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Have you ever walked along Commercial Drive around First Avenue? There you can see old men or women speak Italian right in the middle of the street.
This area is unlike any other in Vancouver; it is "the Drive" in Grandview Woodlands.
Commercial Drive is located in the heart of Grandview-Woodland, one of twenty-two Vancouver regions. It is located just about 15 minutes east of downtown Vancouver by car.
The Grandview-Woodland area is bound by East Hastings St. to the north, Broadway to the south, Clark Dr to the west and Nanaimo St. to the east.
Just like other areas in Vancouver, the Drive has seen many changes in the last hundred years.
Since the 1960s known as "Little Italy", Commercial Drive is now home to many different nationalities from around the world. This is evident from the multitude of ethnic businesses found along the Drive, some of which we have visited and will showcase here for you.
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Mr Olivieri started the company about thirty years ago, and, a few years later, sold it to a larger company for a profit. As the name suggests, this store produced pasta and sauces, a mainstay of the Italian cuisine. |
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Located at the northwest corner of Commercial and First Avenue, Il Mercato, a small Italian shopping center, represents one of the focal points of the Drive. It was at that location where Grandview Elementary School was located many years ago. |
| An Italian restaurant. A billiard parlour, both typical establishments along the Drive. |
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| This small meat store has been in that location since 1967. |
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For information on some of the changes that have taken place on the Drive, please click on the Interviews The Drive in Numbers
Using data from estat, Statistics Canada's electronic statistics, we have looked at the population in the Grandview-Woodlands area and broken it down by ethnic background.
We have especially focused on Enumeration Areas because these are the smallest statistical units currently available.
Look at the following maps to get a glimpse of the population and ethnic make--up of the area in 1996.
Notice the shading in the maps below. As the shade becomes darker, or more intense, the numbers also become larger.
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This chart compares the area's total population with its immigrant population. Notice how close the numbers are. It is obvious, that immigrants from many different countries live in this area. |
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Where do the Italians live? The heaviest concentration is around Venables and northeast of Venables. This area is dominated by older, well established Italian homes and some businesses. Il Mercado, at the northwest corner of First andd Commercial, and nearby stores, are still the main shopping areas for the daily needs of the Italian community here. |
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The Portuguese, another Mediterranean group of people, also is known in this area. From this map we can see that many Portuguese live close to Clark Dr and First Avenue as well at the bend near Commercial and Venables. |
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Another "Old Country" group of immigrants are the Germans, closely aligned with the Portuguese community. Maybe it is no accident that Andy's bakery, an original German baker, sells, among other things, Portuguese buns. |
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Polish people are perhaps a more recent addition to the Drive. They have decided to mingle with their European neighbours close to Venables. |
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Many Chinese live in the area of Commercial Drive close to Britannia and Templeton schools. |
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The Vietnamese are less well represented. From this map we can see that their concentrations mirror those of the Portuguese. |
The following is a brief historical excerpt from Vancouver Community Profiles
"In the 1870s and 80s, Grandview-Woodland was part of a timber stand feeding Hastings
Mill on Burrard Inlet(now New Brighton Park). The first roads (later Victoria and
Commercial Drives) were originally skid roads with paths running off them. Elk were hunted
in the Grandview area and sold to settlers by Natives when their stock ran out." "Grandview might have remained a wilderness of stumps if not for the Vancouver-New
Westminster interurban railway which opened in September 1891; the same year the area's
first house was built. It had hourly runs from Carrall and Hastings Streets along Park
Drive (now named Commercial Drive). Construction of 2nd and 3rd Avenues, between Clark and
Woodland, by chain gangs from the Powell Street jail in the late 1890's opened the area
for development. Arrival of the city water system along Commercial Drive in 1904 allowed
for more expansion." "Grandview's early settlers were usually tradesmen or shopkeepers, in shipping or
construction work. They were largely of British origin." "Early settlement years saw business activity centre on Park (Commercial) Drive while
industry claimed the area's northern fringe (largely influenced by the CPR line and the
Port). After 1910, industry reclaimed the False Creek, marshlands, and began locating west
of Clark Drive. This was made possible by the Burlington Northern Railway and the Canadian
National railway who used the extracted soil from the Grandview Cut to build their
railyards." "In the early 1900's, "Park Drive" was renamed "Commercial Drive",
and "gth Avenue" was designated "Broadway". After 1912, building in
the area slowed due to a recession, and a new political and economic focus centred on
westside neighbourhoods such as Kitsilano, Point Grey, and Shaughnessy. This new focus
followed the construction of the Burrard Street Bridge and the establishment of the
University of B.C." "Transportation has always played a central role in the areas history:in its origins,
de-velopment and focus for community action. As early as 1907 resi-dents organized to have
Park(Commercial) rive improved so children would not have to walk along rail lines to
school.Ratepayers re-jected the First Avenue viaduct three times before agreeing in 1934." "In the 1950s residents complained of: improper lighting, crumbling streets, poor
drainage, no library and poorly equipped schools. The trolley tracks on Commercial Drive
were replaced with new blacktop and brighter street lights in 1954. Motor buses took over
from the electric trolleys. A library did not arrive until the 1970s." "The Britannia Community Services Centre was one of North America's largest facilities
when it was built in 1975. Carefully planned not to overwhelm the neighbourhood, its
innovative design integrated recrecreation, learning and social facilities to provide
services to a very mixed population. The 1970s also saw residents join the successful
lobby to prevent an extension of the freeway down Venables Street to the Georgia Viaduct.
The 1980s saw the arrival of Advanced Light Rapid Transit (ALRT) in the area." "The face of the community changed after the First World War when Italian, Chinese, and
East European immigrants arrived in the area. After World War II, a second wave of Italian
immigrants made the area home. They renovated old houses and noticeably changed the look
of Commercial Drive with new shops and restaurants. Grandview's Chinese residents
increased in numbers in the 1950s and 1960s as some of the earlier Italian and East
European residents moved on to other neighbourhoods. In the late 1960s, Grandview's first
East Indian residents also made the community home."What was the Population around "Little Italy" like in Earlier Times?
We asked ourselves where the name, "Little Italy" came from. It seemed obvious to us that Commercial Drive must have been at one time a major hub of Italian activity in the city. Therefore, we tried to look at some historical population statistics, but could only go as far back as 1986.
Below are some of the findings based on the 1996, 1991, and 1986 statistics available for Vancouver's Local Areas.
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From this graph we can see that Chinese ethnicity is very well represented. Italian ethnicity is represented by the dark blue colour, a number that represents about 4% of the total ethnic population.
In the Commercial Drive Area, people of Chinese and English origin make up the largest portion, followed by Scottish, Canadian, Irish, German and French. East Indians make up just a little over 1%, while Italians are represented with just a bit over 4%. The following groups make up only about 1%: Filipino, Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish, Dutch, Russian, Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Greek, Hungarian, American, and Danish. People of North-American descent, First Nation People, make up over 6%. |
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Since not all censuses have information on ethnicity, comparisons are not easy to make. Here, we are comparing Mother Tongue and Home Language spoken by people in the Grandview Woodland area in 1996.
The groups that also speak their Mother Tongues at home are the Chinese, the Vietnamese, and Portuguese. Only about half of Tagalog, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian speakers still speak their Mother Tongue at home. Possibly, there is a connection between the level of integration into Canadian life between the length of time an ethnic group has lived in Canada, as well as the cultural background of a specific ethnic group. |
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| The numbers for 1991 are similar to those of 1996, in that many Chinese prefer to use Chinese at home. |
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The table below shows the details for the graphs comparing Mother Tongue and Home Language.
| Language in 1996 | Mother Tongue | Home Language |
| English | 16220 | 19660 |
| French | 460 | 115 |
| Chinese | 4965 | 4340 |
| Punjabi | 105 | 45 |
| Vietnamese | 1305 | 1125 |
| Tagalog | 455 | 250 |
| Spanish | 555 | 340 |
| Japanese | 285 | 170 |
| Italian | 830 | 490 |
| Hindi | 175 | 150 |
| Korean | 60 | |
| Portuguese | 280 | 210 |
| Polish | 415 | 265 |
| Persian | 80 | |
| Greek | 95 | 45 |
| German | 245 | 25 |
| Other | 1510 | 565 |
Even in 1986, only 1,365 people out of a total single responses of 24,190 (5.6%) indicated Italian as their Mother Tongue.
Even though Italians did not necessarily represent the largest ethnic population in the Grandview Woodland area, their contributions have been significant.
The quote from The Province of February 25, 1965 tells some of the story.
"If it weren't for the Italian immigrants [with their commercial interests] Vancouver's Grandview area would be dead, a slum area which would degenerate those living in and around it."
Grandview Woodlands, a run down industrial area of the city, has been largely improved by Italian commercial interests.
The graph below shows the number of Italian establishments along the Drive from 1961 to 1991. You will see that the number of Italian establishments has increased steadily till 1981, then decreased.
This seems to correspond with the general trend: Immigrants move out of an area once they have established themselves in Canada, only to make room for other immigrants to take their place.
In the case of the Italians, many have found their new home in Burnaby.
Conclusion
Commercial Drive is trendy. It has this distinct European flavour that you can't find anywhere else in the city. Sidewalk cafes, small boutiques, bakery and pastry shops, all mingle with the regular types of businesses such as banks, grocery stores, or hardware stores. However, the number of ethnic restaurants, mostly of Mediterranean cuisine, and the general feel of the Drive make this one of the most diverse areas of Vancouver.