Michael Kluckner’s latest BC bestseller Here & Gone: Artwork of Vancouver & Beyond is gorgeous. One half is filled with his paintings of disappearing Vancouver (Here) and the other of his travels in countries such as Australia, Cuba, Mexico and Japan (Gone).
Missing Heritage:
In the introduction to Here, he writes: “I see myself as a witness, certainly not an activist anymore or a serious historian.” I served on the board of the Vancouver Historical Society with Michael for several years and I see him as all these things. I asked him to explain.
“I didn’t have any sense or feeling that I could save anything by doing any of the paintings and I thought I’m just going to pick up these weird little buildings that will tell the story for me in one way or another,” he says. “This is not a city where influential people care.”
Death of the corner store:
Michael’s Vancouver includes buried houses, legacy buildings, laneway houses and corner stores.
“People have memories of going to the corner store and a lot of them in Vancouver were right next door to schools,” he says.
In the 1970s and ‘80s corporate-owned chains like 7-Eleven and Macs popped up and killed off many of the corner stores right around the time when we needed them the most. Because as well as giving immigrants from China, Japan, Italy and elsewhere a foothold in the city, they were somewhere you could walk to, meet your neighhours and support local amid the growth of impersonal big box stores selling “Made in China” goods.
making a come back?
“There was a move by city planners to get rid of the corner stores—not get rid of them altogether—but to get them out of the neighbourhoods and onto main streets. Now when we find one in the neighbourhood we just go ‘wow is that ever fabulous’,” he says. “The remaining ones are practically on life support, but there is finally a move in the city to give them a little support.”
And it does seem that the corner store is making a comeback (I can think of four in North Vancouver), just not necessarily back to their grocery roots. Some have been repurposed into cafés, an antique store, a B&B, and some sell jewelry and art.
The buildings that house these stores aren’t fancy, but many are over 100 years old, and are part of the disappearing fabric of Vancouver. In other words, the corner stores tell the story of displacement, immigration, how the city grew up around the streetcar lines and community.
Here is a list of places where you can buy Here & Gone
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