Continued from here.

As you walk under the tangled concrete limbs of two Skytrain lines and the First Avenue viaduct, where the mythical Crested Myna once roamed, you come across a place called The Picnic. I've always been hesitant to tell people about The Picnic for fear of 'heating up' the place for the many talented graff artists who take advantage of the Burlington Northern train lot's lax security. There is a big security camera on a pole immediately as you approach the area, but its usually pointed towards the Rocky Mountaineer and CN side of the lot. Not only are local bombers up on display but so are tags from all across America. Also, if you look closely at the train cars you'll notice some smaller scribbles, usually in grease pen or chalk, called monikers, written by hobos and railroad workers. Also, look for magic mushrooms in the fall that gather along the rotting wood railway ties. Exit through a hole in the fence at the back of Kirmac Collision.

One of my favourite psychogeographic features of the area is the smell of Starbucks' famous Oat Fudge Bars being baked in a warehouse along East First Ave. Across the street on Lorne (which, along with Sophia, were named after Valentino Edmonds' family, a prominent landholder who was repsonsible for much of the development aloong the Kingsway corridor) you'll find one of Vancouver's few fig trees.

The alley to the south of 2nd Ave stabs east diagonally. At Scotia, corrugated aluminum lofts contrast sharply with the odd angles of a red-painted heritage home. The odd mix of light industrial continues on the other side but fades into suburban tranquility. Where the alley meets 5th Ave, there is small triangle of native shrubs and dry gulch decorated with boulders. This is a tribute to the lost stream of Brewery Creek. You can see the dip in the road where the ravine used to be as it flowed into the now filled in False Creek. There are some historic markers telling you about the area.

Across 5th/Brusnwick, a grove of pine trees greets you, reminding me of federal buildings, camping in Washington State, and bark mulched playgrounds. The shadows here careen off the odd angle of the alley until you come across a stand of three heritage houses with, if you're lucky, a cadillac parked out front. The gravel shoulder and the raised sidewalk give a feel of what Kitsilano used to look like; a sort of 50's, ocean-view, West-coast logging town in the 70's; the Vancouver of Dick Bellamy, Brian Stablyk, and Curt Lang. To the right a decaying Edwardian mansion offers up a post-apocalyptic community garden with rusting vans, bird baths, and cats. But continue up to Guelph Park, where you're likely to come across some old winos lounging under one of the huge pine trees. Cross Broadway, past the famous Lido.

The drab coloured concrete of Kingsgate Mall, coloquially referred to by the locals as Skidgate or Ghetto Mall. The shadow of the wonderfully tacky Biltmore Hotel leaves the area solemn, despite a growing number of condos invading Mount Pleasant, and this very odd Westcoast Living cedar townhome. Continue up towards Robson Park, through the community garden, past that little hut with the hoop, left into that weird little triangle of road, a weird vestige of the interurban railway, where a cool little Jamaican Cafe has popped up in the shade. Cross Kingway, up the western alley of Fraser. In the right light, the alley leading up the hill, with its crumbling narrow ashphalt, looks like Northern Ireland. This is the area below Fraserview Cemetary, and north of Mount Saint Joseph; morphologically unique in its hummocky terrain as the area was built on top of Tea Marsh. Culturally its a mix of vietnamese and Italian; Vancouver Specials mingle with swampy Victorian bungalows.

At Main and, you come to the epi-centre of neo-bohemian Vancouver, Eugene Choo. Walk down Main from here, visit Budgies and Antisocial, have a coffee, then slowly wind your way through the light-industrial nether region of newly transformed South False Creek. This block between Main and Cambie, Broadway and First was the subject of a show I did at Antisocial called Homework. At the suggestion of Lark owner Dane Basplay, I'll be following up with a show in 2010.

See Also: Miss604 and The Courier