Thursday, June 9, 2011

Why Scott Road and 72nd Avenue?

Yesterday, I got talking with my colleague Nathen Sekhon who is the producer for OMNI News: Punjabi Edition about why Scott Road and 72nd Avenue is the de facto celebration site in Surrey and North Delta. As I posted about early that intersection is host to a bunch of strip malls and from an urban design standpoint, really sucks. This has caused many urban designer types to scratch their heads and wonder why this area, which couldn’t be any more hostile to pedestrian, is a celebration site.

He told me that there isn’t any special reason why this intersection became the spot, but there are a few strong possibilities why. Scott Road in general, and Scott Road and 72nd Avenue, is really the commercial heart of the Indo-Canadian community whose settlement in the area was really a result of organic growth and the natural phenomena of people wanting to live with people who are similar to themselves. Within the Indo-Canadian community, there is a strong heritage of community celebration with Vaisakhi being a good example. The community has also embraced hockey, so it’s really not a surprise that celebration would take place where is does. In fact at one-time, celebration would also occur at Scott Road and Nordel Way as well. Hopefully this clears things up...

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