Prickly Old Kingsway - part 1

Here are two views of the corner of Kingsway and Knight Street, looking Southwest. The first was taken in 1939, the second one was taken today. I'll be damned if I can see any resemblance. Kingsway is considered the oldest major road in the lower mainland. Depending on who you ask, you'll either be told that it was originally a trail blazed by the local First Nations folks, or by the subsequent European entrepreneurs. The trail was used to connect, via the shortest diagonal route, the waterfront areas that are now New Westminster and downtown Vancouver. You can only use the term "old" in its Vancouver meaning. A scant 150 years ago, just a few generations really, there were very few people in the area Kingsway now traverses. It was mostly wilderness.

Kingsway is awkward. If you are visiting by car it will likely annoy you that it cuts diagonally through the normal North-South/East-West grid, which grew up around the thoroughfare over the decades. I live in a 97 year-old-home near Knight and Kingsway. When the house was built it was part of a boom of new homes in the cheaper forested and farmed areas outlying what was then Vancouver. These new districts were strung together by the miracle of the electric streetcars that were installed on the original trail/road, bringing electricity for new “modern” homes with it. My neighbourhood was bulking up as if on steroids around that time. It was a combination of immigrant families in new homes, dairy farms, the old Cedar Cottage Brewery, a new school (which will be demolished this year, not quite surviving a full century), new churches, shops and more. If you look at pictures from that era, it looks very quaint and old-fashioned by today's standards. It’s all quiet gravel roads, 2-storey storefronts and long lines of electric poles, a bit reminiscent of those old Little Rascals movies from the 1930’s.

As car culture took over through the 1950’s and beyond, Kingsway was given over more and more to the needs of the driver. The strip catered to it, actually. Car shops, diners, hotels and repair shops defined the character post-war Kingsway. The residential areas filled in around it to the point that the entire area is now part of Vancouver. Gravel roads, electric streetcars, meadows, creeks, farms, and pockets of forest are all distant memories, but some of the seniors here can still talk about the old days.

Kingsway has always been a “way to and from” somewhere, and remains so, often to the detriment of those of us who choose to live here. Thousands of people drive through my historic neighbourhood every day, often inconsiderate to the fact that it's somebody's home. I have to observe that although there was a time when the car made Kingsway, it is now harming it.Back in the 1950’s and ‘60’s businesses thrived along here, servicing travelers and providing for their stylish chrome chariots. Then there were some changes and things took a downturn. Apparently one of the worst blows to local businesses along Kingsway was when, to accommodate the demands of more traffic and commuters, the city eliminated the original parking lanes and added them to regular traffic. Suddenly all those potential customers to the many mom ‘n’ pop businesses didn’t stop en route anymore, because parking became too much of a hassle. The politicians were happy though, because more and more residents found it more and more convenient to drive from Burnaby and New West past the (more and more bankrupt) businesses. The gradual decline has lasted for decades and only now looks like it may turn around. Symbolic of this trend is the fact that Wally's Burgers, a struggling, age-old landmark from the groovy car days, will soon be torn down to make way for new higher density housing and condos. It seems unfair that along this historic avenue one seems unable to keep the good history as we try to build a better future.

The silver lining to this particular cloud has been the influx of new residents and immigrant businesses from Asia, particularly Viet Nam. Cheap rents on neglected storefronts allowed those starting out to give it a shot. When no-one else was willing to invest in Kingsway, these people were. My son reaps the benefits by knowing his globe-spanning neighbours and glimpsing their cultures. He can enjoy a world-class dosa and the best pho this side of the Pacific because you can buy them a mere five-minute walk from our front door.

I believe that these immigrant investors fit perfectly in the procession of other hardworking folks from around the world who have, over the past 4 generations, build this residential community. The grandmas and grandpas on my street come from England, India, Portugal, China and Germany. Where else but on prickly old Kingsway, may I ask?