Dunbar Street’s first store was Scott’s Grocery at 4531 Dunbar near 29th Avenue. Established in 1922, it was a general store that stocked daily necessities for locals. Photo from Vancouver City Archives.
By Carol Volkart
Dunbar’s shopping area has been the beating heart of the community since its earliest days. Now, more than 100 years after the first store opened on Dunbar Street in 1922, the heart of our community is slowing and struggling.
On Friday, residents are invited to a community discussion about Dunbar’s shopping area – its lively past, its current state, and what should happen there in the future.
“Dunbar has always been the place to meet neighbours, just as much as to shop,” says Carmen Smith, who began organizing discussion groups about issues of local concern a few months ago. Called Neighbours’ Cafes, this one will be in room 111 at the Dunbar Community Centre at 10 a.m. on July 25.
This session was prompted by concerns about the large number of closed businesses and underused commercial sites along Dunbar Street, a long-term problem here and in Point Grey. Previous media coverage has attributed it to skyrocketing commercial property values, taxes and rents; a shrinking and aging population; a high level of vacant or underused homes; unaffordable prices for families, and changes in shopping habits.
Adding urgency is the city’s new plan to create “villages,” some quite close to Dunbar Street, that would encourage new retail nearby. Critics have warned that adding new retail will threaten already struggling businesses in existing commercial areas.
“All the closed-down businesses make it harder for people to get what they need without driving or taking the bus, and over time, dampens the spirit of the community,” says Smith of the current state of Dunbar. “I hope we can discuss how to make it easier for stores to survive and to bring that spirit back.”
The importance of Dunbar Street to the community goes back to the early 1920s, when Dunbar’s commercial district was developing, according to retired UBC professor Larry Moore, a Dunbarite who contributed a chapter to the 2007 book, The Story of Dunbar.
The three stops on the streetcar line “were the centres not only of commerce, but also of community life,” he wrote. “Until 1958, when the community centre was built, residents gathered at stores within walking distance of their homes to shop and converse. Their local buying patterns speak to a time of fewer consumer goods, more self-sufficiency, and face-to-face contact that forged bonds among a smaller population.”
Moore’s chapter traced the waxing and waning of Dunbar Street, a lesson in how businesses are affected by the world around them, and how they must adjust, die or spring up anew to serve changing populations and different needs.
The little convenience stores that served the daily needs of householders in the 1920s before cars or refrigeration were common became rarer when people could drive downtown for a big weekly shop. When people had more money and leisure, specialty shops such as dressmakers and beauty salons sprang up. During the 1930s, despite the Depression, the number of shops on Dunbar shot up to 146 from 58.
Dunbar merchants had to adjust again after the Second World War, when families “had more disposable income than ever before,” and were looking for the exciting new goods and services available in that era. “By the mid-50s, it was unusual for a Dunbar family not to have an automobile, a refrigerator, a washing machine and a record player,” Moore wrote.
Over the next 45 years, Dunbar became a “quiet, stable, urban neighbourhood,” with the main street seeing a slow decline in the absolute number of businesses. The peak was in 1950, when Dunbar Street had 167 businesses; the following decades saw gradual decreases until there were 135 in the year 2000.
Looking at 2000 and the years beyond, Moore had an inkling of the problems to come. Already there were complaints about the look and feel – and prices – of the new four-storey residential/commercial buildings going up along Dunbar. Some retail spaces in those buildings had been vacant for at least two years, possibly because of “unattractive, expensive lease demands,” Moore wrote.
Some residents were unhappy about the architecture of those buildings, complaining that they lacked distinctive features, and looked the same as what was being built everywhere. Residents feared more of this type of development would mean “less of the personal special service that in the past has made this a good place not only to shop but to spend time,” Moore wrote.
Rising rental rates, property assessments and taxes were already forcing some established businesses to close or move to cheaper places. Long-timers told the media they feared that the area would lose its “village feel” if only high-profit-margin businesses could survive.
Perhaps most telling of all is what residents and business people said they wanted for Dunbar’s commercial area when they were surveyed for a community planning program in 1997. The resulting Community Vision was approved by Vancouver City Council in 1998.
Here’s what the Community Vision said about local priorities for Dunbar’s commercial area:
– Dunbar residents greatly value its safe, green village-like atmosphere and see this quality as what makes Dunbar special. They want to preserve this uniqueness in the face of change which is often seen as unwelcome and unneighbourly.
– Dunbar Street shopping districts should provide a community focus and a more attractive ‘face’ for the community.
– Changes should come about with a high level of community involvement to ensure that they enhance the community and serve residents of all ages.
– The variety of small shops and services at the sidewalk edge should be continued with gaps filled in.
– Pedestrian improvements should include safer crossings, benches, plantings, and a community plaza.
It’s telling as well that Dunbar’s Community Vision was repealed by the current Vancouver City Council in 2023. It was among 72 similar community plans repealed, mostly on the grounds that they were outdated and superseded by more recent policy directions.