Talk:Gastown

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[edit] Haight-Ashbury of the North?

That's West 4th and McDonald, but nice try. Unless someone can verify the previous, please remove it, as it's baseless. Allen Ginsburg himself visited Kitsilano a number of times, living right of Pt. Grey Road for a while. -Jackmont, Jul 27, 2007.

[edit] Source of steam for clock?

From the article: The steam used is low pressure district heating steam that powers a miniature steam engine in its base. Just curious... is this "district heating steam" part of a larger city-supplied heating system? I know central steam heat for neighbourhoods was much more common in days gone by, but is that still how buildings in Gastown are heated? --Ds13 18:53, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, the main steam plant is at Georgia and Beatty and supplies steam to a whole host of buildings downtown; it is (or was) possible to traverse the city underground from about Carrall and Hastings all the way to the Hyatt Regency/MacBlo/Hotel Vancouver using the connecting tunnels and doorways that interlink the system. Omitted from all the bumpf about the steam clock, which is NOT "historic" (except in a brochure-y kind of way, and because it was the first of its kind), is the fact that the clock was come up with in order to deter rubbies from sleeping on the old steam grate in the sidewalk at that location.....one of the people in a material history course I did a presentation for wrote up some details on the Steam Clock; I'll see if I can get them to post some of those details here. But geez, there's so much more in Gastown that deserves writeup instead of this made-for-tourists "attraction".Skookum1 23:18, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Possible addition to article

“A city founded by a bartender can't be all bad.”
Jack Leshgold

--Usgnus 00:48, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My rv from Jul 3

I cited WP:ADS, but I meant WP:NOT. --Usgnus 02:26, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] rm entire crime section

It is completely without reference, many of the assertions are wrong or misplaced, and conjecture abounds. In brief:

  • "Gastown has increased property crime in relation to other areas of downtown Vancouver." This is false. The central biz district is worse, I believe, as is the DTES, in various ways, and in other ways, better. It's in the VPD stats on their site.
  • "increased numbers of homeless people and drug & alcohol abusers"... compared to what or where? Reference?
  • "... largely responsible for the increase in crime"... What "increase" in crime? Where? Compared to when? What is the source for this?
  • "Gastown is home to at least two establishments that sell marijuana and hashish to customers in open defiance of the law. While carefully monitored by law enforcement, these businesses are quietly tolerated." How would we know this? A written source of info here, please. Did the pot dealers' union take statistics? Do these establishments put out ads? Not to my knowledge. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Clapaucius 02:13, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] location of Gastown

Gastown is located directly inside Downtown Eastside, but next to Downtown. --Louiechefei28848888 03:33, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Crosstown reference removed

"I was there" when Ian Hunter coined this name (I was his roommate at 328 W), and have to admit to having had a part in its creation, which was an attempt to bypass the wartime legacy/name of Victory Square, which is the usual name for this area; it was such a neologism that the Bishop sent someone down from Holy Rosary to make sure it wasn't a reference to "the Cross". Anyway, as a locational descriptor it's totally useless and I removed it; especially since the north flank of "Crosstown" is part of the official boundaries of the Gastown BIA (e.g. the Dominion Trust building and its neighbours), and the upper part of it is just part of Downtown, period (West Pender from Beatty to Richards, more or less). And I agree with the post in the preceding section that Gastown is in the Downtown Eastside, or overlaps it significantly anyway (as does Chinatown); but "Downtown Eastside" in Vancouver parlance tends to refer to the nightmare corridor along Hastings, plus some of Cordova and Powell (east of Columbia), and not to Water/most of West Cordova/the 0-blocks of Powell and Alexander. A better descriptor would be more like "Gastown flanks the northeast side of downtown, adjacent to the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown". They are three separate things, no one of them is fully part or a subarea of the others; the media screw this up all the time, tarbrushing the whole area with "Downtown Eastside" and at times mentioning the area of the Balmoral (the 100 block East Hastings) or Pigeon Park as if they were part of Gastown (which riles the Gastown BIA a lot when it happens). Same deal as the Pender-Hastings alley defining the boundary between the DE and Chinatown; Cordova Street serves the same boundary function on the north side, give or take a little jiggle here or there. Anyway, Crosstown reference removed; Crosstown was only a concept, and not a very successful or popular one, despite attempts to dust it off from time to time.Skookum1 (talk) 22:02, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Crosstown (neighbourhood) exists as a redlink on the Crosstown disambiguation page; I'd venture that it should redirect to Victory Square (neighbourhood), as synonymous (except for Ian Hunter's post-historical meddling...).Skookum1 (talk) 22:03, 22 November 2007 (UTC)