HIP- STORIC

Three gritty older districts in Vancouver pulse with new vitality

VANCOUVER, Canada — Tucked alongside the city’s forest of gleaming glass towers are three historic neighborhoods that had been overlooked until recently. These neighborhoods, the city’s oldest, had fallen into disrepair and were home to those struggling to survive in one of Canada’s poorest postal codes. Gastown is Vancouver’s birthplace; Railtown boomed as the warehouse district for the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway, which was completed in 1885; and Chinatown was the hub for many of the 15,000 Asian immigrants who helped construct that nation- building line. Now collectively called Downtown Eastside, or DTES, they were Vancouver’s epicenter at the turn of the 20th century before it shifted west, leaving the neighborhoods to fall on tough times. Community activism successfully fought repeated attempts to evict the poor before Expo 86 and the 2010 Olympics. That’s why the DTES now harbors Vancouver’s richest collection of 19th and early 20th century architecture, rare in a metropolis with a history of demolishing its old, character- rich buildings. I sensed the f irst rustlings of a

renewal in Gastown in the mid- 2000s as oneof- a- kind décor and furniture shops as well as local designer clothing boutiques took advantage of cheap rents for roomy brickwalled, plank- f loored spaces.

Tiny Railtown quietly followed suit, its warehouses morphing into artists’ studios, loft lodgings and manufacturing space for hip brands such as Herschel Supply Co. And traditional Chinatown has also recently turned a corner, its colorful but often empty shops welcoming a tide of young entrepreneurs attracted by rents one- tenth of those in adjoining downtown.

Though still unpolished and edgy, the neighborhoods are actively thriving and evolving — each at its own pace and with its own vibe — with new restaurants and shops opening weekly.

A stroll past the No 5 Orange strip club, the pot- smoky Marc Emery’s Cannabis Culture Headquarters or the chic Matchstick Coffee might still include running a gantlet of panhandlers and buskers, but the areas offer a stimulating place to experience squeakyclean Vancouver’s grittier side.

Martin Child Getty I mages GASTOWN,in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, is the city’s birthplace and a resurgent neighborhood with trendy shops, gastropubs and nightclubs.

Margo Pfeiff RAILTOWN’SVancouver Urban Winery has local wines on tap.

Margo Pfeiff CHINATOWN features multi-business stores such as Space Lab.