Vancouver History

[Hondaracer]

Oh, it’s Moja now, cool.

Best coffee

[snowball]

Douchebag owners. Trust me, I'm from north van.

[bcrdukes]

Curious to learn more about this

[EvoFire]

Same here, been patronizing them because I want to support local businesses. Helps that their beans are of my taste.

[Badhobz]

Why did you guys call it Florida market ? What an interesting name

[Jason00S2000]

Growing up as a kid at 22nd and Cambie in Vancouver was pretty much paradise as a kid!

I was free to explore and had to go home when the sun went down.

Soooooooo many good corner stores all over the place and all had different stuff. Such a magic time to be alive in Vancouver in the 80's, 90's, and 00's!

There was even that corner store with the "Adult 18+" curtain that when the old chinese man looked away, you could duck into for 10 seconds and oogle a magazine fast before putting it back and ducking out of there!

When I was a kid walking across the old Cambie street bridge, a few of the planks were missing and you had to step over the gap. If cel phones had existed back then, people would have fallen, for sure! The missing planks was a regular occurance on the Old Cambie street bridge. I wonder if anyone else remembers.

[unit]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Why did you guys call it Florida market ? What an interesting name

we didnt, it was an established store for decades before we ever bought it and the name stuck all the way until it closed for good.

[Badhobz]

oh interesting. did anyone ever find out why they called it florida market? its such a rando name for commerical st.

[CivicBlues]

"Florida" means Floral in Spanish maybe it's a reference to that rather than the shitshow state we're all thinking about.

[MG1]

Originally Posted by Jason00S2000

Growing up as a kid at 22nd and Cambie in Vancouver was pretty much paradise as a kid!

I was free to explore and had to go home when the sun went down.

Soooooooo many good corner stores all over the place and all had different stuff. Such a magic time to be alive in Vancouver in the 80's, 90's, and 00's!

There was even that corner store with the "Adult 18+" curtain that when the old chinese man looked away, you could duck into for 10 seconds and oogle a magazine fast before putting it back and ducking out of there!

When I was a kid walking across the old Cambie street bridge, a few of the planks were missing and you had to step over the gap. If cel phones had existed back then, people would have fallen, for sure! The missing planks was a regular occurance on the Old Cambie street bridge. I wonder if anyone else remembers.

Oh, I remember...... does anyone remember the Fraser Street Bridge?

[6793026]

wow Jason00S2000 putting down a solid post.
I will forever give my kids free realm to just run around.
I still remember going around town and playing with bugs. Nowadays kids can't even walk on grass wtf is that all about.

[MG1]

DTES, Strathcona, Waterfront, back in the 60's and early 70's were all awesome places for kids to play and explore. False Creek was actually nothing but marshland. Burrard Inlet was awesome because of the piers and railways.

I remember walking across the old Georgia Viaduct to go to the old public library which was on Burrard and Robson. It was fairly new at the time (old library location was Carnegie Hall, IIRC) and so was the bridge (under construction). Man, I remember the Sun Building and the new BC Hydro Building. Went to Kelly Dejong Records on Granville Street to get the top 40 hit list for the week. A&B Sound was gaining popularity. Sam the Record Man tried to make it here and failed miserably.

Vancouver was known to have the lowest prices on Vinyl, CD's and tapes. Companies back east could not compete. Granville and Seymour Streets were very busy. Don't think Robson was a big deal back then.

Chinatown was nothing like it is today.


EDIT: Carnegie was a library, but turned into a museum when I was a kid. Got it mixed up.

Main and Hastings was über busy. Two banks at the corners (RBC and BMO). Carnegie and the Owl Building being on the other corners. CIBC was somewhere else close to the current location. There were a few other banks, but can't remember. London Drugs was close by.

[snowball]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Same here, been patronizing them because I want to support local businesses. Helps that their beans are of my taste.

Nah, you guys are free to support the business. But we were neighbours so my experience with them (along with our other neighbours) is on more of a personal level, so it doesn't need to be shared here as it relates to them and not their business haha.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by MG1

Oh, I remember...... does anyone remember the Fraser Street Bridge?

That's before my time but it really speaks to how much the region has grown when I read about the kind of bridge it was (a 2 lane) and that the Knight Street bridge only replaced it in 1974 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser...t_Bridge_(1894))

Speaking of the Knight Street bridge, I wonder how much longer till they need to consider replacement of it with something wider. It's not as congested as the Massey tunnel but it's surprisingly bad at a lot of times and the road network at both ends could support a 6 lane bridge so I don't think it'd be a matter of moving congestion around. The same could be said about the Oak Street bridge - the road network could support a 6 lane bridge to even out congestion (and also make the bridge easier to drive (and add bike lanes and pedestrian friendly sidewalks!)

[Jason00S2000]

I still remember when my parents got along before their divorce, they would get Chinese food from the Ho Inn down in Chinatown and we'd sometimes eat there as a family and walk around Chinatown / Woodwards area to see all of the neon lighting and stores. It was safe enough that our family walked around down there all the time. Woodward's had a European food section and chocolate malts in the basement... soooooooo good the malts! And my German oma loved the European food selection.

Ho Inn was soooooo good, I still remember the first time I ate a shrimp and liked it.

[Badhobz]

^didnt they just spend millions resurfacing (albeit poorly) knight st bridge ?!?

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

^didnt they just spend millions resurfacing (albeit poorly) knight st bridge ?!?

Yeah it was done in 2023. I don't think either Richmond bridges are high on the list for replacement at the moment so best case is 20 years from now or after whenever a big earthquake hits. I figure the Ironworkers get replaced or upgraded before either Richmond bridges in 10-15 years but even that might be early (it opened in 1960).

[Jason00S2000]

Anyone remember how big the modem subculture was in the 80's and 90's? I.C.E. online? MajorMUD, West Coast Creations? Dreamscape? Virtual Reality? Magnetic Visions? Shoreline?

Going to Knight & Day for food in the middle of the night with total strangers as a teenager...

[MG1]

Originally Posted by Jason00S2000

I still remember when my parents got along before their divorce, they would get Chinese food from the Ho Inn down in Chinatown and we'd sometimes eat there as a family and walk around Chinatown / Woodwards area to see all of the neon lighting and stores. It was safe enough that our family walked around down there all the time. Woodward's had a European food section and chocolate malts in the basement... soooooooo good the malts! And my German oma loved the European food selection.

Ho Inn was soooooo good, I still remember the first time I ate a shrimp and liked it.

Neon signs, ftmfw!

I lived on Powell Street for 16 years. Apartment was above a discotheque, complete with huge neon sign right next to my bedroom window, lol. The bass came through very nicely..... well into the night. I might be the only one who remembers the nightclub. Google found some results, but not much info. It was a very popular hangout back in the 60's.



https://www.vancouverneon.com/page_q/hoho.htm


As for the Woodward's chocolate malt, to this day, nothing comes close to it. Maybe one of those things that are so nostalgic, it can never be replaced with anything around nowadays.

[Jason00S2000]

Originally Posted by MG1

Neon signs, ftmfw!

I lived on Powell Street for 16 years. Apartment was above a discotheque, complete with huge neon sign right next to my bedroom window, lol. The bass came through very nicely..... well into the night. I might be the only one who remembers the nightclub. Google found some results, but not much info. It was a very popular hangout back in the 60's.

https://www.vancouverneon.com/page_q/hoho.htm

I remember as a kid it being sooooo beautiful to walk around there with my parents, especially during Christmas when Woodwards would have all the displays in the windows around the entire building. They sold roast chestnuts and I think hotdogs but I can't remember, to the people walking around the building checking out the displays. The displays themselves were fucking incredible and I remember one year, they had a massive lego space ship in one of the windows and I remember having to shove, push, and claw my way to the window as dozens and dozens of kids were simply enthralled by the lego display and stared at it for minutes in pure awe.

I have suuuuuuuuuuch fond memories of growing up as a kid in Vancouver, man it was paradise!

Soooooo many arcades, comic book shops, places to ride bikes, firecrackers in fall, shooting my bow and arrow at Douglas Park and not even getting hassled by the cops... did have an old lady tell us we were hooligans.

Imagine if a bunch of 10-11 year olds were shootin' bows and arrows in Douglas park in 2025, think the cops would shut it down? We were totally unsupervised, it was great!

Anyone remember amateur stripper night at the Wild Coyote?

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by supafamous

That's before my time but it really speaks to how much the region has grown when I read about the kind of bridge it was (a 2 lane) and that the Knight Street bridge only replaced it in 1974 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser...t_Bridge_(1894))

Speaking of the Knight Street bridge, I wonder how much longer till they need to consider replacement of it with something wider. It's not as congested as the Massey tunnel but it's surprisingly bad at a lot of times and the road network at both ends could support a 6 lane bridge so I don't think it'd be a matter of moving congestion around. The same could be said about the Oak Street bridge - the road network could support a 6 lane bridge to even out congestion (and also make the bridge easier to drive (and add bike lanes and pedestrian friendly sidewalks!)

Originally Posted by supafamous

Yeah it was done in 2023. I don't think either Richmond bridges are high on the list for replacement at the moment so best case is 20 years from now or after whenever a big earthquake hits. I figure the Ironworkers get replaced or upgraded before either Richmond bridges in 10-15 years but even that might be early (it opened in 1960).

We have 3x 4 lane bridges connecting Richmond/Vancouver. Honestly it's adequate most of the time. The traffic backup isn't worse than say 15 years ago. It was only bad the last two years because they were doing the pipe replacement down by Oak.

Can we do with more lanes? Yeah. But I rather CoV/Richmond and BC spend their money elsewhere that's more impactful.

[pastarocket]

The Patullo Bridge replacement project is expected to be finished this year.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/patt...cement-footage

[bobbinka]

Originally Posted by pastarocket

The Patullo Bridge replacement project is expected to be finished this year.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/patt...cement-footage

it blows my mind that the pattulo construction started in 2021 and will finish this year, but the richmond steveston interchange construction started in 2022 and will also finish this year. one's a giant bridge across a river and the other is an overpass

[Jason00S2000]

I might be back in Vancouver soon with my family. Is there a go-to Fish n' Chips or best restaurant in Steveston on the water currently? It's been like 9 years since I was on the Richmond waterfront.

[68style]

I still think Dave’s is the best fish and chips, but they don’t have a water facing location it’s still their same original restaurant from the 70’s or early 80’s.

Pajo’s is on the water but for me it’s just a tourist trap. Others may disagree.