Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, while the Greater Vancouver area amount around 2.4 million inhabitants. Vancouver appears to be drenched in eternal rain and shadows. The American gothic gargoyles are replaced by neon signs and and huge video boards that always carry the latest advertisements.

Vancouver (/vænˈkuːvər/ (listen) van-KOO-vər) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2.6 million in 2021, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada, with over 5,400 people per square kilometre.[7][8] Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada: 52 percent of its residents are not native English speakers,[9][10] 48.9 percent are native speakers of neither English nor French, and 50.6 percent of residents belong to visible minority groups.[11]

Vancouver is one of the most livable cities in Canada and in the world.[12][13][14] In terms of housing affordability, Vancouver is also one of the most expensive cities in Canada and in the world.[15] Vancouver plans to become the greenest city in the world. Vancouverism is the city's urban planning design philosophy.

Indigenous settlement of Vancouver began more than 10,000 years ago, and the city is on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard) peoples. The beginnings of the modern city, which was originally named Gastown, grew around the site of a makeshift tavern on the western edges of Hastings Mill that was built on July 1, 1867, and owned by proprietor Gassy Jack. The original site is marked by the Gastown steam clock. Gastown then formally registered as a townsite dubbed Granville, Burrard Inlet. The city was renamed "Vancouver" in 1886, through a deal with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway was extended to the city by 1887. The city's large natural seaport on the Pacific Ocean became a vital link in the trade between Asia-Pacific, East Asia, Europe, and Eastern Canada.[16][17]

Vancouver has hosted many international conferences and events, including the 1954 Commonwealth Games, UN Habitat I, Expo 86, APEC Canada 1997, the World Police and Fire Games in 1989 and 2009; several matches of 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup including the finals at BC Place in Downtown Vancouver,[18] and the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics which were held in Vancouver and Whistler, a resort community 125 km (78 mi) north of the city.[19] In 1969, Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver. The city became the permanent home to TED conferences in 2014.

As of 2016, Port Metro Vancouver is the fourth-largest port by tonnage in the Americas,[20] the busiest and largest in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America.[21][22] While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry.[23] Major film production studios in Vancouver and nearby Burnaby have turned Greater Vancouver and nearby areas into one of the largest film production centres in North America,[24][25] earning it the nickname "Hollywood North".[26][27][28]

Vancouver is an independent city under the control of Prince Siegfried. Siegfried has an extremely tight control on the local Kindred population, only rarely allowing Embraces or entry to other Kindred, keeping the population at maximal 20 permanent Kindred. Killing a mortal, even accidentally, is a crime punishable by Final Death. Clan gatherings are forbidden to avoid conspiracies against the prince. Personal feuds are forbidden from influencing nightly activities and all Kindred are under strict instructions to not antagonize the Garou or their families. His absolute rule and the brutal efficiency in which he enforces his laws allowed the Lupines to confront him and negotiate the Covenant, a non-aggression treaty between both races. The Lupines patrol the borders of his domain, slaying anyone who tries to cross the border. Siegfried has no affiliation to the Sabbat, the Anarch Movement or the Camarilla, seeing them all as elements in the Jyhad. The sects leave him alone, fearing that any violent intrusion will result in Lupine violence.

Siegfried maintains no Primogen council or other offices. The entire city has been declared Elysium. Rumors tell that the Inconnu favor Vancouver as a meeting place when convening in North America. Siegfried has a policy of keeping Brujah, Malkavians and Caitiff out of the city, believing them to be unstable and a threat to public order. Only in the company of a Kindred of another Clan are they allowed inside. In secret, his own clanmate, the newcomer Stalest Coursain, plotted to overthrow him by conspiring with Guttooth, a Garou that claimed to be the priest of Gaia, to incite both sides into violence. The foundation of the Diefenbakker’s casino, however, was what would cause the end of coexistence. With the Garou considering the Covenant broken, the future of Vancouver’s vampires hangs in the balance.

Vancouver is also the site of the subterranean Great Library, a conjoint effort of the Nosferatu and the Malkavian Methuselah Necross. In it, multiple scrolls and books covering subjects both mundane and supernatural are stored. Access, however, is restricted and the Library is guarded heavily under thaumaturgical wards and ghouled elite soldiers that act as guardians.

Vancouver is the site of the Great Caern, one of the most powerful Caerns in the New World. The city has been built around it, making it one of the earliest urban Caerns in the Americas. Since the Caern is one of Cooperation, the local Garou are forced to tolerate those of the Wyrm that do not act out its mandates. Every three months, the local Garou gather at the Lumberman’s Arch, which marks the heart of the Caern.

Garou of all thirteen tribes are present within the city, forming the Sept of the Great Caern. Despite this, most tribes prefer to live in territories dominated by their own. The Glasswalkers even have a separate Caern within the city, the Smiling Buddha Caern, which is closed to everyone else. The Sept is ruled via a council of representatives, with each tribe having a representative, though the Silver Fangs still carry enough authority to be considered the unofficial leaders, with the Glasswalkers as their advisors. The Council’s job is mainly jurisdiction and defending the Vancoucer Compact. The overall population of Garou is 360, with their members mostly spread around the city, preferring the suburbs. The Vancouver Compact forbids open violence between the tribes, though conflicts over human resource exploitation and the stance of the local Garou has been present. When Glasswalker Roger Daly managed to negotiate the Covenant between the Garou and the local Kindred, protests arose that believed that such an action would only serve the Wyrm. Daly, however, pointed out that the Kindred could be used to fight the Wyrm, using their corporate ties to restrain resource exploitation and fund reforestation. The Covenant held for more than 26 years before it was broken. Above a Pit in the outskirts of the city, a casino has been built that is apparently under vampire protection. The Garou consider this a violation of the Covenant, especially since Roger Daly, the main defendant of the Covenant, was killed when he protected the Great Caern from being violated by Banes and Fomori. The Garou of Vancouver prepare now for a covert war against the vampires, asking themselves hard questions about trust. The presence of the “Priest of Gaia (actually a Theurge named Guttooth), who counselled against the Covenant and the Compact and instead called for total war against humanity further caused a rift within Vancouver’s system, as many young packs were drawn in by the priest’s sermons.

The Syndicate’s Special Projects Division has established the Diefenbakker’s Casino Construct within the city. Protected by a small amalgam, the Pit Bosses, this casino acts as a cover for Pentex, who use the casino’s location atop of a Pit to create Fomori. Since Diefenbakker’s was backed by the Syndicate’s operators in Toronto and produced quite a lot of money, most high-ranking Syndicate members were content to look the other way. One of the holy sites of the Verbena is near the city.

The Kuei-jin have a small community in the local Japanese population. Their sponsors are House Bishamon, who use the wave of immigration to smuggle their agents to the city. The main purpose of the Kuei-jin population within the city is intelligence gathering. Since 1997, expatriates from Hong Kong have fled to Vancouver to avoid the bloody conflict between the Righteous Devils of Kowloon and the Endless Whirlwind who both fight over control of the future of the Flame Court. So far, House Bishamon has accepted these refugees, but worries if the increased Kuei-jin presence could draw out hostile reactions from other factions, especially since the latest acts of aggression from the Quincunx.

Vancouver has a presence of Imbued, under them notorious figures like Rigger111. The Vancouver Imbued are known to cooperate with other Imbued and sometimes forming teams to take on greater threats. Their main target are Werewolves.

TERMINAL CITY

Vancouver B.C. - Called Terminal City by it's denizens at the birth of the city because of the terminus of the railroad which ended there.

History


Before 1850

Archaeological records indicate that Aboriginal people were already living in the Vancouver area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The city is located in the traditional and presently unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard) peoples of the Coast Salish group.They had villages in various parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey and near the mouth of the Fraser River.[34] The region where Vancouver is currently located was referred to in contemporary Halkomelem as Lhq’á:lets, meaning "wide at the bottom/end".

Europeans became acquainted with the area of the future Vancouver when José María Narváez of Spain explored the coast of present-day Point Grey and parts of Burrard Inlet in 1791—although one author contends that Francis Drake may have visited the area in 1579.

The explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his crew became the first-known Europeans to set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they traveled from the east down the Fraser River, perhaps as far as Point Grey.

Early growth

The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought over 25,000 men, mainly from California, to nearby New Westminster (founded February 14, 1859) on the Fraser River, on their way to the Fraser Canyon, bypassing what would become Vancouver.[42][43][44] Vancouver is among British Columbia's youngest cities;[45] the first European settlement in what is now Vancouver was not until 1862 at McCleery's Farm on the Fraser River, just east of the ancient village of Musqueam in what is now Marpole. A sawmill established at Moodyville (now the City of North Vancouver) in 1863, began the city's long relationship with logging. It was quickly followed by mills owned by Captain Edward Stamp on the south shore of the inlet. Stamp, who had begun logging in the Port Alberni area, first attempted to run a mill at Brockton Point, but difficult currents and reefs forced the relocation of the operation in 1867 to a point near the foot of Dunlevy Street. This mill, known as the Hastings Mill, became the nucleus around which Vancouver formed. The mill's central role in the city waned after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the 1880s. It nevertheless remained important to the local economy until it closed in the 1920s.[46] The settlement, which came to be called Gastown, grew quickly around the original makeshift tavern established by "Gassy" Jack Deighton in 1867 on the edge of the Hastings Mill property.[45][47]

In 1870, the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out a townsite, renamed "Granville" in honour of the then-British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Granville. This site, with its natural harbour, was selected in 1884[48] as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the disappointment of Port Moody, New Westminster and Victoria, all of which had vied to be the railhead. A railway was among the inducements for British Columbia to join the Confederation in 1871 but the Pacific Scandal and arguments over the use of Chinese labour delayed construction until the 1880s.

Homelessness


Homelessness is a significant and persistent issue in Vancouver. A 2019 count found that at least 2,223 people in the city were experiencing homelessness, the highest number recorded since counts began in 2005. Of those surveyed, 28 percent reported having no physical shelter. Indigenous people accounted for 39 percent of all respondents. Three-fifths of respondents reported at least two health concerns, and 67 percent reported an addiction to at least one substance.

Policing and crime


Vancouver operates the Vancouver Police Department, with 1,327 sworn members and an operating budget of $316.5 million in 2018.[172][173] Over 19 percent of the city's budget was spent on police protection in 2018.[173]

The Vancouver Police Department's operational divisions include a bicycle squad, a marine squad, and a dog squad. It also has a mounted squad, used primarily to patrol Stanley Park, as well as for crowd control.[174] The police work in conjunction with civilian and volunteer-run Community Police Centres.[175] In 2006, the police department established its own counterterrorism unit. In 2005, a new transit police force, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service (now the Metro Vancouver Transit Police), was established with full police powers.

Before the legalization of marijuana, Vancouver police generally did not arrest people for possessing small amounts of marijuana.[176] In 2000 the Vancouver Police Department established a specialized drug squad, "Growbusters", to carry out an aggressive campaign against the city's estimated 4,000 hydroponic marijuana growing operations (or grow-ops) in residential areas.[177] As with other law enforcement campaigns targeting marijuana this initiative has been sharply criticized.[178]

As of 2018, Vancouver had the ninth-highest crime rate, dropping 5 spots since 2005, among Canada's 35 census metropolitan areas.[179] However, as with other Canadian cities, the overall crime rate has been falling "dramatically".[180] The rate of firearm related violence dropped from 45.3 per 100,000 in 2006, the highest of any major metropolitan region in Canada at that time, to 16.2 in 2017.[181][182] A series of gang-related incidents in early 2009 escalated into what police have dubbed a gang war. Vancouver plays host to special events such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, the Clinton-Yeltsin Summit, or the Symphony of Fire fireworks show that require significant policing. The 1994 Stanley Cup riot overwhelmed police and injured as many as 200 people.[183] A second riot took place following the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.[184]

To reduce the public health risk from discarded hypodermic needles which are commonly found on the streets of downtown and the adjacent Downtown Eastside, the city runs a continuous collection effort, recovering approximately 1000 needles per day from public spaces.[185][186] According to Vancouver Coastal Health, the regional health authority and a distributor of clean needles to intravenous drug users, there has never been a documented case of disease transmission from an accidental needlestick.

Military


Jericho Beach in Vancouver is the location of the headquarters of 39 Canadian Brigade Group of the Canadian Army.[188] Local primary reserve units include The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own), based at the Seaforth Armoury and the Beatty Street Drill Hall, respectively, and the 15th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery.[189] The Naval Reserve Unit HMCS Discovery is based on Deadman's Island in Stanley Park.[190] RCAF Station Jericho Beach, the first air base in Western Canada, was taken over by the Canadian Army in 1947 when sea planes were replaced by long-range aircraft. Most of the base facilities were transferred to the City of Vancouver in 1969 and the area renamed "Jericho Park".

Music and nightlife


Musical contributions from Vancouver include performers of classical, folk and popular music. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the professional orchestra based in the city. The Vancouver Opera is a major opera company in the city, and City Opera of Vancouver is the city's professional chamber opera company. The city is home to a number of Canadian composers including Rodney Sharman, Jeffrey Ryan, and Jocelyn Morlock.

The city produced a number of notable punk rock bands, including D.O.A. Other early Vancouver punk bands included the Subhumans, the Young Canadians, the Pointed Sticks, and U-J3RK5.[217] When alternative rock became popular in the 1990s, several Vancouver groups rose to prominence, including 54-40, Odds, Moist, the Matthew Good Band, Sons of Freedom and Econoline Crush. Recent successful Vancouver bands include Gob, Marianas Trench, Theory of a Deadman and Stabilo. Today, Vancouver is home to a number of popular independent bands such as The New Pornographers, Japandroids, Destroyer, In Medias Res, Tegan and Sara, and independent labels including Nettwerk and Mint. Vancouver also produced influential metal band Strapping Young Lad and pioneering electro-industrial bands Skinny Puppy, Numb and Front Line Assembly; the latter's Bill Leeb is better known for founding ambient pop super-group Delerium. Other popular musical artists who made their mark from Vancouver include Carly Rae Jepsen, Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Heart, Prism, Trooper, Chilliwack, Payolas, Moev, Images in Vogue, Michael Bublé, Stef Lang and Spirit of the West.[218]

Larger musical performances are usually held at venues such as Rogers Arena, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, BC Place Stadium or the Pacific Coliseum, while smaller acts are held at places such as the Commodore Ballroom, the Orpheum Theatre and the Vogue Theatre. The Vancouver Folk Music Festival and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival showcase music in their respective genres from around the world. Vancouver's Hong Kong Chinese population has produced several Cantopop stars across the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Similarly, various Indo-Canadian artists and actors have a profile in Bollywood or other aspects of India's entertainment industry.

Vancouver has a vibrant nightlife scene, whether it be food and dining, or bars and nightclubs. The Granville Entertainment District has the city's highest concentration of bars and nightclubs with closing times of 3 am, in addition to various after-hours clubs open until late morning on weekends. The street can attract large crowds on weekends and is closed to traffic on such nights. Gastown is also a popular area for nightlife with many upscale restaurants and nightclubs, as well as the Davie Village which is centre to the city's LGBT community.

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