This page has received information over the past 24 hours (mostly by looking at the corner of Scotia Street and Broadway as I went by) that, in fact, Starbucks Coffee is opening a location in my neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant.
For those of you scoring at home, the arrival of Starbucks may jeopardize our reputation for being what many Vancouverites generously refer to as a 'bad part of town.' We gained this reputation as the result of ugly episodes like the Fortune Happiness Restaurant shooting about a year ago, and a brawl involving golf clubs and baseball bats a couple of years ago. The new Starbucks is on the former of site of a former strip club (with the unfortunate name Uranus Lounge) which was notorious for violent gang activity. Even the former Safeway at Kingsgate Mall had its own holding cell for the high volume of shoplifters a couple of decades ago.
Put these isolated incidents together and one is left with the impression that my neighbours and I live in some dystopic urban warzone hellhole. I've actually heard Mount Pleasant described as a 'ghetto' described by travellers on the 99-B Line as they make their way to the Skytrain and the far more opulent, crime-free environs of Surrey. Before anyone becomes overly concerned for my safety, it should also be pointed out that this page hasn't seen a prostitute at the corner of Fraser and Broadway for over a year, and the closest thing I've seen to violence in a long time are the crowds of eight-year olds jostling for position on the playground equipment at Sahali Park.
However, all of us in Mount Pleasant can breathe a sigh of relief because the Mermaid is coming to save us from ourselves. I can't imagine how we've been able to get by with coffee from such independent cafes as Our Town, Lugz, and the new Javalicious, all within a couple of blocks from each other, plus local chains like Cuppa Joe and Waves Coffee. Apparently, small businesses have failed in gentrifying East Vancouver quickly enough, and only corporate titans like Starbucks can stop the violence, stop the madness, and make us speak that annoying Neo-Latin one requires to actually order anything at Starbucks.
3 comments:
I want to put up a plaque honoring the new Starbucks on Broadway and Scotia as the "Former home of the historic Uranus Ultralounge, home to East Vancouver's finest exotic entertainment from ____ - 2006".
Exact dates would be appreciated.
Is that what they're putting in there? Christ, go on vacation for two weeks and the whole area goes to hell.
I seem to recall it used to be a nightclub. I have a vague memory of seeing either Age of Electric or another local band there in the early 90's.
Oh well, if I want a coffee anytime soon, there's always Renos.
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