Sylvester sings the praises of the Sylvia Hotel
Sylvester explains why West End landmark is one of her favourite places
We all have favourite places. Those places reflect who we are and what we value. With that in mind, columnist Daphne Bramham has asked four of Vancouver’s mayoral candidates to meet her at their favourite places to talk about why it’s a place they return to often, what those places say about Vancouver, and how those favourite places reflect their vision for the city.
Sunlight streamed through the window and sparkled off English Bay where a few sailboats and a lone kayaker took advantage of a spectacular fall day.
“The thing I love about the Sylvia is that it’s not pretentious,” said mayoral candidate Shauna Sylvester as we sat tucked into a corner table as the lunch crowd started drifting in.
Although a line of tourists was checking out only a few metres away, most of those checking in for lunch are regulars who greet the servers by name.
Like Sylvester, who is a recent transplant to the West End, the Sylvia is their local. It’s also her brother’s, whom she coincidentally spots as he and his wife cross Beach Avenue heading down to the seawall.
“This is not a luxury place,” she said of the Sylvia. “It’s got soul, and the thing I love about Vancouver is that we have all these neighbourhoods that have real soul.
“I raised my family on Commercial Drive, and the thing I love about Commercial Drive is that it has a real mix: new immigrants and people who have been there for generations. It’s got First Nations co-ops and people who were buying their first house. It was a great place to raise your kids. Main Street is like that. Cambie Street is like that, and so are parts of Dunbar and West 10th.”
The red-bricked hotel is a landmark with its covering of massive Virginia creepers. It’s a remnant of a Vancouver that’s largely disappeared. But as Sylvester points out, it caused quite a stir when it was built in 1912.
Up until 1958, it was the tallest building in the West End. Built as an apartment building, it was at the vanguard of change in a neighbourhood that had been dominated by mansions owned by the city’s richest families who had begun decamping to Shaughnessy after the Canadian Pacific Railway’s real estate arm started developing it in 1907.
The Sylvia was converted to a hotel in the 1930s and, in the 1950s, it caused another stir when it opened Vancouver’s first cocktail bar in what was then one of the highest density neighbourhoods in North America. Today, its low-rise condos, apartment and co-op buildings are dwarfed by Yaletown’s and Coal Harbour’s towers.
“The West End was a bit of development gone wild and very unlike the rest of the city,” Sylvester explained. “But there were some things about it that were important. On the main street, on Denman Street it was only two storeys, which allowed local businesses to set up. And the city took the (housing) density and put it off the main street.”
The city also planted trees along the streets and protected public space including along English Bay and Stanley Park. Eventually, it added a community centre and a library.
“I love living in the West End,” she said. “There’s green space. There are parks. There are amenities. There’s a whole community. It’s highly walkable, and I can try any kind of food I want on Denman Street. All of those are ingredients of what makes a good city.”
She contrasts that with older neighbourhoods that lack the West End’s density. Sylvester talked about a recent shopping trip along West 10th Avenue. Not that long ago, there were lots of local stores. Now, she said, it’s being hollowed out.
“It’s just dying because there isn’t a customer base to keep it going. There are empty houses on every block in the neighbourhood. It felt a little bit like a ghost town over there. And then I come back here and it’s vibrant.”
She said the same thing is happening along Commercial Drive.
“It was my small town, but it doesn’t have the density. It’s become very insular now. It’s not growing. It’s not enabling people if they’ve left a house to downsize because that kind of housing just doesn’t exist.”
As an Independent, Sylvester has produced the most detailed platform of all the candidates. Influencing her ideas about how Vancouver can continue to grow without losing its soul is the West End. There are also lots of locally owned restaurants and businesses, although that is changing because of the city’s decision to increase the allowable heights along Denman Street, which has resulted in rising property taxes as two-storey commercial building are being replaced by taller ones.
“I think we’ve made a mistake in building up on the arterials,” said Sylvester. “I think we need to go away from the arterials so small businesses can continue to thrive in those smaller places.”
Home to Vancouver’s gay village, the West End now has more school-aged children than traditional family neighbourhoods. Sylvester credits the mix of housing options: rental, co-ops, and ownership on both leasehold and freehold land.
Because of that, it attracts recent arrivals (including immigrants and students), singles, downsizing couples, seniors and high-income professionals.
“The thing that makes a community is how it builds connectivity among us,” said Sylvester. “That’s one of the things about the West End that I like and would like to see emulated in other neighbourhoods in this city.”