Brent Toderian: This 2026 pedestrianized, people-first Granville Street can be a great public place without the unique “jet fuel” of the World Cup. If we do it smartly.
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Have you explored the new World Cup-themed Granville Street in downtown Vancouver yet?
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It’s amazing. Filled with people, joy and energy, it’s much more than just a vehicle-free “pedestrian zone.” It’s a great people-place that makes you want to go there, and then makes you want to stay. It makes the street, the neighbourhood, the downtown, and the city, better.
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For me, its déjà vu. Sixteen years ago, during the 2010 Winter Olympics, I talked about the Games being a turning point for a pedestrianized Granville Street specifically, and for Vancouver’s public spaces and civic life in general.
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It was easy to feel optimistic back then, especially after our minds were blown by that massive Granville crowd with Canadian flags and jerseys, joyously celebrating Team Canada‘s epic overtime gold-medal hockey win.
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“Granville Street will never be the same,” I remember saying.
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We had self-confidence, enthusiasm and, most importantly, momentum.
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But city hall changed, and that momentum didn’t last. Instead of Vancouver, Montreal became North America’s most inspiring city for smart, car-free street transformations. Every summer for years now, Montreal has transformed more streets, adding more blocks and more months to the season, building on their achievement as they went. Their tourism, civic life and overall success have seen huge benefits as a result, in ways we can count, and even more ways that we can’t. In the “game of cities,” they’ve been winning. And we’ve fallen behind.
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Flash-forward 16 years, and Granville Street has been transformed again. And we again need a turning point, an opportunity to regain momentum. We’ve had some street successes around the city, particularly on half-block street transformations off commercial streets. And we were finally able to remove the street cutting through Robson Square, completing the public place that revered Canadian architect Arthur Erickson always intended.
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But we’ve had too many missteps and poorly positioned experiments. The Yew Street closure pilot was a mess. The latest attempt to transform Water Street in Gastown was again smothered by small thinking, unnecessarily pitting businesses against city hall.
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And we’ve had horrific tragedy at the Lapu Lapu Day street festival, another heartbreaking reminder that vehicles can be murder weapons, and streets designed for joy must also creatively protect people.
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Granville Street as a whole badly needs revitalization. The overall plan for that, recently passed by city hall, should be implemented more urgently. A full summer street opening (stop calling it a road closure!) next year and onward should play a key role in that revitalization, filling the street with clever, magnetic reasons to come and stay.
