This Wouldn't Have Been Possible Without a Male Chaperone

Suggested listening: Black Mountain – NightWalks

Two restaurant spaces, in buildings constructed over 100 years apart, sit vacant. In frozen frame the street seems peaceful, no indication of the anguished cries of of addiction that regularly echo between the buildings from street dwelling denizens as ghostly as the evening traffic.

Graffiti gallery walls embrace the “if you can’t beat them, join them” ethos. A shadowy figure slips by a mural adjacent to the Phillip’s Brewery patio.

Contemporary country floods the empty sidewalk outside the Duke saloon. The Francis Rattenbury designed building was originally built to house street cars for B.C. Electric Company. Since transforming into a nightclub space decades ago it has welcomed enthusiasts of industrial, pop, and now country music. 

A neon sign appears to slumber in a closed eatery in Old Town while outside early Hallowe’en shoppers stream from Value Village. The popular thrift store serves a variety of Victorians – from Millennials cosplaying the 90s, to street-entrenched individuals stocking up on dry blankets. A new vegan butcher caters to one of these populations.

Entering from the western terminus of Discovery Street’s Chinatown one must walk almost half the length of the block before encountering anything particularly Chinese. Restored heritage buildings now host the upscale restaurants and boutiques that signal gentrification, leaving garbage can signage to tout Victoria's civic pride at hosting Canada’s oldest Chinatown.

One of two hand carved stone lions, gifts from Victoria’s sister sister Suzhou, China, guard the Gates of Harmonious Interest at the Eastern terminus of Chinatown.

For decades a rotund buddha smiled from the window of Chinatown Trading Company. Following the popular shop’s closure the figure moved above Fantan Cafe to House of Jimbo, home of Canada’s Drag Race competitor Jimbo the Drag Clown. 

A motorized meneki-neko waves sleepily as passersby. Popular in sushi restaurants, these figurines, traditionally a Japanese Bobtail cat, are believed to impart good fortune.

A pedestrian passes The Romance Shop, one of the few retailers north of Yates open past 6:00PM.

They say more than a handful’s a waste. This rings especially true the case of this window display’s plastic and PVC novelty items which will occupy a landfill well beyond their short-lived “romantic” amusement.