The portion of Granville street that runs through downtown takes a tremendous amount of shit. Considered by many to be the darkest artery, delivering the bridge and tunnel crowd to the rest of the city, it cuts across the heart of Vancouver’s downtown core, a gaudy strip of blood and noise on a polite face.

Instead of crapping on Granville street, I say let us embrace what Granville street has given us as we count down the days before it returns to being completely taken over by traffic.

Making Granville pedestrian only in large chunks has laid to a new downtown culture, one quite unlike anything this city has seen. People are congregating, hanging out somewhere new. Hell, they are actually being personable and looking each other in the eyes!

Granville street has also started developing a culinary side it never had before. Tucked in around the countless dollar pizza joints are places like the Twisted Fork Bistro, Sanafir and the newly reborn (Sugar) Refinery. All of them that have take the gentrification of a small strip of Granville that used to be home to booze cans and porn shops and turned them into the place to eat.

The nightlife has picked up as well, with DHM launching yet another space for you drinking and dancing pleasure. Between two Donnelley venues, The Commodore and Ginger 62, house music keeps the heart beat of the street going all night long (say what?).

Despite the city’s preconceived notions as a place where all the nightlife has been driven to suffer in a commercial ghetto, Granville Street can still have its charms. You just need to look in the right places, under the right rocks and around the right corners, like any good city.