By: David Drucker

David Drucker — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 06:05:00 +0000

I live about 1/4 mile from Granville Island. I do much of my grocery shopping there, and teach at Emily Carr University. Often in the evening or on weekends, I’ll find myself there for theatre (such as the annual Fringe Festival, which just finished up this past week) or other leisure activities. The Island is pretty much the centre of my life these days.
As an ardent Granville Island fan and ‘participant’ in the activities that take place there, I can say without any doubt that it has changed my life – and my diet – profoundly. I now understand what it means to buy food ‘in season’, and to know the person who sold it to you (as well as their background, personality and family). When I have to shop in supermarkets, I’m now struck by the harsh fluorescent lighting and frigid temperatures, the acres of polyethylene wrap and styrofoam. The food is fair, but one never gets the feeling that it came from a farm, but perhaps some kind of food factory.It’s fine to talk about a place as a tourist attraction (and I’m sometimes bemused by the hordes of visitors who come to take pictures of cherries and peaches stacked in the stalls while I’m trying to get some celery or other non-glamorous veggies), but what makes this a destination is a depth of authenticity. Granville Island is not a Disney-esque veneer of fun and social engineering. It’s a real, working, ecosystem of merchants, artisans (working in everything from bread to clothing, glass and metal) and patrons. It’s hard to imagine what makes it so special, but perhaps its partly what it lacks: There are no corporate chain stores, packaging and conformity. The market, as well as the University, concrete factory, hotel, and other major tenants of the island, are all healthy and robust concerns, and in no way there ‘just for show’. It is beautiful because it is _real_. I would have like to have seen it when it was born in 1979, but now, today, it is not a show for visitors to gawk at. I saw plenty of that in the US (I lived in Boston for many years and suffered through the city’s attempts at ’Ye Olde Themepark’ in the downtown, with 4th of July parades in Colonial dress going past the Starbucks). Granville Island is human creativity and activity without large businesses, and I suppose that now, that’s something of a novelty worth traveling to see.

By: Xuecollege

Xuecollege — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:49:00 +0000

when is the discussion about how the mix of activities has evolved and how Granville Island provides its visitors with a unique experience will be showed??

Comments on: How Granville Island Came to Be

By: David Drucker

By: Xuecollege