Image: False Creek #1

Changes On The Drive #123

Yesterday, when I did the walk, was weather-wise the best day of the year for my taste: clear blue sky, bright sunshine, and a cool temperature. Fabulous feeling. And the Drive was packed with people seeming to enjoy it as much as me. There were, I noticed, a surprising number of adults dressed up for Halloween (at least I guess that’s what they were dressed for).

Down at the southern end of my patch, on the north west corner of Grandview Highway and Commercial, an informal street market seems to be growing beside the convenience store.

Things are changing for the CCEC credit union at 2248 Commercial: The single-branch CCEC is looking to merge with the 7-branch Community Savings Credit Union.

Grandview Lanes at 2195 Commercial is featured as somewhere to go on a rainy day.

The Dive In Dessert Bar at 1706 Commercial is finally closed and the storefront is being offered for lease. It hasn’t seemed open for weeks.

Loula at 1608 Commercial and Havana at 1212 make it onto the Daily Hive list of restaurants that make you feel you are on vacation.

Ugly Dumpling, 1590 Commercial, is closing at the end of the year, with the owners moving back to Japan. I didn’t manage to visit here and when I heard it was closing I decided it would be a great place for me to celebrate my birthday this week. However, looking at the menu, I saw that it would be a minimum of $150 for two, and so we went to Western Lake for dim sum instead.

Image: Scout Magazine

The big double-front at 1305, which has been vacant for 18 months since the Storm Crow Tavern closed, has now been leased and will soon be another Mexican restaurant called Don Oso’s. They were open on Hastings Street in Burnaby. I am not sure if this is an additional location or whether this is a move.

Next door, the oft-vacant space at 1303 is now occupied by Wolf Pack Apparel. However, at the moment it looks like it may just be another temporary pop-up for that space.

Vacancies on the Drive this month: 

2283 Commercial (11 months vacant), 2277 (28 months), 2247 (4 months), 2223 (32 months), 2111 (18 months), 2058 (2 months), 2057 (11 months), 1983 (6 months), 1858 (2 months), 1851 (2 months), 1816 (18 months), 1748 (15 months), 1733 (14 months), 1728 (19 months), 1706 (1 month), 1503 (10 months), 1305 (18 months), 1301 (13 months), 1191 (6 months), 1126 (5 months), 1111 (2 months), 902 (13 months).

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The number of vacancies has not fallen this month. However at least 7 of these vacant stores are either leased or well advanced in preparation for re-opening. These include the three large double-fronts at 1728, 1305 and 1191 Commercial.

Previous Changes On The Drive editions.

Poem: Instead Of Working

 

Staying quiet,

   —   stealing silence like a prayer —

The tented flag throws shadows

across my pen and arm.

 

Blowing bubbles,

   —  Stealing time like a burglar —

Watching kaleidescopes of sunbeams

instead of working.