The Granville Island Hotel

Granville Island named best neighbourhood in N. America

By Joel Baglole

Vancouver's Granville Island has been named North America's best neighbourhood by a New York-based community development organization.

In achieving its first-place status, Granville Island beat out other well-known and popular North American neighbourhoods such as New York's East Village, the Lower Garden District of New Orleans, South Beach in Miami, California's Venice Beach, and Kensington Market in downtown Toronto.

The honour was bestowed by the Project for Public Spaces, a non-profit organization based in New York City that is dedicated to "creating and sustaining public places that build communities," says the group's website. The Project for Public Spaces, which was founded in 1974, receives funding from the Kellogg Foundation and the Ford Foundation in the U.S.

The organization recently ranked the 20 best neighbourhoods, districts and downtowns in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and singled out Granville Island as North America's best public space.

"Granville Island is a great destination," Fred Kent, president of the Project for Public Spaces, said Wednesday from his home in Brooklyn. "We picked Granville Island because of the whole neighbourhood and the island itself. Granville Island is all local entrepreneurs, local artists and local businesses. It's become a focal point for the whole neighbourhood around False Creek."

City hall says Granville Island is the region's second most-popular tourist attraction after Stanley Park.

"Granville Island is the jewel in the crown of False Creek," said Michael Gordon, the city's senior planner for downtown. "What's unique about Granville Island is that it's not just tourist-driven. Vancouver residents can go to Granville Island and visit a park, play with their kids, shop at a market, have dinner. Do whatever they want, really."

Lino Siracusa, director of Granville Island, said he was "honored" by the recognition. "We're quite proud and humbled to be named with such a great group of spaces in North America," he said.

Regarding what makes Granville Island unique, Siracusa said: "It's the diversity of activities. We have activities during the day in the evening. We don't have the large commercial uses, so people can relate to Granville Island in a very intimate way."

Granville Island, owned by the federal government, was an industrial site until 1978, when Vancouver city council and the federal minister of urban affairs Ron Basford, Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre, decided to develop it. Ottawa invested $25 million into the island's redevelopment. Private sector investors also contributed, said Siracusa.

Today, Granville Island is managed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation on behalf of the federal government. A Granville Island Trust advises CMHC on future development of the site and to "ensure we remain connected to the community," Siracusa said.

The Granville Island Hotel