The Cambie Village a present-day boundary zone? (Part II: East and West)

Residents of East Van, or "The Republic of East Vancouver," might argue that their district boasts the most vital and tolerant communities, while many a condo ad emphasizes a "West Side" location, or even "West Side School Catchments area". In either case, local allegiances are defined along an east-west divide. This distinction dates back more than a century to the days when the CPR owned most of the land in western Vancouver. CPR land was subdivided into larger, more neatly organized, was sold to the wealthy.
Vancouver's avenue names change from "west" to "east" one block west of Main street, or four blocks east of Cambie. Of the four neighbourhoods that connect in the Cambie Village area, two (Mount Pleasant and Riley Park) extend into East Vancouver. Cambie Village businesses serve both the east and west sectors of the city.

Canada Line construction certainly did not cause Vancouver's long-standing east-west rift, but in the opinion of one East Vancouver-based blogger, construction's toll on the area means that, "in becoming a victim street, labouring beneath conditions imposed upon it from wealthier parts of town.... Cambie... may now unofficially be considered part of East Van -- the part of town that has things... dumped on it, not the part that does the dumping".

As construction grinds on, "Cambie Canyon" acts more like a functional border between East and West Vancouver and less like a zone of connection. The invisible boundary dividing East Vancouver from the more politically powerful west side could be drawn along Cambie street.

In a Vancouver Sun article published this May, journalist Frances Bula points out that ongoing construction along Cambie street interrupts the city's daily functioning, tearing the urban fabric into east and west segments. Disruptions to regular intra-urban flows along Cambie's north-south axis bisect the cityscape nearly in two and create a "physical and psychological east-west barrier," for example making it difficult for children who live on one side of Cambie to get to their schools on the other side. She half-seriously compares the rift to the Berlin Wall, likening overburdened single-lane intersections to West-East checkpoints.

An official Canada Line map (above) shows the extent to which the Canada Line geographically bisects the city.

Much has been made in local media of a rapid-rail project in Seattle which is similar in scope to the Canada Line. Unlike the Canada Line, the Seattle project includes dedicated community development funds in its budget (from the federal government) for supporting local business during the difficult construction period. The Executive Director of the [Seattle] Rainier Valley Community Development Fund recently visited the Cambie Village and, like Francis Bula in the Vancouver Sun article noted above, compared Canada Line construction to the Berlin Wall. I suspect this is not the kind of international attention that the Canada Line funders intend to seek!