Pandosy Village, Kelowna

Pandosy Village is an urban neighbourhood in a suburban city. Sharing the southern border of the Downtown core, Pandosy's development first began around the Second World War, well before most of Kelowna's other neighbourhoods. Kelowna has struggled in its transition from an agricultural region to small urban hub. Between 1981 and 2010, the city doubled in size to 120,000 people,1 yet overall density remained low.2 This perceived abundance of space--and the collective willingness to use it--underpins Kelowna culture. In contrast, Pandosy Village offers a unique, walkable neighbourhood in the middle of the City.

The Pandosy Village neighbourhood is defined less its Oblate missionary namesake, and more directly by the major street carrying outside residents into the Downtown core. Considered a dangerous and undesirable neighbourhood, Pandosy Village's late 20th century life was as a hollowed-out place of what the urbanist Charles Landry would call “going through.”(pg. xxi Landry, C. The Creative City, Its Origins and Futures.)

More than the reputed frontline of the methamphetamine epidemic, Pandosy Village has historically catered to working class or single-parent households. Now the factors that attracted these earlier residents are gaining broader popularity, as an affordable neighbourhood, close to schools and on a reliable bus line, blessed with several pre-1960s block lengths, a wider variety of building stock (in age, height and density), and relatively more non-motorized traffic. It is considered one of the few walkable areas in car-dependent Kelowna.4 Now the neighbourhood bustles with no fewer than 18
independent shops, 16 independent restaurants, 9 parks, 5 religious organizations, 5 creative industry firms, 4 music businesses, 4 architectural & engineering firms, 4 community service offices, 4 private art galleries, 4 independent jewellers, 4 pre-schools, 1 culinary incubator and 1 tattoo
parlour. (By my calculation)

Adding to the vitality and diversity of the neighbourhood are the over 7,000 students from pre-K to medical school that attend classes in the neighbourhood each year.

A Snapshot of Pandosy Village. Clockwise from top left: Older homes making way for new mixed-use buildings on Osprey Ave, sunshine at the Marmalade Cat Cafe, a QGIS map of Pandosy Village (using City of Kelowna esri layers), the corner of Lanfranco and Lakeshore, Gyro Beach in the summer, Lakeshore Rd looking south, and a brownfield lot at the corner of KLO and Lakeshore.