Love Where You Live: Main Street
Do you love where you live? We do. Our East Side Contributor Lisa Corriveau shares what makes Main Street special.
Here are the top ten reasons why I love my Main Street neighbourhood.
Kid-Friendly
The area is home to lots of young families, and the businesses on Main Street recognize this. Every restaurant and cafe that I’ve visited has high chairs. Many also have change tables in the washrooms and a few have toys (Pleasant Beans cafe comes to mind) or even a play area like Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. Main Street is also home to the Granville Island Toy Company and Playmobil Store.
Did Someone say Recreation?
There are three great new community centres within a block or two of Main Street: Mount Pleasant Community Centre with its sunny library and tons of activities for kids, Creekside Community Centre with its daily $1 drop-in open gym for the under five set and Hillcrest Community Centre, which features an ice skating rink, amazing pools and a library. There’s nothing like great amenities to help you love where you live.
Reliable “Little Guys”
There are lots of dependable independently-owned businesses on Main Street. These guys don’t have a big marketing machine behind them to create brand recognition, they’ve just got their reputation from providing years of reliable service. Mount Pleasant Locksmiths (3128 Main Street) comes to mind for home and bike security expertise and really accurate key-cutting.
Cafe Culture
Main Street has its fair share of Starbucks, but nearly every block has a few unique local coffee shops and bakeries that are great to stop by for a hot bevvy and a treat. If you can’t find seating in the insanely popular JJ Bean, have a seat outside at the Parallel Park that took over two parking spaces on 14th Avenue.
Food, Glorious Food!
The variety of cuisines at the local restaurants and shops along Main Street is staggering. You can find sushi, Filipino baking, West Coast fusion, Americana comfort food, French sweets, vegetarian, Italian, Lebanese, Caribbean, Chinese seafood, Jewish snacks, gluten-free, European deli and don’t forget the Punjabi Market! And you really don’t have to spend a lot to eat well: there are many places to get a decent meal for cheap. Yummy, affordable food is a great way to love where you live.
Beer Paradise
Not only are there tons of great ethnic restaurants, but Main is where it’s at for stylish eateries and bars. You can find a wide variety of tasty local beers on offer at places like The Main, Public Lounge, The Cascade Room, Habit and The Five Point for an evening out with the girls or a nice date night. Brewery Creek Liquor Store also crams an impressive selection of local craft brews, a decent offering of Belgian beers and plenty of wine choices too.
Fashion Heaven
Main Street is a haven for the fashion mavens who are tired of the mass market humdrum duds found at the malls, with tons of small, local shops. It’s easy to find Canadian-made clothing and accessories like Astrosatchel bags or unique screen-printed clothing at Smoking Lily. Main Street is also home to many great vintage clothing shops, where you can find quality one-of-a-kind pieces from decades gone by. It’s easy to love where you live when you’re sporting a great outfit.
Love Where You Live by Walking It
Even if you don’t need to shop and aren’t heading to a cafe there, Main Street is a great place to just go for a walk. The neighbourhood gets a 97 on Walk Score, which means it’s extremely walkable. The wide sidewalks and shade-providing trees make for a comfortable amble. I love to walk past Front & Company to see what amazing installations their window dressing artist has put together lately. Seriously, if you haven’t been there before, Front & Company’s shop windows are not to be missed!
Events and Festivals
Main Street has its fair share of local events to help you love where you live. There’s always something interesting going on at Heritage Hall: craft fairs, comic conferences, political rallies, huge weddings. I love the festivals like Car-Free Day, the Autumn Shift Festival, the Drift Art Festival and don’t forget the weekend Chinatown Night Market in the summer.
The Way we Were
I love learning the history of my neighbourhood and imagining what it was like a century ago. When the beer makers that gave the name to Brewery Creek were plying their trade, the area around Tea Swamp Park was still actually a bog. The city decided to name it Mount Pleasant to convince people to buy land uphill from False Creek, which, at that time, was a stinky tidal mud flat. Did you know that the Lee Building at Main and Broadway used to be the tallest building in the area for years? Or that Heritage Hall at 15th Avenue was once the city’s main post office?
What’s your favourite Vancouver neighbourhood? Tell us why you love where you live!
