07/09/2024
Long time neighbourhood activist & historian, Jak King, has died
Jak was a longtime activist in Grandview-Woodland, and he died last week at the age of 74. He died peacefully and willingly after a long illness. His deteriorating health never slowed down his contributions to the history of development and heritage in Grandview-Woodland, specifically, and Vancouver generally.
He was an enthusiastic writer and local historian, and maintained a lively and frequent, virtually daily, blog posting on many matters -- music, food, poetry, art, but most frequently, civic matters and often dismay over the changes happening in the city he loved. He maintained a monthly posting called "Changes on the Drive" in which he toured the length of Commercial, from Broadway to Venables, noting new occupants, new vacancies, and maintaining long term statistics along with photographs of the businesses along Commercial Drive. It was a lively health report for our high street. Steve and I are going to try to carry on Jak’s "Changes on the Drive". Eventually, we’ll be posting our findings somewhere on the Grandview Heritage Group website. If, once it’s up, you’d like notification of how to find it, please let me know.
Jak was exasperated and frustrated by the various City Council decisions so rapidly changing Grandview and all of Vancouver, and spoke often with lead planners and academics. He was involved with the No Towers campaign to prevent a fancy condo tower going up at Venables & Commercial Drive and was a key community participant in the development of the initial Grandview Community Plan.
He was an inspiring past chair of Grandview-Woodland Area Council (GWAC) and enjoyed locking horns with various players at City Hall. He wrote several books on the history of Commercial Drive and Grandview-Woodland. He was one of the founding members of the Grandview Heritage Group (GHG) and developed an exhaustive database that includes all the properties in Grandview. The information he posted on his site and on the GHG site inspired many residents to get involved in local preservation and heritage recognition. Jak also served as a guide to people in other neighbourhoods seeking to develop similar heritage- and character-recognition initiatives.
He was a friend to so many of us, both in Grandview and throughout the city and we already miss him.
