The Globe and Mail

Think of Granville Island as downtown Vancouver in miniature. Like the place across False Creek we now have come to call "the downtown peninsula," Granville Island was once truly an island — a sand bar, truth be known. The 20th century saw bridges connect the area that had become a maritime industrial zone to the rest of the city. Like downtown, Granville Island was pretty scruffy looking until Liberal federal governments of the 1970s invested $20-million to improve infrastructure and streetscapes. We all know Granville Island's resulting urban argot: wooden docks alive with cadging seagulls; seagoing-grade bollards, posts, sign-pipes and street lighting done up in the bright primary colours of light industrial drag; sidewalks banned in the name of egalitarian hippie anarchy, with cars, pedestrians, and buskers all passing within inches of each other.