my hood

which is a good time to introduce my hood. yo.
i live in the area known as "the drive", which is on and around commercial drive. before i left melbourne missmojay told me i had to come hang out here. she described it as a cross between brunswick st and sydney rd and said i would love it. on ya, missymojay!

the drive has a high concentration of coffee shops and alternative types, as well as increasing numbers of yuppies toting lululemon yoga mats. the wikipedia entry is quite entertaining, check it out. it says we have lots of ethnic people, public transport and street festivals. also that "The Drive is a popular place for Vancouverites who want to experience a safe version of North American counter-culture."

i love the drive cos it has good food and coffee, lots of queers and other cool people, lots of fun stuff happening, lots of parks and lots of my friends living down here. my hood also has

murals

mountains visible all over

independent supermarkets (this is santa barbaras)

co-op bookshops, groceries and housing

decorated houses (i think the bottom bit looks very blake-ian)

random chalking
garage sales

but look what they did to my closest park! luckily there's half a dozen other parks in walking distance, and according to the plans we found at the local palestinian restaurant, they're doing good things to this park. though they have moved the bocce courts, which is going to anger the old italian men.

there's traffic calmed streets

with interesting graffiti (that says "democracy is for bitches")

i have a t-shirt made by this screenprinter

this is one of my favourite bits of graff (the other is these huge posters of light switches under bridges - so cool)

and local loonies

there's also lots of homeless people, and drugs (though the marijuana shop got shut down) and there was a shooting in a cafe a month ago (gang related), so it's not perfect, but perfect places are creepy. i love my hood.

yo.