ssues & ideas

EDITOR KATJA DE BOCK

THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2018 7

South Vancouver gets a makeover

Changing faces of South Hill, Marpole can be good for this part of the city, say residents

PUNEET DHAMI photo

Navjit Kaur is an employee at Nurmahal Fashions. The store is planning on staying in Little India, serving remaining Indo-Canadians.

Little India vendors optimistic about their future in South Hill

Catering to community at large the best survival mode in once prominent South Asian neighbourhood

By PUNEET DHAMI

shok Dhingra is intent on keep- ing Little India alive, even if many other vendors on the

ain Street strip have moved to

SIMRAN VIRK of Roots Cafe Surrey. ; ; Little India was once a prominent South Asian community between West 66 47th and West 57th avenues, where ’ many immigrants from different parts We don’t of India made their home. plan on Nurmahal Fashions owner Ashok l ° Dhingra immigrated to Canada in the eaving, 80s and chose the south end of Main because we Street for his business because he ° knew there was a big Indo-Canadian are 9g etting population. business.

Don't abandon city's heritage, critics warn

“Topened my business 14 years ago,”

said Dhingra.

He is planning to stay. This is despite a housing market that is driving more and more people to Surrey where it’s cheaper.

“The Indian community is growing in Surrey, so Indian businesses will fol- low the crowd,” said Dhingra.

Even so, he hopes Little India will re- main. There are still Indo-Canadians living in the area, and Indo-Canadian vendors get an increasing amount of their business from other ethnic groups, too.

“The neighbourhood is changing but maybe we need fresh blood to run the area,” said Dhingra.

For example, the owners of Roots Cafe located on the corner of West 49th

Avenue and Main Street see a lot of Langara students at their shop every day.

“Roots Cafe is a great hang out place where we see a lot of crowds,” said owner Simran Virk.

She said the neighbourhood has changed, but she sees a lot of neigh- bourhoods changing, not just the South Hill area.

“We don’t plan on leaving because we are getting business and we spent a lot of money renovating the place,” said Virk. “The timing was horrible for us when we opened, but it has been growing.”

Virk and her husband Hardeep live in the neighbourhood, so they chose to build a business close to home.

City planners give Marpole

bold facelift

By BRENNA BROOKS

new community plan, Marpole resi-

dents like Janet Fraser may see more parks, bike trails and even a new community centre in the coming years.

Fraser is a blogger for Marpole Mat- ters.

She attended the transportation workshop on March 6 and said the events are a good way to gather input from residents who experience the area every day.

“City planners don’t live in the neighbourhood,” Fraser said. “They don’t see how we live and play.”

Three largely attended workshops, organized by the City of Vancouver, have been held to discuss the future of housing, transportation, parks and public spaces in the area.

Approximately every 30 years city planners, stakeholders and residents give and take input to guide growth and development for a new community plan. The Marpole community plan is in its second of four phases.

The current plan states that a high percentage of Marpole’s parks are in poor condition and only 25 per cent of Marpole’s waterfront is publicly acces- sible.

Fraser also said that much of Mar- pole’s park space is in poor condition. For example, Ash Park is mostly un- even grass with old playground equip- men.

The new Ebisu Park, which has a great children’s area, walking paths and benches, is suffering from lack of maintenance.

Vancouver city planner Matt Shillito addressed the possible move of the Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre to anew location on Granville, possibly in combination with the public library, where the lease is coming to an end.

Shillito said the next steps in the plan are to create a new draft of the Marpole community plan that will be presented in public houses in June.

After that, a third draft is to be pre- sented to city council in October.

I: everything goes according to the

Trees on the Shannon Mews estate on Gran- ville and West 57th Avenue make way for a new condo

City without a past is a city without stories, says author Caroline Adderson

By NIALL SHANNON

see densification as the answer to a growing population, some resi- dents, such as writer Caroline Adder- son, think the city is losing its connec- tion with older character-filled houses. “T see these old homes as reposito- ries of narrative. When they go down, with them go all the stories,” said Ad- derson, who started a Facebook page called Vancouver Vanishes after wit- nessing a “beautiful old home” being bulldozed in her neighbourhood.

Tee Vancouver developers may

Adderson believes that Vancouver is creating a “city without a past, without stories.” Her neighbourhood of Kerris- dale has experienced 116 permits for demolition from 2011 to 2012, according to the City of Vancouver.

“To me, that doesn’t bode well for the future,” said Adderson. Others agree. A survey conducted by the Van- couver Heritage Foundation found that 88 per cent of Vancouver residents sup- port less demolition of heritage build- ings in their communities.

One way to protect older homes is to list them on the Vancouver Heritage Register, which has about 2,150 build- ings detailed. The building in question must have “architectural and historical significance” in order to be considered listing in the register, according to the City of Vancouver's website.

Registering does not necessarily protect buildings from demolition. The city requires permits to be obtained for those wishing to tear down a heritage building, and the city does offer vari- ous incentives, depending on the cir- cumstances.

Diane Switzer, executive director of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, says destroying the old and building

new houses is not the way to sustain communities, and Vancouver needs to make better use of what it has. Older housing is often the most affordable op- tion for families, said Switzer.

However, there are ways the city is trying to preserve buildings, as well as grow, she said. “We need to create change, it’s just a question of how we do it.”

complex. The Shannon Wall Centre Kerris- dale will retain the old struc- tures of the mansion and coach house and surround it with new buildings.

KATJA DE BOCK photo