BC Business
Kitsilano: synonymous with yuppies, yoga pants and pumpkin spice lattes. But in the ’70s, the west side Vancouver neighbourhood was a low-rent hotbed for students, artists and activists. As late as 1976, you could buy a detached home there for $93,500; last fall, that same house—with minimal renovations—was fetching $2.1 million. But that’s just how gentrification works: today, a cool, random place to buy a cheap pint—tomorrow, a symmetrical patchwork of $4 gluten-free croissants, $1,500 strollers and multimillion-dollar condos. And these days, Kitsilano isn’t even seeing the worst of it.