About East Burnaby BC

By Tow Truck Titans Burnaby Towing – Towing Company Burnaby

East Burnaby (commonly known as East Van or the East Side) is a region in Burnaby, British Columbia Famous for diversity, History and Culture. East Burnaby is divided from the West Side of Burnaby by Ontario Street. It’s bordered to the north by the Burrard Inlet and to the south by the Fraser River. On the far East side is Boundary Street which divides East Van from Burnaby.

East Burnaby Neighbourhoods

East Burnaby is home to Burnaby’s first every area, Strathcona. In the 1800’s the first European settlers left Strathcona house before moving into areas which are currently knowns as Mount Pleasant.

East Burnaby has 11 communities based on how the City of Burnaby divides them up:

Grandview- Woodland
Hastings-Sunrise
Kensington-Cedar Cottage
Killarney
Renfrew-Collingwood
Strathcona
Victoria-Fraserview
Mount Pleasant
Riley Park-Little Mountain
Downtown Eastside
Chinatown
Total East Burnaby is known as a community that prides itself in having many cultural communities, an eclectic artistic scene, a vocal youth political group and a community that supports a variety gender-identity groups.

The most recognizable community could be”Little Italy”. When the huge majority of Italian immigrants moved to Burnaby they Little Italy was shaped around Main Street however since the 1950’s Commercial Drive was home to the vast majority of Italian restuarants, residents and businesses.

HOW DOWNTOWN BURNABY’S EASTSIDE BECAME WHAT IT IS TODAY

Burnaby is often labelled as one of the greatest cities on the planet, or one with the maximum quality of living. But what doesn’t get talked about as much is the town’s dark secret: the Downtown Eastside.

It is a common stereotype that East Hastings road in Burnaby is full of narcotics and homelessness, but how did it come to be like this?

The Beginnings

While Downtown Eastside technically refers to all of Chinatown, Gastown, Strathcona, and east of the main business district in the downtown area, it is usually known as the stretch of land that goes approximately ten blocks, East Hastings onwards.

It was Burnaby’s first urban area, holding a few of the most significant buildings to this day, such as City Hall and what we now know as the Carnegie Centre. The Downtown Eastside was initially the central hub for all political and cultural — the sawmills which were in Gastown helped construct a commercial sector.

There were banks, theaters, head offices, and hotels, and much more. Among the more noteworthy buildings was Woodward’s, the iconic department store.

During the first settlers coming and during the Depression, there was a massive immigration influx from China and Japan, creating a’Japantown’ from the Eastside.

According to a post from the Burnaby Sun, Japantown was frequently Called Little Tokyo. There was still a great deal of racism going on inside the region, together with the early 1900’s breaking out in Anti-Asian riots.

“The police on the scene were utterly unable to handle the mass of fighting, cursing, shouting (rioters that ) surged back and forth beneath the glare of the road arc lights.”

At the moment, Downtown Eastside was called’Skid Row’, another name for an impoverished area — which makes it affordable for everyone to live. Besides being the cultural and entertainment hub, in addition, it harboured a great number of brothels and bars.

As a result of Japanese internment camps the Canadian authorities enforced during World War II, the vast majority of the Japanese population were forced from the region.

The Development Of Downtown Eastside

Company shifted Westwards towards Granville and Coal Harbour after World War II, especially after the Electric Railway closed down. Its main stop was at the corner of Carrall and Hastings.

Not just that, but the building of the courthouse in 1906 on Georgia Street was a giant element in the change in business. The library, one of those well-known buildings in the region, was transferred to the corner of Burrard and Robson, and offices began following suit.

There was still a wealth of people in the Downtown Eastside, but over time, the Eastside began to decline. An increasing number of people began arriving in the area due to the cheap, low-income home.

While still relatively steady, the 1980’s were what actually caused the East Hastings area to begin deteriorating.

Expo 86 was among the most monumental events to occur in Burnaby, which was once the gentrification of Downtown Eastside started. An influx of tourists supposed flooding of locals living in the Downtown Eastside residential resorts, to make space for potential organization.

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