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A small crowd huddled under the overhang of a pizza shop.  Men puffing on cigarettes.  Cars swishing by.  An empty bike lane.

A sign hanging from the side of the brick building reads “Railway Club.”

Behind the discreet wooden doors is a staircase plastered with show posters.  Flash a festival wristband for free entry or pay $10 at the door.

Five bands.  One night.

The second Olio Festival.

Music. Art. Film. Comedy.  The festival showcased a heavy dose of Vancouver talent mixed with international artists from Sept.23-26.

The Railway Club was one of 41 venues listed in this year’s festival guide.  Sponsored by CBC Radio 3, Saturday’s line-up drew a healthy crowd of music enthusiasts.

By 9 p.m. the entrance was packed.  Arriving patrons took off their coats as the doorman collected cash and checked ID.  The audio engineer adjusted sliders on the soundboard.

A small group of men played darts as they waited for the first band to begin.

Musicians huddled around tables in the back bar.  A framed picture of K.D. Lang hangs with a crowd of random art.

Interviews conducted over beers.  A flannel-clad journalist passed a portable recording device around the table as members of Vancouver band Pineapple answered his questions.

“Make sure you vandalize something tonight,” said flannel-clad as the interview ended.

Young scenesters crowded in front of the small stage.  People strategized how to catch bands at The Media Club without missing Hard Drugs.

Buzz around the film “No Fun City” filled the bar.  The synopsis describes Vancouver as “a city that seems hell-bent on shutting down all the fun.”

The film was screened at The Rio on Saturday night.  At the same time, young music lovers bar-hopped across the city taking full advantage of their festival wristbands.

The small strip of Broadway, from Main to 12th Street, was blocked on Saturday to celebrate the community’s sense of social responsibility by showcasing sustainable methods and by opening a street market for local small businesses.

The Autumn Shift Festival was organized by the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Area, to “create an endless summer party”, said Lynn Warwick, executive director.  The occasion was quite fitting to the weather of Saturday, as the change in season was apparent with the sunny afternoon to the rainy evening.

Children strolled around with red and blue balloons sponsored by Hyundai, and others drew happy faces on the sidewalk with chalk.  Someone wrote “Be yourself.  Everyone else is taken,” in big letters beside a butterfly.

The range of kiosks offered information pamphlets on how to create a composting worm system or order a composting bin, find areas in the Mount Pleasant community are outdoor study-friendly zones, and locate where to buy installable solar energy panels, and other environmental ways of life.

A henhouse, with dailyeggs.com engraved into the wood, attracted a lot of the youth to peek into the metal mesh windows at the chickens.  Called a “Van-cooper”, the coops are sold for $600 and can be installed in one’s backyard.

Another popular attraction was a colony of bees that were swarming around in a wooden frame, displayed by the same organization under which Van-cooper is part of, the Backyard Bounty. The representatives talked to on-lookers about beekeeping as a hobby, and how to maintain a colony.

The west side of the street featured mostly community-oriented organizations, while the east side was opened to the merchant market.  Knitted tops, vintage clothing, and long feather earrings were among the items sold by the local store vendors and artists.

A live performance by a rock band called Matinee, courtesy of Shore 104 FM had a few 20 year olds slamming their heads in the air and kicking their legs up.  An old bearded man, with a rusty-orange shirt and stressed jeans exclaimed, “yee haw!”

The event represented the way of life of Mount Pleasant locals, who are interested in responsible living, said Warwick.   Volunteers coordinated the festival, who were a handful of students and seniors.

The 65^th B.C. Oaks and Derby opened Saturday at the Hastings Racecourse to a bright blue sky and nine rounds of horseracing.

In the first day of action, attendees were spoiled with five maiden and claiming races as well as four stakes races that amounted to a combined purse of $175,000.

Regular track days at Hastings tend to be a casual affair, drawing only the most dedicated betters who arrive sporting street clothes and maybe a dose of insider knowledge. The Oaks and Derby, the largest race weekend of the year at Hastings, is a different breed entirely.

In addition to the racing, Saturday’s Oaks was a hat day, where female fans were invited to arrive in their best bonnets and donning their finest attire. Kentucky hats, church hats, flower hats and bowler hats; they were all welcome and all on parade at the Oaks.

Hat days are a wink in recognition of the storied history of track racing, and a colourful way to attract a fresh crowd.

“Any excuse to come and dress up is a fun event to attend,” said Danielle Gillis, who was adorned in a brilliant red maxi dress, heeled white oxfords and a classic white hat. It was her first experience at the races, and by race four she had already banked $2.10 in prize winnings.

Some of the men got into the spirit of the day as well.

Jim Richmond sported a dinner jacket patterned in US$100 banknotes. “It’s a once a year, summer thing,” he said, in reference to his attendance at the races. “Don’t let the jacket fool you,” he said, confessing to an unlucky day.

Unlike Richmond, Gillis felt her luck was only going to continue. Contesting for primacy in the fifth race, worth $25,000 in stakes, was Smokin (sic) Danielle, jockeyed by Isaias Cardenas. Sadly, Gillis’ namesake and proclaimed certain win lost a strong lead and placed a distant second to Wind Storm, ridden by Richard Harvey Hamel.

Sunday’s rain-or-shine B.C. Derby includes a $150,000 stakes race, and is scheduled to begin at 1:40 p.m.

Rhizome Café filled all its seats, while others sat on the floor in celebration of the café’s fourth year of uniting practically all of Vancouver’s progressive organizations, ranging from social injustice, migrant workers, colored youth and queer community groups.

Doors opened at 7, but there was already a line up of around twenty people in front of Rhizome’s homely wooden doors before they even opened.  Homely is the best description for the interior too, as soft lighting, a plush couch, chalkboards with a handwritten menu and a mixture of cushiony and hardwood chairs create a cozy, almost grandma-like welcoming ambience.

Adriana Paz, a member of Justicia, an organization for the rights of Latin temporary farm workers,  greets everyone with a big smile and a hug, and everyone reciprocates.  People flocked to the bistro bar, where Three Sisters Stew, made with black beans, squash and corn and topped with sour cream for non-vegans, is served for dinner by donation.

A light, upbeat harmony of reggae infused with latin undertones whizzes through the air and induces a few to shake their shoulders.  MCs Andrea Canales and Hari Alluri, who wore brown t-shirts with red, yellow and orange rhizome graphics excited everyone for the 60 second performances.

Very diverse attendees, such as women with cropped, salt and pepper hair, cross dressers tattooed wrist to shoulder,  dark and light skinned latinos and students with tattered hoodies and messy rain boots clapped delightfully for all the performers.  Cease Wyss, a first nations filmmaker, opened the night with a compelling aboriginal sacred welcoming song.

The lyrics of some songs spoke volumes of how everyone appreciates that there is a central place where everyone can feel welcome.  “Yea, yea, I’m feeling so gay, I love, love, my Rhizome Café,” chanted two women dressed in cabaret outfits.

Members of No One is Illegal chuckled when they said “grow wings on our rebel doves”, when they recited their collectively composed piece.  But the biggest crowd pleaser was performed by the staff, as six women blew into beer bottles and created flute sounds to the effect of Irene Cara’s 1984 hit What a Feeling.  The women left the stage running backwards and mentioned that their group is called “B.O.”,  for Rhizome Staff Bottle Orchestra.

“I grew up in a smaller town, I’m just trying to open up my mind and it feels right to be here,” said benefits insurance administrator Desmond Wellesley, who’s originally from Kitchener, Ontario.  Wellesley volunteered to handle the sales from Rhizome t-shirts and the 38 items donated for the silent auction.

The demolition of a Shell Gas Station at the corner of Burrard and Davie was of no surprise to West End residents, nearly two years ago. If any new word has been added to their vocabulary it is urban renewal.

What was peculiar, however, was that in a period of developing the West End by building a series of high-rise condominiums the gas station was replaced by a community garden.

“It is a initiative by the council. They weren’t ready to build their high-rise so they are temporarily using it as a park so that the corporate taxes are less,” said Chris Barber, one of the local gardeners.

Vitally alive today, the garden homes a wide array of flowers and plants while simultaneously encased by a series of towering high-rise buildings and the daily occurrences of downtown.

Outside the garden, cars rev their engines as they drive through the downtown streets while the sounds of hammering and clinking accompany the construction work being done nearby. Kneeling against the entrance sits a homeless man shuffling his jar of change in one hand and grasping a beer with the other.

“May I have some change,” he said, “I haven’t eaten today.”

Ironically, a mere few feet away from where he sits is the garden where food is plentiful and serene stillness monetarily seems possible on the busy streets of the West End.

“There are not a lot of issues considering where it is,” said Barber, “there is actually minimal damage and theft.”

On a recent weekday, tomatoes, not yet ripe, hang from the plant branches while a gardener bends over watering them. A young woman helps a frail elderly women sit down on a bench inside the garden and then continues to serve her lunch. Meanwhile, a tourist couple walks into the garden and stops to take a picture of the sunflowers.

“It’s nice, it builds a sense of community,” said Barber who then described how the gardeners recently got together for a potluck dinner using the vegetables they had grown.

“But also people often come by to just sit and read,” she added.

Sadly, the question still lingers as to when Chris Barber and her fellow gardeners will have to dig up their plants to move on elsewhere.

“They will give us notice when they are going to build and people will scramble to find other gardens,” she said.

But presently, the garden resides pleasantly in the West End without notice of construction, deepening the roots of the community everyday.

Crystal Mall, despite competition from a towering mall just across the street, Metropolis at Metrotown, survives going out of business, as locals easily spend $200 on a single shirt.

A Chinese sales associate, Suzie Xiao, explains that the culture clash in Asia actually proved conducive to business.  Most of her clients where she works, Sophia’s Boutique, a fashion retail store which caters to women in their 20s to 30s, are Japanese, Chinese and Korean, who all like to splurge on clothes and shoes.

According to China International Business, the highest spending market are the affluent young, urban professionals have no dependents, and fair an average of 20 years younger than the wealthiest consumers in U.S. and Japan.  But Xiao explains it differently: inflation rates for housing are so high in China, that young women are making up for the not being able to afford luxurious homes by wearing high fashion.

The rich smell of Chinese herbs and ginseng float through the air in the lower level market of Crystal Mall.  Mothers and seniors swarm around, squeezing firm taro roots and workers wearing dirty aprons rigorously cut Chinese winter melons behind the counter.

On the upper level, young women with perfectly straight doll bangs and studded tops walk elegantly into purple-walled boutiques lined with zebra carpets.  As Love As, a boutique that sells brand name Japanese clothes and shoes, recently sold over $5000 worth of products to just two Chinese international students.

Xiao handed me a $24 magazine whose front cover featured three Japanese women with chestnut wavy hair in over-the-shoulder sweaters and underwear, explaining that Asian women like to emulate their fashion.  One of their knitted tops hung near the front of As Love As, with a sales tag dangling from it marked $238.

Both Xiao and the store owner of As Love As said that they do not need to do advertising, as word-of-mouth marketing works well within the tight-knit Asian community.  Most of their clients are also international students, who do not have any siblings due to the one-child policy in place in China, so parents can afford spoiling their them.

On the other corner of Sophia’s, closing sale signs are taped onto the windows on Nancy Szeto’s retail store, I.N. Club.  Having compared her business to the successful younger stores nearby, she simply said, “things are different.”

With the elders sticking to the tried and proven products of Chinese herbal medicine and dried fruit, and the younger women selling luxury items, Crystal Mall is a microcosm of the intergenerational gap of Asia’s plain living back in the day and its competitive Westernized lifestyle of today.  But nowhere else in Metrotown can one find bubble tea for $2.75, not even in China.

Residents of Marpole expressed strong opposition against the Marpole Safeway redevelopment plans presented by the City of Vancouver Planning Department at a meeting on Monday.  Not one resident out of an estimated 200 attendees stood up to voice their approval of the rezoning application during the question and answer period.

During the question and answer period, many residents said they were unhappy with the height of the proposed building, the increased traffic to the area, and the implications for local businesses.  They were also concerned with the lack of community space and green space.

The plan proposed by Henriquez Partners Architects is to redevelop the current site at 70th Avenue and Granville Street to include four major building elements: replacement of the Safeway grocery store on Granville Street; a 24-storey rental tower; a 14-storey market condominium tower; and a 9-storey slab building consisting of townhouses at street level and condominium units above.

Gwen Ingham compiled a petition of 225 signatures of Marpole residents over the weekend.  A majority of the people who signed think the new buildings should be no more than four storeys high.  Several disagreed and think they should be no more than nine storeys high.

“We feel that the fundamental character of Marpole is threatened by this [project],” said Ingham.

“No major development or rezoning should happen without an updated community plan and revisioning,” said Gudrun Langolf, president of the Marpole-Oakridge Area Council Society.

“The question of the traffic in the area has to be addressed, the problem of the schools and other facilities has to be addressed, but most importantly, a community plan has to be done first,” said Sylvia Taylor, a resident of Marpole since 1972.

Ron Loui-Ying has been living in Marpole for 14 years and previously lived in Hong Kong.  He disapproved of the large number of towers going up around the neighbourhood at Cambie Street and Marine Drive, as well as near Oakridge.  “If the city can’t afford to give us a [community] plan,” said Loui-Ying, “maybe they should spend some money and change Marpole into Mar-Kong!”

Brent Toderian, Director of Planning, assured the audience that this project is in its early stages and still needs to be approved by Council.  The planning staff is open to the community’s feedback.

“It’s not black and white for us,” said Toderian. “We’re still in the process of listening to the community’s perspectives on the nature of the application and we haven’t taken a position on whether the application is premature.”