Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
DSpace
Kay, Vanessa
Neighbourhood-serving urban shopping areas have traditionally offered local residents access to the most frequently needed goods and services, as well as places to connect and socialize. Since the mid-­‐20th century, however, the urban retail landscape has undergone major changes, including the rise of regional shopping malls and large format retailers. The impact of these shifts on lower-­‐order urban retail areas is poorly understood and seldom researched, except in cases of decline characterized by high vacancy rates and deteriorating buildings. Nevertheless, access to basic goods and services within urban neighbourhoods remains an important equity issue and a catalyst for strong communities. Recent research indicates that it is also a critical factor in supporting local resilience and public health. The purpose of this study is to investigate the evolving functions of Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐ serving shopping areas from the end of the 1950s to the present. This critical period spans the replacement of the city’s streetcar system by trolley buses, the rise of regionally-­‐serving large-­‐ format retail, and the emergence of sustainability as a pillar of planning policy. Analysis of historical occupancy data from case study areas over this period informs generalizations about past and present trends in the overall number and mix of businesses supported within Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving shopping areas. Findings of this report are intended to inform future policy directions and planning strategies relating to Vancouver’s local retail. While findings, conclusions and recommendations are specific to this city, trends found in Vancouver are also relevant to circumstances described within the planning literature as affecting other cities in North America and Europe.
Neighbourhood Retail Change The Evolution of Local Shopping Areas in Vancouver, BC Professional Project Report by Vanessa Kay Masters of Planning Candidate School of Community and Regional Planning University of British Columbia, Canada i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................................................i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .........................................................................................................................................i 1.0 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………………………………1 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................................. 2 2.1 Sustainability Literature .................................................................................................................. 2 Implications for GHG Reduction and Post-­‐Carbon Resilience .....................................................................2 Active Transportation and Public Health .............................................................................................................3 Social Cohesion and Neighbourhood Identity ....................................................................................................4 Portland Example: The “Twenty-­‐Minute Neighbourhood” Planning Concept .....................................5 2.2 Neighbourhood Planning Literature............................................................................................. 6 Retail Revitalization Literature.................................................................................................................................7 2.3 Retail Planning Concepts .................................................................................................................. 7 Hierarchy/Levels of Retail ..........................................................................................................................................8 Convenience vs. Shopping Goods and Services..................................................................................................9 Threshold Population....................................................................................................................................................9 Trade Areas/ Catchment........................................................................................................................................... 10 2.4 Local Retail Profile Completeness...............................................................................................10 3.0 CONTEXTUAL REVIEW………………………………………………………………………………………………..12 3.1 City of Vancouver Policy .................................................................................................................13 Retail as Amenity.......................................................................................................................................................... 14 CityPlan and Neighbourhood Centres................................................................................................................. 14 Zoning................................................................................................................................................................................ 15 3.2 City of Vancouver Retail Development History .......................................................................17 3.3 Case Study Analysis Periods...........................................................................................................18 3.4 Case Study Area Selection Criteria...............................................................................................19 3.5 Introduction to the Case Study Areas..........................................................................................20 Dunbar Centre Shopping Area................................................................................................................................ 21 Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area ............................................................................................................................. 25 Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area .................................................................................................................. 28 4.0 METHODS .................................................................................................................................................32 4.1 Data Collection....................................................................................................................................32 4.2 Analytical Methods............................................................................................................................32 4.3 Limitations of data ............................................................................................................................34 5.0 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .....................................................................................................................35 5.1 Overall Numbers of Businesses.....................................................................................................36 5.2 Retail Mix Profile: Broad Categories ...........................................................................................40 5.3 Retail Mix Profile: Selected Specific Uses ..................................................................................44 6.0 IMPLICATIONS .........................................................................................................................................48 6.1 A Story of Neighbourhood Retail ..................................................................................................48 6.2 Policy Implications and Recommendations .............................................................................49 7.0 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................51 GLOSSARY OF TERMS .......................................................................................................................................52 WORKS CITED.....................................................................................................................................................53 ii TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 -­‐ Map of Case Study Areas and Vancouver Neighbourhood Contexts ........................................... 20 Figure 2 -­‐ Map of Dunbar Centre Shopping Area ...................................................................................................... 21 Figure 3 -­‐ Photo of Scott's Grocery, Dunbar Centre (1923) ....................................................................................... 24 Figure 4 -­‐ Photo of Dunbar Centre, 1932 ......................................................................................................................... 24 Figure 5 -­‐ Map of Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area ................................................................................................... 25 Figure 6 -­‐ Map of Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area ........................................................................................ 28 Figure 7 -­‐ Number of Businesses Over Time by Case Study Area (Chart) ..................................................... 36 Figure 8 -­‐ Annual Percentage Change in Number of Businesses over Time (Chart) ................................. 37 Figure 9 -­‐ Photo: SE Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (1980s or 1990s) ..................................................... 39 Figure 10 -­‐ Photo: SE Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (2010)....................................................................... 39 Figure 11 -­‐ Photo: NW Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (1970s) .................................................................. 39 Figure 12 -­‐ Photo: NW Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (2010) .................................................................... 39 Figure 13 -­‐ Dunbar Centre -­‐ Mix of Business Use Categories over Time (Chart)........................................ 41 Figure 14 -­‐ Rupert and 22nd -­‐ Mix of Business Use Categories over Time (Chart) ................................... 41 Figure 15 -­‐ Nanaimo and Charles -­‐ Mix of Business Use Categories over Time (Chart) .......................... 41 Figure 16 -­‐ Photo: Storefront of Gateway Appraisal, Nanaimo Street (2010) ..................................................... 43 Figure 17 -­‐ Photo: Storefront of L3 Design, Nanaimo Street (2010) ....................................................................... 43 Figure 18 -­‐ Convenience Services by Type over Time (Chart)............................................................................ 47 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: Characteristics of Selected Vancouver Retail Areas Appendix B: Complete Set of Ground Codes for Occupancy Data Appendix C: Ground Codes and Retail Mix Categories Appendix D: Coded Case Study Area Occupancy Data and Basic Retail Mix Analysis Count Data i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was made possible with the support of many key individuals. Thanks to Adjunct Professors Ann McAfee and Jay Wollenberg, and Distinguished Practice Professor Larry Beasley for taking the time to offer suggestions which were very helpful in shaping the early stages of this research. Thanks to Glenn Buholzer for his careful proofreading. A complete set of ground codes developed by Vancouver-­‐based retail consultant Lewis Silberberg provided an invaluable basis for coding case study occupancy data. Additional thanks go to staff of the City of Vancouver Planning Department who have offered the benefit of their experience and insight. Particular thanks are due to: -­‐ Andy Coupland, Planner, Research and Data -­‐ Michelle McGuire, Planner, Community Planning I am especially grateful to Peter Vaisbord, Planner, Business Improvement Area Program, for his interest in this project, his pithy comments on a draft of this report, and for taking the time to serve as its second reader. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go out to Dr. Thomas A Hutton, who has been a kind and inspirational advisor and professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning. His assistance with both substantive subject matter and research methods has been invaluable. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Neighbourhood-­‐serving urban shopping areas have traditionally offered local residents access to the most frequently needed goods and services, as well as places to connect and socialize. Since the mid-­‐20th century, however, the urban retail landscape has undergone major changes, including the rise of regional shopping malls and large format retailers. The impact of these shifts on lower-­‐order urban retail areas is poorly understood and seldom researched, except in cases of decline characterized by high vacancy rates and deteriorating buildings. Nevertheless, access to basic goods and services within urban neighbourhoods remains an important equity issue and a catalyst for strong communities. Recent research indicates that it is also a critical factor in supporting local resilience and public health. ii The purpose of this study is to investigate the evolving functions of Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving shopping areas from the end of the 1950s to the present. This critical period spans the replacement of the city’s streetcar system by trolley buses, the rise of regionally-­‐serving large-­‐format retail, and the emergence of sustainability as a pillar of planning policy. Analysis of historical occupancy data from case study areas over this period informs generalizations about past and present trends in the overall number and mix of businesses supported within Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving shopping areas. Findings of this report are intended to inform future policy directions and planning strategies relating to Vancouver’s local retail. While findings, conclusions and recommendations are specific to this city, trends found in Vancouver are also relevant to circumstances described within the planning literature as affecting other cities in North America and Europe. Background Literature and Contexts As discussed in the Literature Review section of this report, a diverse body of literature about urban sustainability highlights the role of neighbourhood-­‐serving retail in increasing community resilience, supporting public health and fostering social cohesion. Recent research shows that access to everyday goods and services within walkable shopping areas not only contributes to GHG reduction by reducing automobile trips, but also offer positive impacts for public health through improving access to healthy food and increasing levels of active transportation. Local gathering spots such as cafes and beauty parlours in walkable neighbourhoods also foster social well-­‐being and cohesion. Planning and local economic development literature offers strategies to support the revitalization of troubled and declining local retail districts. However, the changing functions of healthy neighbourhood-­‐oriented urban retail have not been widely studied. Portland's "Twenty-­‐Minute Neighbourhood" planning concept pioneers formal consideration of access to local retail "destinations" in guiding policy decisions. Key concepts within the analytical framework of this research are drawn from the fields of economic development and commercial real estate development. The concept of classifying retail areas within a regional hierarchy informed the selection of a range of study areas that includes representatives of Vancouver's two levels of neighbourhood-­‐serving shopping areas. (Local Centres serve nearby residents, while District Centres serve larger residential districts.) The distinction between convenience goods and services (which consumers purchase more frequently) and shoppers' goods and services (for which consumers are more likely to do comparison shopping) is iii applied to the mix of business uses in the study areas as part of the analysis of occupancy data. It also informs the idea of local retail profile completeness, which describes a mix of shops and services that optimally serves the population residing within walking distance. The Contextual Review discusses key planning and development contexts of Vancouver’s neighbourhood retail development, including the history of commercial arterial streets, commercial zoning and the city's Business Improvement Area program. The ongoing CityPlan initiative, involving the participatory identification and planning of mixed-­‐use "neighbourhood centres" targets single-­‐family areas and their locally-­‐serving shopping streets. The Contextual Review concludes by introducing the five points for which data was collected (1955, 1970, 1985, 1998 and 2010), as well as selection criteria for the three case study areas. The three case study areas are as follows: • The Dunbar Centre Shopping Area, a District Centre, is the largest of the case study areas and serves the high-­‐income and slow-­‐growing Dunbar-­‐Southlands local area. The retail area was developed around a streetcar line in the 1930s. • The Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area is a small Local Centre and serves the Renfrew-­‐Collingwood local area. Developed in the 1940s and 1950s , it includes a higher proportion of automobile-­‐oriented design than the other case study areas. • The Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area is a small Local Centre located on the border of the Grandview-­‐Woodlands and Hastings-­‐Sunrise local areas, whose populations are demographically diverse. This retail area developed around a streetcar line in the 1930s, and was reduced in extent following the closure of a Safeway supermarket in 1988. Methods and Analysis As described in the Methods section, study area occupancy data were collected from the Vancouver City Directory and from field surveys. Data were coded based on the type of business located at each address. Ground codes, based on a set developed by Vancouver-­‐based retail consultant Lewis Silberberg, allow quantitative analysis of the types of businesses offered within the case study areas over time. Coded data were sorted into three broad categories (Convenience Goods and Services, Shopping Goods and Services, and Office/Professional/Business Supply Uses) to facilitate analysis of retail mix. Also discussed in this section are gaps and limitations of available data and of the iv research methods. Foremost among these limitations is that historical occupancy data record only business names without other relevant information such as the size or character of the businesses. The Analysis section of this report describes patterns of change revealed in the case study area occupancy data in three ways: • The overall number of businesses located in the study areas • The proportion of businesses within each study area belonging to three broad categories: (Convenience Goods and Services, Shopping Goods and Services, and Office/Professional/Business Supply Uses) • The number of businesses falling within specific use subcategories (e.g. grocers,) that have changed significantly in prominence over the study period, or that are critical to serving the everyday needs of nearby residents. Key findings include the following: • In all three case study areas, the total numbers of shops and services display a clear pattern of change over time. A dramatic decline in the overall number of businesses took place between the first two data points of 1955 and 1970, and was followed by a more gradual resurgence. Between 1998 and 2010, numbers of businesses increased across all study areas, returning to approximately 80% of 1955 levels in two of the study areas and surpassing 1955 levels in the third area. • Over the study period, the more widely-­‐serving District Centre study area (Dunbar Centre) consistently offered a greater proportion of higher-­‐order shopping goods and services than the two Local Centres did. However, businesses offering shopping goods and services made up a shrinking proportion of businesses in Dunbar Centre since 1970, with lower-­‐order convenience goods and services rising in prominence. • Numbers of dining establishments increased significantly over time in two of the three study areas, which may be related to generally declining numbers of small grocery stores, reflecting changing lifestyles. • The number of automobile service stations declined steadily over the study period, resulting in several sites within the case study areas that were subsequently redeveloped for other, more pedestrian-­‐oriented retail uses. v Implications and Recommendations The implications of this research are twofold: it offers insight into general patterns and trends that have shaped neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas in Vancouver since the 1950s, and it informs recommendations for future planning and policy directions. Findings outline a narrative about the changing face of neighbourhood-­‐oriented retail in Vancouver since the 1950s. The story begins with a period of decline in local shopping areas leading up to the 1970s, a time of increasing automobile dependence. A subsequent resurgence in numbers of businesses, particularly those offering convenience goods and services, suggests positive implications for the future of Vancouver’s neighbourhood retail areas. However, the roles of these areas may have shifted over time. As suggested by the reduced importance of shoppers’ goods and services in Dunbar Centre, higher-­‐order functions may be increasingly dominated by regionally-­‐serving shops outside the neighbourhood retail areas.1 Current city-­‐wide planning policies in the City of Vancouver are generally supportive of neighbourhood-­‐serving retail in an indirect way, by calling for gentle densification and increased housing options in traditional single-­‐family areas. However, planning strategies for specific neighbourhoods and shopping areas are developed in the absence of clear city-­‐wide policy supporting local retail and calling for the preservation of retail use potential in historic neighbourhood-­‐serving shopping areas. Therefore, this report recommends the development of a city-­‐wide policy outlining specific strategies for preserving and supporting neighbourhood-­‐serving retail. To inform this policy work, an update of the 1971 Suburban Commercial Study, perhaps building on the present research, may be required. The comprehensive Greenest City Action Plan, currently in development, could provide an opportunity to set targets and identify actions related to addressing GHG reduction and community resilience through robust and complete local retail areas. Incremental strategies could also be employed, such as supporting the analysis of retail mix profiles through the existing Business Improvement Area program. 1 Richard Wozny, Peter Hume, and Lewis Silberberg, Retail Impact Study: Proposed Wal-­‐Mart and Ancillary Space, 86 S.E. Marine Drive, Vancouver, B.C. City of Vancouver, 2002) 76, July 7, 2010. 1 FULL REPORT 1.0 INTRODUCTION In the City of Vancouver, recent municipal planning and policy direction has prioritized livability and sustainability, particularly in terms of providing housing and amenities near jobs. However, neighbourhood-­‐serving retail outside the downtown core has not been the subject of recent coordinated assessment or intervention. The stability, composition and accessibility of locally-­‐serving retail are critical components of social and economic resilience. Due to their walkability, orientation to public transit and proximity to housing, historical shopping areas along Vancouver’s arterial streets may contribute to high levels of resilience within the city’s local areas. International planning research presents a narrative of widespread decline in neighbourhood-­‐serving inner-­‐city retail, and describes its overshadowing by automobile-­‐oriented, regionally-­‐serving alternatives. Meanwhile, an emerging body of literature spanning disciplines of economics, resource management and planning, calls for cities to adapt to an emerging reality of resource scarcity through re-­‐localization. This report addresses the question of whether the basic functions of Vancouver’s neighbourhood shopping streets have shifted or remained stable since the end of Vancouver’s first streetcar era in the 1950s, and through the era of automobile dominance. Following a review of background literature relating to urban sustainability, neighbourhood planning and commercial retail development, and an overview of Vancouver development history and planning policy, three case study shopping areas are introduced: • Dunbar St. (25th Ave. to 30th Ave.) • Rupert St. (intersection with E. 22nd Ave. and south to E. 23rd Ave.) • Nanaimo St. (Graveley St. to Kitchener St.) Occupancy data from these areas forms the basis for analysis, with some significant limitations. Historical datasets are not perfectly complete. In addition, occupancy data does not reveal any complex information about the size or character of historical businesses, the affordability of goods and services offered there, or how they were used. Nonetheless, clear patterns emerge. Findings concern the mix of goods and services historically offered within Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas and the changing functions of these areas over time. They are offered to help inform the development of future planning programs and policy to promote robust, walkable and functional local retail landscapes in the city. 2 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Because the range of goods and services available in local shopping centres impact residents’ social experiences, daily patterns of transportation, how they define their neighbourhoods and even how well they eat, literature on urban sustainability informs the purpose and direction of this research. The first part of this literature review examines links between neighbourhood-­‐serving urban retail and post-­‐carbon resilience, active transportation, public health and social cohesion. The second section outlines and assesses the applicability of key concepts and trends from the fields of neighbourhood planning and commercial retail development. Finally, this review briefly explores the idea of local retail profile completeness, and applies it to the question of what kinds of goods and services should be offered in a functional neighbourhood-­‐oriented shopping area. 2.1 Sustainability Literature Implications for Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Post-­‐Carbon Resilience A persuasive body of literature, currently emerging from multiple disciplines including economics, resource management and planning, calls for cities and societies to adapt to imminent resource scarcity. Related exigencies include mitigating externalities of petroleum dependence such as climate change and political instability. The anticipated consequences of a peak in worldwide petroleum production2 in particular has sparked an explosion of writing about how adaptations in urban design,3 transportation policy,4 and everyday lifestyles5 are needed to bring increased resilience to a necessarily relocalized future. In his 2009 book Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, economist Jeff Rubin argues that city-­‐dwellers necessarily face futures in “smaller-­‐scaled, walkable neighbourhoods… built (or rebuilt) to suit the small new world.”6 Everyday convenience services offered within walkable urban neighbourhoods is linked to post-­‐carbon resilience.7 By providing accessible alternatives to some car-­‐oriented regionally serving businesses, functioning local retail can contribute to greenhouse gas reduction. Lest the potential 2 Terry Macalister, "US military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015," Guardian UK April 11 2010,. 3 Patrick M. Condon, Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World (Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2010). 4 Anthony Perl, "From the Guest Editor," Journal of Urban Technology 14.2 (2007): 1. 5 Jeff Rubin, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller (Toronto, Canada: Random House of Canada, 2009). 6 Rubin, 248. 7 Anthony Perl and Richard Gilbert, Energy and Transport Futures University of Calgary, 2005) 60. 3 contributions of small-­‐scale neighbourhood shops seem trivial, UK researcher Michael Carley estimates that “[e]ven a modest superstore” generates 1.5 million vehicle movements per year.8 Active Transportation and Public Health The sustainability implications of accessible local retail services, especially those offering groceries and dining options, extend to improved public health. In a 2009 study based in New York City, researchers found that access to healthy food stores correlated negatively with rates of obesity.9 Access to local grocery stores and restaurants not only improves access to healthy food but also offers health benefits through increased levels of walking. For many decades, transportation planning research has overlooked shopping trips in favour of a focus on counting journey-­‐to-­‐work trips.10 However, nonwork trips represent eighty percent of all trips.11 Therefore, when active transportation is used for “running errands” in local shops, residents' activity levels are significantly impacted. Health impacts of accessing goods and services through active transportation are quantified in recent studies that investigating links between accessible retail destinations and active transportation. In a 2006 study from King County, WA seeking to identify measurable attributes and thresholds of walkable neighbourhoods, Moudon et al. found that: "popular walking destinations, based on the proportion of respondents who reported walking to them on a weekly basis, included grocery stores (45.9%), non-­‐fast food restaurants (23.0%), drug stores (19.2%), convenience stores (16.3%), banks (15.8%), cafés/coffee shops (15.0%), and post offices (12.8%)"12 These types of destinations are all typical tenants of neighbourhood-­‐oriented retail centres. Likewise, a 2007 study by Cerin et al. used Australian and American data to demonstrate that residents’ access to certain retail destinations (including food stores, retail stores, post offices and cafes) strongly determined their levels of "transport-­‐related walking." They found that the 8 Carley M, Kirk K, McIntosh S, Retailing, Sustainability and Neighbourhood Regeneration (York, UK: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2001) 8. 9 A. Rundle, et al, "Neighborhood food environment and walkability predict obesity in New York City," Environmental health perspectives 117.3 (2009): 442. 10 Robin Law, "Beyond 'women and transport': towards new geographies of gender and daily mobility," Progress in Human Geography 23.4 (1999): 570. 11 Surface Transportation Policy Project, Census Journey to Work, 2002) 1. 12 A. V. Moudon, et al, "Operational definitions of walkable neighborhood: theoretical and empirical insights," Journal of Physical Activity and Health 3 (2006): 104. 4 importance of accessible retail destinations far exceeded the importance of access to recreational facilities in influencing levels of transport-­‐related walking.13 Social Cohesion and Neighbourhood Identity Because a comfortable walking distance for daily errands is so small (typically estimated at 400 – 500 meters), a neighbourhood’s walkability is intimately linked to its social experience and identity. Moudon et al. found that, among the American populations they studied “[p]erception measures… pointed to a small (less than 1 km) neighborhood geographic extent.”14 This suggests that people most strongly identity with a neighbourhood they can traverse on foot. The importance of neighbourhood-­‐serving retail for social cohesion and equity is addressed in a 2001 UK-­‐based study by Michael Carley et al. After examining several retail area case studies, the authors recommend a range of planning and policy solutions to strengthen local retail centres, including neighbourhood-­‐level retail strategies. The authors note the special value of local walkable retail for elders, children, the infirm and low-­‐income residents without access to cars.15 One of the principal contributions of this publication is its insistence that local retail is often experienced by residents of all ages and abilities as “the physical and social heart of their neighbourhood.”16 The authors further insist that healthy and functional neighbourhoods, in turn, lie at the heart of sustainable cities. A related argument is presented by the American non-­‐profit Project for Public Spaces (PPS). Addressing a target readership of "do-­‐it-­‐yourself placemakers" the PPS cites writer Rob Gurwitt's passionate argument that: "real-­‐life stores…help define their neighborhoods, which is why the changes buffeting traditional retailers are not solely fodder for the business pages…. [T]he quality of our daily lives and of the places we choose to live is up for grabs as well."17 In response, the PPS calls upon residents to patronize local establishments in order to support neighbourhood retail and its community-­‐building functions.18 Urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg 13 E. Cerin, et al, "Destinations that matter: associations with walking for transport," Health & place 13.3 (2007): 721. 14 Moudon, et al, 114. 15 Ibid. 16 Carley M, Kirk K, McIntosh S, 1. 17 Rob Gurwitt, "Light in Oxford," Mother Jones May/June 2000: April 25, 2010. as quoted in Jay Walljasper, The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-­‐it-­‐Yourself Guide to Placemaking (Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2007) 103. 18 Walljasper, 102. 5 used the term "third places" to describe neutral spaces outside home and work where community members meet, socialize and share information. In his book "The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You through the Day", he argues that successful third places are essential to social well-­‐being and even democracy, and that their success depends on their easy accessibility to local pedestrians.19 Portland Example: The “Twenty-­‐Minute Neighbourhood” Planning Concept The City of Portland, Oregon defines well-­‐functioning local retail as a critical aspect of sustainable communities. The ongoing development of its long-­‐range development plan will draw on the concept of "twenty-­‐minute neighbourhoods" to guide policy decisions.20 The idea of twenty-­‐minute neighbourhoods prioritizes: "convenient, safe, and pedestrian-­‐oriented access to the places people need to go to and the services people use nearly every day: transit, shopping, quality food, school, parks, and social activities, that are near and adjacent to housing."21 Special value is placed on providing “destinations”, the "'hot' focal points' of a neighbourhood",22 which include "grocery stores, restaurants, retail"23 and public facilities. A 2009 study by the City of Portland's Department of Planning and Sustainability analyzed all of the City's residential areas to measure the three principal criteria of the twenty-­‐minute neighbourhood concept: distance, destinations, and density. The study found that the overwhelming majority of residential areas required significant improvement in order to meet the basic criteria of twenty-­‐minute neighbourhoods. Notably, the most successful areas were located "in the older, streetcar-­‐era parts of the city, where the elements of a walkable neighborhood were already reflected when the neighborhoods were created".24 This supports a suggestion made by Vancouver-­‐based planner Larry Beasley, that modern city-­‐building may not sufficiently understand how to create complete, walkable communities that include accessible local retail services.25 19 Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You through the Day (New York: Paragon House, 1991). 20 City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, Status Report: Twenty-­‐Minute Neighborhoods, 2009) 1. 21 City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, 2. 22 City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, 6. 23 City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, 4. 24 City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, 6. 25 Larry Beasley, Interview (Former Co-­‐Director of Planning, Retired: City of Vancouver, 2010). 6 2.2 Neighbourhood Planning Literature Analytical planning approaches to neighbourhood-­‐level commercial development have been rare.26 As a result, how local retail areas function within urban neighbourhoods is not well established. Likewise, the evolution of these retail centres’ roles over time or with demographic changes in the surrounding community is not well understood. While locally-­‐oriented retail in the Canadian urban context has not been the subject of much dedicated study, literature from the UK and US presents a general narrative of the decline of inner-­‐city, locally-­‐oriented retail since the mid-­‐20th century in favour of more dispersed and larger-­‐format regional oriented shops.27,28 Describing the huge extent of these ongoing changes in the UK’s retail landscape, Michael Carley notes that: The advent of large superstores and shopping malls, the consolidation of 70 per cent of retail food spend by large multiple retailers and preference for car-­‐based shopping have meant that more than 60,000 small shops disappear every decade.29 Since the advent of car-­‐oriented suburban shopping malls, urban retail systems were dramatically restructured as "[r]etail capital… had begun rapidly to flow out of the traditional centres of the inner city".30 A 1998 staff report to Vancouver City Council observed that, since 1980 “supermarkets [had] ‘thinned out’, with stores farther apart, particularly on the east side.” In addition, new supermarkets have tended to be larger, with the greatest reductions in small and medium-­‐sized stores.31 American researcher Stacy Mitchell notes that, in 2010, "the average trip to a store [in the USA] is now about three miles longer than it was in 1990."32 Despite reports of the demise of local retail, a relocalization movement is also underway, informed by recent warnings of scarce resources and the end of the automobile era. Making the case that "[a]l great neighbourhoods…function as villages”33 advocates like the Project for Public Spaces herald a trend towards "the resurrection of local shopping districts."34 26 C. Theodore Koebel, Analyzing Neighborhood Retail and Service Change in Six Cities (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Center for Housing Research, 1999) 5. 27 Carley M, Kirk K, McIntosh S, 28 Koebel. 29 Carley M, Kirk K, McIntosh S, v. 30 N. Wrigley and MS Lowe, "Reading retail: a geographical perspective on retailing and consumption spaces," (2002): 136. 31 Patricia French and Cathy Buckham, Supermarkets in Vancouver City of Vancouver, 1998). 32 Stacy Mitchell, "Miles Driven for Shopping Continues to Climb, But Pace Slows," New Rules Project May 6, 2010 2010: June 27, 2010. 33 Walljasper, 86. 34 Walljasper, 96. 7 Retail Revitalization Literature In response to the declining fortunes of many local retail districts, a rich literature specializes in strategies for revitalizing severely troubled retail centres. Typical retail revitalization programs include aesthetic improvements to streetscapes and storefronts, as well as forming Business Improvement Associations to engage retailers in cooperative branding, marketing and planning. A 1975 guidebook for The Revitalization of Retail Districts prepared by the Toronto-­‐based ‘Project: “Saving Small Business”‘ exemplifies this approach: “Perceptions of the [retail] strip as dull, outdated and inefficient must be overcome by programs of revitalization through cooperation and selfawareness.”35,36 The majority of Vancouver’s neighbourhood retail centres outside the downtown do not currently appear to suffer the same degree of dysfunction as typical subjects of retail regeneration literature. For instance, Michael Carley describes “near-­‐derelict precincts or high streets, with boarded-­‐up shops, which become the focus of anti-­‐social activity.“37 Therefore, while the retail regeneration literature does offer strategies for maintaining the health of local retail centres, its applicability to the present research is somewhat limited because of its focus on failing areas where simply keeping shops open must be the first priority. A more pressing question in Vancouver’s neighbourhoods is, rather, whether local retail areas offer the range of high-­‐frequency goods and services that local residents need. Alternately, might their evident viability reflect a strategy of attracting regional business through over-­‐specialization? 2.3 Retail Planning Concepts Neighbourhood-­‐oriented urban retail is not widely studied or even well-­‐defined in planning literature. However, many helpful concepts can be found in the related fields of economic development and commercial real estate development. While these fields approach the topic from a different perspective (examining, for instance, the location decisions of individual retailers or property developers) they offer rich sources of information. Five selected concepts used in retail and economic development literatures are defined below. They provide a useful framework for exploring the role of a successful local retail area in providing the host of benefits identified in the 35 Ted Silberberg, et al, A guide for... The Revitalization of Retail Districts (Toronto, Canada: Project: Saving Small Business, 1976). 36 Business Improvement Areas exist in some of Vancouver’s neighbourhood retail areas; their roles are briefly explored as part of the Contextual Review. 37 Carley M, Kirk K, McIntosh S, v. 8 sustainability literature, and for approaching the critical question: “What mix of business uses enables a neighbourhood shopping area to successfully fill its critical functions?” Hierarchy/Levels of Retail Stemming from Walter Christaller's central place theory, the concept of an intra-­‐urban hierarchy of retail functions was developed by British-­‐American human geographer Brian Berry in the 1960s. Cities’ retail functions are classified in a theoretical hierarchy that extends from the highest-­‐order retail function (specialty retail within the Central Business District) through major district and suburban centres, down to the lowest-­‐order functions (convenience goods sold in corner stores or local retail areas). 38 City of Vancouver policy recognizes a hierarchy of five levels of commercial districts, of which the lowest and third levels are neighbourhood-­‐serving. Their descriptions, from a 1987 Review of Commercial Zoning Districts, are summarized as follows: 1) Local Centres "provide convenience goods and services required by nearby residents on a day-­‐to-­‐day basis. The major components are usually a grocery store or medium-­‐sized supermarket, a drug store, beauty or barber shop, drycleaners and a service station. Over 75 percent of a local centre's floor area is devoted to the sale of convenience goods and services (food, drugs, beauty needs, etc. ) and the remainder to shopping goods (apparel, appliances, etc.)”39 2) General Business Areas (auto-­‐oriented mix of retail, service, office and general commercial components strung out along major arterials) 3) District Centres "offer a larger variety of goods and services, in addition to those provided in local centres, and function as the retail and service centre of a whole residential district. The major components are usually a large supermarket, large variety or discount store, other apparel and appliance stores, and some professional offices. In addition, district centres are usually the recreational, cultural and civic centres for the City's residential districts. Most district centres tend to contain a post office, library, community centre, arena 38 D. Waugh, Geography: an integrated approach Nelson Thornes, 2000). 39 Appendix A: Review of Commercial Zoning Districts Planning Department, Commercial Zoning: C-­‐2, C-­‐3B, C-­‐2C and C-­‐2C1 City of Vancouver, 1987) 1. 9 or theatre. Approximately 50 percent of the floor area is devoted to shopping goods and 50 percent to convenience goods and services"40 4) Regional Centres (focal points of specialized shopping, usually containing a large department store) 5) Central Business District (the regional downtown: the principal office, financial and entertainment centre for the metropolitan area). Convenience vs. Shopping Goods and Services The retail economics literature distinguishes between two general types of retail functions whose presence or absence can indicate an area’s level in the retail hierarchy: Convenience Goods and Services: Retail located in local centres can be expected to sell low-­‐order goods and services which are purchased frequently. This includes perishables and other daily needs; the corner grocery store, barber shop and 7-­‐11 are classic examples. Shoppers’ (a.k.a “Comparison”) Retail outlets located in higher-­‐level Goods and Services centres, in addition to offering convenience goods and services, offer goods and services which are purchased more infrequently, including those for which customers are likely to do comparison shopping. Furniture and electronics are examples.41 Threshold Population The term "threshold population" describes the minimum population needed to support any given retail function. Convenience stores tend to have very low threshold populations, while specialty stores and shops selling comparison goods require much higher threshold populations in order to stay in business.42 40 Ibid. 41 Center for Urban Economic Development (UICUED), Retail Market Analysis: A Manual for Preliminary Analysis of Neighborhood Retail Opportunities in Chicago, Revised: April, 1986 ed. (The University of Illinois at Chicago: School of Urban Planning and Policy, 1980) 28. 42 Waugh. 10 Trade Areas/ Catchment Related to the idea of a threshold population, a trade area (or catchment) is the geographical area where a high proportion of the customers of a retail centre or establishment reside. A retail centre’s trade area is defined by distance as well as by more complex factors such as perceived neighbourhood boundaries, the location of competing uses, and physical barriers such as a major road.43 The concepts of threshold populations and catchment areas are related to the assumption often made in Vancouver planning policy that residential density correlates strongly with the diversity and function of local retail services. 2.4 Local Retail Profile Completeness A local retail profile describes the mix of goods and services offered in a shopping area at a given point in time. Over time, businesses close or change hands, new enterprises set up shop, and sites are redeveloped. Nonetheless, the mix of goods and services available within a shopping area reflects a legacy of social, economic and built capital. Following this premise, a well-­‐balanced profile of critical services today bodes well for the future of the shopping area and the surrounding neighbourhood. What mix of business uses enables a neighbourhood shopping area to successfully fill its critical functions? Within the retail planning and economic development literatures, researchers have suggested specific kinds of businesses that are often found in well-­‐functioning local retail centres; foremost among these businesses is a grocery store. Three such lists are compiled in Table 1, as well as the list of typical uses found in Vancouver’s Local Centres, from a 1987 planning report.44 While Table 1 shows significant agreement regarding what categories of retail are typical of locally oriented neighbourhood retail among four North American sources spanning nearly thirty years, it is important to allow that the daily needs of the residents in a neighbourhood are, to some degree, contextually dependent on needs and desires that evolve over time and vary with the demographics of local residents. Among the sources compiled in Table 1: Retail Categories Characteristic of Local Centres, only a study from 1980 lists Shoe Repair and Laundromat as critical convenience goods. Since then, it seems that social norms regarding repairing instead of replacing shoes may have changed. Access 43 Center for Urban Economic Development (UICUED), 7. 44 Planning Department. 11 to in-­‐home laundry machines may have changed as well; certainly Laundromats are more in demand in some neighbourhoods than in others. The Project for Public Spaces points out that the values of some local convenience services are culturally determined; they cite the traditional role of barbershops and beauty parlors as social hubs in African-­‐American neighbourhoods, and the similar role of cafés in Paris.45 Since no agreed-­‐upon term has been found in the retail development or planning literature to describe the mix of businesses in a local retail centre that best meets the daily needs of the population living within walking distance, the present study proposes the term local retail profile completeness. It draws on the concept of “completeness” that is applied to the similarly complex phenomena of “complete streets”46 and “complete communities.”47 45 Walljasper, 102 46 Complete Streets, April 21 2010, Wordpress.org, April 25 2010 <http://www.completestreets.org/>. 47 Complete Communities, 2007, April 25 2010 <http://www.communityenergy.bc.ca/community-­‐energy-­‐benefits-­‐introduction/complete-­‐communities>. 12 Table 1: Retail Categories Characteristic of Local Centres 13 3.0 CONTEXTUAL REVIEW This section presents a condensed historic overview of key planning and development contexts of neighbourhood retail development in Vancouver, and introduces the case study areas. Key policy contexts of local retail development have included zoning, the CityPlan community planning program, and the idea of neighbourhood retail as a community amenity. Historical contexts include the streetcar lines that once shaped much of Vancouver’s neighbourhood retail development along arterial corridors. The final part of this section discusses the method of case study area selection, contextualizes the years selected as data points, and introduces the three case study areas. 3.1 City of Vancouver Policy In recent decades, City of Vancouver planning policies have both responded to and shaped retail change and development. However, uncertainty has surrounded the principle of how or whether the City should act to influence market retail. A 1971 "Suburban Commercial Study" conducted by the City identified issues of physical blight and increasing auto-­‐orientation in the commercial areas outside the downtown. It determined that high commercial vacancy rates and breaks in retail continuity were the result of a surplus of areas with commercial zoning.48 Therefore, it recommended “elimination of the over-­‐abundant number of C-­‐1 zones on the East side of the City.”49 The issue of whether the City should take action regarding a perceived surplus of retail space was addressed in a 1985 Council Report, where: [t]he underlying issue that caused the most debate… concern[ed]…the question of whether the City had any right or obligation to intervene in the retail sector at all.50 At that time, City Council decided that the municipality does have a responsibility to shape retail, but only for specific ends. These include protecting public investment and minimizing public expenditures by promoting efficient use of existing infrastructure and preventing decline which could lead to the physical deterioration of retail areas. The city has an additional responsibility “to ensure that [retail] change improves, and does not reduce, retail access for residents.”51 The Business Improvement Area program now comprises a key part of the City of Vancouver’s involvement with local retail. Since 1989, the City has helped groups of merchants to establish 48 Planning Department. 49 Planning Department, Appendix A, p2. 50 City of Vancouver, City Role in Retail Development Planning Report to Council, 1985) 1. 51 Ibid, p 5-­‐6. 14 Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) and provides assistance with budgetary monitoring and liaising with City departments. The BIAs are largely self-­‐managed and are self-­‐funded by annual property tax levies, which enable them to coordinate area maintenance, improvement and marketing programs.52 Retail as Amenity Because retail shops and services are provided on the open market, it is not a straightforward task for the municipality to fulfill its responsibility to improve retail access for residents. However, the contemporary planning goal of expanding housing capacity to accommodate a growing population is often understood and represented as aligned with improving retail access through providing a more robust market to support locally-­‐oriented retail. While increasing residential density is sometimes perceived by community residents as a bitter pill to swallow, the related prospect of fostering higher-­‐quality local retail services is a more widely attractive proposition. The link between local residential density and thriving, diverse local retail services is emphasized in recent planning and policy documents, in which retail services are framed as a public amenity that may be achieved through redevelopment. For instance, the Community Vision document for Renfrew-­‐Collingwood (2004), notes that “new housing should be added to help support the shopping areas.”53 City-­‐wide, the 2008 EcoDensity Project addresses the inefficiencies of dedicating half of the municipality’s land base to single-­‐family housing, noting that “[h]igher densities can create many urban benefits – more population can support a broad range of retail choices.”54 These types of initiatives promoting housing choice in neighbourhood centres, multifamily housing along arterials and “gentle density” in secondary suites or laneway houses can be understood as the most significant ways in which current City policy nurtures local retail. CityPlan and Neighbourhood Centres An ongoing participatory community planning initiative, CityPlan was adopted in 1995 to develop a broad vision for shaping future policy, and to foster Vancouver’s development as "a city of neighbourhoods, each with its own identity."55 Beginning in the 1970s, Vancouver benefited from a 52 City of Vancouver, Business Improvement Areas Program Pamphlet, 2008). 53 City of Vancouver, Renfrew-­‐Collingwood Community Vision, 2004) 3. 54 City of Vancouver, EcoDensity Project Summary: How Density, Design, and Land Use will Contribute to Environmental Sustainability, Affordability, and Livability, 2008) 13, September 11, 2010. 55 City of Vancouver, "Summary Document: CityPlan-­‐ Directions for Vancouver," (2001). 15 robust neighbourhood planning process characterized by engagement through dedicated storefronts and coordination with streetscape beautification programs, particularly in older ring neighbourhoods such as Grandview-­‐Woodlands and Kitsilano.56 Prior to CityPlan, however, some single-­‐family areas and their locally-­‐serving retail had never been the subject of local planning.57 As part of CityPlan, neighbourhood-­‐specific Community Vision processes engage local communities to identify potential “neighbourhood centres” and to earmark these areas for future implementation work: “Neighbourhood centres, usually developed from existing shopping streets, will provide a "heart" for each neighbourhood… Here, people will find shops, jobs, neighbourhood-­‐based services, public places that are safe and inviting, and a place to meet with neighbours and join in community life.… Centres will help the environment by reducing the need to travel long distances from home to jobs and services.”58 While the ten Community Visions adopted to date have identified eighteen future neighbourhood centres59 only two Neighbourhood Centre planning processes have been undertaken so far, comprising integrated retail area and housing initiatives. Zoning Most of Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving and locally-­‐serving shopping areas fall into one of two commercial zoning designations: C-­‐1 and C-­‐2. These two zones permit similar forms and uses, generally requiring retail uses at the ground level and permitting residential or commercial uses above. The main difference between them is of scale and position in the hierarchy of retail. The current Zoning Map describes them as follows: C-­1 Commercial District The intent is to provide small-­‐scale convenience commercial establishments, catering typically to the needs of a local neighbourhood and consisting primarily of retail sales and certain limited service functions, and to provide for dwelling uses designed compatibly with commercial uses. 56 Peter Vaisbord, Interview (Coordinator, Business Improvement Areas Program: City of Vancouver, 2010). 57 City of Vancouver, Neighbourhood Centre Delivery Program Terms of Reference City Plans, Community Services Group, 2002) 2. 58 City of Vancouver, CityPlan: Directions for Vancouver, 1995), September 11, 2010. 59 City of Vancouver, Identified Local Area Planning Needs. 2010. 16 C-­2 Commercial District The intent is to provide for a wide range of commercial uses serving both local and city-­‐wide needs, as well as residential uses, along arterial streets. Emphasis is on building design that furthers compatibility among uses, ensures livability, limits impact on adjacent residential sites, and contributes to pedestrian interest and amenity.60 As these definitions suggest, C-­‐1 and C-­‐2 zones correspond roughly to “Local Centres” and “District Centres” in Vancouver’s urban retail hierarchy, respectively. According to the zoning schedule, C-­‐1 zoned areas are intended to be very locally-­‐serving, with “all office, retail and services uses [catering] to the day-­‐to-­‐day needs of residents of the local neighbourhood.”61 Appropriate uses are defined in the C-­‐1 District Schedule as Outright Approval Uses (including retail, grocery stores and general office space) as well as Conditional Approval Uses (including dwellings). Conversely, C-­‐2 zoned areas are intended to serve a larger district, without serving the entire region. Many of the Neighbourhood Centres identified through CityPlan encompass C-­‐2 zones. Appropriate uses are defined in the C-­‐2 District Schedule as Outright Approval Uses (including retail, service, cultural and recreational uses) and Conditional Approval Uses (including dwellings.) Corresponding to its broader significance, C-­‐2 zoning permits higher outright building heights and floor space ratios than C-­‐1 (4 stories instead of 2 or 3). For a complete list of approved uses in C-­‐1 and C-­‐2 zones, see the District Schedules in Appendix E. Vancouver’s commercial zones have been increasingly mixed-­‐use in character since 1989, when disincentives were removed for developing housing on the upper storeys of buildings with retail uses at grade. At the time, planners estimated that an “additional 5,500 units could be created in commercial districts outside the downtown, where impacts on established residential neighbourhoods would be minimized”.62 These commercial zones continue to provide “a large portion of the City’s future housing capacity,”63 and remain a “main means of providing low-­‐rise apartment units in single-­‐family neighbourhoods.”64 60 Zoning and Development By-­‐law, January 15 2007, July 14 2010 <http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/PLANNING/ZONING.HTM>. 61 City of Vancouver, C-­‐1 District Schedules, Zoning and Development By-­‐Law, 2009) 2.3.2. 62 Manager’s Report to Council on the proposed text amendments, May 2, 1989, as cited in Neale Staniszkis Doll Architects, C-­‐1 & C-­‐2 Zoning Study for the City of Vancouver (Vancouver BC:, 1991). 63 Director of City Plans, C-­‐2 Zoning Review City of Vancouver, 2000) 3. 64 John Punter, The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003) 176. 17 3.2 City of Vancouver Retail Development History Many of Vancouver’s commercial arterial streets evolved along historic streetcar and interurban rail lines. Several inner-­‐city neighbourhoods such as Grandview and Kitsilano once functioned as "separate and distinct villages [centred] around the street car stations.”65 The backbones of these suburbs were moderate-­‐density, mixed-­‐use and transit-­‐served commercial corridors. Their inherently walkable forms evolved prior to widespread automobile ownership and remain a legacy of Vancouver’s transit-­‐oriented past. Owing to this walkability, orientation around contemporary electric transit (the trolley busses which replaced most streetcar routes) and convenience to surrounding housing, ongoing neighbourhood retail presence along these arterial streets likely contributes to a high level of resilience in Vancouver’s neighbourhoods. Vancouver’s streetcar and interurban rail lines were replaced by trolley and diesel bus routes in the 1950s. The North America-­‐wide trend of replacing fixed-­‐rail transit with rubber-­‐tired busses corresponded with the dawning of the era of the private automobile. A minority of Vancouver neighbourhoods such as Renfrew in the southeast and Oakridge in the southwest saw significant new residential development during the automobile era, but even these areas largely retained the street grid of the older streetcar city. Many of the old walkable neighbourhood shopping areas have been retained, although instances of auto-­‐oriented retail such as strip malls and small shopping malls punctuate their lengths. Large-­‐format auto-­‐oriented retail located outside neighbourhood shopping areas provided competition that, in some cases, threatened the viability of nearby neighbourhood retail. When the Oakridge shopping mall (1959) was built, attracting customers from a wide catchment area, surrounding retail suffered some decline.66 More recently, the development of regional-­‐serving “big box” format retail developments along Southwest Marine Drive, Grandview Highway, and outside the City of Vancouver's boundaries has impacted shopping patterns in locally-­‐serving retail areas. Retail planning consultant Lewis Silberberg et al. writes that “years of competition [with large-­‐format retail]… has reduced the type of stores in [neighbourhood] shopping areas and forced them to focus on their strengths, such as convenience goods and services, and avoid direct competition with large malls.”67 65 Bruce Macdonald, "Vancouver Neighbourhoods," The Greater Vancouver Book, ed. Chuck Davis (Surrey BC: Linkman Press, 1997) 77. 66 Michael Kluckner, "Oakridge," The Greater Vancouver Book, ed. Chuck Davis (Surrey BC: Linkman Press, 1997) 96. 67 Silberberg, et al, 53 18 3.3 Case Study Analysis Periods Analysis of the three case study areas will use data that captures each area’s mix of retail shops and services at five points in Vancouver’s recent history, at intervals of roughly 15 years. For all three case study areas, the data collection years are 1955, 1970, 1985, 1998 and 2010. 1955 -­ The earliest data point analyzed in this study roughly coincides with the end of Vancouver’s first streetcar era and the rise of the private car. 1970 – The second data point coincides with a brief downward trend in the city’s population as the local economy endured a shift to post-­‐industrialism. The 1971 Suburban Commercial Study identifies physical blight and high vacancy rates in retail areas, concluding that Vancouver had a surplus of commercial zones. 1985 – The third data point captures a city recovering from a local recession in the early 1980s and poised on the cusp of a real estate and immigration boom fueled by Expo 1986. This point also shows a city shaped by the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s first regional growth strategy, the Livable Region Plan (1975). 1998 – The fourth data point will reflect Vancouver’s transformation by increased international connectivity and shifted demographics following the previous decade's influx of investment and skilled immigration that led up to Hong Kong's return to the People's Republic of China in 1997.68 2010 – The final data point captures the present day, when Vancouver has just hosted the 2010 Olympics. In municipal planning, implementation work has begun on the first Neighbourhood Centre plans arising from the CityPlan program. These points were identified for data collection based on their relationship to historical events and trends that broadly shaped development and lifestyles in Vancouver. Their selection also attempted to avoid periods when major construction projects were underway (and therefore large areas were vacant) in any of the study areas. 68 Trevor Barnes, et al, "Vancouver: Restructuring Narratives in the Transnational Metropolis," Canadian Cities, ed. Tom Hutton, in press). 19 3.4 Case Study Area Selection Criteria In order to inform some analytical generalization from findings, this research bases analysis on three case study areas. The areas were selected from among Vancouver’s many retail districts outside the downtown on the basis of several criteria, including the following: • each area should be 500m or less in extent, reflecting a walkable scale • each area should be home to at least one grocery store in 2010 • no area should be under major construction or redevelopment (in 2010) • considered together, the study areas should reflect diverse historical and socioeconomic contexts, including both east-­‐ and west-­‐side areas • considered within the hierarchy of retail areas, the study areas should represent two local centres and one district centre; none should be predominantly regionally-­‐serving. Case study areas are delineated around continuous retail areas, with boundaries set at the furthest extent of continuous commercial use since the earliest data point in 1955. An alternative method of case study area selection was initially considered, based on choosing case study areas that similar in every criteria except for one control variable. For instance, case study areas could have been sought exhibiting similar numbers and mean frontage length of shops, urban design features, levels of public transit service, traffic flows, and demographic characteristics such as income and language profiles, but with different population densities over time. In treating most relevant characteristics as control variables, this approach would have allowed for analysis of one independent variable (e.g. population density) and its relationship to retail area function. A preliminary overview of Vancouver’s retail areas and their current socioeconomic contexts (see Appendix A for a summary) revealed such diversity across many variables that characterizing any two areas as comparable would have involved significant compromises. Therefore, this approach was discarded. 20 3.5 Introduction to the Case Study Areas One district retail centre on the west side of the city and two local retail centres on the east side were selected for analysis. The communities served by all three retail areas are predominantly single family in character. Each clustered around a transit-­‐served arterial corridor, the areas range in extent from 140 to 500m. The case study area locations are at: • Dunbar Street between West 25th to West 30th Avenues (500m in length) • Rupert Street at East 22nd Avenue (140 m in length) • Nanaimo Street between William and Kitchener (210 m in length) Figure 1 below shows the three case study area locations in Vancouver relative to the city’s local areas. The retail areas are introduced below in terms of their positions in the hierarchy of retail, retail development histories, recent planning and development, and local demographics of the residential areas that they serve. Figure 1 -­‐ Map of Case Study Areas and Vancouver Neighbourhood Contexts 21 Dunbar Centre Shopping Area (Dunbar Street between W. 25th Av. and W. 30th Av.) Identified in the 1998 Dunbar Community Vision as the "Dunbar Centre Shopping Area"69 and in The Story of Dunbar as “Dunbar Heights”70, the retail corridor along Dunbar Street between 25th and 30th Avenues provides the widest variety of shops in the Dunbar-­‐Southlands neighbourhood.71 While Dunbar Centre is the most widely-­‐serving, the Dunbar-­‐Southlands neighbourhood is home to several commercial nodes of varying sizes and importance. A 1979 report produced for the City of Vancouver Planning Department notes that: The commercial core between 26th Avenue and 30th Avenue is classified as a district centre, while the other two at 16th Avenue and 41st Avenue are classified as local centres… [Dunbar Centre] offers a large variety of shopping goods in addition to the convenience goods and services provided by the local centres. While the local centre takes care of the day-­‐to-­‐day needs of the nearby residents, the district centre functions as the retail and service centre for the entire residential district.72 The Dunbar Community Vision (1998) describes a relationship between the neighbourhood’s commercial areas that remains basically unchanged since 1979. Befitting its district-­‐serving function, the Dunbar Centre commercial area is zoned C-­‐2. Figure 2: Map of Dunbar Centre Shopping Area 69 City of Vancouver, Dunbar Community Vision, 1998) 12. 70 Larry Moore, "Commercial Development through the Decades," The Story of Dunbar: Voices of a Vancouver Neighbourhood, ed. Peggy Schofield (Ronsdale Press, China: Dunbar Residents' Association, 2007) 110. 71 City of Vancouver. 72 Eunice Mak and Lidio Daneluzzi, Dunbar Southlands Community Profile -­‐ A Technical Report Prepared for the Vancouver City Planning Department, 1979) 13. 22 Local Area Statistics The residential areas surrounding Dunbar Centre are relatively lower density and higher-­‐income than the city average.73 The 2006 median household income in this local area was 84% higher than the city-­‐wide median74, an income level that likely influences the numbers and types of businesses that the area can support.75 A large majority of Dunbar-­‐Southlands residents speak English as their first language (68%, compared to 49% city-­‐wide)76. The population of Dunbar-­‐Southlands has a similar proportion of seniors over 65 to the population of the city as a whole, but has a significantly higher proportion of children and youth under 19 than the city-­‐wide population.77 Dunbar-­‐Southlands has experienced a lower rate of population increase than the city as a whole; since 1971 (the earliest available data point for the area) the local area population increased by 9.4%78, while the population of the city as a whole increased by 35.6%79. The slow rate of population change in Dunbar-­‐Southlands may be related to local residents' low mobility; between the 2001 and 2006 census, 50% of all Vancouver households changed their place of residence, compared to only 36% of Dunbar-­‐Southlands residents80. Retail Development History Streetcar service began on Dunbar Street in 1912, establishing the community as a streetcar suburb.81 The district’s first store followed in 1922, located at Dunbar St. and W 29th Avenue as pictured in Figure 3.82 The Dunbar Centre commercial area developed around this historic streetcar line, attaining its basic extent in the 1930s, as shown in Figure 4. 73 Dunbar Village Neighbourhood Profile, 2008, July 25 2010 <http://www.bizmapbc.com/neighbourhood-­‐profiles/dunbar-­‐neighbourhood.pdf>. 74 City of Vancouver Statistics (2006 Census Data): Local Area Statistics, September 10 2009, September 9 2010 <http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/census/2006/localareas/>. 75 1962 data from Chicago, IL show that higher income areas supported a greater number and variety of businesses than lower income areas. Brian J. L. Berry, et al, Commercial Structure and Commercial Blight: Retail Patterns and Processes in the City of Chicago (Ilinois: University of Chicago, 1963) 60-­‐61. 76 City of Vancouver. 77 City of Vancouver. 78 City of Vancouver, Total Population, City of Vancouver Local Areas, 1971-­‐2006 Data source: Statistics Canada, 2006), September 11, 2010. 79 City of Vancouver's Population Change: 1961 to 2006, 2006, September 11 2010 <http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/stats/poptrends/index.htm>. 80 City of Vancouver. 81 Angus McIntyre, "Transportation in a Classic Streetcar Suburb," The Story of Dunbar: Voices of a Vancouver Neighbourhood, ed. Peggy Schofield (Ronsdale Press, China: Dunbar Residents' Association, 2007) 123. 82 Moore, 83. 23 While the surrounding land was built out with single family houses on generous lots, the number and variety of shops in Dunbar Centre increased to serve the new residents.83 However, according to a local history book published by the Dunbar Residents’ Association, the number of businesses along Dunbar has gradually declined since the 1950s.84 The authors of The Story of Dunbar attribute this trend to several factors, including: • A trend towards consolidation of small businesses • The increased accessibility of more distant, regionally-­‐serving destinations, due to higher levels of automobile ownership • Demographic changes, including: o A larger ethnic Chinese population whose appetite for ethnic foods and other specialty goods is better accommodated at regional centres than in Dunbar’s neighbourhood shops85 o The neighbourhood’s increased affluence, which has made housing near Dunbar unaffordable for local shopkeepers.86 Despite these challenges, the composition of businesses within the Dunbar Centre retail area reflects the neighbourhood’s remarkable stability. The Story of Dunbar offers with pride a list of “survivors”, local businesses that have served the community for many decades.87 83 Moore, 93. 84 Moore, 104. 85 Chang, Ruth, as quoted in Moore, 106 86 Moore, 105-­‐108. 87 Moore, 110. 24 Figure 3: Photo of Scott's Grocery, Dunbar Centre (1923) The first shop in Dunbar Centre, was established in 1922 at W. 29th Av. and Dunbar St. Common Domain photo from the City of Vancouver Archives, item number LP 241. Figure 4: Photo of Dunbar Centre, 1932 By the 1930s, Dunbar Centre offered a wide variety of shops. This photo shows Dunbar St. at W. 26th Av., looking south. Common Domain photo no. 99-­‐4110 from the City of Vancouver Archives. Photographer S. Thomson Recent Local Planning and Development As part of the development of the Dunbar Community Vision (1998), changes were considered to extend the Dunbar Centre commercial area an additional block south to the community centre at 31st Avenue, and to reduce the size of the two smaller commercial nodes at 16th and 41st Avenues. However, neither consideration was approved by neighbourhood residents.88 Increased variety and density of housing were also considered as tools to support local retail, however, the approved Dunbar Community Vision calls for new types of low-­‐rise housing to be focused only along selected arterial streets, and not to be permitted in the residential areas surrounding arterial corridors.89 Altogether, within the Dunbar Community Vision, directions for Dunbar Centre did not herald significant change for the area. Approved directions include pedestrian improvements, encouragement of small local shops, retention of grocery stores, and retention of existing parking. Conservative values regarding increased density and neighbourhood change are likewise reflected in critiques within the Story of Dunbar that existing four-­‐storey mixed-­‐use developments built under Dunbar Centre’s current C-­‐2 zoning are out of place among the smaller, more traditional shops. 88 City of Vancouver, 4. 89 City of Vancouver, 12-­‐13. 25 Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area (Intersection of Rupert Street and E 22nd Av) The Renfrew-­‐Collingwood Community Vision (2004) identifies the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area as a locally serving "mini-­‐node" and a potential neighbourhood centre area.90 Within the Renfrew-­‐Collingwood neighbourhood, two more widely-­‐serving, district-­‐level retail centres are located along Kingsway Street, at the Joyce-­‐Collingwood and Norquay Village shopping areas. Reflecting its relatively small extent and locally-­‐serving function, the Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. Shopping Area is zoned C-­‐1. However, its two auto-­‐oriented strip malls do appear to attract customers from a wider catchment area, most notably by offering specialty Chinese foods at the Chong Lee Market and Golden Oscar Restaurant. Figure 5: Map of Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area Local Area Statistics This shopping area is located within the Renfrew-­‐Collingwood neighbourhood, which is typical of Vancouver as a whole in terms of median household income.91 However, the linguistic profile of Renfrew-­‐Collingwood differs significantly from the city as a whole; English is the first language of 49% of Vancouver residents, but only 26% of Renfrew-­‐Collingwood residents speak English as their 90 City of Vancouver, 48. 91 City of Vancouver Statistics, September 10 2009 <http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/census/2006/localareas/>. 26 first language. A concentration of Chinese-­‐speaking residents (making up 43% of local area residents in 2006) is likely reflected in the mix of goods and services offered within the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area.92 The population of Renfrew-­‐Collingwood has a slightly higher proportion of seniors over 65 than the city as a whole, and a higher proportion of children and youth under 19. At the 1996, 2001 and 2006 censuses, Renfrew-­‐Collingwood exhibited a greater rate of population growth93 than the city as a whole.94 Nonetheless, residents have a lower than average mobility; between the 2001 and 2006 census, 50% of all Vancouver households changed their place of residence, compared to only 43% of Renfrew-­‐Collingwood residents.95 Retail Development History When Renfrew School (1928) was built at the northeast corner of the intersection of what are today Rupert St. and E. 22nd Av., a single shop on the southwest corner offered the only commercial services within a kilometer. The area was located within the municipality of South Vancouver, which would amalgamate with Vancouver the following year. By the early 1940s, a small commercial site had been added on the southeast corner of the intersection.96 In the development boom following World War II, the surrounding residential area was built out with single family houses, including the “Renfrew Heights” subdivision (1948), designed to accommodate returning World War II veterans. The Rupert and 22nd shopping area had most of its current retail area by this study’s first data collection point in 1955, although it was not built out to its full present extent until 1959. Its post-­‐war development makes the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area somewhat unusual within Vancouver, where many local shopping areas evolved in the early 20th century along streetcar lines. Since 1959, auto-­‐oriented strip malls have occupied the northwest and southeast corners of this shopping area, perhaps reflecting increasing levels of automobile ownership at the time of its development. 92 Ibid. 93 Ibid. 94 Ibid. 95 Ibid. 96 Bruce Macdonald, Vancouver: A Visual History (Vancouver BC: Talonbooks, 1992). 27 Recent Local planning and Development Within the past 25 years, big-­‐box stores including a very large regionally-­‐oriented supermarket, the Real Canadian Superstore97 (1990) have opened in the Grandview Boundary Industrial Area, just one kilometre from the intersection of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. It is unclear how or whether the retail composition of the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area has been affected by these developments. The Renfrew-­‐Collingwood Community Vision document does note that the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area would benefit from a medium-­‐sized supermarket to serve as an anchor for neighbourhood shops.98 The Renfrew-­‐Collingwood Community Vision suggests strategies for strengthening the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area "as [a] neighbourhood shopping area… and special community place".99 Supported directions include discouraging auto-­‐oriented uses, encouraging continuous ground-­‐floor retail frontages, and adding multifamily housing nearby to strengthen retail uses.100 While some community members noted that local "commercial areas are struggling,"101 community outlook for this shopping area seems bright: the Vision approved "limited expansion" of the commercial area.102 97 The Real Canadian Superstore is located at 3185 Grandview Highway, 1.1 kilometers from the intersection of Rupert St. and E 22nd Av. Other regionally-­‐oriented retail services currently located along this area of the Grandview Highway include a big-­‐box hardware store, a discount department store, a warehouse club retailer, and a large-­‐scale furniture retailer. 98 City of Vancouver, 57. 99 City of Vancouver, 56. 100 City of Vancouver, 56-­‐57. 101 City of Vancouver, 56. 102 City of Vancouver, 56. 28 Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area (Nanaimo St., from William St. to Kitchener St.) The Nanaimo and Charles retail area is small and locally-­‐serving, without major anchors. Formerly zoned C-­‐2, it is presently zoned C-­‐1, reflecting its small size and local function. Nanaimo Street forms the boundary between the Hastings-­‐Sunrise neighbourhood to the east and the Grandview-­‐Woodlands neighbourhood to the west. District-­‐serving retail areas are located in both neighbourhoods along Hastings Street, and along Commercial Drive in Grandview-­‐Woodlands, and are complimented by other local retail centres. Of the two neighbourhoods served by the Nanaimo and Charles retail centre, only Hastings-­‐Sunrise has been included in the Community Visions process. (Grandview-­‐Woodlands did have a neighbourhood plan prior to the CityPlan program, as did other neighbourhoods.) Within the Hastings-­‐Sunrise Community Vision (2004), the Nanaimo and Charles retail area is included in maps of commercial zones but no explicit directions for its future development are considered. Figure 6: Map of Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area Local Area Statistics At the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area, Nanaimo Street forms the boundary between two local areas—Grandview-­‐Woodlands to the west, and Hastings-­‐Sunrise to the east. Therefore, available 29 statistics for surrounding residential areas describe large areas on either side of Nanaimo Street. To make generalization more difficult, the two local areas' populations are quite different. For instance, within Grandview-­‐Woodlands in 2006, median household incomes were 25% below the city-­‐wide median, while in Hastings-­‐Sunrise, median household incomes were 5% above the city-­‐wide median.103 This difference may reflect a greater proportion of older multifamily dwellings in Grandview-­‐Woodlands. The majority of households within Grandview-­‐Woodlands (62%) speak English as a first language, compared to 49% city-­‐wide. In Hastings-­‐Sunrise, Chinese (40%) and English (37%) are the principal first languages spoken. The population of Grandview-­‐Woodlands has lower proportions of seniors over 65 and of children and youth under 19 than Vancouver as a whole. The population of Hastings-­‐Sunrise, however, has higher proportions of both youth and seniors than the city as a whole, and has a lower mobility. Between 2001 and 2006, 50% of all Vancouver households changed their place of residence, compared to 52% of Grandview-­‐Woodlands residents, and only 39% of Hastings-­‐Sunrise residents. Between 2001 and 2006, neither local area matched the city-­‐wide rate of population growth. In Grandview-­‐Woodlands, the population has actually decreased by 3.5% since 1996. Over the same period, the population of Hastings-­‐Sunrise has increased by 6.5%104, compared to 12.5% for the city as a whole105. Retail Development History Before the Hastings Townsite merged with the City of Vancouver in 1911, Nanaimo St. formed the boundary between the two municipalities.106 The corridor was mostly rural in character until a streetcar line was built along Nanaimo Street from Hastings to Broadway in the 1910s. Single-­‐family houses developed around the streetcar line. By the 1930s, commercial storefronts filled the east side of the block between Kitchener and Charles Streets. By the 1940s, storefronts extended further up the East and West sides of Nanaimo between Charles and William Streets. This extent of retail uses remained in place through the 1970s. In the 1980s, the retail area reduced in size as the east side of the block between Charles St. and William St changed to residential use. 103 City of Vancouver Statistics, September 10 2009 <http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/census/2006/localareas/>. 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 106 Macdonald, 35 30 Recent Local Planning and Development The loss of commercial space in this area during the 1980s (as described in the Detailed Narrative box that follows) reflects not only contemporary local circumstances, but also contemporary City policy. The 1985 Hastings-­‐Sunrise Plan called for future planning to: • Retain C-­‐1 zoned properties in Hastings-­‐Sunrise as necessary to serve the day-­‐to-­‐day needs of the local neighbourhood, reducing the amount of C-­‐1 zoning in locations where demand no longer exists…. [and to] • Encourage owners of surplus C-­‐1 zoned land to initiate rezoning… [to] allow additional residential potential.107 This policy was based on an understanding that surrounding residential communities could not support the same extent of locally serving commercial services that they had in the past. Further shrinkage of the Nanaimo-­‐Charles retail area remains a distinct possibility, depending on the economic viability of its businesses. In this respect, the Hastings-­‐Sunrise Community Vision108 (2004) reflects similar ideas to the 1985 Hastings-­‐Sunrise Plan. For many of the neighbourhood’s “small commercially zoned sites” currently zoned C – 1, the Vision document notes that “businesses are not doing well.”109 For such areas, community direction regarding whether the City should consider residential-­‐only development was uncertain. The Vision concludes that on “these sites… future residential proposals will be considered on a site by site basis, provided that the existing commercial use is struggling”.110 The Hastings-­‐Sunrise Community Vision does note that “additional population in the new housing would help support local shops and services,”111 however a map illustrating areas where such new housing is considered highlights only the larger retail corridors and nodes within the neighbourhood. This may reflect reluctance within the community to consider increased density; an approved direction of the Vision states that “most of the area that is now single family… should be kept that way.”112 107 As cited in City of Vancouver, Director of Planning, Text Amendment: CD-­‐1 Bylaw, NO 4828 -­‐ 1260 Nanaimo Street To the Standing Committee of Planning and Environment, 1991) 1-­‐2. 108 While Nanaimo Street forms the border between the Hastings-­‐Sunrise and Grandview-­‐Woodland neighbourhoods, both sides of the retail area are included within the scope of the Hastings-­‐Sunrise Community Vision document prepared as part of the CityPlan program. 109 City of Vancouver, Director of Planning, 62. 110 City of Vancouver, Director of Planning, 63. 111 City of Vancouver, Director of Planning, 43. 112 City of Vancouver, Director of Planning, 28. 31 Detailed Narrative: Loss of Retail Space at 1260 Nanaimo A Safeway grocery store occupied the east side of the block between Charles Street and William Street from 1960 to 1988, when it moved to larger premises at E 1st Avenue and Renfrew Street. Previously zoned C-­‐2, the site had been rezoned to CD-­‐1 in 1974 in response to neighbourhood concerns about the Safeway store’s potential future expansion. When Canada Safeway sold the site in 1988, it placed a covenant on title, intended to limit competition for nearby Safeway stores, disallowing supermarket uses on the site.113 (Community Visions have since approved directions for the City to discourage such covenants in order to “keep… supermarket opportunities open.”114) Written while the site was vacant, a City of Vancouver planning report (1989) noted that “[w]hile there is some neighbourhood support for a small store or service establishment, there seems little need for such uses, given the site’s location with respect to adjacent C-­‐1 development.”115 The site was therefore considered as an opportunity to provide multifamily dwellings, otherwise lacking in the Hastings-­‐Sunrise neighbourhood. An organized community of local residents opposed any residential option on the site except single-­‐family houses, citing incompatibility with surrounding single-­‐family contexts. In 1991, responding to this neighbourhood opposition, Council rejected a mixed-­‐use proposal that would have brought new commercial uses as well as 19 multifamily residential units to the site. In 1993, the portion of the site facing onto Nanaimo was finally rezoned for the development of front-­‐to-­‐back, two-­‐family dwellings. The rear portion of the site (formerly the Safeway parking lot) had already been developed as single-­‐family houses in 1990. A 1998 City of Vancouver staff report notes that “[t]his site is effectively removed from potential commercial development.”116 113 French and Buckham. 114 City of Vancouver, 50. 115 City of Vancouver, Director of Planning, 1260 Nanaimo Street -­‐ Recommendation To the City Manager (for Council), 1989) 4. 116 French and Buckham. 32 4.0 METHODS 4.1 Data Collection Use data for the study areas in 1955, 1970, 1985 and 1998 was collected from the Vancouver City Directory, which published the names of commercial tenants and individual residents at every address within the city. Data recorded in the City Directory was gathered through a canvass and published annually by BC Directories Ltd. Because the City Directory was discontinued in 2001, data for 2010 was gathered through a field survey in July, 2010. Microsoft Excel was used for all sorting and quantitative analysis of data. 4.2 Analytical Methods and Limitations Each business name listed in the raw occupancy data was assigned a numerical “ground code” according to the principal type of goods or services offered. Where the Directory indicates multiple businesses operating from a single address, the co-­‐located businesses were often closely related. Dunbar Power Tool Rentals and Vancouver Power Tool Rentals, both operating from 4531 Dunbar in 1955, are examples. In such cases, a single ground code was applied. However, where different uses shared an address, they were coded separately in order to represent the full range of uses. For instance, Dunbar Home Furnishings and BC Motel Supply operated at 4335 Dunbar in 1970. A set of ground codes developed by Lewis Silberberg, a Vancouver-­‐based retail consultant, are gratefully used with permission as a basis for coding occupancy data. Minor amendments were made to categorical definitions within the original set of ground codes to reflect the range of current and historical uses in the study areas. Two new codes were added for services related to research and design, and for unknown uses (such as “Store No. 611”, located at 4202 Dunbar St. in 1970). For the complete list of ground codes used to classify the data, please see Appendix B. Once ground codes had been assigned, data for each study area was further sorted into three broad categories, each representing a set of ground codes, in order to facilitate assessment of retail mix. These broad categories are based on the generally accepted definitions of “Convenience” and “Shopping” goods and services, with a third category to represent office uses and business supply and services, as shown in Table 2. While these categories are very useful for sorting and counting types of businesses, this method falls short of capturing the rich array of niches filled by real-­‐life businesses. For instance, some convenience food stores sell healthy food while others do not. 33 Table 2: Broad Categories for Assessment of Retail Mix For each study area and at each data point, the number of businesses falling into each retail mix sub-­‐category were counted. Because of the special importance of convenience services within locally-­‐serving retail areas, similar calculations were performed to indicate the number of businesses of specific types (such as shoe repair or video rental) within this subcategory. A small number of unknown uses were excluded from retail mix analysis, but were included in the total count of all business uses within each area. The complete relationship between the broad categories of uses, the retail mix sub-­‐categories, and specific ground codes is shown in Appendix C. Categorical count data for each case study area showing the numbers of businesses in each sub-­‐category is displayed in Appendix D, following the coded occupancy data for each study area. 34 4.3 Limitations of data Because the City Directories were created for a specific historical purpose (largely for the use of advertisers and salespeople) the data is not perfectly reliable. Some businesses opted out of being listed, perhaps to limit telephone calls. The Canada Safeway supermarket located in the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area from 1960 to 1988 is not included in the City Directory for either 1970 or 1985. Any other unlisted businesses located in the case study areas are missing from this analysis. Because of the natural evolution of shopping areas over time, it is not always possible to identify gaps in the address-­‐based data where historical businesses are missing from the record. In selecting case study areas and data point years, efforts were made to avoid data points where large redevelopments could have potentially caused temporary vacancies. However, in the two smaller study areas on Nanaimo and Rupert Streets, any empty or unlisted retail project represents a significant proportion of the area’s uses. The three most problematic gaps in the occupancy data and potential explanations are as follows: 1. No 1970 occupancy data is listed for the east side of Rupert St between E 22nd and 23rd Avenues. The building comprising this entire frontage was built in 1959, was occupied by a single supermarket in 1985, and remains standing today. Most likely, the 1970 occupants of this space declined inclusion in the City Directory. This suggestion is supported by the complete absence of recorded occupants for this site’s possible addresses on Rupert Street and East 22nd Avenue in directories for all years between 1965 and 1975. While it is impossible to know the nature of the business or businesses that may have been located here in 1970, it is unlikely to have been a supermarket; Stong's supermarket was located at the northwest corner of the intersection for several years before and after this data point. 2. No 1998 occupancy data is listed for the site at the northwest corner of Charles St. and Nanaimo St. The mixed-­‐use project currently occupying this site was constructed in 2004. Its previous two recorded uses (in 1970 and 1985) were for gas stations, which suggests that, in 1998, the site may have been vacant and undergoing soil remediation. Data from 1996 and 1999 also show this part of the block as vacant. 3. No 1955 occupancy data is listed for the northwest corner of Rupert St. The building presently occupying this site was built in 1956, and replaced single-­‐family residential uses (evident in the address listings of the 1954 directory). By 1957, the site had a single supermarket tenant, Shop-­‐Easy Groceries and Meats. 35 Vacant premises are rarely noted in the City Directory. If most vacant addresses were simply not recorded, this would help to explain various small gaps in the available data. Since no reliable record of vacancies is available, an analysis of the number of vacant storefronts over time cannot be supported by the data. Likewise, an analysis of changes in the number of residents living above or behind shops is not supported due to the patchy nature of residential data. Therefore, residential data was excluded from the analysis. Finally, occupancy data collected for the present study offers valuable information on the number and type of businesses within a given retail area at specific points in time. A great deal information of is missing that would be relevant to a broader assessment of how well a shopping area has served its nearby residents, such as the size of each business (floor area or front footage) and the quality and affordability of goods and services that it offered. Therefore, in using this data set to asses the relative resilience of a neighbourhood-­‐serving retail area and its utility to nearby residents, the number and mix of businesses becomes a rough proxy. It stands for the variety of goods and services accessible to these residents and, more broadly, for the other social and environmental benefits that this kind of access can bring. 5.0 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS This section draws on categorical occupancy data from the three case study areas to assess trends in the numbers and mix of businesses over the study period. Findings reveal patterns of change in: -­‐ The overall number of businesses located in the study areas -­‐ The proportion of businesses within each study area belonging to three broad categories: convenience; shopping; and office/professional/business supply uses. -­‐ The number of businesses falling within specific use subcategories that have changed significantly in prominence over the study period, or that are critical to serving the everyday needs of the surrounding residential community (e.g. grocers). Because the three case study areas were selected to inform generalizations about trends affecting neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas in Vancouver’s residential communities outside the downtown, and due to the limited scope of the present study, patterns and trends from all three case study areas are assessed together. 36 5.1 Overall Numbers of Businesses Count data for all business uses within the three study areas reveal a clear overall pattern. A dramatic decline in the overall number of shops and services took place between the first two data points of 1955 and 1970, and was followed by a more gradual resurgence. This pattern can be seen in Figure 7 below, which graphs the number of businesses within each retail area over time. Figure 8 illustrates the percentage change over time in the number of businesses within each study area, as well as the average change among all study areas, expressed as an annual mean. Adjusting for the irregular periods between data points reveals the same basic pattern—an initial, dramatic decline in numbers of businesses across all study areas (-­‐2.3% annually between 1955 and 1970), followed by a gradual increase. The dramatic average rate of increase shown between 1998 and 2010 (+3.6% annually) is probably not typical of all neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas in the city, since the number of businesses in the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area doubled over this period. Figure 7: Number of Businesses Over Time by Case Study Area (Chart) 37 Figure 8: Annual Percentage Change in Number of Businesses over Time (Chart) For the Dunbar Centre and Rupert and 22nd Shopping Areas, overall numbers of businesses began to increase between 1970 and 1985. However, the Nanaimo and Charles shopping area continued to display declining numbers of businesses for each successive data point until 1998. Between 1998 and 2010, numbers of businesses increased across all study areas. In the Dunbar Centre and Nanaimo and Charles areas, this most recent increase was significant, representing 13 and 11 new businesses respectively—increases of 19% and 100% for these areas from 1998 levels. Today, in 2010, the overall number of businesses within the Dunbar and Nanaimo study areas has reached approximately 80% of 1955 levels. Due to its unique history among the case study areas, the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area now supports nearly double the number of businesses that it did in 1955. Two main factors contribute to the atypical increase in this area. First, it was not built out to its current extent until 1959, so the 1955 data reflect a smaller area. Secondly, two large retail storefronts, built during the 1950s, were converted to seven smaller storefronts between 1985 and 1998. As described in the Detailed Narrative box that follows, this particular piece of local history may illuminate one cause of the apparent general increase in the number of shops occupying neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas after 1970. 38 Detailed Narrative: Increasing Numbers of Shops in the Rupert and 22nd Retail Area (1970-­1998) Between 1985 and 1998, the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area experienced a significant increase in numbers and variety of retail shops, without increasing its land base. The specific mechanisms by which this occurred may help to explain patterns in other areas. To follow the evolution of two particular sites in this area, it is helpful to first understand that Stong’s Markets occupied the northwest corner of the intersection of Rupert St. and E 22nd Ave. from the 1960s until the late 1970s or early 1980s, then relocated to the southeast corner of the same intersection, where it remained until at least 1985. The southeast corner of Rupert St. and E 22nd Ave. is the site of a large retail building built in 1959 which extends along Rupert Street for the entire length of the block. The site’s evolution since 1955 provides an example of the trend, leading up to 1970, towards fewer, larger, more auto-­‐oriented shops in neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas, followed by the re-­‐introduction of more and smaller shops. In 1955, prior to redevelopment, this site accommodated 4 uses: a restaurant, a beauty salon, a barber shop, and a children’s store. These were likely accommodated in pedestrian-­‐oriented shops fronting onto Rupert Street, much like the older shop fronts still remaining across the road. After the 1959 redevelopment, the site accommodated a single auto-­‐oriented business facing E 22nd Ave, with a long blank wall along the Rupert St. frontage. No data are available for 1970, but in 1985, this site accommodated a large Stong’s Supermarket, as shown on the left of the photo in Figure 9. Renovations in the late 1980s or early 1990s subdivided the building into five smaller addresses, including a smaller auto-­‐oriented supermarket (Chong Lee Market), which can be seen in Figure 10. The formerly blank wall facing Rupert Street now accommodates a beauty salon and a health clinic in shallow storefronts. The northwest corner of Rupert St. and E 22nd Ave. is the site of a mid-­‐sized retail development, built in 1956, whose evolution likewise demonstrates the trend towards more and smaller uses. Shown in Figure 11 during the 1970s, it accommodated a single business, Stong’s Market. Bryant’s Used Store Equipment Ltd. was its sole occupant in 1985. Renovations between 1985 and 1998 subdivided the large storefront into four smaller shops oriented towards the south instead of to the east. While the site is still car-­‐oriented, it now offers a variety of convenience goods and services. As shown in Figure 12, current uses on site are a convenience store, a bakery, a beauty salon and a café. 39 Figure 9: Photo -­‐ SE Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (1980s or 1990s) The southeast corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (on the left) is seen here in the 1980s or 1990s. A single shop faces north, with a blank wall along Rupert St. In 1985, Stong’s Market was the tenant. Thanks to the City of Vancouver Archive for this photo, dated between 1980 and 1997, catalogue number CVA 772-­‐1326. Figure 10: Photo -­‐ SE Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (2010) The southeast corner of Rupert St. and E 22nd Ave., seen in 2010. The wall on Rupert St. accommodates two shallow storefronts (awnings just visible in lower right). A small supermarket occupies the north-­‐facing E. 22nd Av frontage, as well as a pizza parlour and a restaurant. Photo by author, 2010. Figure 11: Photo -­‐ NW Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (1970s) The northwest corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave., as seen in the 1970s. A single storefront (Stong’s Market) is accommodated, facing east. Undated photo thanks to the City of Vancouver Planning Department Archives. Figure 12: Photo -­‐ NW Corner of Rupert St. and E. 22nd Ave. (2010) The northwest corner of Rupert St. and E 22nd Ave. in 2010. Storefronts are now oriented along the long edge of the building (facing south instead of east), accommodating four shops. Photo by author, 2010. 40 5.2 Retail Mix Profile: Broad Categories As discussed in Section 2.3 of this report, the relative proportions of “convenience” and “shoppers’” goods and services offered within a retail area help to define its role and position within the regional retail hierarchy. To facilitate an analysis of the position of each of the case study areas within Vancouver’s regional retail hierarchy over time, occupancy data were sorted into three broad categories: -­‐ Convenience Goods and Services -­‐ Shoppers' Goods and Services -­‐ Offices, Professional Services and Business Supplies An Information Report to Vancouver City Council on Commercial Zoning (1987) explains that Local Centres typically offer convenience goods and services with over 75 percent of their floor area. In contrast, District Centres devote approximately 50 percent of their floor area to shopping uses.117 Although floor area data are not available for the case study areas, occupancy data for Dunbar Centre show a historical range of between 32 and 52 percent of businesses dedicated to shopping uses. Within the two Local Centres, between 60 and 90 percent of businesses were dedicated to convenience uses over the study period. Occupancy data from the three case study areas confirm expectations that the more widely-­‐serving District Centre has consistently offered a greater proportion of shopping goods and services than the two Local Centres. This suggests that the functional difference between district and local centres has not changed significantly since the 1980s. However, as illustrated in Figure 13, shopping goods and services have made up a shrinking proportion of all businesses located in Dunbar Centre since 1970. Indeed, if the 19 per cent rise in the overall number of businesses within that area between 1998 and 2010 is broken down into categorical components, this overall increase is seen to be driven entirely by the convenience component. The number of businesses specializing in shoppers' goods and services actually fell by 4 (a 13% decline), while the number offering convenience goods and services rose by 19 (a 59% increase). 117 Appendix A: Review of Commercial Zoning Districts, Planning Department (1987). 41 Figure 13: Dunbar Centre -­‐ Mix of Business Use Categories over Time Figure 14: Rupert and 22nd -­‐ Mix of Business Use Categories over Time Figure 15 -­‐ Nanaimo and Charles -­‐ Mix of Business Use Categories over Time 42 As shown in Figure 14, the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area experienced a modest increase in the proportion of businesses offering convenience goods and services over the study period. Conversely, in the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area, the proportion of businesses offering convenience goods and services remained more or less unchanged throughout the study period, as shown in Figure 15. Further research encompassing a greater number of study areas would be needed to support a possible conclusion that shoppers’ goods and services have declined significantly in importance within District Centres, and have remained unchanged or declined slightly in Local Centres. Although considered a component of District Centres and auto-­‐oriented “General Business Areas” within the 1987 “Commercial Zoning” report, office uses are not included within that report’s descriptions of Local Centres. Nonetheless, study area occupancy data indicate that office, professional and business supply uses form a small but established proportion of businesses within neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas at both the Local and District Centre levels, ranging from 0 to 25 percent of all non-­‐residential uses over the study period. Some office uses, such as tax accountants and lawyers, do serve local residents; however most office and professional uses such as architects, web designers and business administration, tend to serve a regional or even international clientele. Business supply operations, included in this category, principally serve other businesses instead of local residents. For office and business supply uses that do not serve local residents, location in a neighbourhood-­‐oriented retail area may offer less exposure, prestige, and inter-­‐regional accessibility than a location within the CBD or other major office centre, but it also offers cheaper rent. For nearby residents, these types of uses are often well situated on the second floor of retail buildings, or fronting onto side streets. The goods or services are available if needed, but do not occupy prime retail space at grade. These types of uses may fill a special niche during downturns in demand for more traditional retail uses; they could occupy retail building stock while preserving its viability for traditional retail uses in the future. In 2010 field surveys of the study areas, the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area stood out as having a great deal of prime ground-­‐floor frontage devoted to uses offering limited utility to local residents. At present, three uses in the area fall into the category of Offices, Professional Services and Business Supplies; all occupy ground-­‐floor storefronts. Figure 16 and Figure 17 show the offices of the Gateway Appraisal & Consulting Corporation, which occupies a significant frontage of retail space along Nanaimo St., and L3 Design & Core Information Technologies, which fronts onto 43 Charles St. It is obvious from the blank windows that these businesses do not hope to attract pedestrian shoppers. Despite this appearance, occupancy data for this area indicate only a modest proportion of office uses. Figure 16 -­‐ Photo: Storefront of Gateway Appraisal, Nanaimo Street (2010) Storefront of a professional/office use at 1263 Nanaimo St. Photo by author, 2010 Figure 17 -­‐ Photo: Storefront of L3 Design, Nanaimo Street (2010) Storefront of a professional/office use at 2410 Charles St. Photo by author, 2010. The amount and quality of street-­‐level frontage that is devoted to different use categories makes an enormous difference in the impacts of offices or business supply stores in locally serving retail areas. The 1985 and 1998 location of “Davidson Enterprises Ltd.” on the second floor above the bank at 3596 W 27th Av. in Dunbar Centre likely had no impact on the effectiveness or vibrancy of the retail area as a whole. However, the 1970 location of “Bryant Used Store Equipment Ltd.” in the large, ground-­‐floor site at 3745 Rupert St. would have eliminated any reason for most pedestrian shoppers to visit the northwest corner of Rupert St. and E 22nd Avenue. Considering the category of Offices, Professional Services and Business Supplies highlights a shortcoming of the present study’s analytical methods in assessing a shopping area’s utility for residents: these data do not reflect business frontage, urban design, or the specific locational distribution of uses within each area. In part because so many neighbourhood-­‐serving commercial areas in Vancouver developed around historical streetcar lines, District Centres, often comprising long stretches of commercial uses along arterial streets, form the backbone of local shopping amenities in many neighbourhoods. As data from Dunbar Centre demonstrates, these centres accommodate both shopping and convenience uses in an ever-­‐changing balance. Further research investigating the evolving makeup of selected 44 District Centres in Vancouver could contribute to an improved understanding of the distribution of uses along long commercial strips, including clusters of convenience uses and specialized use clusters, such as "Antique Row" on a section of Main Street. Such findings could inform the work of the Business Improvement Area program as well as the development of future city-­‐wide policy.118 5.3 Retail Mix Profile: Selected Specific Uses Supermarkets and Grocery Retail Classified as convenience retail, supermarkets and grocery stores epitomize the role of this category of shops in their function of meeting local residents' everyday needs. Perishables and other groceries are foremost among the goods and services required by residents on a daily basis. Because supermarkets serve larger catchment areas than the other kinds of businesses that typically locate in neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas, the three case study areas represent too small a sample size to inform robust conclusions about trends in supermarket location throughout Vancouver. Nonetheless, the data suggest that, between 1955 and 1970, medium-­‐sized supermarkets became increasingly common in neighbourhood retail areas while smaller, more specialized grocery stores (especially dairies and meat markets) became markedly less prevalent. For instance, in 1955, the Dunbar Centre retail area had one small supermarket and nineteen produce stores, bakeries, butcher shops, and other small grocery stores. By 1970, the area had a single larger supermarket (located in the present-­‐day Shopper’s Drug Mart building) and only three other grocery stores. Within neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas, supermarkets can act as retail anchors, attracting customers who support the other shops in the area. Therefore, I had anticipated to find that occupancy data for the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area would show a significant decrease in the number and variety of businesses following the closure of the Safeway store in 1988. However, the occupancy data suggest no such drastic effect. The closing of the Nanaimo and William Safeway store may represent a contemporary trend of expanding the catchment areas of individual supermarkets, while larger, regionally-­‐serving supermarkets attracted growing market shares. 118 Peter Vaisbord, Interview (Coordinator, Business Improvement Areas Program: City of Vancouver, 2010). 45 Dining Retail Some restaurants serve mostly local clientele while others attract diners from around the region. However, for consistency, all dining establishments are categorized as convenience uses. Considering all study areas together, data indicate a significant general increase in numbers of restaurants and cafes since 1970, from four dining establishments in 1970 to twenty in 2010. The number of restaurants in neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas are likely influenced by changing demographics and lifestyles. Rising numbers of dining establishments since 1955 may be related to the overall decline in numbers of small grocery stores, butchers and bakeries during the same period. These two trends may reflect the changing demands of a population that eats out more often, having smaller households with fewer children and more women employed outside the home. Rising household incomes, particularly in the Dunbar-­‐Southlands neighbourhood could also help to explain the burgeoning numbers of restaurants. Further research involving access to localized data about demographics and income could explore these possible connections further. The Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area is the only case study area whose occupancy data do not show an increased number of dining establishments since 1970. Throughout the study period, the number of restaurants and coffee shops in this area has not surpassed two. This may be because other retail areas nearby provide specialty dining options; a wide variety of restaurants are currently available along Hastings Street, at Nanaimo and Broadway, and along Commercial Drive, all located approximately one kilometre from this study area. Cafes and restaurants often make important contributions to the social cohesion of a community by providing a neutral "third place" where local residents can meet. However, the present dataset does not permit conclusions about whether the case study areas have provided functional third places. Many different types of businesses can act in this capacity, depending on local culture and how they are used, which makes it impossible to identify a functioning “third place” from occupancy data alone. A hair salon or cafe can be a utilitarian place for getting a haircut or a sandwich, or it can also be a meeting place and conversation centre. Qualitative research involving interviews or a survey of local residents could inform a better understanding of whether residents make use of third places within Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas, and which businesses fill this role. Health Health clinics, drugstores and pharmacies fill an important role in neighbourhood retail areas, especially for elderly residents and others who require frequent medical care. On the other hand, 46 ground-­‐floor medical offices can mean relatively inactive storefronts in shopping areas. As the proportion of the city's population aged 65 and over is expected to rise from 12.4% in 2006 to 20.3% in 2031, demand for locally-­‐serving doctors and pharmacies is likely to remain strong. 119 Overall, case study area data illustrate a dramatic increase in numbers of health services (including medical offices, pharmacies and drugstores) offered locally since 1970. Both of the Local Centres demonstrated a gradual increase in numbers of health service businesses since 1955. In 1955 and 1970, both areas had a drugstore as their single health-­‐related use. By 2010, the Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area had a doctor's office, a dentist's office and a denturist; the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area had a doctor's office, a dental office, a chiropractic clinic and a pharmacy. Health services located in the larger Dunbar Centre area experienced a somewhat different pattern in the early part of the study period. The 10 health-­‐related businesses located in the area in 1955 were drastically decreased by 1970. A gradual increase in numbers of health-­‐related businesses followed until 1998. Between 1998 and 2010, the number increased threefold from 4 to 12 uses. A single mixed-­‐use development built in 1999 on the east side of Dunbar Street between 25th and 26th Avenues contains five different health-­‐related uses, as well as other assorted retail and 35 residential units on upper floors. Convenience Services Businesses in the "convenience services" subcategory are widespread in neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas. They to offer basic services which people need frequently. Case study data suggest that the number of businesses offering convenience services in Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas has generally increased over the study period, following an initial decline between 1955 and 1970. Specific uses within the "convenience services" subcategory, however, reveal significant fluctuations in numbers over time. Figure 18 illustrates changes in the number of specific types of convenience services across all case study areas combined. Culture and lifestyle are seen to significantly impact the mix of convenience services demanded by local consumers; shoe repair was a widely available use in 1955 but has not been common since, perhaps reflecting a tendency to discard instead of repair old shoes. Changing technology has also strongly influenced the prevalence of particular convenience services; for instance, the highest number of video rental shops across all study areas was recorded in 1998, before the widespread 119 Percent of Total Population that is Aged 65 and Over, June 2006, Service BC, Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services, Government of British Columbia, September 9 2010. 47 availability of online movie downloads. Figure 18 also reveals a surprising increase in the number of establishments offering services relating to hairdressing and beauty; the ground code encompassing barbers, hairdressers, beauty salons and spas accounted for 60% of convenience service businesses in 2010, up from 39% in 1955. This shift can be interpreted in two ways: it may reflect a simple increase in demand for haircutting and beauty services, or it may indicate a problematic concentration of services beyond what can be explained by local demand, instead reflecting low rents and decreasing vibrancy of the shopping area.120 Figure 18: Convenience Services by Type over Time Transportation The City of Vancouver’s Suburban Commercial Study (1971) defines automobile service stations as key elements within locally retail centres. However, the number of auto service and gas stations within the neighbourhood-­‐serving retail case study areas has declined dramatically since 1955, from eight in 1955 to just one in 1998 and 2010. New technology is almost a certainly a factor in this decline, since recently manufactured cars tend to require less frequent servicing. Reduced automobile dependence in the city is likely not a significant factor, since the decline has been ongoing throughout the study period. 120 Peter Vaisbord, Interview (Coordinator, Business Improvement Areas Program: City of Vancouver, 2010). 48 Within the two case study areas that had auto service stations prior to 1985, these stations tended to be located on corners, towards the outer edges of the retail areas. One result of the reduced prevalence of automobile service stations is that these sites have since become available for other, more pedestrian-­‐oriented retail uses. For instance, on the sites of two former gas stations in the Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area now operate a pharmacy, a hair salon, two health clinics, a real estate office, a pizza parlour and a Montessori school. 6.0 IMPLICATIONS 6.1 A Story of Neighbourhood Retail While each case study area followed a unique trajectory of retail development from 1955 to 2010, data from all three areas taken together suggest the outlines of a story about the changing face of neighbourhood-­‐oriented retail in Vancouver. Perhaps the most salient characteristic of this broader narrative is a dramatic drop in the number of businesses across all categories between 1955 and 1970 (evident in all case study areas), followed by a subsequent gradual resurgence. Several explanations could be considered for the decline in the number of business uses located in neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas between 1955 and 1970. Many neighbourhood-­‐serving retail businesses could simply have gone out of business, resulting in fewer shops and high levels of vacancies. The consolidation of many small shops into fewer large shops provides an alternate explanation. Both of these factors were likely at play to some degree. The City of Vancouver’s contemporary “Suburban Commercial Study” (1971) notes high vacancy levels in the city’s neighborhood retail areas, as well as significant physical blight. This period of decline in Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving retail was consistent with broader North American trends. Contemporary American planning literature describes an “increasing scale of retailing,”121 – fewer and larger shops – combined with an “increasing tendency [for consumers]… to make all shopping trips by automobile”122 Indeed, in the ten years leading up to 1961, the proportion of Vancouver households that owned or leased a private car increased from 42%123 to 63%.124 121 Berry, et al, 166. 122 Berry, et al, 199. 123 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Table 42: Occupied dwellings by tenure showing specified living convenience s, for incorporated cities, towns, and villages of 10,000 population and over, 1951, 1953. 49 The number of businesses located in the case study areas has been rebounding since 1970, albeit at a lower rate than the earlier decline. This likely reflects, in part, a trend towards the replacement of large storefronts by a larger number of smaller storefronts. In 2010, the number of businesses in each of the three case study areas has returned to at least 80% of 1955 levels. This resurgence suggests positive implications for the resilience of the study areas, and may also inform optimism about Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas in general. Robust, walkable, transit-­‐served local retail areas offer broad access to goods and services and may contribute to social cohesion. The evolving mix of uses found within each case study area over time recounts a more subtle sub-­‐narrative of Vancouver’s neighbourhood retail story. Shifts in the kinds of shops or services that are represented reflect changes in the types of goods and services that local households have demanded; these demands in turn reflect changing demographics and lifestyles. For instance, increased demand for dining options and decreased demand for bakeries and butchers seem to correlate with households having fewer children and fewer full-­‐time homemakers. Other changes in the mix of uses within neighbourhood retail areas reflect a broader shift in the role of locally-­‐oriented retail within the regional hierarchy. In each of the study areas, convenience goods and services have made up an increasing proportion of local businesses over time, with specialty and shopping uses decreasing in importance. This finding supports the assertion by Vancouver-­‐based retail consultant Lewis Silberberg and others that "most [neighbourhood retail] areas have… been forced to evolve to serve a role and experience that is complementary to the malls and large format retailers."125 6.2 Policy Implications and Recommendations Current city-­‐wide policy direction to accommodate population growth by increasing density and housing options in traditional single-­‐family neighbourhoods126 is likely over time to positively affect the viability of neighbourhood retail areas (as recognized in the EcoDensity summary report).127 Increased density and housing choice are, in turn, likely to support increased diversity of retail uses within local areas. However, as in the case of the former Safeway site in the Nanaimo and 124 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Table 37. Occupied dwellings by specified living conveniences, for incporporated cities, towns and villages of 5,000 population and over, and other municipal subdivisions of 10,000 population and over, 1961, 1963). Comparable data was not collected in 1971. 125 Wozny, Hume, and Silberberg, 76. 126 City of Vancouver. 127 City of Vancouver, 13. 50 Charles Shopping Area, once a site has been redeveloped with typical residential dwellings, its potential for commercial use is eliminated for a long time. Retail potential can also be constrained within mixed-­‐use buildings by design that fails in adaptability to uses other than the originally-­‐intended retail or office use. In the absence of a guiding city-­‐wide strategy or policy statement for local retail, strategies affecting local retail are now developed on a case-­‐by-­‐case basis in neighbourhood plans. For example, the Hastings-­‐Sunrise Community Vision contemplates releasing commercial sites to exclusive residential use when existing commercial uses are struggling.128 A city-­‐wide statement of policy regarding neighbourhood-­‐serving retail could inform diverse future planning work impacting retail areas. It could explicitly outline available strategies for retaining retail use options in appropriate neighbourhood-­‐serving commercial areas. It might also address the related issue of preserving options for corner stores and other scattered retail uses in residential areas, likely through zoning changes to permit such locations to regain their former uses or to remove the non-­‐conforming status of existing operations. The ongoing resurgence in the numbers of businesses within the case study areas as well as their evolving mix of uses suggest that an update of the City of Vancouver’s 1971 Suburban Commercial Study may be overdue. A city-­‐wide neighbourhood retail policy could be informed by an updated study of Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas, as well as by other current policies. Whether or not a comprehensive neighbourhood retail policy is developed for Vancouver, incremental strategies could also be considered to support neighbourhood retail. Design guidelines that ensure the flexibility of the retail components of mixed-­‐use buildings are one example. A second example would be to extend the concept of clustering frequently needed goods and services in neighbourhood retail areas to include non-­‐market services such as libraries and childcare facilities. Policymakers could adopt the potential to support or anchor neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas as a consideration for these facility location decisions. The comprehensive 10-­‐year action plan currently in development by the City of Vancouver's Greenest City Team129 could also provide an opportunity to set targets and identify actions relevant to supporting walkable neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas that supply local residents' daily needs. Ongoing analysis of neighbourhood shopping areas’ retail profiles and the “completeness” of individual retail areas could be supported through Vancouver’s existing Business Improvement Area program. Business Improvement Areas that encompass neighbourhood-­‐serving retail could 128 City of Vancouver, Director of Planning, 63. 129 Greenest City -­‐ Objectives, 2009, September 11 2010 <http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/objectives.htm>. 51 use this type of analysis to encourage a diverse and complete neighbourhood retail profile by informing business location or specialization decisions. If this analysis could help to create a mix of businesses that best meets the daily needs of the population living within walking distance of a local retail centre, increased economic viability for local businesses would result, along with better service for and increased resilience of the surrounding residential community. 7.0 CONCLUSION Commercial retail development, neighbourhood planning and sustainability literatures, both describe the “hollowing out” of many inner-­‐city shopping districts in favour of auto-­‐oriented regional retail, and herald a nascent trend towards revitalized local retail. Through an analysis of historical occupancy data from three of Vancouver’s neighbourhood-­‐serving shopping areas, this study offers findings about the changing roles and composition of neighbourhood-­‐serving retail since the 1950s. While the data and methods used in this study have limitations, including the imperfect reliability of historical data, and the lack of complex information about the size of historical businesses, the affordability of goods and services, or how local establishments have been used, clear patterns nonetheless emerge from analysis. The data indicate that, overall, Vancouver’s Local and District shopping centres have experienced both a mid-­‐century decline in numbers of locally-­‐oriented shops and specific types of businesses, and a more recent, ongoing resurgence in numbers of shops, particularly those offering lower-­‐order convenience goods and services. Neighbourhood-­‐serving urban shopping areas foster community resilience, support public health and increase social cohesion and well-­‐being. Therefore, the findings of this study are offered to help inform the development of planning programs and policy that support well-­‐functioning and walkable neighbourhood-­‐serving shopping areas in Vancouver, with similar potential applications for other cities and for suburban centres. 52 GLOSSARY OF TERMS Convenience Goods and Services -­‐ Low-­‐order goods and services which are purchased frequently, generally found in locally-­‐serving shopping areas. District Centre -­‐ In the hierarchy of five levels of commercial districts recognized within City of Vancouver policy, District Centres serve an entire residential district. They generally contain a supermarket as well as offering convenience and shopping goods and services. Local Centre -­ In the hierarchy of five levels of commercial districts recognized within City of Vancouver policy, Local Centres serve nearby residents, and principally offer convenience goods and services. Post Carbon -­‐ This term anticipates a future situation in which fossil fuels will be less readily available than they are at present. Relocalization -­ A strategy of social change based on returning to a greater degree of reliance on local sources of food and energy and on local social and economic networks. Resilience -­‐ "Resilience" generally refers to a system's capacity to absorb and recover from shocks while maintaining functionality. In the event of a shock such as an earthquake or petroleum shortage, walkable and well-­‐functioning neighbourhood-­‐serving retail areas may enhance community resilience by allowing access to critical everyday goods and services, as well as by promoting strong local social support networks. Shoppers' Goods and Services (a.k.a. Comparison, or Shopping Goods and Services) -­‐ High-­‐order goods and services which are purchased less frequently than convenience goods and services, and for which consumers are likely to do comparison shopping. Social Cohesion -­‐ Social Cohesion is used in the context of this report to describe the local support network and sense of community experienced by the residents of a neighbourhood. Third place – A term coined by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg to refer to neutral spaces outside home and work, often including cafes, bars and beauty parlours, where community members meet, socialize and share information. 53 WORKS CITED Barnes, Trevor, et al. "Vancouver: Restructuring Narratives in the Transnational Metropolis." Canadian Cities. Ed. Tom Hutton., in press. BC Stats. "Percent of Total Population that is Aged 65 and Over." Service BC, Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services, Government of British Columbia. June 2006. Beasley, Larry. Interview. Former Co-­‐Director of Planning, Retired: City of Vancouver, 2010. Berry, Brian J. L., et al. Commercial Structure and Commercial Blight: Retail Patterns and Processes in the City of Chicago. Vol. Department of Geography Research Paper No 85. 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"Dunbar Village Neighbourhood Profile." 2008. <http://www.bizmapbc.com/neighbourhood-­‐profiles/dunbar-­‐neighbourhood.pdf>. Walljasper, Jay. The Great Neighborhood Book: A do-­‐it-­‐Yourself Guide to Placemaking. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2007. Waugh, D. Geography: An Integrated Approach. Nelson Thornes, 2000. Wozny, Richard, Peter Hume, and Lewis Silberberg. Retail Impact Study: Proposed Wal-­‐Mart and Ancillary Space, 86 S.E. Marine Drive, Vancouver, B.C. City of Vancouver, 2002. July 7, 2010. Wrigley, N., and MS Lowe. "Reading Retail: A Geographical Perspective on Retailing and Consumption Spaces." (2002). APPENDIX A Characteristics of Selected Vancouver Retail Areas Local Area Statistics (2006) Arterial Cross-streets Approximate Extent of Retail Area (Length in blocks) Includes a Grocery Store? Local Area Median Household Income Percentage of population 19 & under Percentage of population 65 & over Percentage of population with English Mother Tongue Business Improvement Area? Zoning Designation Other Comments Granville St. W. 63rd Ave. to W. 71st Ave. 7 Safeway Marpole $41,125 19.9% 12.5% 36.5% Marpole B.I.A. C2 Granville is very wide, entrance to Vancouver from the south. Retail area could have regional significance. West Boulevard/ East Boulevard W. 43rd Ave. to W. 49th Ave. 7 No Arbutus Ridge $54,199 22.9% 19.7% 45.9% Kerrisdale B.I.A. C2 Unusual street condition with disused railway down the middle between West and East Boulevards. Cambie St. W. 12th Ave. to W. 19th Ave. 7 Choices South Cambie $61,524 20.0% 14.4% 61.6% Cambie Village B.I.A. C2 Between new Canada Line stations at Broadway and King Edward Avenues. W. 41st Ave Larch St. to Maple St. 6 Small grocer only Kerrisdale $61,710 23.9% 14.6% 55.0% Kerrisdale B.I.A. C2 BIA is T-shaped. Very large number of shops. http://www.kerrisdalevillage.com/directory/ shops.php Fraser St. W. 23rd Ave. to W. 28th Ave. 5 Small grocer Riley Park $56,973 20.6% 12.4% 54.6% N/A C2 Only barely discontinuous with retail along the rest of Fraser St. Dunbar St. W. 25th Ave. to W. 30th Ave 4.5 Stongs Small grocers Dunbar-Southlands $86,885 25.8% 13.2% 68.4% Dunbar Village B.I.A. C2 Wide variety of shops Victoria Dr. E. 47th Ave. to E. 51st Ave. 4 Small grocer; Fruit and Vegetable store Victoria-Fraserview $49,499 21.9% 17.1% 25.7% Victoria Drive B.I.A. C2 Retail is not continuous on both sides of the street. Significant sites currently under redevelopment. New retail appears to struggle. W. 10th Ave Tolmie St. to Discovery St. 3 Safeway Point Grey $77,079 21.5% 14.4% 71.6% Point Grey Village B.I.A. C2 Serves UBC students who arrive via public transit. Dunbar St. W. 16th Ave. to W. 19th Ave. 3 No Dunbar-Southlands $86,885 25.8% 13.2% 68.4% Dunbar Village B.I.A. C2 Commercial uses are not continuous Dunbar St. W. 39th Ave to W. 41st Ave. and east to Collingwood St. 3 Supermarket Dunbar-Southlands $86,885 25.8% 13.2% 68.4% Dunbar Village B.I.A. C2 41st is a busy street for auto traffic. Renfrew St. Gravely St. to E. 2nd Ave. 2.5 Several small markets Hastings-Sunrise $49,907 21.4% 16.2% 36.8% N/A C1 "First Avenue Marketplace" at E 1st Avenue and Renfrew St is an auto-oriented, regionally-serving Asian specialty mall. E. 41st and Knight T-shaped area at intersection 2 2 small grocers Sunset/ Victoria- Fraserview $50,405 23.3% 15.1% 25.3% N/A C1 Auto oriented retail. Only a few shops (spread out with parking). Nanaimo St. Graveley St. to E. 2nd Ave. 2 No Grandview Woodlands (west of Nanaimo)/ Hastings Sunrise (east of Nanaimo) $42,625 18.8% 13.3% 49.4% N/A C1 40% of the local area has Chinese as mother tongue. 1side of the ST. at Gravely. NOT LOCAL mostly a few ethnic restaurants and 2 gas stations and a 7-11 serving regional traffic on E 1st Rupert St & 22 Ave. E. 22nd to E. 23rd Ave. and around the T- intersection 1.5 Chong Lee Market Renfrew- Collingwood $47,320 21.9% 13.8% 25.5% N/A C1 43% of local area population has Chinese mother tongue. Some walkable, some auto- oriented uses such as supermarket and 7- 11. Nanaimo St. William St. to Charles St to Kitchener St. 1 Small Grocery Market Grandview- Woodlands (west of Nanaimo)/ Hastings Sunrise (east of Nanaimo) $42,625 18.8% 13.3% 49.4% N/A C1 Two blocks long, with one side of the street per block. Population of Grandview- Woodlands area has shrunk since 1996. Notes: Statistical data reflect the local area where each retail area is located. For local areas located along the border between two local areas, the average of the relevant data for both areas is shown. For the sake of comparison, the 2006 city-wide statistics were: 17.9% of the population was aged 19 and under 13.1% of the population was aged 65 and over 49.1% of the population spoke English as their mother tongue Mean annual household income was $47,299 All local area statistics for 2006 are from the City of Vancouver's Local Area Statistics website, at http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/census/2006/localareas/ CATEGORY Type Ground Code CATEGORY Type Ground Code AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL MERCHANDISE Automotive Auto Sales 67 Retail Merchandise Art / Framing 76 Automotive Gas Station 64 Retail Merchandise Bicycle Sales and Repairs 69 Automotive Service / Parts 66 Retail Merchandise Books / Cards / Stationery 70 Retail Merchandise Cameras / Photo 77 FOOD & DRUG RETAIL Retail Merchandise Clothing/ Drygoods 38 Food & Drug Retail Bakery / Butcher 7 Retail Merchandise Department Store 33 Food & Drug Retail Convenience Store 4 Retail Merchandise Dollar Store/ Variety Store 36 Food & Drug Retail Drugstore 9 Retail Merchandise Electronics / Computers / Cell Phones/ Radio & TV 61 Food & Drug Retail Grocer / Produce 2 Retail Merchandise Florist 83 Food & Drug Retail Other Food & Drug/ Deli 3 Retail Merchandise Furniture 62 Food & Drug Retail Pharmacy 8 Retail Merchandise Gifts 79 Food & Drug Retail Supermarket 1 Retail Merchandise Hardware / Houseware / Appliances / Garden Supplies/ Roofing/ Electrical/ Heating 56 Retail Merchandise Jewellery 54 FOOD SERVICE Retail Merchandise Liquor / Beer & Wine 82 Food Service Coffee Shop / Café 14 Retail Merchandise Music, including CDs and Instruments 84 Food Service Fast food 11 Retail Merchandise Office Supplies/ Business Supplies/ Signs 72 Food Service Restaurant 12 Retail Merchandise Other Retail Merchandise/ Pet Food 37 Retail Merchandise Second Hand Merchandise/ Antiques 51 MISCELLANEOUS Retail Merchandise Shoes 55 Miscellaneous Bar / Nightclub/ Hall/Theatre 89 Retail Merchandise Sporting Goods 68 Miscellaneous Hotel 91 Retail Merchandise Toys / Hobbies 71 Miscellaneous Interior Mall / Strip Mall 90 Miscellaneous Office General 88 SERVICE Miscellaneous Parkade / Parking Lot 60 Service Accounting / Legal 29 Miscellaneous Residential 100 Service Bank / Credit Union / Money Exchange 28 Miscellaneous Warehouse WH Service Barber / Hairdresser / Beauty Salon / Spa 16 Service Dry Cleaner / Laundromat / Tailor 20 VACANCY Service Insurance / Real estate 27 Vacancy Vacant Lot 86 Service Medical / Dental 26 Vacancy Vacant Unit 87 Service Optometrist / Optical 31 Service Other Service + unclear use 25 Service Printing / Copying / Internet / Post Office / Post Boxes/ Photo Development 21 Service Shoe Repair 19 Service Travel Agent 17 Service Veterinarian, Pet Grooming 24 Service Video Rental 18 Ground Codes developed by Lewis Silberberg and used with permission. Text in grey indicates changes from his original set of codes. APPENDIX B Complete Set of Ground Codes APPENDIX C: Ground Codes and Retail Mix Categories Changes to the original set of ground code definitions as developed by Lewis Silberberg are noted in grey type. 1 Retail Mix Sub-Categories Silberberg Category Silberberg Type Ground Codes Convenience Goods and Services Supermarket Food & Drug Retail Supermarket 1 Other Grocery Grocer/Produce 2 Bakery/Butcher 7 Other Food & Drug/ Deli 3 Health Food & Drug Retail Pharmacy 8 Drugstore 9 Medical/Dental 26 Optometrist/ Optical 31 Dining Food Service Coffee Shop/Cafe 14 Restaurant 12 Fast Food 11 Convenience Retail Food & Drug Retail Convenience Store 4 Retail Merchandise Liquor/Beer & Wine 82 Convenience Services Service Barber/ Hairdresser/ Beauty Salon/ Spa 16 Dry Cleaner/ Laundromat/ Tailor 20 Shoe Repair 19 Video Rental 18 Bank/ Credit Union/ Money Exchange 28 Shoppers' Goods and Services Social/Entertainment Miscellaneous Bar/Nightclub/Hall/Theatre 89 Clothing Retail Retail Merchandise Clothing/ Drygoods 38 Shoes 55 Jewellery 54 Housewares, Hardware, Home Repair Retail Merchandise Hardware / Houseware / Appliances / Garden Supplies/ Roofing/ Electrical/ Heating 56 Furniture 62 General Stores Retail Merchandise Dollar Store/ Variety Store 36 Department Store 33 Second Hand Consumer Merchandise/ Antiques 51 APPENDIX C: Ground Codes and Retail Mix Categories Changes to the original set of ground code definitions as developed by Lewis Silberberg are noted in grey type. 2 Leisure Supplies & Services Retail Merchandise Art / Framing 76 Books / Cards / Stationary 70 Cameras / Photo 77 Electronics / Computers / Cell Phones/ Radio & TV 61 Florist 83 Gifts 79 Music, including CDs and Instruments 84 Sporting Goods 68 Toys / Hobbies 71 Service Travel Agent 17 Pet Supplies and Services Service Veterinarian, Pet Grooming/ Pet Food 24 Other Miscellaneous Hotel 91 Retail Merchandise Other Retail Merchandise 37 Service Other Service/ Training 25 Transportation Automotive Gas Station 64 Auto Service 66 Auto Sales 67 Retail Merchandise Bicycle Sales and Repairs 69 Offices, Professional Services and Business Supplies Service Insurance/ Real Estate 27 Accounting/ Legal 29 Research and Design: Software, Web, Architecture, Interior Decorating 101 Retail Merchandise Office Supplies/ Business Supplies/ Commercial Signs/Courier 72 Miscellaneous Office General 88 Unknown Uses N/A Nature of business unclear 102 Coded Occupancy Data Dunbar Centre Shopping Area Block Locations Past Addresses Business Address - current addresses Date Built # of Strata Lots 1955 1955 Ground Codes 1970 1970 Ground Codes 1985 1985 Ground Codes 1998 1998 Ground Codes 2010 2010 Ground Codes 25th to 26th Ave - WEST 3621 W 26th 1992 33 residential- 33 units 100 residential- 33 units 100 4195 Dunbar Skuse Motors Garage 66 Dunbar Shell Service 66 Dunbar Shell Service 66 25th to 26th Ave - EAST 3595 W 26th 1999 35 residential- 35 units AND 4168 to 4198 Dunbar 100 4168 Dunbar " Life Chiropractic 26 4180 Dunbar " Aegis Mobility 26 4182 Dunbar " Dunbar Spinal Decompression 26 4184 Dunbar Lovegrove Bob Service Station 64 Lovegrove Service Station 64 Lovegrove Service Station 64 4186 Dunbar " Chaldecott Medical Clinic 26 4188 Dunbar " Artistic Salon for Pets 24 4192 Dunbar " Esther's Alterations 20 4196 Dunbar " George's Hair Styling 16 4198 Dunbar " Pharmasave Health Centre 8 3593 W. 26th Ave " Kari's Hair & Esthetics 16 3591 W 26th Ave " J'Aime Les Cheveux 16 26th to 27th Ave - WEST 3606 W 26th Ave 1990 residential 100 Terra Firma Design Ltd. 101 Terra Firma Design Ltd. 101 4205 Dunbar 1990 Stephens - Tully Florists 83 The Flower Studio 83 The Flower Studio 83 Royal Bank of Canada 28 Royal Bank of Canada 28 4207 Dunbar residential Wood J S Realty 27 Free Enterprise Party 25 Wood JS Realty Ltd Bennett C, Lawyer 27 4209 Dunbar Dunbar Appliances 56 Dunbar Tailors & Cleaners 20 Black & Lee Formal Wear Rentals 38 4211 Dunbar residential x 2 100 residential 100 4219 Dunbar 1928 Bordo's Interiors 56 Dunbar Cycles 69 Dunbar Cycles 69 4229 Dunbar Canada Safeway 1 Maria's Beauty Salon 16 Snip-It Hair Innovators 16 Skinetics Snip-it Hair Design 16 Peek-A-Boo Baby Boutique 38 Pennyrich of Canada 38 4231 Dunbar Spotless Cleaners 20 Vera's 102 Beantown Coffee Place 14 Beantown Coffee Place 14 4233 Dunbar 1926 residential - 2 residents 100 residential 100 residential - 2 residents 100 residential - 2 residents 100 residential - 2 residents 100 4235 Dunbar Joanne's Apparel Ladies' Wear 38 Treasure Trove Antiques 51 Kingswood Cottage 102 Camp Comfort Casuals 38 4243 Dunbar 1935 Hamilton A S Hardware 56 Black & Lee Formal Wear Rentals 38 Peppermintree Childrens Wear 38 Peppermintree Childrens Wear 38 Splash Toy Shop 71 International Costume Designers Ltd. 20 4245 Dunbar Jean Ferguson's Candies 3 Dunbar Fish & Chips 12 4253 Dunbar 1935 Devon Dairy 3 residential 100 Just Imagine Fun Clothing 38 4255 Dunbar Thomson Radio & Record Shop 61 Thomson Radio & TV 61 Thomson Television 61 Thomson Television 61 Jools Women's Clothing 38 4263 Dunbar 1937 Charm Beauty Salon 16 Dunbar Beauty Salon 16 Lynnette's Hair & Fashion Studio 16 Chancery Hairtech Group 16 Skinetics 16 4265 Dunbar Sunny Market Produce 2 Comox Market 4 Brick Oven Pizzeria 12 Brick Oven Pizzeria 12 Brick Oven Pizzeria 12 Italian Canadian Delicatessen 3 4273 Dunbar 1939 Sinclair Stores Men's Furnishing 38 Black & Lee Formal Wear Rentals 38 Kartz & Mclean Insurance Agencies Ltd. 27 A Touch of Wool 71 Chloe & Angus Fashion Design Studio 38 4275 Dunbar Harriott's Hosiery 38 Darr-Ella Apparel 38 Champlain Design 38 Beatrice Fashions Ltd Champlain Design 38 Carson Books 70 4293 Dunbar The Coffee Bar 14 4 Cats Arts Studio 76 4295 Dunbar 1939 MacGregor Drygoods 38 MacGregor Drygoods 38 MacGregor Drygoods 38 Intercom Insurance Services 27 Autoplan Insurance 27 APPENDIX D: CODED CASE STUDY AREA OCCUPANCY DATA AND BASIC RETAIL MIX ANALYSIS COUNT DATA 26th to 27th Ave - EAST 3590 W. 26th Ave 1997 37 residential- 37 units 100 4200 Dunbar TD Canada Trust 28 4202 Dunbar Dunbar 5 and 10-Cent Store 36 Store No. 611 102 Dunbar Cycles 69 4210 Dunbar Dr. Daisy Tang Dental Office 26 4212 Dunbar Michael Beauty Salon 16 Michael Beauty Salon 16 Michel Beauty Salon 16 4220 Dunbar H & R Block 29 4230 Dunbar Dunbar Fish & Chips 12 Moore Bill Realty 27 J & K Kitchen Stuffs Ltd. 56 4232 Dunbar Affleck Miss J Y milliner 38 Dunbar Roofing & General Contractors 56 Dunbar Roofing & General Contractors Ltd. 56 4236 Dunbar Kalugeroff C Shoe Repair 19 Gold Star Shoe Repair 19 4238 Dunbar Dunbar Dairy 3 Dunbar Cycles 69 Matinee Studio 38 Top Cut Barber 16 4244 Dunbar Dunbar Market Meats 7 Dunbar Meats 7 Dunbar Meats 7 4250 Dunbar Dunbar Cycles 69 Image Optometry 31 LANE 4256 Dunbar 1939 McTaggart Realty 27 Regent Heating 56 Regent Heating 56 Clay Electric Ltd Regent Heating Ltd 56 Regent Heating 56 4260 Dunbar Carlene Beauty Salon 16 Mr. Ntino's Coiffures 16 Kay's Beauty Salon 16 Kay's Beauty Salon 16 Vida Beautilities 16 4264 Dunbar Swartz C F Barber 16 Dunbar Men's Barbering & Hairstyling 16 Dunbar Men's Barbering & Hairstyling 16 Dunbar Barber 16 4268 Dunbar Dunbar Children's Wear 38 McTaggart Realty McTaggart & Wotherspoon 27 Dunbar Insurance Agency Ltd. 27 Dunbar Insurance Agency Ltd. 27 Germaine's Antiques 51 4288 Dunbar 1939 Dutch Bakery 7 Robert's Jeweller 54 Point Grey Jewellers 54 F T Golf Research Kwozzi Golfworks Inc 71 Wild Sushi 12 4290 Dunbar Dairydale 3 residential 100 residential 100 Omega Custom Framing & Gallery 76 Omega Custom Framing & Gallery 76 Ceber Development Ltd. 56 4292 Dunbar Stylemaster Tailors 20 S & K Shoe Store 55 Checkers Jr Clothing Co 38 Dunbar Toy Store Ltd. Christmas Parties Inc. 71 4294 Dunbar West & Hegler Real Estate 27 4298 Dunbar Clokie JFA physician 26 Clokie JFA physician 26 Doctor's Office - Dr. A Musial 26 Doctor's Office - Dr. A Musial 26 Doctor's Office - Dr. A Musial 26 27th to 28th Ave - WEST 3600 W. 27th Ave 1927 Wascana Block Apts - 6 residents100 residential - 4 residents 100 residential - 6 residents 100 residential/ non office 100 3608 W. 27th Ave ? residential 100 residential/ non office 100 4305 Dunbar 1927 Braemar Pharmacy 8 residential 100 residential 100 Olindas Handmade Clothing 38 4311 Dunbar Dunbar Lib & Gift Shop 79 Dunbar Gift Shop 79 Ashlee Cards & Gifts 70 Ashlee Cards & Gifts 70 Vacant 87 4315 Dunbar Kelowna Market and Grocer 2 Morton & Gale Radio 61 Enmark Jewlers 54 Enmark Jewlers 54 Enmark Jewlers 54 4321 Dunbar Ideal Bakery 7 Ideal Bakery 7 Ideal Bakery 7 Ideal Bakery 7 Butter Baked Goods 7 4331 Dunbar 1925 residential x 2 100 residential x 2 100 residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 4335 Dunbar Nest (The) Eggs and Poultry 3 Dunbar Distributors Dunbar Home Furnishings 56 Dunbar Bargain Mart 36 Curiosities Shop 79 Black Mountain Books 70 BC Motel Supply 72 4339 Dunbar Beaver Brand Fisheries 3 residential 100 residential 100 Vacant 87 4341 Dunbar 1925 Vacant 87 residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 4345 Dunbar Roberts' Jeweller 54 Vancouver Driving School 25 Cloud Nine Ladies Apparel 38 Mainly Clothes 38 Odenza Homes 101 4345 Dunbar Chris' Café 14 LANE 4355 Dunbar 1931 Cunningham Drugs 8 Fisher Pharmacy 8 Italian-Canadian Delicatessen 3 Dunbar Produce 2 4365 Dunbar Dunbar Hardware & Paints 56 4385 Dunbar 1930 Dunbar Barber Shop 16 Velma's Beauty Salon 16 Budget House of Beauty 16 Sushi Q 12 Sushi Q 12 4389 Dunbar Nicholls Anne Ltd. Ladies' Wear 38 Dunbar One Hour Martinizing 20 Money's Martinizing 20 Money's Drycleaning 20 Money's Drycleaning 20 4395 Dunbar B & K Econ Grocer 2 Bank of Montreal 28 Bank of Montreal 28 Bank of Montreal 28 Bank of Montreal 28 3641 W. 28th Ave 1986 9 residential 100 residential 100 Drs Ley & Elterman: Clinical & Forensic Psychologists 26 Drs Ley & Elterman: Clinical & Forensic Psychologists 26 27th to 28th Ave - EAST 3596 W 27th Ave 1947 Davidson Block: 8 residents + Chernen N dentist 26 Davidson Enterprises Ltd. 88 Davidson Enterprises Ltd. 88 Dunbar Acupuncture & Wellness Centre 26 Christensen H F physician 26 Dr. Norman Chernen 26 Dr. Norman Chernen 26 Dr. Colin Leech-Porter, Psychologist 26 Swetnam W J Ltd. Wholesale Lumber 88 4306 Dunbar Canadian Imperial Bank 28 Canadian Imperial Bank 28 Canadian Imperial Bank 28 Canadian Imperial Bank 28 Canadian Imperial Bank 28 4308 Dunbar Berry J Chiropractor 26 4316 Dunbar 1960 Mountain Dance Theatre 89 residential - 3 residents 100 4326 Dunbar residential 100 Stong's Market 1 Fisher Pharmasave Drugs 8 Shoppers Drug Mart 9 Shopper's Drug Mart 9 Future World Travel Inc. 17 Maher International Distributors Inc. 88 Sweet Investments Ltd. 29 4336 Dunbar Masonic Halls 89 Quantum Research Ltd. 101 J M & Associates Terrain Analysis Inc. 101 4338 Dunbar Buttons & Bows Novelties 71 4342 Dunbar residential 100 4344 Dunbar Dunbar Shoe Store 55 4348 Dunbar J K Shoe Repair 19 4356 Dunbar Preston Home Furnishings Interior Decorator 56 4364 Dunbar residential 100 4376 Dunbar residential 100 4392 Dunbar residential 100 28th to 29th Ave - WEST 3626 W. 28th 1985 22 new residential building with 9 households 100 residential - 16 residents 100 Residential Upstairs: multi- units 100 4407 Dunbar Jacobson A B Realty Ltd 27 Golden Coin Restaurant 12 4409 Dunbar Scott T H Jeweller 54 residential 100 4413 Dunbar Len's Grocer 2 Coin Laundry 20 4439 Dunbar Myers Cleaners & Weavers 20 Myers Cleaners 4441 Dunbar Rogers F Barber 16 4443 Dunbar Sanderson G F Shoe Repair 19 4445 Dunbar Qualitie Made Bakery 7 Quality Auto Electric 66 B C Teachers Credit Union (UBC Branch) 28 B C Teachers Credit Union (Oakridge Branch) 28 Dunbar VanCity 28 4447 Dunbar White Dove Spa 16 LANE 4451 Dunbar 1926 BC Pest Control Ltd. 25 BC Pest Control Ltd. 25 4455 Dunbar 1926 Mayfair Dairy 3 residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 Cosy Inn Café 14 4465 Dunbar Sealey's Hardware 56 Dunbar Hardware 56 Dunbar Hardware 56 Dunbar Hardware 56 Elements Academy of Martial Arts 25 4467 Dunbar Lee Some Market 2 Loo M S Market 2 Lings Market 2 Starbucks Coffee 14 4474 Dunbar Qualitie Made Bakery Ltd 7 Qualitie Made Bakery Mac's Convenience Stores 7 4479 Dunbar Exmoor Meat Market 7 Dunbar Cleaners 20 Dunbar Cleaners & Dressmakers 20 Dunbar Cleaners & Dressmakers 20 Dunbar 1 Hr EnviroSafe Dry Cleaners 20 4485 Dunbar Dunbar Cleaners & Dyers 20 Espresso Pizza 12 Photo Station 77 Photo Station 77 4495 Dunbar Variety Village 36 Suzuki Motorcycle Centre 67 Sodas Diner 12 Heaven & Earth Flowers 83 4497 Dunbar The Dunbar Social House 89 3641 W 29th Ave 1980 3 residential 100 Nouwens Signs 72 Blenheim House + 1 resident 100 Black & Benjamin Lawyers 29 Ivy Montessori School 25 3625 W 29th Ave 1989? residential 100 residential 100 residential/ non office 100 28th to 29th Ave - EAST 4408 Dunbar Pride Cleaners 20 4410 Dunbar 1978 English Cottage Sweets 3 Dunbar Royalite M & N Distributors 88 Dunbar Laundromat & Drycleaning 20 G & S Laundromat and Dry Clearning 20 4414 Dunbar Dunbar Seafood Market 3 Asianda Food Express Ltd 12 Lucky Star Best Chinese Szechuan Restaurant 12 4418 Dunbar Simon's Fish & Chips 12 Simon's Kitchen 12 Simon's Kitchen Chinese Cuisine 12 4424 Dunbar Pyramid Pet Shop 37 Le Petit Gourmand Delicatessen Ltd. 3 Techno-Kids 25 Mexicali Mexican Food 12 4426 Dunbar Vacant 87 4428 Dunbar Video Plus 18 Video Plus 18 Nightwatch Video 18 4432 Dunbar Marvin Enterprise Corp 102 Valentino's Restaurant 12 The Shop Hair & Esthetics 16 4442 Dunbar Dunbar Carpet Centre 56 residential 100 4446 Dunbar What-Knot Shop Gifts 79 Macgregor Don Photography 76 Macgregor Don Photography 76 4448 Dunbar Marcel Jewelery 54 Davies Chimney & Roofing 56 Davies Chimney & Roofing Co Ltd. 56 4450 Dunbar 1947 residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 Not retail space - office? storage? For Stong's Market 88 4454 Dunbar Apex Cleaners 20 4458 Dunbar Vacant 87 4464 Dunbar 1980 Morton & Gale Radio 61 Superior Cleaners 20 Old Western Pizza Inc. 12 Pizza Garden 12 4466 Dunbar Vacant 87 4470 Dunbar Masonic Hall 89 Mac's Convenience Store 4 4474 Dunbar Pacific Spirits Beer & Wine 82 4480 Dunbar Alpha Books 70 residential - 2 residents 100 4484 Dunbar Aetna Travel Ltd 17 George's Hairstyling Co. 16 Great Clips for Hair 16 4490 Dunbar Peppermint Patti's 102 Subway Sandwiches & Salads 12 Subway Sandwiches & Salads 12 4492 Dunbar Williams J G Service Station 64 29th and Dunbar Home Service 25 3804 W 29th Modern Decorators 101 Modern Decorators 101 Modern Decorators 101 residential 100 29th to 30th Ave - WEST 4515 Dunbar 1950 Vancouver Public Library 25 Vancouver Public Library 25 Vancouver Public Library 25 Vancouver Public Library 25 Vancouver Public Library 25 4531 Dunbar Dunbar Power Tool Rentals Vancouver Power Tool 56 Dunbar Power Tool Rentals Vancouver Power Tool Rentals 56 Dunbar Power Tool Rentals 56 Vancouver Power Tools 56 Dunbar Power Tool Rentals Kerrisdale Equipment Rentals 56 4533 Dunbar 1945 Wyall R S Dentist 26 residential 100 residential - 2 residents 100 residential 100 4535 Dunbar Arvig E Jeweler 54 Klip'n Kurl Beauty Salon 20 Rainbow Shoes 55 The Clippers Edge Barber Shop 16 4543 Dunbar 1926 Patterson Florist 83 Patterson's Florist 83 Patterson's Florist 83 Patterson's Florist 83 Alta Vista Animal Hospital 24 4545 Dunbar Doryern Café 14 Dunbar Browse-Around 38 Dunbar Browse-Around Clothing Ltd. 38 Dunbar Browse-Around 38 4555 Dunbar 1935 Dunbar Theatre 89 Dunbar Theatre 89 Dunbar Theatre 89 Dunbar Theatre 89 Dunbar Theatre 89 4585 Dunbar 1973 Cheshire Cheese Inn 12 Cheshire Cheese Inn 12 Cheshire Cheese Inn 12 4593 Dunbar Empress Bakery 7 Kokopelli Café 14 4595 Dunbar BA Service 30th and Dunbar 64 Art & Gordie's Dunbar Gulf Service 64 Color & Line 76 K & K Pet Foods 37 K & K Pet Foods 24 29th to 30th Ave - EAST 4508 Dunbar 1952 McDermott's Body Shop 66 McDermott's Body Shop 66 McDermott's Body Shop 66 McDermott's Body Shop 66 McDermott's Body Shop 66 4518 Dunbar Dunbar Music Studio 84 4528 Dunbar Southland Realty 27 4534 Dunbar - 1 residential 100 4534 Dunbar - 2 Stewart R J Dentist 26 4534 Dunbar - 3 Dunbar Dental Lab 26 4534 Dunbar - 4 residential 100 4538 Dunbar Anton's Hairdressing 26 4542 Dunbar George's Grocery 2 4544 Dunbar Wholesale Kitchenwares 56 4546 Dunbar Dunbar School of 25 4548 Dunbar residential 100 4554 Dunbar residential 100 4558 Dunbar residential 100 4560 Dunbar 1964 residential 100 Stong's Market 1 Stong's Market 1 Stong's Market 1 4590 Dunbar Dunbar Garage 66 Retail Mix Analysis - Dunbar Centre Shopping Area Number of Uses by Category 1955 1970 1985 1998 2010 All Business Uses 97 64 73 69 82 Convenience Goods and Services 50 23 28 32 51 Supermarkets 1 1 1 1 1 Other Grocery 19 3 7 4 2 Health 10 2 3 4 12 Dining 4 3 3 10 13 Convenience Retail 0 1 0 0 2 Convenience Services 16 13 14 13 21 Shoppers' Goods and Services 41 33 34 30 26 Social/ Entertainment 2 2 2 1 2 Clothing Retail 12 8 10 8 5 Housewares, Hardware, Home Repair 8 7 6 4 2 General Stores 1 2 1 0 1 Leisure supplies & services 8 5 8 11 7 Pet supplies and services 0 0 0 0 3 Transportation 7 6 5 2 2 Other 3 3 2 4 4 Office, Business Supplies & Professional Services 6 7 7 7 5 Unknown Uses 0 1 4 0 0 Breakdown of Convenience Services 1955 1970 1985 1998 2010 Barber/ Hairdresser/ Beauty Salon/ Spa 6 5 6 5 11 Dry Cleaner/ Laundromat/ Tailor 6 6 3 3 4 Shoe Repair 3 0 1 0 0 Video Rental 0 0 1 1 1 Bank/ Credit Union/ Money Exchange 1 2 3 4 5 Coded Occupancy Data Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area Block Location Business Address -Past Addresses Business Address - Current addresses Date Built 1955 1955 Ground Codes 1970 1970 Ground Codes 1985 1985 Ground Codes 1998 1998 Ground Codes 2010 2010 Ground Codes up to 3765 - residential 3281 E 22nd Ave. 1956 H&T Video Plus Video Plus H&T 18 e.tea Bubble Tea 14 3285 E 22nd Ave " Vacant 87 Red Rose Beauty Salon Ltd. 16 Lovely Salon 16 3291 E 22nd Ave " Lucky Bakery 7 Lucky Bakery 7 3295 E 22nd Ave " 7-11 Food Stores 4 7-11 Food Stores 4 3745 Rupert Stong's Market 1 *Bryant Used Store Equipment Ltd. 72 Southwest Corner 3298 E. 22nd Ave 1920 Keller's Drugs 9 Douglas Tex Gas & Oil Inst Ltd. 88 Douglas Tex Gas & Oil Inst Ltd. 88 Rupert Fish Market 3 Rupert Fish Market 3 3815 Rupert Skidmore & Sons Grocer 2 Keller's United Pharmacy 8 Keller's Pharmasave Drugs 8 Universal Bakery 7 Universal Bakery 7 3831 Rupert 1948 Model Cleaners 20 Model Cleaners & Launderers Ltd. 20 Comic Land 70 Comic Land 70 MP Express (Media) 61 3833 Rupert Rupert Book Exchange 70 3835 Rupert Hostess Bakery 7 Totem-In Laundry 20 Burnco Enterprises Ltd 88 Pinky Laundromat 20 Pinky Laundromat 20 3845 Rupert 1986 residential 100 Hyperlight Enterprises 71 Comic Land 70 3849 Rupert residential 100 residential 100 3855 Rupert 1950 Renfrew Fruit Market 2 Linda Grocery 2 Linda Grocery 2 Linda's Grocery 2 Linda's Grocery 2 3869 Rupert 1949 Jerry's Hairstyling 16 Jerry's Hairstyling 16 Jerry's Barber Shop 16 3871 Rupert residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 residential 100 3874 Rupert Frank's Shoe Re-Nu 19 Joy's Beauty Bar 16 M J Hairstyling 16 M J Hairstyling 16 V-Na Hair Design 16 3874 Rupert Frank's Retail Notions 37 3883 Rupert 1962 Residential 100 Bud's Grill 12 Golden Fish Café 12 Golden Fish Café 14 Kimura Sushi & Japanese Cuisine 12 3885 Rupert Rupert Hardware 56 Rupert Italian & Canadian Delicatessen 3 Rupert Italian & Canadian Delicatessen 3 Tandoori House Restaurant 12 3895 Rupert 1978 Residential 100 Residential 100 Dr. Joseph Yick, Dentist 26 Dr. Joseph Yick, Dentist 26 Dr. Joseph Yick, Dentist 26 3295 E 23rd Ave 1978 Members of the Legislative Assembley & Cnsttncy New Democrats Glen Clark 88 Yong Shang Denturist & Accupuncture 26 Southeast Corner 3808 Rupert Bud's Grill 12 3810 Rupert Lucille's Beauty Salon 16 3850 Rupert Brown EG barber 16 *Stong's Markets Ltd (Store no 3) 1 3858 Rupert Anne's Kiddies Shoppe 38 3868 Rupert St. 1959 No even numbered addresses listed in the 3800 block for 1970. Golden Oscar Café & Restaurant 12 Golden Oscar Café & Restaurant 12 3888 Rupert St. " Medical Office - Dr. Leah Wong 26 3898 Rupert St. " Pop Beauty Salon 16 3304 E. 22nd Ave " Little Ceasar's Pizza 12 Little Ceasar's Pizza 12 3308 E. 22nd Ave " Chong Lee Market 1 Chong Lee Market 1 Retail Mix Analysis - Rupert and 22nd Shopping Area Number of Uses by Category 1955 1970 1985 1998 2010 All Business Uses 12 9 12 19 21 Convenience Goods and Services 9 7 8 16 19 Supermarkets 0 1 1 1 1 Other Grocery 3 1 2 5 4 Health 1 1 2 1 3 Dining 1 1 1 3 5 Convenience Retail 0 0 0 1 1 Convenience Services 4 3 2 5 5 Shoppers' Goods and Services 3 1 1 2 2 Social/ Entertainment 0 0 0 0 0 Clothing Retail 1 0 0 0 0 Housewares, Hardware, Home Repair 0 1 0 0 0 General Stores 0 0 0 0 0 Leisure supplies & services 1 0 1 2 2 Pet supplies and services 0 0 0 0 0 Transportation 0 0 0 0 0 Other 1 0 0 0 0 Office, Business Supplies & Professional Services 0 1 3 1 0 Unknown Uses 0 0 0 0 0 Breakdown of Convenience Services 1955 1970 1985 1998 2010 Barber/ Hairdresser/ Beauty Salon/ Spa 2 1 2 3 4 Dry Cleaner/ Laundromat/ Tailor 1 2 0 1 1 Shoe Repair 1 0 0 0 0 Video Rental 0 0 0 1 0 Bank/ Credit Union/ Money Exchange 0 0 0 0 0 Coded Occupancy Data Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area Block Location Business Address - Past Addresses Business Address - current addresses Date Built # of Strata Lots 1955 Business Names 1955 Ground Codes 1970 Business Names 1970 Ground Codes 1985 Business Names 1985 Ground Codes 1998 Business Names 1998 Ground Codes 2010 Business Names 2010 Ground Codes West side, William to Charles (C1) 1205 Nanaimo 1967 Martin's Grocery 2 Nanaimo Street One Hour Martinizing 20 Nanaimo Street One Hour Martinizing 20 Classy Cleaner Nanaimo Street One Hour Martinizing 20 Shima's Lawnmower Shop 37 1209 Nanaimo Handy Gift Shop 79 1211 Nanaimo " residential - 1 resident 100 Sabor Latino Bakery 7 1215 Nanaimo 1960 residential 100 Dental Clinic 26 residential - 1 resident 100 Sunnyview Dental Centre 26 1217 Nanaimo " Aquarian Truth Centre 25 1219 Nanaimo " Marine Workers & Boiler- makers Industrial Union Loc No 1 88 Dato Hair Design 16 Envirosafety Confined Space Equipment 72 1235 Nanaimo 1945 Studio Cleaners 20 Perfect Cleaners 20 residential Nana Pasta Bar & Grill 12 1237 Nanaimo Willchar Hairdressing Salon 16 Stylette Coiffures 16 1243 Nanaimo Nanaimo Estates 27 1245 Nanaimo Nanaimo Shoe Renew 19 1283 - 9 Nanaimo Refrigerator Refinishers & Sales 56 1285 Nanaimo Nanaimo & Charles Service Station 64 Nanaimo & Charles Service 64 Vito's Texaco 64 " Jack's Fish & Chips 12 1263 Nanaimo 2004 22 Gateway Appraisal & Consulting Corp. 27 1269 Nanaimo Gateway Appraisal & Consulting Corp. 1273 Nanaimo Gateway Appraisal & Consulting Corp. 1279 Nanaimo Vancouver Wellness Chiropractic 26 1289 Nanaimo Westcoast Family Medicine 26 1293 Nanaimo X-Treme Image Family Hair Salon 16 1299 Nanaimo Nanaimo Pharmacy 8 2389 Charles (strata) - includes shops on Nanaimo residential 100 East side, William to Charles (C1) 1208 Nanaimo Economy Hardware 56 1222 Nanaimo residential - 1 resident 100 1224 Nanaimo Nanaimo Grocery 2 1236 Nanaimo Vacant 87 1238 Nanaimo Alberta Estates Ltd. 27 1250 Nanaimo Reynolds Radio & Electronics 61 1252 Nanaimo Nanaimo Barber Shop 16 1260 Nanaimo 1960-1988 Canada Safeway 1 Canada Safeway 1 1266 Nanaimo residential - 1 resident 1276 Nanaimo Irish Cleaner 20 1280 Nanaimo Hahn J Variety Store 36 1296 Nanaimo Rodo Lunch 12 1212, 18, 28, 32, 38, 62, 78, 88, 98 1994 28 house- holds residential - 9 units 100 residential - 9 units 100 2475 Charles St Acklet G H Chartered Accountant 25 Ernie's Disposal & Clean-Up 25 Charles St. West of Nanaimo3 houses - residential (2346, 2356 & 2366) East side, Charles to Kitchener 2410 Charles St 2002 L3 Design & Core Information Technologies 101 2412 Charles St Nanaimo Shoe Repair 19 1310 Nanaimo 2002 East End Pharmacy 8 Rex - B Pharmacy 8 Nostalgia Hair Design 16 Eleonora Hair Style Estetica & Facial Hong May's Hair Design 16 Prince Dry Cleaners 20 " Rexmar Beauty Bar 16 1316 Nanaimo " Koda Klothing 38 1320 Nanaimo Economy Meat Market 7 Economy Meat Market 7 Skookum Prints 76 Nanaimo Sport Bar 89 1336 Nanaimo 1930 Barkers Grocery 2 Polar Refridgeration Service 56 Factory To You Fashions 38 Boccoli Hair for Men & Women 16 1340 Nanaimo " Healthway Bakery 7 Nanaimo Beauty Bar 16 Nanaimo Beauty Bar 16 Boccoli Hair for Men & Women 16 Sun Hut Tanning Salon 16 1350 Nanaimo 1930 Nanaimo Marketeria 4 residential - 1 resident 100 Wong's Food Store Ltd. 2 Nanaimo Food Market 2 Nanaimo Grocery Market 2 1360 Nanaimo 1930 Joe's Shoe Renew 19 Classic Shoes 55 Positano Pizza 12 New York Foods Inc. 3 New York Foods Catering 3 1367 Nanaimo " Kitchenette Grocery 2 San Marco Jewelers 54 San Marco Jewelers 54 San Marco Jewelers 54 1370 Nanaimo 1930 Bings Grocery 2 Renzullo Food Market 2 Renzullo Food Market 3 Renzullo Food Market 3 Renzullo Food Market 3 1386 Nanaimo ? A-1 Bus Line Pick-Up Ltd. 88 Panago Pizza 12 1386 Nanaimo Kwiki Courier Ltd. 72 1390 Nanaimo 1977 Bailey's D Service Station 64 Joe's Automotive Service 64 residential - 4 residents residential - 1 resident 100 Calypso Montessori School 25 1394 Nanaimo " Espresso Bar 2000 14 Dragon Video 18 Retail Mix Analysis - Nanaimo and Charles Shopping Area Number of Uses by Category 1955 1970 1985 1998 2010 All Business Uses 27 15 15 11 22 Convenience Goods and Services 17 9 9 9 14 Supermarkets 0 1 1 0 0 Other Grocery 7 2 2 3 4 Health 1 1 1 0 4 Dining 2 0 2 0 2 Convenience Retail 1 0 0 0 0 Convenience Services 6 5 3 6 4 Shoppers' Goods and Services 8 5 4 2 5 Social/ Entertainment 0 0 0 1 0 Clothing Retail 0 1 2 1 2 Housewares, Hardware, Home Repair 2 1 0 0 0 General Stores 1 0 0 0 0 Leisure supplies & services 2 0 1 0 0 Pet supplies and services 0 0 0 0 0 Transportation 2 2 1 0 0 Other 1 1 0 0 3 Office, Business Supplies & Professional Services 2 1 2 0 3 Unknown Uses 0 0 0 0 0 Breakdown of Convenience Services 1955 1970 1985 1998 2010 Barber/ Hairdresser/ Beauty Salon/ Spa 2 3 2 3 3 Dry Cleaner/ Laundromat/ Tailor 2 2 1 1 1 Shoe Repair 2 0 0 1 0 Video Rental 0 0 0 1 0 Bank/ Credit Union/ Money Exchange 0 0 0 0 0
Graduating Project
eng
Unreviewed
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
University of British Columbia. SCARP Graduating Projects
Urban shopping
Local shopping
Shopping areas
Retail
Neighbourhood
Neighbourhood Retail Change: The Evolution of Local Shopping Areas in Vancouver, BC
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