These days, higher education in downtown Vancouver could well be a reference to new, multi-storey school buildings on the horizon to accommodate an ever-growing downtown population of young families. From a report this summer here in The Globe and Mail:
“According to the 2011 census, the number of children under five (downtown) doubled in the previous five years. There were 1,840 children counted downtown in the zero to four category, compared to 875 in the five to nine bracket – an unmistakable baby boom. That makes the downtown one of the city’s most heavily toddler-populated neighborhoods, in the same league with single-family areas in the East side, and a stark contrast to the West side, which is seeing a decline in child numbers. Hundreds of families are choosing to stay in downtown Vancouver after they have children instead of fleeing to the suburbs as previous generations have.”

The first ever “hyper-urban school” in Vancouver, at four-storeys high, is due to open in 2015. It will be located next to Andy Livingstone Park, at the corner of Abbott Street and Expo Boulevard.

Having moved downtown to Vancouver’s Yaletown in 2011, I can vouch for the area’s reality boasting more strollers than cars. The news of impending ‘higher education’ on the heels of city upgrades in transportation lends an attractive livability to downtown living on the west coast.

City Slicker