Much has changed on Victoria Drive over the last decade, especially the area close to the intersection of Victoria Drive and East 41st Avenue. Not only have Asian businesses become abundant, but this area has become very central to the South Vancouver neighbourhood. With the construction of many condominiums in the area, a plaza was established just north 41st Avenue, on Victoria Drive, which has London Drugs as its anchor store. Other stores in the same plaza include Maxim's Bakery (another Chinese-style bakery), Kent's Kitchen (Chinese fast food / take-out), and Roger's Video. Many people that I talked to believe that the establishment of this plaza brought about more people than there ever was in the area. They believe that this was the height of the neighbourhood's business development.
The dominating opinion is that it is hard to imagine how Victoria Drive could ever become another Chinatown, not to the extent where they are comparable in the types of shoppers and density of Asian businesses. Chinatown, many say, will always have regular Chinese shoppers, especially elderly shoppers. Victoria Drive will most likely always have a diverse mix of people, because of its location, an East Vancouver area where many different ethnicities mix together. There will probably never be a day when one will see all black-hair and brown-eyed people down Victoria Drive, like the picture below taken of Chinatown. Another factor that comes into play is the history of Chinatown that Victoria Drive will never have. The decor and atmosphere of Chinatown makes it the unique historical neighbourhood that it is.
"Little Chinatown" is only going to resemble Chinatown to an extent, and will always show diversity in its businesses because of the market that it must accomodate to. Unless over the next several decades, some extreme form of chain migration happens that brings all the Chinese into this South Vancouver neighbourhood, Victoria Drive will simply be a somewhat Chinese-dominant, yet still multicultural, East Vancouver neighbourhood.
