Image of History

Darkly in The Mirror

FDR Library, Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Re-reading a commemorative book published in 1995 by the Real Estate Board of Great Vancouver to celebrate 75 years of it’s “History of Service” a particular passage stood clear. Today as one views our great and beautiful city on the eve of the 2010 Winter Olympics a year after 2008′s world wide financial meltdown, one takes pause to reflect on the image in the mirror.

Reflection

“On March 9, 1929, the Vancouver Stock Exchange experienced a record trading day, but on October 29, 1929, the Wall Street Crash was heard around the world. Despite that Black Friday, however, Vancouver’s civic authorities, citizens and businessmen didn’t seem to immediately understand the economic implications of the market crash and continued approving major civic improvement bonds, such as an expenditure of the over $4 million for the construction of the Burrard Street bridge in December 1929.”

“Slowly however, the penny dropped. Despite considerable building development during 1929, it was soon apparent that the relief rolls were burgeoning, and the destitute were becoming a common sight on downtown streets. Demonstrations, and arrests multiplied, and by mid 1930 it was quite apparent that Vancouver, too, had reached the end of its affluent era and was sliding down into what historians would eventually call the world’s worst depression.”

from A History of Service 1919/1994 published by the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board with permission