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Riley Park: The neighbourhood at a glance

Riley Park. Where exactly is that? Many readers are probably familiar with the park itself, which takes up more than two hectares of green space along Ontario Street at East 30th Avenue.

Riley Park. Where exactly is that?

Many readers are probably familiar with the park itself, which takes up more than two hectares of green space along Ontario Street at East 30th Avenue.

For baseball fans, it's across the street from Nat Bailey Stadium. But Riley Park is really more than one park, as the City of Vancouver decided when dividing up the city's neighbourhoods. Riley Park is the name the city uses to describe a vast swath of community that runs from 16th to 41st avenues and spreads from Fraser to Cambie streets.

Within those boundaries exists a lot of cool - cool houses, restaurants, antique shops, record stores, fashion boutiques, coffee hangouts, butcher shops, community centres, a thriving farmers' market and the very cool Army Navy and Air Force Veterans' club where karaoke is king on Saturday nights.

Riley Park is also home to Mountain View Cemetery, the city's only burial ground. It takes up more than 42 hectares of space west of Fraser Street, between 31st and 43rd avenues. The neighbourhood has a great mix of people, past and present. Video artist Paul Wong lives there. Police Chief Jim Chu and business mogul Jim Pattison went to school there - Chu at Sir Charles Tupper secondary, Pattison at Brock elementary.

Queen Elizabeth Park is probably the community's best known landmark. The east side of the tourist attraction overlooks Nat Bailey Stadium and the relatively new and impressive Hillcrest community centre, which hosted curling during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The 2011 Census says almost 22,000 people live within the boundaries of Riley Park and the median age is 40 years old. While English speakers are the majority, Chinese languages and Tagalog are spoken by a large number of residents. The 2006 Census showed the median income for a family at $77,625, which means many families must have big mortgages or struggling to pay rent.

Many homes easily fetch more than $1 million and rent for a two-bedroom apartment at 33rd and Main featured in a recent online ad was $1,490 per month.

All part of living the life in Riley.