The Incredible Shifting City

How Vancouver went from an industrial outpost to a bona fide metropolis.

From industrial outpost to bona fide metropolis, we’ve watched it all go down.

NO ONE CAN ever accuse Vancouver of stagnating. Back when our rst issue hit the streets in 1967—as Dick MacLean’s Greater Vancouver Greeter Guide— this city had already evolved from a coastal backwater to an urban centre of 400,000 de ned by a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pace of change. This snapshot from the early 1970s captures the city at a crucial turning point. The Georgia Viaduct had yet to open, although vigorous protests had already killed the plan for its adjoining freeway through Strathcona, and icons like Granville Island were just an idea as False Creek was a semideserted industrial slough awaiting rediscovery. Set in tandem with the same aerial view from today (next page), it’s amazing to see just how far we’ve come.