The East End
a photo
essay/walk
(2)
All photos
copyright
11:20am - Hallmark
Poultry trucks on Salsbury.
This part of the city may as well be called the 'Industrial Land Reserve'.
Although there are a few remnant houses
and, increasingly, expensive 'artist' lofts towards the waterfront, the area
north of Hastings before Semlin is light industrial.
For that reason, and the fact that it is convenient to a major thoroughfare
between downtown and the suburbs,
it is also an area where the sex trade is commonplace.
The smell from the nearby rendering plant as well as the slaughterhouse made
for some unpleasant yet distinctive summer
breezes where I spent most of my childhood, a few blocks from here.
11:21am - Clothespicking, Salsbury Drive
Around here constitutes much of the last bastion of affordable family housing
that is not government provided, in the city.
It comes with a price sometimes though, in the form of neglectful management
and criminal activity. But for many,
it is the only option, and its existence seems increasingly tenuous and hemmed-in.
11:22am - Trash it
For the most part, and compared to many other places on earth, the east end
is a tolerant and diverse place. It has
never really been defined by established cultural norms. It is a place of
expression, protest and sometimes of
implicit jockeying. The street art above is a surprise, yet only mildly alarming,
and partially open to intepretation.
11:25am - Wall, Franklin Street.
A bare wall is a rare thing but speaks of the fortress-like aura of the place,
which only a long time resident can truly appreciate.
'East Van is the world, there is nothing more'.
11:27am - The dream (Franklin Street)
This house has sat idle for a long time now, being a favoured subject of the
species known as Roaming Photographer.
It sits behind a funeral home, where, for years, a derelict looking, blackberry
bush-shrouded haunted house sat
on Hastings at Salsbury. Being zoned industrial, this house's fate is postponed;
trapped in the disparity between real estate value
and limited potential land use. The last house on the block sits left of frame,
still apparently occupied and less worse for wear.
11:29am - Corner skin.
11:31am - Unite Here.
The east end has always been the working class side of town. This is in part
due to the early railway company's land interests
on the west side, which were developed for well-to-do cronies and insiders.
Aside from a few pockets, the labourers, of
all nationalities, settled east of Main Street. The entire area has voted
in union-friendly politicians as representatives for
generations. It is something of pride in these parts.
11:33am - Noodle restaurant, Marine Products Ltd.
The teachers at MacDonald Elementary sometimes used to have lunch at the noodles
place across the street. There, or the
sandwich shop on Victoria Drive (now a car dealership), sometimes the Robin's
Donuts which became
a less tasty donut shop, which is gone now.
11:34am - Garbage in alley
Possible remnants of a long civic garbage strike in Vancouver linger here.
Alleys are alleys but, growing up, I never remember observing
this type of congregation nearly as often.
11:40am - Templeton Drive