Eve Lazarus
June is Italian heritage month, and this year Italian Days was held on Sunday June 9, 2024
I hate crowds, so I can’t give you a first-hand account of Italian Days this year. Having watched a couple of YouTube videos though, I can tell you that it was a gorgeous day that drew thousands of people to eat, drink and be entertained on Commercial Drive in what the Italians (or possibly City Hall) are billing as the largest cultural street festival in Vancouver.
Arthur Erickson is featured in an exhibition at the West Vancouver Art Museum with photos by Selwyn Pullan
I dropped by the West Vancouver Art Museum Wednesday and joined a tour led by curator, Hilary Letwin. If you haven’t been there before, the Museum is by the Municipal Hall on 17th Street, just off Marine Drive, and housed in a funky stone house built by Gertrude Lawson in 1939.
Thirty years ago today, I was the lucky Vancouver Sun reporter sent out to Surrey to ride the Skytrain downtown at the end of the Stanley Cup final. It didn’t matter who won (we lost 3-2 to the New York Rangers) everyone it seems except police, knew that there was going to be a riot.
Former Vancouver Sun crime reporter, Neal Hall, guest blogs about one of Vancouver’s most controversial cases. Thirty five years after 44-year-old Cindy James was found dead, people still wonder – was it suicide or murder?
By Neal Hall
The most bizarre case I ever encountered in my 30-plus years as a reporter, was the case of Cindy James.
Pam Neufeld runs a YouTube channel called Missing in BC. She came across a photo of Sharon McKenzie-Cramond on the Vancouver Police Department website Vancouver Missing Persons and was surprised when she searched for information and found nothing. Pam did a story on her channel in an attempt to get more information and connected with Sharon’s older brother Patrick Cramond, a now retired UBC instructor and engineer.
I found this charming little postcard dated August 7, 1904 while trolling Vancouver Archive’s website. It’s written to a Miss L.M. Woodrow “With every good wish for your birthday, from Emily.”
Second CPR station
I loved the picture of the second CPR station that briefly sat at the foot of Granville Street, and I wanted to know a little about Emily and the postcard’s recipient, Miss L.M.
1967:
It’s been 57 years since the first Stanley Park Easter Be-In. A local take on the be-in that had taken place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park two months before and set the tone for the Summer of Love.
Vancouver’s event was much smaller, but about a thousand hippies, and three times as many onlookers, turned up at Ceperley Park near Second Beach in March 1967, wearing colourful beaded vests with jeans and tattered evening gowns, even monk and clown costumes.
False Creek:
False Creek is a realtor’s dream. It’s a model of sustainability, with housing options—that include the condos and townhouses in the Olympic Village—a school, a seawall for walking and running and biking, and a waterway filled on any given day with kayaks and canoes and dragon boats. The neighbourhood has fitness facilities, outdoor play areas, breweries and artistic venues—even a science centre left over from the heyday of Expo 86.
