MAY 2017VIRGIN AUSTRALIA 091T’S 24 DEGREES Celsius on Main Street in the aptly
named Mount Pleasant, an elevated neighbourhood
that afords postcard views of Vancouver. From the right
vantage point up here on this early summer Sunday
afternoon, the jewel-like ‘City of Glass’ shimmers like
a Canadian Manhattan, its skyscrapers humbled by the
immovable backdrop of the North Shore Mountains.
Sated by gluten-free eggs Benedict, a group of
floppy-hatted millennials exit locavore eatery Burdock
& Co, their parade of denim cut-ofs signalling the end of
brunch service. As they make their way a few blocks north-east
to congregate at Dude Chilling Park (yes, that’s its real name),
they pass under the city’s most famous piece of graiti. In block
letters it reads: “Keep Vancouver Wet”. It is a nod to how it rains
an average of 168 days a year here. This is not one of those days.
In fact, keeping Vancouver anything is a tall order right
now. After being lauded for years as a beacon of ‘livability’,
Vancouver currently holds the dubious distinction of having
the third least afordable housing market in the world, behind
Hong Kong and Sydney. It happened in the wake of hosting the
2010 Winter Olympic Games, and it happened fast.