Strathcona

Strathcona is considered to be the oldest residential neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is surrounded by Burrard Inlet towards the north, the Canadian National Railway and the Great Northern Railway, now called the BNSF Railway classification yards to the south, Chinatown to the west, and Clark Drive to the east.

In Strathcona, there are currently about 8,000 people. Throughout the boom years after the founding of the city, the region truly began to bloom. This population growth was partly due from the choice of early Vancouver as a railway terminus. The district emerged from the initial settlement that grew around Hastings Mill.

Strathcona has consistently been a working class district. The people who call the area home come from numerous ethnic backgrounds. Where 61% of the individuals report Chinese as their first language, it is the only neighborhood where English is not the most normally spoken language, and just 24 percent report English as their first language.

Over the last few years, there has been a significant gentrification process in Strathcona, which has reinforced the economic disparity of the district. Fairly a few Strathcona houses have been designated as heritage homes, because their late 19th and early 20th century architecture is relatively rare within the city. Particularly, the housing stock is being renovated and rejuvenated. Hence, property values have increased and wealthier home owners are being drawn into the area. Many homeowners have renovated their houses in the original Edwardian or Victorian styles, like for instance paying particular attention to the time period's "true colors".