JimR
Elite Member
I don't know where to put this subject. But I feel this story may save someone here a lot of aggravation should you ever go there. This story is in direct regard to the City of Vancouver in British Columbia. My wife, my son and I just got back from Seattle this morning after a 10 day trip to the N.W.. We started in Seattle and did some touring in that general area and the outskirts. Second day we travelled up to our destination in Whistler, B.C. We had a wonderful time up there renting atv's, running the Zip-Trek through the forest, going up Blackcomb Mtn., hiking, seeing many bears and many other things. On the way back we stopped in Vancouver to show my son Stanley Park and a few other areas of the city. The City has been pushing tourism in the Gastown District spending millions to bring people in to the area. Here is their opinion of Gastown. I have removed the other shopping areas of Vancouver and only posted Gastown.
» Shopping Areas
shopping areas in Vancouver
As a cosmopolitan, coastal city, Vancouver's style ranges from haute couture to cozy flannels and fleece. Shopping in Vancouver offers this same diverse range with high fashion boutiques, designer label, accessory and jewelry stores, to extensive shop-til-you-drop malls offering something for everyone.
There are unique areas all around Vancouver for clothing, art, ceramics, furniture and much more waiting for you to discover. See the following for details about great shopping areas in Vancouver:
* Burnaby - Metrotown Centre
* Chinatown (lower Main & Keefer) shopping areas in Vancouver
* Commercial Drive
* Downtown & Gastown
* Granville Street
* Granville Island Market
* Main Street
* Robson Street
* Yaletown
Downtown & Gastown
The downtown area of Vancouver from Burrard to Howe and West Hastings to Georgia is a made up of many fantastic stores mixed with commercial buildings, making this area a great place to wander and explore! High fashion, jewelry, shoes, home wares, and much more can be found and it makes for a lovely walk through the downtown streets with coffee shops and restaurants also readily available. Access to Sinclair Centre, a restored landmark heritage building, now housing many upper-end clothing, accessory, gifts and arts stores, Royal Centre offering a extraordinary assortment of underground shops and restaurants, or Pacific Centre's 140 stores are all within a few minutes walk. If you continue past Hastings towards the water, you'll find Cordoba Street which leads you past the beautiful Waterfront Station building and down to Water Street - the main road of historic Gastown. The area is rich with history and culture as there are many outstanding art galleries, antique shops, and native art stores that are a must see for visitors. As well, you can pick up great gifts and souvenirs in the many specialty shops. Wool sweaters, cozy fleece jackets, attractive jewelry, fun T-shirts, or how about a 'moose in a can'? They have it all at Gastown, along with countless excellent restaurants - and return here at night for some fantastic nightclubs, pubs and live music!
Here is what happened to us there. It was Father's day and my son said lets go to Gastown and buy dad a few things. We had just left Stanley Park and headed off for Gastown. By the way, Frommers also rates Vancouver as a great place to visit. Parking was not so hot on Water St. which is the main drag for Gastown. We parked one block south at a city meter. The car we had was supposed to be a Buick. Avis was out of them and gave us a Lincoln Towncar. This will never happen again If I have anything to say about it or if we are planning on visiting any cities like this again. Our trunk was full of luggage. We had two foldup coolers in the back seat full of food, two backpacks full of camera gear and a laptop computer. We covered over all the bags so nothing was visible but jackets. We also put a pillow on top.There was no more room in the trunk for the other bags to be put there. We won't make that mistake again either. Off we go shopping and come back about 1 1/2 hours later. There is a policeman standing aside of our car. I should mention that there is a police station less than two blocks from where we are parked to our right on the street we are intersecting with where the car was parked. Also that the time of day is now around 5:30 at night and that the apartment/ condo's directly in front of our car sell for $300-400,000 each. Someone had smashed out the rear door passenger side window and without opening the car doors (alarmed) reached over the drivers side and removed everything that was in the car. The policeman informs us that they have caught the guy or one of the guys that did this to our car. But he won't talk as he has had his fingers busted up quite a few times prior by others in the neighborhood for talking to the cops. He has decided to go to jail instead. They only caught him with our two empty coolers and my son's two jackets. Nothing else was found. My video camera, battery chargers for the video camera, Discman other chargers and usb cables and such and my son's laptop are gone. We had been putting all our pictures and videos on the laptop to make sure we had plenty of room in the camera's. I asked the cop how come this can happen so close to this supposidly great section of town. We are then informed that the four block area behind us is the heaviest crime section of the city. They are riddled with homeless people and drug dealers. Mind you, we are one block from a tourist district that the City of Vancouver has spent millions on to bring tourists into. We are told that the police arrest these people constantly and the courts release them without prosecution and put them right back on the streets. The city has avoided this problem as they do not want to give this area a bad name. Now I'm really getting a bit peeved as people start going by us and laughing and smiling at us. When we parked there the area looked fine. So now I'm getting a message that the word is out that the dopeheads pulled off another job and everyone wants to have a look. This one guy in a wheelchair strolls over and starts running his mouth off at us. He says, You drive your fancy car into our neighborhood, you deserve it. I almost popped him in the mouth. The cop told him to leave before he got himself hurt. My wife and an officer do some alley sweeps and come back emptyhanded. Nothing else is found. I tell the cop that what their city needs is a few Charles Bronson's (Vigilante Force). He looks at his partner and smiles. He then says, We would welcome them with open arms as it is probably the only way the city will get cleaned up. I wondered why he said that. The paperwork is all filled out and we leave. Off we go to Vancouver Airport to swap out rental cars. The woman at the desk asked what happened. After I told her she tells us this story.
A few years back the cops got tired of the same old thing and beat up the drug dealers in this area. They drove them from the city. Soon after, the drug dealers filed charges against the cops for brutality. All the officers involved were fired. The drug dealers moved right back in to the same neighborhood.
We now head for the border. We have had enough of Vancouver to last a lifetime. I personally want to go buy a baseball bat and break a few heads and get our items back. The wife and son are totally against it. We get to the border and my son's birth certificate is gone. It was in his backpack. We still had out passports as they never touched the locked glovebox where our other two cameras were. We explained to the border guard what happened and where it happened. She replied with this line. Your the second car in the last few hours that got broken into in that same section of the city. Lesson learned about Vancouver on this trip and for many more to come. Leave the passenger compartment of the car empty no matter what you have to do. Park in a secured lot when visiting a city with out of county plates. Start a Blog on the internet with respect to the City of Vancouver with their inability to clean the city up while they spend millions to bring in tourists to a drug infested area.
Now the fun starts with the insurance companies and getting prices for everything we lost. We got back to the airport this morning to find that my wife's car key and remote were missing. I had put it in the carry-on backpack. There goes another $150.00 for a computerized key and remote (insured). Fortunately I had my spare key for her car on my key ring in my pocket.
I hope this story will save someone from going through this type of situation in the future.
» Shopping Areas
shopping areas in Vancouver
As a cosmopolitan, coastal city, Vancouver's style ranges from haute couture to cozy flannels and fleece. Shopping in Vancouver offers this same diverse range with high fashion boutiques, designer label, accessory and jewelry stores, to extensive shop-til-you-drop malls offering something for everyone.
There are unique areas all around Vancouver for clothing, art, ceramics, furniture and much more waiting for you to discover. See the following for details about great shopping areas in Vancouver:
* Burnaby - Metrotown Centre
* Chinatown (lower Main & Keefer) shopping areas in Vancouver
* Commercial Drive
* Downtown & Gastown
* Granville Street
* Granville Island Market
* Main Street
* Robson Street
* Yaletown
Downtown & Gastown
The downtown area of Vancouver from Burrard to Howe and West Hastings to Georgia is a made up of many fantastic stores mixed with commercial buildings, making this area a great place to wander and explore! High fashion, jewelry, shoes, home wares, and much more can be found and it makes for a lovely walk through the downtown streets with coffee shops and restaurants also readily available. Access to Sinclair Centre, a restored landmark heritage building, now housing many upper-end clothing, accessory, gifts and arts stores, Royal Centre offering a extraordinary assortment of underground shops and restaurants, or Pacific Centre's 140 stores are all within a few minutes walk. If you continue past Hastings towards the water, you'll find Cordoba Street which leads you past the beautiful Waterfront Station building and down to Water Street - the main road of historic Gastown. The area is rich with history and culture as there are many outstanding art galleries, antique shops, and native art stores that are a must see for visitors. As well, you can pick up great gifts and souvenirs in the many specialty shops. Wool sweaters, cozy fleece jackets, attractive jewelry, fun T-shirts, or how about a 'moose in a can'? They have it all at Gastown, along with countless excellent restaurants - and return here at night for some fantastic nightclubs, pubs and live music!
Here is what happened to us there. It was Father's day and my son said lets go to Gastown and buy dad a few things. We had just left Stanley Park and headed off for Gastown. By the way, Frommers also rates Vancouver as a great place to visit. Parking was not so hot on Water St. which is the main drag for Gastown. We parked one block south at a city meter. The car we had was supposed to be a Buick. Avis was out of them and gave us a Lincoln Towncar. This will never happen again If I have anything to say about it or if we are planning on visiting any cities like this again. Our trunk was full of luggage. We had two foldup coolers in the back seat full of food, two backpacks full of camera gear and a laptop computer. We covered over all the bags so nothing was visible but jackets. We also put a pillow on top.There was no more room in the trunk for the other bags to be put there. We won't make that mistake again either. Off we go shopping and come back about 1 1/2 hours later. There is a policeman standing aside of our car. I should mention that there is a police station less than two blocks from where we are parked to our right on the street we are intersecting with where the car was parked. Also that the time of day is now around 5:30 at night and that the apartment/ condo's directly in front of our car sell for $300-400,000 each. Someone had smashed out the rear door passenger side window and without opening the car doors (alarmed) reached over the drivers side and removed everything that was in the car. The policeman informs us that they have caught the guy or one of the guys that did this to our car. But he won't talk as he has had his fingers busted up quite a few times prior by others in the neighborhood for talking to the cops. He has decided to go to jail instead. They only caught him with our two empty coolers and my son's two jackets. Nothing else was found. My video camera, battery chargers for the video camera, Discman other chargers and usb cables and such and my son's laptop are gone. We had been putting all our pictures and videos on the laptop to make sure we had plenty of room in the camera's. I asked the cop how come this can happen so close to this supposidly great section of town. We are then informed that the four block area behind us is the heaviest crime section of the city. They are riddled with homeless people and drug dealers. Mind you, we are one block from a tourist district that the City of Vancouver has spent millions on to bring tourists into. We are told that the police arrest these people constantly and the courts release them without prosecution and put them right back on the streets. The city has avoided this problem as they do not want to give this area a bad name. Now I'm really getting a bit peeved as people start going by us and laughing and smiling at us. When we parked there the area looked fine. So now I'm getting a message that the word is out that the dopeheads pulled off another job and everyone wants to have a look. This one guy in a wheelchair strolls over and starts running his mouth off at us. He says, You drive your fancy car into our neighborhood, you deserve it. I almost popped him in the mouth. The cop told him to leave before he got himself hurt. My wife and an officer do some alley sweeps and come back emptyhanded. Nothing else is found. I tell the cop that what their city needs is a few Charles Bronson's (Vigilante Force). He looks at his partner and smiles. He then says, We would welcome them with open arms as it is probably the only way the city will get cleaned up. I wondered why he said that. The paperwork is all filled out and we leave. Off we go to Vancouver Airport to swap out rental cars. The woman at the desk asked what happened. After I told her she tells us this story.
A few years back the cops got tired of the same old thing and beat up the drug dealers in this area. They drove them from the city. Soon after, the drug dealers filed charges against the cops for brutality. All the officers involved were fired. The drug dealers moved right back in to the same neighborhood.
We now head for the border. We have had enough of Vancouver to last a lifetime. I personally want to go buy a baseball bat and break a few heads and get our items back. The wife and son are totally against it. We get to the border and my son's birth certificate is gone. It was in his backpack. We still had out passports as they never touched the locked glovebox where our other two cameras were. We explained to the border guard what happened and where it happened. She replied with this line. Your the second car in the last few hours that got broken into in that same section of the city. Lesson learned about Vancouver on this trip and for many more to come. Leave the passenger compartment of the car empty no matter what you have to do. Park in a secured lot when visiting a city with out of county plates. Start a Blog on the internet with respect to the City of Vancouver with their inability to clean the city up while they spend millions to bring in tourists to a drug infested area.
Now the fun starts with the insurance companies and getting prices for everything we lost. We got back to the airport this morning to find that my wife's car key and remote were missing. I had put it in the carry-on backpack. There goes another $150.00 for a computerized key and remote (insured). Fortunately I had my spare key for her car on my key ring in my pocket.
I hope this story will save someone from going through this type of situation in the future.
