VANCOUVER for Beginners

you should stay near or at UBC/Jericho Beach/Kits area and eat at Aphrodite Cafe on 4th at least once. you must have a piece of pie.

don't even bother crossing the bridge to the downtown core. everything you need is in Kits. take Broadway over to Main and head south a bit. more goodness awaits you there.

Convenience.

If cost isn't a consideration, stay in lower downtown near Granville Island. So that, just in case, you need to rush back to the airport or what have you, you don't miss you chance on the not-so-frequent little twirling ferryboats.

However, if you're very sure you know the ferry schedule between Granville Island and Crescent Cir(?) or whatever that little street is with the pimped out penthouses at the bottom of Richards St., then just stay on Granville Island.

Note that I generally don't eat before 8
Good thing, since you might not get a table to Vij's before 10 or 11.

wouldn't it be inconvenient to try to get back from those places to Denman/Davie-ish after 11? how easy would it be to catch a cab?

what's Fairview Slopes like?

You can call for a cab in Vancouver, just like in Seattle and Portland. Different number obviously, but ask any bartender or waiter/waitress.

Worse comes to worse, the walk back on the Granville bridge isn't impossible from north Kits/south end of False Creek, and neither would the Cambie bridge walk. And then Davie St. would just be another 3 blocks xtra. No hills either. (FOR PHIL!) A slight climb going west on Davie but that's it.

who's got a great apt. for under $1000/mth coming open in early fall?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 17:03 (3 years ago)

will keep an eye out. seems to be lots of 1 br apts available right now.

vancouver apt-hunting tip: don't use craigslist unless you enjoy cattle calls. Try the classifieds in the newspapers, because then you eliminate as competition all the people too cheap to invest $1 in their housing search.

^^^ OTM 4 any city in the world tbh

not necessarily!

i should read this thread. my friend recently moved to vancouver so now i have an excuse to travel there once i'm making some money!!

flipside is that yr more likely to find apts run by vast property management conglomerates in the newspaper leaning toward the more expensive side of rentals. Use both.
Also, walk around neighbourhoods you want to live and look for "For rent" signs. That's how we found our current sweet-ass only-slighty-too-expensive pad.

i just like craigslist for the sheer volume. but, yeah, feel you on that. i'm going to look at a place at 15 and blenheim this week, for $950. when i say i want to live in point grey or kits, everyone i know in vancouver says i'm crazy and i should move to richmond.

i kinda resent the no out-of-towners vibe in vancouver apartment ads-- sometimes it's not so much a vibe as someone specifically stating, "no out-of-towners." i don't really want to give people an employment reference or get a credit check or sign a one year lease, either. fuckin vancouver.

those are not things you have to do normally???

how do they figure out how to approve people for apartments?

i am exposing myself as backwards and provincial. where i come from, we shake hands, sign a hastily prepared contract.

the crucial problem is that i don't have any credit and or a real job!

in my experience, most of the places that ask for CRAZY info never get back to you. Or maybe that's just because I refused to give out my SIN to any old property-owning creep. Dream big, there are good, reasonable places in every neighbourhood, but it can take a lot of legwork to find and secure them. But also, be open.
There's no reason to live in Richmond (tho now there's a train).
Have seen lots of FOR RENT signs on buildings between Oak and Granville between Broadway and 16th, which is sorta my hood, which I love. Close to Kits & Granville Island, easy access to downtown, UBC, lotsa nice heritage-y buildings.

thanks for the information and everything. (dr. superman, just read ur canlit piece in pd).

i've found lots of places! just gotta go see them. i've rented apartments in cities bigger than lil vancouver, and honestly never experienced a credit check as part of an apartment rental. still think that's some kinda bullshit.

it ran this ish? aw geez, I shoulda made a better effort to find a copy before I left on Thursday.

Credit checks are total bullshit. With vacancy rates what they traditionally are in this town, though, I guess they can get away with it.

yeah, our landlords be some ass-gougin' motherfuckers. but kits is awesome to live in, forget the east van snobbery. (point grey otoh is pretty boring, but hey close to wreck)

Vancouver-proper is small enough geographically that as long as you have a bike, you're fine.

got a 1 bdrm suite @ trimble / west 1st ave, $1000 util includ, month-to-month rent, am going to be broke but watch sunset from locarno beach everynight.

getting around vancouver by bike sounds very annoying!

NB: It's very easy and common to combine bike & transit, ie, Sometimes I "ride" my bike to the Sunshine Coast (ride, bus, bus, ferry, bus, ride; rince, repeat)

places i like in vancouver so far (food)：

王哥牛肉面 -- on cambie, around 41st, across from the mall (j2 shoes has a good sale on, got some pf flyers for $14), seats like 10 people, best beef noodles in the world, choose between 红烧 hongshao or 麻辣 mala and thin or wide noodles. not greasy at all and just spicy enough and the beef is in big chunks and falling apart but not too falling apart and it's got pickled mustard greens inside so it's just a bit sour. fucking good. they got some other little dishes, too... like, a little thing of 蒜泥白肉 suanni bairou for like 2 bucks.

barefoot kitchen -- 1725 davie street, yoshoku... my friend took me here. it's like, "japanese-style western food" but that doesn't really fully explain it. it's like the food the kid in earthbound would eat, if that explains it.

和平饭店 -- #110-532 west broadway went there just for 凉皮儿 COLD SKIN NOODLES gross, cause i think it's the only place you can get them in vancouver (wrong?). it's got good central chinese style noodles dishes.

hey vancouver,
i am so excited to come to your city, but i've got here and it is a monstrosity. i hastily arranged some accommodation and i guess i picked wrong; if anyone can tell me areas or even better places to stay, i'd be real appreciative and would no doubt re-write my snap judgement of your city. i'm roaming and broke so hostels/options that aren't in this downtown mess much appreciated x.

Are you downtown-downtown or Downtown Eastside-downtown? I don't know shit around hostels, sorry.

i am ... downtown like, granville-homer-nelson streets. it's like this cordoned off bullpen of neon bullrings and drinking holes. i'm going to go roam around and find like a park and something nice to see for a while but i'm still generally terrified. i'll work it out. any expertise about things to do appreciated anyhow; i dug your lists upthread (or on whichever thread they were on).

don't worry vancouver, everything's cool, it turns out your city was beautiful all along

was actually around homer/nelson this morning, with work. looked for you, but I don't know what you look like. So I figured I probably saw you.

go stay at Jericho Beach at the Hostel there. it's a great place to be, nice walking trails, close to UBC and the 4th Ave. shopping area. The weather should be nice this week so go walk the beaches.

yeah that bit of granville is no fun at all but it's easy to get away! take the SkyTrain in either direction, go to the West End or Kits or UBC or Commercial drive or Main Street or anywhere else.

re:　apartments again. why is everyone horrified when i say i'm moving to richmond? is the canada line ----->>> 99 bline commute to ubc that horrifying? my neighbor was even like, "one day, that thing [canada line] is going to break down, mark my words, i would hate to be stuck over there. i even hate going there," etc.

cons: commute will change from 10 minutes to ~45 minutes, won't be able to see ocean, walk to jericho beach, play in tidal pools.

pros: i kinda hate the whole vibe of 4th avenue, fair trade thai handicraft stores and new age bookshops and ubc fratboys and everyone has a porsche, and it's a fucking terrible, terrible place that sums up everything that sucks about vancouver. when i escape from that weird fourth ave/broadway corridor and get downtown or go to richmond, or even burnaby, i love the city. i mean, fucking love richmond, cheap food and good food (best food in canada is in richmond [and burnaby]), lots of pretty girls, good grocery stores (t&t and yaohan and lots of smaller places), good chinese bookstores (三联 in the aberdeen mall which has lots of hk shit, bought an hk published version of feidu on the weekend, and the one under superstore [the only entrance is from the superstore parking garage and it smells like car exhaust but], you can get pick up caijing magazine there or buy softcore porn), i know tons of people that live in richmond and i don't know anybody that lives on fucking dunbar street, CRUCIAL:　MY RENT WILL BE $400 CHEAPER, MY RENT WILL BE $400 CHEAPER, MY RENT WILL BE $400 CHEAPER. right across from parker place mall, right beside a canada line stop.

dude who cares if they're horrified, that's their problem. you seem to be pretty stoked on the idea of being in Richmond, it's affordable, and you know people there. give it a try and if it turns out it's as awful as everyone else seems to think it is, you can use all the $$ you've saved to move back to some other place that's more Vancouver-based.

they can't let any lines break down until after the Olympics, anyway. right?

i know i know, right, i'll let them be horrified. but i was just wondering what was at the root of it all, you know? richmond->van transit links are pretty good, i think. i'd hate to have to drive there everyday.

Coworker just asked if Vancouver is east or west of us (in Toronto). We were all shocked, so we asked her 'is Calgary east or west of us?' and she said west. And then we explained Vancouver is west of Calgary. Then she asked to clarify 'so does that make Vancouver east or west of us'

I don't know whether to hit her or hug her. She furthered clarified that she 'knows it's north of us' and when we kept laughing, she said she meant British Columbia, not just Vancouver. 0_0

hello! i'm visiting Vancouver (B.C.) for the first time next summer and am interested in seeing some shows.

what are the best venues in the city (or region, if need be)? big to small, punk to classical, mom & pop to Local Bank Group Amphitheater ... all are welcome.

thanks!

Best venue for 5 local scene bands doing 20 mins sets is Red Gate imo.

Lana Lous for 2 local bands playing for too long. Nice room.

Pats Pub have credible punk and jazz bills but otherwise the bands are hit and miss.

Best mid-sized venue for popular tourung bands is the Biltmore.

Pat's seems to have shitty bridge and tunnel metal bands playing half the time,or it did before I stopped going there to watch hockey because they would try and make me pay to see the shitty langley metal band that was going to play.

I like the biltmore ok,the rickshaw is fine (and close to me)

punk: black lab

toast collective my personal fav venue

Toast is great except it has no stage, no sound system, no lights, nowhere to sit down & the worst toilets and bar ever.

other than that!

it’s an underground venue *shrugs*

where are u seeing noise shows that has any of those things

the toilet at 333 was the worst in the city (rip)

so Red Gate, Lana Lous, Pat's Pub, Biltmore, Rickshaw, Black Lab, Toast

these all sound like indoor venues to me ... any killer outdoor spots that regularly have music (even if summer/good weather only)?

what's the best music festival or two in town?

there are some shows at the malkin bowl in stanley park in the summer. there are also shows in the suburbs in dear lake park in burnaby sometimes. i don't think there's any festival of interest in the greater vancouver area if you mean the big outdoor thing. there's a really awful looking thing called FVDED In The Park which takes place in surrey (another suburb)

The two outdoor music fests which come to mind are Khatsalano in July, and Victory Square in September. Both free. There are others - mostly local events. Eg. There are decent bands on car free days on main St. Not sure what the schedule is next year.That big fest in Stanley park (sasquatch?) is coming back next year. And the folk fest is a great time but pricey. Kinda worth it though.

Oh yeah folk fest

Xxxpost I wasnt too serious about the Toast. Very happy it exists but they could hugely improve things for the audience and the performers without much effort.