Coinciding with the City of Vancouver’s centennial, Expo 86 was held from May 2 to October 13, 1986. The event drew over 22 million visitors and established Vancouver as a city on the rise approaching the twenty-first century.
Beyond expanding Vancouver’s reputation abroad, Expo’s major effects on the city include the building of the first SkyTrain line, which opened for free weekend service in December 1985 before commencing regular, full-time service in January 1986; the mass eviction of over a thousand low-income residents of single room occupancy hotels (SROs) in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, setting a regrettable precedent for the City’s inhumane “sweeps” of that neighbourhood that continue to this day; and the sale of one third of the Expo lands to developer Concord Pacific, which resulted in the development of the waterfront on both sides of False Creek.
