Vancouver is Canada's rainiest City!

 

In fact, Vancouver doesn’t even rank among the country’s top-eight cities when it comes to the most rainfall in a day. The city is eclipsed by Halifax, Regina, Oshawa, Kingston, Toronto, St. John’s, Edmonton and Hamilton.

 

But we do rank third among Canada’s 24 largest urban centres for the number of rainy days each year, behind only Abbotsford and St. John’s

 

Stanley Park is North America's Largest urban park!

 

At 1,000 acres, it’s big, sure, and it’s 10 per-cent larger than Central Park in Manhattan, but there are a list of parks around Canada (the 10,000-acre Rouge Valley Park in Markham, Ontario) and the United States (Phoenix’s South Mountain Park, at 16,283 acres) that trump our beloved park in size.

 

Beneath Chinatown lies a maze of tunnels

 

Wrong. The Vancouver Police Museum’s Chris Mathieson, who conducts a “Sins of the City” tour, hears this one a lot. It’s easy for anyone to get confused, particularly history buffs who may have happened upon the 100-year-old Vancouver Sun article headlined “Vancouver police explore Chinatown tunnels …” Not that Chinatown doesn’t have any juicy stories in its underbelly. Opium dens, brothels, gambling hangouts — they’re all there, sure. But they’re basement rooms with connecting doors. No funky mysterious tunnels, sorry to say.

 

The East Side has always been less prosperous side of the City

 

If that were true, the Victoria Drive and Commercial Drive environs wouldn’t be lined with big ol’ beautiful homes. For those with cash to spare, Victoria between Venables and 1st Avenue was the place to be. The movers and shakers of early Vancouver, such as the Bell Irvings, Mayor McLean and R.H. Alexander, all took up residence in the 10 tony waterfront areas along Cordova, Powell and Dunlevy, east of Main. Eventually, the building of the Shaughnessyneighbourhood around 1909 killed the east side money vibe.

Vancouver Sun Article April 2011