to the coast.

The Sto:lo people took their name from the Fraser River itself. They believe that their occupation of Vancouver began with the arrival of sky creatures who transformed into ancestral animals.

The Sto:lo people are bonded by a common language even though they are divided into distinct tribal groups. All speak variations of Halkomelem with those that had occupied the region of what is now known as Metro Vancouver speaking the Hun'qmyi'num' dialect. The Sqamish of North Vancouver speak a distinct language even though they are part of the Coast Salish group that includes Halkomelem speakers.

These two buildings are on East Broadway. The red house, 731, was built in 1925 while the larger building beside it was built in 1904.

The Squamish originally inhabited the region around the head of Howe Sound but by the mid-19th century had expanded into the Vancouver area.

Contact with the Europeans in the late 18th century was done by the Musqueam, according to what was recorded. They lived at the mouth of the Fraser River whiled the Kwikwetl'em resided on the Coquitlam River and Coquitlam Lake; the Q'eytsi'i - anglicized as Katzie - lived in the Pitt River watersheds; the Kwantlen lived around what is now known as New Westminster; the Skayuks were at the Stave Lake watersheds; the Mathekwi of Matsqui; the Q'o:leg: of Whonnock and the Sne'kwomes, or Snokomish lived around what is now White Rock.

Following European contact many of these populations moved. When a Hudson's Bay Company trading post was established at Fort Langley in 1827, the Qw'o:ntl'an, Katzie, Snokomish, Skayuks and Q'o:leq' moved closer to the fort so that they would be near the source of trade goods. Unfortunately this also led to a depopulation of the nations due to various introduced epidemics.

When the Europeans settled the area in the mid-1850s Vancouver was largely occupied by the Musqueam people. Their villages extended from the Fraser River Delta around Point Grey, False Creek, the West End, Stanley Park and along Burrard Inlet.

The preceding information was gathered from the book, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver by the late Chuck Davis.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Commercial Drive, Musqueam, First Nations, Hudson's Bay Company, British Columbia