So there was nowhere to park back then either, eh?

We had street cars in Saskatoon. They disappeared around the same time as Vancouver's. Sad.

my Dad bought his first investment property bac in 1972 in west vancouver for $135K, sold it a year ago for $14 mil. He was keep saying he should have bought that property 1965 when it was 100K and put his 35K on another one in surrey. in fast he was able to get 2x 20,000sqf houses there. i will send him this video , thank you

This was when life was simpler and definitely nicer. For sure they had problems, but it seemed like better times. My mum was born in 1953. She said it was amazing growing up in Vancouver in the 50s and 60s. They lived near Victoria and Marine. They were pretty poor growing up from what she said. But so was everyone else. I was born in 1976 and grew up in Richmond in the 80s and 90s. And those were amazing times too. My mum said up until the late 90s it was great living in Vancouver and Richmond. Its definitely not the same. Its a dump now. Thanks for posting this video.

Mamma mia, there were no junkies on East Hastings! What a nice city😊

with both trolleys and many buses there was much more mass transit with only about 1/4 today's population

Like Seattle in that time frame, folks had purpose, God, Family and Country was very much a common bond regardless of age, gender, ethnicity. Now its none of that thus why the declines in many of these "once" beautiful and exciting cities

This footage was shot only a couple of years after I was born. I rode those streetcars, though I was too young to remember. There have been a lot of changes since then, but what's remarkable is how many featutes of that entire route I can easily recognize. I've walked a lot of that right of way, many times. I bought an apartment beside the track in Kerrisdale. It's deeply part of my lived experience. CP Rail used to run a grain car about once a day on it, down to the brewery on 12th Avenue, just to maintain their right of way. Thst was until about 2010. Then they tried to sell it to the City of Vancouver for some extortionate rate. It languished in the courts for years. The city bylaws wouldn't let the railway operate it, so they were motivated to sell, but they didn't want to admit it. They put together some kind of astroturfing "neighborhood" campaign to try to get us citizens up in arms. It didn't work. Eventually the city acquired the land, tore up the tracks, made a nice linear park and pedestrian/bicycle path of it. But I had rather hoped they would bring back the electric trolleys as part of a quaint commuter service to downtown Vancouver. An espresso machine on board. Those nice wooden sash windows. Civilized.

Very interesting how vibrant and busy was Hastings, Main, Cambie. Seems like good times in Vancouver. Unfortunately everything has changed in that area. Just poverty, drugs, homeless people. It’s very sad what happened to downtown Vancouver 😢

I find this all poignantly charming. These excursions - and many others of course, on both sides of the border, some by sea and some on land - were a kind of exposition of technological achievement set within the natural landscape. Ordinary people could venture deep into these beautiful pristine places and be touched by their magnificence. At the same time, they could feel the scaffolding of technology around them, holding them more or less safe and providing more or less reliable service. I don't say this to disparage machinery but to report what it feels like to live a bit on the edge, as workers do in these industries. To be a member of the general public and able to go to the edge of these same achievements is thrilling, to be sure. I think it's totally cool that somebody got the idea of arranging excursions of this kind. It wouldn't be all tea and crumpets, that's for sure. There would be many discomforts and probably a few risks not mentioned in the brochure. But wouldn't it be a total blast?

Colour Film.. . . . Sweet!

Back when there was common sense and people worked hard and followed the rule of law. Not no more.

The trolleys were great ...pre socialist party in BC...China ruined the whole city

A stark reminder of what bad leadership can do to a place. Vancouver is an absolute garbage of a city now.

Way more developed than I thought it would be.

Wow normal people

if they only knew china was going to own there city in the future. truth sucks.

A leftist gov't (provincial and/or federal) always results in drug and crime anarchy like today.

I grew up in the early 80's in Richmond, by the curve in the line as it turned into the railway section....which eventually became the municipal works yard. great video. How it's changed, amazing.

growing up in Vancouver, this is amazing footage to see the major transformation along Granville Street South. Incredible. wow.

I left L.A. in 2015 after living there for 25 years. I would sell my soul to be able to go back and live there in these times.

They have hand signals in those days. No indicator lights.

Before all the troubles in this area.

Wow, so cool!

What has become of Vancouver, once a vibrant and interesting city is now a wasteland of addiction and mental illness against a background of bland corporate sterility.

Now you would swear you walked onto the set of a zombie movie

wow, so many white people ...and not on drugs.

No Indians. Very nice. Good old time.🤭

Way better city back then than now today it is all greed being the most expensive city to live now.

no needles no junkies ...prob was nice

Feels like time travelling

Just to think my late grandparents and great grandparents were working and building their houses around the time while this individual was making this film. My parents were born a few years later. I recognize a lot of those buildings from the last time I was there. As I watch this i can't help wondering if they were driving by or walking by.🤔 Amazing how big a city it was still even in 1950..😮👍

Nothing changed till 1980 then it started to change Now if you go the same routes You would think it’s a different city

Very nice to see. Notice very little paper on the roads, clear air, shiny cars, not damaged or listen just how quiet it is, no horn honking, tires screeching, and well-dressed people. Boy, if they knew how bad Canada including Vancouver can get, people then would be furious, and sad.

A believe this video has a big mistake! When streetcar reach Granville & Broadway Southbound from the Granville Bridge it turns Eastbound to Broadway. You see it heading towards the Lee Building at Main Street where it loops North back to Hastings to Downtown. It doesn't head south on Granville because it doesn't stop in front of the Aristocratic!

I would love to have a time mashine and really walk in those times.

everyone driving classics 😀

When cars looked cool

Sad Hastings and all of west side closed from tent city.

I wasn't born until the late 50 but I do remember some of this from the early 60s. Do you see any homeless on the streets cause I sure don't.

Before the junkies, leftists, and Chinese drug money parked in real estate that ruined the city.

Vancouver looked depressing as hell back then.

This could use some video stabilization.

That was great! We should have kept those streetcar lines.

Wow!! Excellent video. Vancouver had a great tram system in its day. Thanks for sharing.

So sad to see what’s become of the downtown core around Hastings. It’s disturbing our government allows this.

You know back then even the foods was real foods, a T bone steak was a real T bone steak, and Spaghetti & meatballs, was the real Spaghetti & meatballs, and a bag of potato chips was real potato chips, I mean even junk food back then was real food, as of today's shit foods is real shit foods. 🤨🤔🤔😔😔😔😇🇨🇦

Around the beginning of the 20th century, Vancouver's downtown eastside (DTES) was Vancouver's political, cultural and retail centre. Over several decades, the city centre gradually shifted westwards, and the DTES became a poor neighbourhood. In the 1980s, the area began a rapid decline due to several factors, including an influx of hard drugs, policies that pushed sex work and drug-related activity out of nearby areas, and the cessation of federal funding for social housing. By 1997, an epidemic of HIV infection and drug overdoses in the DTES led to the declaration of a public health emergency. As of 2018, critical issues include opioid overdoses, especially those involving the drug fentanyl; decrepit and squalid housing; a shortage of low-cost rental housing; and mental illness, which often co-occurs with addiction. This is DTES today. One of the worst neighborhoods for drug addiction, mental illness and crime in North America...not just Canada.

1:06 - Thats the corner of Main and Hastings. Owl drugs the pharmacy is still around, I believe. Walk on that corner today and its all junkies, methheads, drunk natives and dealers selling dope. Crazy how times change for better or worse. Most of those buildings are still there btw

What a glorious time. Wise guys were all over the place!