Search for Metro Vancouver's best neighbourhood: Vancouver and South of the Fraser semifinals
With just 16 neighbourhoods remaining in the search for Metro Vancouver's best neighbourhood, the common denominator has nothing to do with geography or density, demographics or income.
"No matter what we put into the planning of a neighbourhood, we're hoping that people just fall in love with it," said Brent Toderian, Vancouver's former chief planner.
While the remaining neighbourhoods are a mix of central and semi-remote, modern and full of heritage, working and upper class, they all engender a deep loyalty among their residents.
But which ones will advance to the final eight next week?
Thursday, Aug. 6 sees voting in the semifinals for both Vancouver and the South of the Fraser quadrants, as we go from four to just two neighbourhoods in both sections.
Vancouver's final will be on Aug. 10, with South of the Fraser's on Aug. 11.
Today though, you decide what neighbourhoods will be in the final.
Vancouver semifinals
The two remaining contenders on the west side of Vancouver have plenty of similarities: both are near the ocean, both are known for their beaches, both are predominately made up of older rental apartments.
"There's a diversity of relationships," said Andy Yan, director of SFU's City Program.
While both neighbourhoods are known for their views of English Bay, both have longstanding social histories — Kits is the original bastion of Vancouver's hippie culture, with the West End playing a similar role for the LGBTQ+ community.
"The issue of neighbourhood character always comes up, but it comes back to what is the character that we want to share in?" said Yan.
In the east side of Vancouver category, the two remaining neighbourhoods are side by side, but while Mt. Pleasant is one of the oldest in the city, Olympic Village is just a decade old.
"When we were planning Olympic Village, we were trying to learn from the best of historic communities," said Toderian.
"Be street-oriented. Be walkable. Be multi-modal. And it certainly benefits that Olympic Village is right on the seawall."
On the other hand, Mt. Pleasant defeated Grandview-Woodland to reach the round of 16 — and author and comedian Charlie Demers predicted that traditional East Van neighbourhoods would band together to support it.
"It's like having a Canadian team left in the playoffs — you just gotta cheer for whoever is repping the east side," he said.
South of the Fraser Semifinals
While the four Vancouver neighbourhoods remaining are all a 15-minute walk from the downtown Vancouver core, the four remaining neighbourhoods for Surrey, the Langleys, Delta and White Rock are all far away from the downtown Surrey core.
"There's an interesting conversation to be had in these types of neighbourhoods," said Yan of White Rock, Crescent Beach, Cloverdale and Fort Langley.
While all of them have average incomes above the Metro Vancouver average, all but Crescent Beach feature a range of gentle density.
And all receive plenty of visitors — Crescent Beach and White Rock heavily embrace their waterfront areas, while Fort Langley and Cloverdale have many events celebrating their heritage and architecture evoking a mid-20th century feel.
"There's a certain desire for connectiveness and community, in that Hallmark movie [feel]. And they have those main strips, which touches upon a certain time in the history of Metro Vancouver," said Yan.
