“It’s been such a long day at the shop, I’m covered in coffee. Okay, take my picture. Where do I stand? What do you want me to do? What face should I make?

Wait just a second–Hello? Yeah, I can’t talk, he’s taking my picture!”

“His name is Scout. He loves sniffing and chasing after rabbits. If the weather is nice out, sometimes our cat follows us along on walks.”

“You know, I can still see those stairs leading up from the street to the apartments in my mind. My mother always said, ‘Don’t go near those stairs!’ My father served in the army in the second World War and when he came back from Europe, he couldn’t find anywhere to live. There was nothing available for rent. She arrived from Holland in September of 1946, and I was born in the Calgary General Hospital in December in that same year. We lived in that apartment up those stairs there at the Carscallen Block until I was about three years old. Can you imagine coming from Holland to this place back in those days?

Our family moved to, I think it was 301 16th street in Hillhurst. I think that house is still there. From there we moved to Mount Pleasant when I was five years old.

You know the thing that kills me? Back when I was living in Hillhurst, the Grocer and the Milkman used to come around with a horse and wagon. Can you imagine? Think about that, it was in my lifetime.

My dad was a party animal. He was coming across the Tenth Street Bridge with a friend in the middle of winter and got his car stuck in a snowbank. There was nobody to clear the snow, so he and his friend just left it there and walked all the way home. They almost didn’t make it!

I think this neighbourhood is ‘Old Calgary’ really. Lots of little boutique-y stores. Mom and I used to walk to The Bay downtown. The streetcar used to come down Kensington Road and take you down to Bowness Park. Back then, as soon as you hit the city limits, you had to give them another nickel because Bowness was another town altogether.

I started with Atco and built high-rise buildings. I bought West Canadian Print on June 18, 1984 and this year it’ll be thirty-two years I’ve owned it. I’ve also served on the Calgary Stampede board for thirty-two years and was Chairman of the Board in 2007-2008.

I’ve hosted Breakfast on the Bridge twice, and I’m looking for a speaker this year. We’ve raised over $350000.00 for the Military Family Resource Centre. It’s for soldiers and their families to get reestablished when they get back from service.

I love this town. Love, love, love it.” George Brookman, CEO of West Canadian Digital Imaging

Well…
You win some and you lose some. In this case, it appears that the venerable JJ Lee Tae Kwon Do school has closed it’s doors. I’m not sure if they’ve moved to a different location or if they’ve shuttered down for good, but there’s a lesson to be learned here.

After operating for over forty years in Hillhurst, as Western Canada’s first Tae Kwon Do academy, as one of the first Tae Kwon Do schools in Canada, the famed JJ Lee Tae Kwon Do and Fitness Studio appears to have closed.

I personally took it for granted. I assumed that this business would somehow always be a mainstay of the community, with it’s yellow revolving sign, the Taeguk painted on their door, the droves of kids dressed in their dobok, the walls of trophies in their showcases. I wanted to feature this magical place in #Sunnyside365, but alas, I was too late.

The lesson is: don’t wait until it’s too late. The businesses in our neighbourhood are run by real people. Human beings who have lives and histories that are fascinating in their own telling. It’s no secret that operating a business in Kensington is challenging and I can attest to that because I hear the worried voices of business owners who are concerned about their lease sky rocketing every turn.

I hear about developers wanting to establish higher population density, while attracting more business and traffic to the neighbourhood, but what that cost is (literal or figurative) and who pays for it (the residents, the business owners) is anybody’s guess.

What I’m saying is, I truly believe that the future of Hillhurst-Sunnyside rests in the hands of a symbiotic relationship between local entrepreneurs and land owners, supported by customers and clientele of these businesses. Otherwise the we run the risk of this community being groomed into an unremarkable retail district with high rents. The ‘character’ and ‘charm’ will be lost.

“How do we make it? It’s steamed chocolate milk, with a little bit of our own somethin’-somethin’. We top it off with whip cream, cocoa shavings, and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. It’s nice and gooey.” Odyssey Coffee House, SAIT Polytechnic Campus.

YYC Hot Chocolate Festival is on right now, with 9 of the 32 participating restaurants located in Hillhurst-Sunnyside. All month these businesses compete for popular votes as to who has the best hot chocolate. Proceeds going to Meals on Wheels. www.yychotchocolate.com

“It’s called, ‘A Night in the Black Forest’. It’s got cherry bourbon, several types of chocolate–dark, milk, cocoa…

We mix it all up with cream, milk, a secret blend of spices that we mix in a stewpot and let it simmer all along. We serve it with some whip cream and a chocolate covered cherry. It’s the best.” Maureen, Owner, Pie Cloud 10th Street NW.

YYC Hot Chocolate Festival is on right now, with 9 of the 32 participating restaurants located in Hillhurst-Sunnyside. All month these businesses compete for popular votes as to who has the best hot chocolate. Proceeds going to Meals on Wheels. www.yychotchocolate.com

“It’s got malted barley chocolate and marshmallows. Then we steam it with evaporated milk, put our own house-made vanilla whip cream on it. The last thing is a graham cracker. The Maltease Falcon is what we’re calling it.” Maddy, Roasterie on 10th Street NW.

YYC Hot Chocolate Festival is on right now, with 9 of the 32 participating restaurants located in Hillhurst-Sunnyside. All month these businesses compete for popular votes as to who has the best hot chocolate. Proceeds going to Meals on Wheels. www.yychotchocolate.com