Yes, after living at my beloved Kuroiso die Kommune for six years, on June 1st, I’m finally moving out on my own. I would also like to report that looking for an apartment in Vancouver? Not much fun. Trying to get an apartment you like in your first-choice of neighbourhood in Vancouver? Also less than entertaining.
But I did it! Kind of, almost! At least, as well as could be expected. My new pad is a ground-floor two-bedroom in a house just off Main and 23rd, an easy bus, bike or walk to work. The neighbourhood is one of Vancouver’s oldest, which really isn’t all that old, given that the town was a few saw mills and a train station a hundred years ago. The area has gone from working-class immigrant neighbourhood, to middle-class homeowner neighbourhood, to somewhat-trendy but mostly-inexpensive student/artist/designer neighbourhood of coffee shops and vintage clothing, while keeping characteristics of all of them. It’s the kind of place where you can have a trendy faux-grunge fusion restaurant across the street from a real-grunge circa-1972 Greek-Canadian diner, or have a bustling Vietnamese pho shop across from a DIY art space, and not notice the disconnect. In other words, it’s “Vancouver’s hip strip.” And hipster d-bag that I am, I’m quite happy to be relocating there, though I will surely miss living at the kommune.