Riley Park in the 1970s
Learn about Riley Park in the 1970s!
Hello friends!
I hope that everyone has been having a lovely Spring!
This issue has two stories. First, I wrote about Riley Park’s “Neighbourhood Improvement Project” in 1974, which led to a lot of changes and the overall beautification of Main Street. I found some great photos showing the neighbourhood in the 70s and 80s, including a picture of the infamous 1970s-era ‘Riley Park Gang’.
Second, I chatted with one of our neighbours, Maria, about her experience in the neighbourhood and her fractional HR business.
Before you dig into the articles, a reminder that I’d love to talk to people in the neighbourhood about their experiences here! Do you have photos of the neighbourhood from the past? Did you grow up here? Do want to chat about what you remember about the neighbourhood? Reach out and let me know!
All the best,
Christine
The 1970s and the Riley Park “Neighbourhood Improvement Plan”
Today, the City of Vancouver describes Riley Park as an area with “thriving hubs of unique boutiques, grocers, and restaurants.” But, in the mid-1970s, the Canadian federal government had identified Riley Park as a high priority area for a “Neighbourhood Improvement Program.” These programs were initiatives to allocate funds to help improve and conserve selected Canadian neighbourhoods.
Riley Park got about $1.9 million, but we had to figure out what we wanted to do with that money. The program required residents to be involved in planning, budgeting, and carrying out the project. The plan then needed to be approved by the city council, the provincial government, and the CMHC.
According to data collected for the Plan, in the 1970s, Riley Park was described as a “stable, family, and youth-oriented neighbourhood with below city-average incomes, above city-average unemployment, and distinct ethnic diversity.” We had a higher than average population of people from German, South and Eastern European, Chinese, and South Asian backgrounds.
However, Riley Park was also known for the ‘Riley Park Gang,’ who were described as “a pack of ‘tough’ kids who throw their weight around the Little Mountain area.” (If you’re interested, there is a book called The Last Gang in Town by Aaron Chapman that talks about the history of the gangs of East Van, although the Clark Park gang gets a lot of the attention.)
While the Riley Park Youth Project, formed in 1973, was credited with helping stop kids from joining the gang, Riley Park still had a reputation associated with delinquency.
The Neighbourhood Improvement Project was a chance to change that reputation. Paul Roberts, who was the director of the Riley Park Youth Project in 1973, said in a press interview in 1977: “There’s a lack of things for kids to do here, the families have no money to spend on the kids.”
So, given funding to help the neighbourhood, the people of Riley Park came up with thirty-nine specific improvements that they wanted for the neighbourhood, mostly focused on activities and education for kids and families as well as seniors.
The big project of the improvement plan that you would recognize today was the creation of the Little Mountain Neighbourhood House in 1978. There was also an expansion of the Riley Park recreation complex as well as improvements to Riley Park, Cartier Park, and Prince Edward Park. Further, there was a Main Street beautification project that landscaped, put in better sidewalks, benches, drinking fountains, and lighting all along Main Street.
Here are a few pictures from Main Street in 1974, where you can see that there aren’t many streetlights or plantings along the street.
Now, here are some photos from 1982, where you can see the implementation of the beautification project. There are now trees planted regularly along the street, nicer sidewalks, and more regular streetlights.
You can see in these photos that some of the buildings that we know and love from the neighbourhood today are present in the early 80s, like the building with Stadium Market, the Antique Store at 28th and Main, and Helen’s Grill. But, of course, there still doesn’t look to be any buildings taller than about 3 stories.
Below are the only photos I found where there were pictures of the same location in both time periods. It’s a headquarters for the NDP in Little Mountain. On the left, you can see it in 1974 and, on the right, in about 1985. It’s also clear that, by 1985, it now has buildings on both sides of Hillcrest Hall as Main Street gets more developed.
If you have any photos of the neighbourhood from the 1970s and 80s (or, honestly, any point in its history), please reach out! I’d also love to hear from you if you have memories of the changes during the 1970s and the Neighbourhood Improvement Project.
Maria Marcakis and Fractional HR
Maria grew up in Surrey, but moved to the Riley Park neighbourhood about ten years ago. She lives around 19th and Main and has enjoyed watching the neighbourhood change. She runs her own small business doing “Fractional HR,” which helps expanding businesses owners and non-profits with their HR operations.
You can find her business at https://mariamarcakis.com/. She took a slightly winding path to HR, which has clearly taught her a lot about people and organizations. Her education actually focused on Policy and Political Science, but she began working in HR at a visual effects studio in about 2015. She loved working in film and television and she ended up working at several studios, both small and large.
Maria left behind her full time office work to stay home with her kids, but didn’t want to leave it behind completely. She started working as an HR consultant for small companies and non-profits who didn’t necessarily need a full-time person, but who needed help creating HR processes as they hired more people. She loves helping businesses create people-focused systems to help them scale up.
She’s gotten more and more involved in the neighbourhood over the past decade. She had her second kid a couple of months before the Covid shutdowns of 2020 and started using FB more to find community. She found the Riley Park Buy Nothing group through the Riley Park community group and got hooked. She loved the idea of Buy Nothing: second hand things to reduce waste and spending.
Although ten years isn’t THAT long, it was great to chat with her about how the neighbourhood has changed. A lot of it is gentrification, which has its positives and negatives. She reminisced about An and Chi when it was a local Pho place, before the Michelin star, and about the great sandwiches at the deli that was in the location that now hosts Published.
I asked her to recommend some of her favourite places in the neighbourhood. She loves Coffee Date at 21st and Main for working and she suggested the sandwiches at Chef Claire’s, a catering place that also carries ready-made meals and sandwiches.
As always, thanks so much for subscribing! If you have something about Riley Park history that you’d like me to research or you’d like to be interviewed, please reach out! (And a reminder that, while this is a labour of love, I do also write newsletters professionally if that’s a service you need!)