“East Van” is an umbrella term referring to all of the neighbourhoods east of Ontario Street. It includes Mount Pleasant, Riley Park, Main Street, Grandview-Woodlands, Killarney, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Hastings Sunrise, The Fraserhood, Champlain Heights, Fraserview Victoria, Sunset, and Renfrew Collingwood. It is a huge swathe of land; largely residential (with some pockets of industrial), massively multi-cultural, and predominately working class.

In East Van at the moment (our HOOD palettes are ever-changing), we’re seeing the seven core shades of the Trout Lake Community Centre; the late dusky sky that signals the start of the Illuminares Lantern Festival; Vancouver Giants tri-colour; the September grass in McSpadden Park; the little yellow Fiat in front of Via Tevere; the green doors of the Cedar Cottage Coffee House; the gravel pathways around New Brighton Park; lipstick red on the Burlesque dancers at The Biltmore; the North Shore mountains from Clinton Park; Punjabi Market signage.

A BLUE COLLAR WORK ETHIC
LEESIDE, A SKATEPARK BUILT BY SKATEBOARDERS
INTENSE GAMES OF CRICKET
THE INCOMPARABLE 60’S STYLE 2400 MOTEL
THE AWESOME ODDITIES AT HACKSPACE
THE TROUT LAKE FARMERS MAKET
TOURS OF PURDY’S CHOCOLATE FACTORY
TWILIGHT LANTERN PROCESSIONS
BBQ’S AT NEW BRIGHTON PARK
INNER CITY KIDS WITH A PASSION FOR WRITING
A GREAT PLACE TO RENT A DRILL

The Alley Chairs project is curated by Nicole Arnett, an invaluable friend to Scout. It documents/invents the dramas surrounding the abandoned alleyway chairs and sofas of East Vancouver.

– In 1929 the Pacific Nation Exhibition (PNE) opened an amusement park next door called Happy Land. In 1958 it was reopened as Playland.

– China Creek takes its name from a group of Chinese-owned farms in the area near the turn of the century.

– Prior to the Depression of 1913, the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood featured a small roller coaster.

– Skinny dipping in Trout Lake is a civic tradition that dates back to Vancouver’s beginnings.

– Established in 1860, Brighton Beach (now New Brighten Park) was once a fashionable vacation spot for New Westminsterites looking for a seaside getaway.

– The Cedar Cottage neighbourhood gets its name from Cedar Cottage Brewery, built in 1901.

– Benjamin Tingley Roger, the owner of Roger’s sugar, struck a deal with the city in 1890 to build his refinery on the condition that he could enjoy 10 years of free water and 15 years of no taxes.

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