Cambie Street is a street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is named for Henry John Cambie, chief surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway's western division (as is Cambie Road, a major thoroughfare in nearby Richmond).
There are two distinct sections of the street. North of False Creek, the street runs on a northeast-southwest alignment (following the rotated street grid within downtown Vancouver). As such, the street actually runs perpendicular to the Cambie Street Bridge, and there is no seamless connection between the two. Instead, Nelson Street carries southbound traffic onto the bridge, and Smithe Street carries northbound traffic away from the bridge. The downtown section of Cambie Street runs from Water Street in Gastown in the north to Pacific Boulevard in Yaletown in the south and is a two-way street for its length.
South of False Creek, the street is a major 6-lane arterial road, and runs as a 2-way north-south thoroughfare according to the street grid for the rest of Vancouver. Between King Edward Avenue West and Southwest Marine Drive, the street has a 10 metre wide boulevard with grass and many well established trees on it.
When proposals to build the SkyTrain Canada Line subway (formerly known as the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver or RAV Line) along Cambie Street first emerged, they were heavily protested by residents and business owners who wanted to keep the street as a heritage boulevard. They argued in favour of using the existing Arbutus Street rail corridor instead.
Once the decision was made to use the Cambie alignment for the Canada Line anyway, residents along the corridor successfully persuaded authorities to put the rail line in a tunnel instead of running it as a surface route, and to dig the tunnel using a tunnel boring machine. However due to cost concerns, the government decided to use a cut-and-cover method to build the tunnel - which introduced disruption to traffic and business along the corridor during the construction. As such, even though it cost less than using a tunnel boring machine[citation needed], the plan drew heavy criticism from area residents and businesses, and affected business owners launched a class action suit against the government.[citation needed]
Gregor Robertson, who later became the mayor of Vancouver, was a strong supporter of Cambie Street merchants and spoke regularly about hardships from the Canada Line construction.[1] He called the handling of the rail line construction an "injustice."[2]
On March 23, 2009 Robertson testified in a lawsuit brought by the Cambie Street merchant Susan Heyes, owner of Hazel & Co., in the B.C. Supreme Court regarding damage to her business from the construction,[1] a lawsuit for which she was awarded $600,000 by the B.C. Supreme Court due in part to the fact that there was insufficient action to mitigate the effects of Canada Line construction on Cambie Street merchants.[3] On the Canada Line opening day of August 17, 2009 Robertson said Greater Vancouver needed more rapid transit but the Canada Line was a "great start" and that he was a "Johnny-come-lately" to the project.[4]
During the years 2006 to 2009 portions of the street south of False Creek were closed to traffic to allow for construction of the line.[citation needed] The cut-and-cover tunnel runs underneath the east side of the street for most of its route. South of West 63rd Avenue, the line emerges from the tunnel and runs on an elevated structure across the Fraser River.

What’s a planner to do when a city neighbourhood is close to perfect? Venerable Mount Pleasant, considered Vancouver’s first suburb because of its proximity to the downtown core and early 20th-century popularity as a place to live, has its issues, but also earns pretty high praise from the city’s assistant director of planning.

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“In a lot of ways, it has many of the aspects of an ideal neighborhood,” Matt Shillito says. “When planners talk about trying to create successful communities, we look for diversity. Mount Pleasant has that in its DNA.”

Diversity in the 364 hectares means a jam-packed whirlwind of residents of varied ages, ethnic groups and income, as well as restaurants, coffee shops, bars, book shops and antique stores.

Big brands such as Starbucks, Subway, Blockbuster and Dairy Queen are there, but so are a surprising number of independent stores and eateries.

Aaron Kafka planted Kafka’s Coffee and Tea in the midst of it all, opening metres from the bustling Main Street and Broadway intersection that is the unofficial heart of the neighbourhood.

He signed a lease a year ago, unfazed that Tim Hortons would soon be a neighbour, and says he is thriving despite the competition. “That’s one of the central forces of the neighborhood – independent business,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons people like the area.”

Mount Pleasant also includes Vancouver’s art deco-ish city hall, opened in 1936, and looming over tree-lined streets of early 20th-century homes.

That’s at one end of the community. Toward the other end, a block or so north of Kafka’s, is the beloved Mount Pleasant Community Centre, opened in late 2009. The vast complex is a people magnet for its library, daycare centre, gym and meeting rooms.

There are many reasons to stick around, but it’s also an easy place to leave. It is touched by the Expo SkyTrain line, the newer $2-billion Canada Line linking the airport and Richmond to the downtown core and heavy bus service along Broadway and Main Street.

All these qualities have helped to sustain Wayne Yee’s affection for Mount Pleasant. He lives in a condo near Main and Broadway, but came to the area as a renter 15 years ago.

Back then, it had a rough side. “Drugs and prostitution were still a little bit prevalent around the edges,” he says. “ . . . But within a decade, it had cleaned up or cleared out.”

That part of the past is gone, but Mr. Yee likes the way the older homes in the area have been preserved, as well as the way the neighborhood is laid out to easily get around.

“It’s walkable to go out to eat. It’s walkable to go out for a drink after work with friends. If you’re so inclined, it’s even accessible to downtown,” says Mr. Yee, who works as a manager for the City of Richmond.

“I’ve lived there long enough where it’s kind of like the King of Kensington,” he says, referring to the 1970s-era CBC sitcom. “You walk down the street and there’s something really comforting about being able to walk into businesses, and people know you by face and name.”

Not that everything is perfect. There are controversial plans to build a 19-storey condo complex that have riled many, who deem the project way out of scale for the neighbourhood. Seven storeys have been cut off the original plans, but the debate continues.

“I have to accommodate growth,” Mr. Shillito says of the community, “without undermining the basic fundamentals.”

Ian Bailey is a member of The Globe and Mail’s Vancouver bureau – and a resident of Mount Pleasant

Metro Vancouver ranked fifth among Canadian cities on CIBC World Markets' third-quarter 2011 index of national metropolitan economic activity, which was released Thursday.

That was an improvement on its previous, thanks to above-average population growth, job creation and employment quality.

"While improving recently, the unemployment rate is still relatively high, just one tick below the national average, while the pace of real estate activity is starting to slow," CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal said.

Toronto ranked No. 1 on the CIBC list once again because of its population growth and the quality of the employment available for workers.

Toronto showed the fastest economic momentum in the third quarter of 2011 of any of the 25 census metropolitan areas included in the index, with an index of 23.0, its highest level in more than 10 years, according to the report, which is compiled twice a year.

"What's so impressive about the ranking of Toronto in our current reading is that not that the city is once again ranked first among the country's largest 25 metropolitan areas, but the fact that it has been in the top five for more than six consecutive years, with the only exception being the 2009 recession, when Toronto slipped to the seventh place," Tal said.

Nine areas are considered for the rankings:population growth, employment growth, unemployment rate, full-time share in total employment, personal bankruptcy rate, business bankruptcy rate, housing starts, MLS housing resales and non-residential building permits. While Toronto didn't lead in any of those areas, "the consistent strong performance of Toronto across most of the nine key macroeconomic variables reflects the growing diversity of the city's economic engine," Tal said.

Edmonton was in second place, a big jump from its 11th-place showing in the first quarter, thanks mainly to its strong labour market —employment rose almost eight per cent in the third quarter, outstripping other CMAs, the report notes, while the quality of the employment ranks fourth out of the 25 cities. Annual population growth of 1.7 per cent is just behind Toronto's 1.8 per cent, and well above the national average, while numbers of bankruptcies remain low.

Kitchener, Ont., was in third place, due to population growth, construction activity and relatively high quality of employment.

Halifax rose to fourth place in the third quarter from eighth place in the first because while it wasn't leading in any of sectors, "it ranked high enough in many categories" to boost it into the top five, said Tal. "The city enjoyed a relatively healthy population growth while the labour market is performing somewhat above average. The real estate market is well-balanced, with housing starts rising by well over 40 per cent (year-over-year) in the third quarter of 2011."

Vancouver filled out the top five, rising from seventh spot in the previous rankings due to above-average population growth, job creation and employment quality.

"While improving recently, the unemployment rate is still relatively high, just one tick below the national average, while the pace of real estate activity is starting to slow," Tal noted.

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TABLE

CIBC Metropolitan Economic Activity Index (2011 Q3)

Rank CMA

1. Toronto

2. Edmonton

3. Kitchener, Ont.

4. Halifax

5. Vancouver

6. Ottawa

7. Montreal

8. Regina

9. Calgary

10. Trois-Rivieres, Que.

11. Quebec City

12. Winnipeg

13. St. John's

14. Hamilton

15. Sherbrooke, Que.

16. Kingston, Ont.

17. Saint John

18. Sudbury, Ont.

19. Saskatoon

20. Victoria

21. St. Catherines-Niagara, Ont.

22. London, Ont.

23. Windsor, Ont.

24. Saguenay, Que.

25. Thunder Bay, Ont.

Source: CIBC World Markets

BY KIM COVERT, FINANCIAL POST