Last year, The Vancouver Sun did a special series on the Gastown district, in downtown Vancouver.
The project developed out of a music series that focused attention on artists living and working in the Gastown area. It then spiraled into a multimedia collaboration, combining the words of Vancouver Sun reporter Andrea Woo and the videos of director and producer Mark Yuen. Their efforts can be viewed at the Gastown Project website.
The project focuses on the people living in the area, from new tenants, to business developers, to longtime owners like Jim Green, a former MP and a current community developer. The site mixes history with personal stories and displays them against the districts own colourful backdrop. It discusses the areas social housing needs as well as the entrepreneurs who are now rediscovering the vitality of Vancouver's oldest neighbourhood.
This is not the steam clock Gastown your cousins from Winnipeg photographed on their trip out west. This is the community that has morphed into Vancouver's trendiest area, attracting cultural leaders and young professionals from around the world. This is Vancouver's urban dream - an area that respects its past and uses it to paint the future.
If the stories on the website inspire you; if you are looking for a neighbourhood with an actual hearbeat; if cookie cutter condos nauseate you, investigate a life in Vancouver's Gastown district.
For more information on how to secure Gastown real estate, talk to Anthea Poon.
