Vancouver’s slums are creeping further out into Hastings

East, Granview and Mount Pleasant districts. And in the
heart of Vancouver there are many decrepit dwellings like
those shown above. Cordova (top left), once the city’s princi-
pa) street, offers an example of what other streets may
become unless new proposals are carried out. Lack of park-
ing facilities (bottom left) keeps thousands away from the

downtown shopping area.

City centre's future

hinges on

new plan

Will Vancouver's downtown shopping area degenerate
into a drab, commercial slum, a maze of shabby buildings,
narrow congested streets and inadequate cultural institu-
tions, or will it keep up with the times and become a modern
shopping and cultural centre for British Columbia?

After 20 years of Non-Par-
tisan administration, civic
planners are predicting that if
present policies are allowed
to continue, business will shift
to other areas and property
values will drop.sharply.

Within a few minutes walk
of Granville and Georgia, the
heart of the city, there are
many decrepit, wooden build-
ings built 30 and 75 years ago.
Within ten minutes’ walk there
is the fringe of the east end
slum areas, crowding in on
the business section.

The city’s technical plan-
ning board has a plan to change
the face of downtown Van-
couver. It wants to make the
area more attractive for shop-
pers and a more efficient place
for modern commerce to func-
tion,

In the plans it has submit-
ted to council, the board pro-
poses a 20-year program that
would give downtown Van-
couver a new look, at a cost
of $33 milion. Among the
main proposals are:

® A scenic public square at
Georgia and Granville, with
underground parking.

@ Redesign Victory Square
and construct a civic arena in
the block facing the auditori-
um site on Georgia.

® Millions for new parking

facilities and general traffic
control.

@ A “ring road” around the
downtown area to allow
through traffic to skirt the
crowded streets and ease traf-
fic for those travelling on the
ring.

@ A 1,200-seat theatre at
Hamilton and Georgia.

@ A new civic museum at
Dunsmuir and Hamilton.

@ New zoning provisions to
ensure the best possible use
of the land available for new
construction.

The bold plan calls for a
number of ornamental parks
and public facilities through
the Vancouver area. Planned
also is a forecourt at the pro-
posed civic centre with -a
bridge over Georgia to link the
arena with the civic auditor-
ium.

Under the new plan, Victory
Square would be reconstructed
as the northern. entrance to
the proposed civie centre, at

sa cost of $100,000.

The report pictures the fu-
ture downtown Vancouver as a
business district built around
a core made up of a retail
area around Granville, a retail
area around Hastings and a
high density office area to
centre around the Granville
and Hastings intersection.

DECEMBER 14, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE

AS, ST