The People's Guide is Curbed Vancouver's tour o' the nabes, led by our most loyal readers, favorite bloggers, and other luminaries of our choosing. Have a piece to say? We'll be happy to hand over the megaphone. This time around, we welcome Downtown resident Rob Station.
Tell us something we don't know about your neighbourhood: The center of downtown doesn't have a lot of residential buildings! It is very unique, your neighbours vary throughout the day. Your weekday people in suits and smart dresses scurry back to their accounting jobs after visiting the food court. Evening couples make googly-eyes at each other while going to the wrong sushi places on a date. Late night tanned girls woo and call out to each other, wondering aloud why Caitlyn has to be "that way" all the time. Everyone is enjoying a bit of salvation. Some from the office, some from the routine of home life, and others from that stuck-up drama-queen Caitlyn.
Local customs of note: Aggressively hitting up Tinder (5km radius) to hopefully secure a Dual Income, No Kids cashflow before interest rates go up on your condo. Having a great butt and calves from walking everywhere. Being the first one home from every clubnight, concert and dinner. Knowing the complex migratory pattern of every food truck. Spying through hotel windows. Watching middle-budget CW Network shows who may have accidentally background filmed you with your shirt off in your apartment.
Hidden gems in your neighbourhood: Dae Ji pork cutlet is an adorable Korean restaurant that does cutlets of all kinds. Their Pizza Cutlet combines breaded pork, curry, and pizza toppings -- a recipe obviously decided by some sort of random ingredient raffle. I crave it weekly, and somehow no matter which hour I visit at there is always a line. I can not outsmart this place. After you're there, walk two blocks to MacLeod's books, where the shelves are drooling volumes of used words. Prospecting journals, books about math, dusted war novels, hardcover Nancy Drew mysteries where she finds a clock in a cave and the ghost is her dad, and possibly some 1950s vampire erotica. It is impossible to leave here without something completely unique.
Are your neighbours "rotten neighbour" worthy? If so, dish. If not, what makes them great? My neighbours vary greatly, it is a melting pot of english students, retired people, young professionals, business travellers and the occasional dude in a suit who never takes off his suit (until one day you see him in the gym and you have to leave because it is so weird).
Inflate the bubble or burst it: What's not so swell about your "perfect" neighbourhood? Since it is the meeting place for a lot of people looking for entertainment, some people treat the area like an extended outdoor hotel room. The hours between midnight and 4am on a weekend are not dangerous, but not pretty. It is customary to "WOOOO" back at the passing jocks. At any moment from 7 PM Friday to 5 PM Sunday, you are within 20 feet of a stagette. It doesn't bug me, but it isn't quiet country living. You are in the middle of it all and you are also in the middle of it all.The people watching is second-to-none.
The final word on your neighbourhood: You can walk anywhere. One can buy almond milk at weird hours. You get sweet bike lanes to your front door. Your office is probably nearby and you can undoubtedly make it to the airport by train in your pyjamas within 38 minutes. Cancel your bus pass and sell your car, your entire hierarchy of needs is within a 2 block radius.
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