Dominic has been walking the alleys of East Van since his oldest child was born in the early 2020s.
“I got to hold my kids in a carrier and just walk around for hours until she fell asleep … I literally did every like alley in my neighbourhood,” of Hastings-Sunrise, Dominic, a local elementary school teacher who asked to be identified by first name only, told Vancity Lookout.
What started as a way for Dominic to get his newborn kids to fall asleep morphed into a fascination with documenting lesser-known lanes and back roads all over East Van, and inviting other locals to explore with him.
This summer, Dominic’s evolving passion project has gained a substantial following on social media, where he posts about his adventures and conversations with Vancouver artists, entrepreneurs, influencers, and newfound friends.
“I’m noticing with these conversations how quickly strangers stop feeling like strangers. You show up, explore, chat, take a few photos, and 45 minutes later you’re talking about parenting and community with someone you just met,” he wrote in one post.
Dominic credits a walk he took with COPE city councillor Sean Orr and another with CBC reporter Justin McElroy as big drivers of his growing popularity and reach. But a more intangible and central element to that success is Dominic’s voice, which comes across as authentic and curious, quotidian and personal.
“It's been really satisfying for me,” he described. “It's filled my cup. I come away oftentimes feeling inspired or learning something new, or just feeling good about having a conversation with a random person.”
While Dominic gets to meet a lot of cool people doing cool things, as he describes it, his goal is to capture the moment and the feeling of these walks. One of Dominic’s favourite conversations was with his neighbour, an artist who goes through recycling on garbage day to collect bottle caps and other pieces of plastic for his artworks.
Dominic’s neighbour “brought me to a really cool alley,” called a country lane, a more porous alleyway design that incorporates strips of grass and gardens with two paved tracks for cars. “I didn't know these existed in Vancouver,” Dominic said, adding he thinks it’s a great idea that the city should do more often.
The city piloted three of these alleys in 2002, and there’s been a recent resurgence of political interest in the project. Property owners can petition the city to bring similar designs to their back lanes, but would need to pay the bill, according to the Vancouver Sun.
“Everyone has different interesting stories, and every conversation is unique … it's just random,” based on whatever comes up, Dominic said.
Our walk — down an alley that runs from Victoria Drive to just before Clark Drive — included talk about the neighbourhood fascination and artwork surrounding Nigel the cat (which Dominic hadn’t heard of before), comparing notes on our writing processes, a discussion about fruit harvesting from the many trees and bushes that grow in or hang over into alleys, and discovering a particularly verdant backyard garden.
Because Dominic had (until now) operated his East Van Alleys account anonymously, there were some initial challenges getting people to participate in his project. “Trying to convince someone to meet me in an alley, when [they] don’t know who the person is, was a bit of a roadblock,” in the beginning, he said with a chuckle.
“I tried to be as straightforward as I could, especially if I reached out. I tell them I'm a teacher, I'm a dad, just so there's a comfort there,” Dominic explained. But now any apprehension seems to have evaporated, and it’s mostly people reaching out to him (as was the case with our interview), or receiving suggestions of folks to connect with. “Everyone’s so nice and friendly,” about the project, Dominic said.
The most prominent local Dominic would still really like to talk to? Nardwaur the Human Serviette. “He’s a bit of a white whale for me,” Dominic said, which led us into a whole tangent about Nardwaur’s supreme interview and research skills (the gold standard for every journalist), and how you could possibly go about interviewing the interview GOAT.
As our conversation wound down, it was easy to tap into the energy Dominic had described from previous walks. It was a feeling of connection, both to this person who had been a stranger an hour prior, and to the often-overlooked spaces around us, which unfold the daily routines, hobbies, and lives of our neighbours when you slow down to look.
