Strathcona

The residential district of Strathcona within Vancouver is considered one of the city's oldest neighbourhood. The district is bordered by the BNSF Railway (the Canadian National Railway and the Great Northern Railway) towards the south, the Burrard Inlet to the north, Chinatown to the west and Clarke Drive to the east.

Within Strathcona, there are presently roughly 8,000 people. During the boom years after the founding of the city, the area truly began to bloom. This population growth was partially due from the choice of early Vancouver as a railway station. The neighborhood emerged from the first settlement which grew around Hastings Mill.

The area of Strathcona has conventionally been a working class neighbourhood, with a lot of its residents being from numerous ethnic backgrounds. Where 61% of the people report Chinese as their mother tongue, it is the only district where English is not the most commonly spoken language, and only 24 percent report English as their first language.

There has been a major gentrification process within Strathcona over the recent years, reinforcing the economic disparity of the neighborhood. A lot of the residences within Strathcona are designated heritage homes because the late 19th and early part of the 20th century architecture within the area is relatively rare within Vancouver. In particular, the housing stock is being renovated and rejuvenated. As a result, there has been an increase in property value and wealthier home owners are being drawn into the region. Numerous homeowners have renovated their homes in the original Edwardian or Victorian styles, like for example paying precise attention to the time period's "true colors".