Rebecca Bollwit, the number one blogger in Vancouver, did a recent post on the historic buildings on Hastings Street, most of which are in East Van or even in the DTES.  BOB has twice hired professional photographers and given them a lot of free reign to photograph the neighborhood.  I put up some of those photos on Flickr earlier today but seeing Rebecca’s post I decided to dig through our server and find a few more to upload.  Feel free to use them as long as you credit “Building Opportunities with Business”.

DTES Street Scene

Chinese Garden Pavillion

Chinatown Street Scene

An old theatre on the Hastings Corridor has been brought back to life after over a decade of deteriorating dormancy. The Rickshaw Theatre at 254 East Hastings re-opened this past summer under the direction of a local entrepreneur (who wishes to remain anonymous) and in partnership with the City of Vancouver.

The theatre’s website states the Rickshaw’s aim is “to be a community place, with the goal of promoting independent local theatre and performance. The venue will be available to emerging artists at low rates and will regularly host all ages shows”. In the few months it has been open it has already hosted a long list of acts including Pink Mountaintops, Quadruple Dare and Skinny Puppy.

The Rickshaw is involved in the Hastings Street Renaissance Program, a pilot project developed by the City of Vancouver in partnership with BOB with the aim of addressing vacant storefronts and deteriorating buildings in the inner-city by improving the streetscape, daylighting existing businesses, helping establish new businesses and revitalizing existing spaces to foster community-based economic development. Phase 1 of the project initiated six revitalization projects with grants up to $50,000 each along the Hastings Corridor, and City Council approved an additional $700,000 in funds in November for Phase 2 to activate an additional six storefronts on Hastings and another six in Chinatown.

“The façade program is helping to ensure that affordable arts and culture spaces are retained and improving the streetscapes of one of the most notorious corridors in Canada,”  Says our local entrepreneur.  “Kira Gerwing, the City’s Downtown Eastside Planner, and Brian Smith, BOB’s Business Developer, have been particularly supportive of my work in the inner-city- offering advice, funding support and connections that the artist community in the inner-city and the rest of Vancouver have benefited from greatly.”