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Vancouver is characterized in equal parts by its settler-colonial history, with its dominating industries, and its pre-colonial indigenous population and environment. Since writers often focus on these aspects in conjunction with present-day problems, I will discuss a selection of Vancouver writers who portray the city through their historical, cultural, and poetic renditions. I will introduce the poet Meredith Quartermain and her poetry collection Vancouver Walking (2005), which appears in the title of my essay. Michael Turner’s Kingsway (1995) is a collection of poems centred around Vancouver’s oldest thoroughfare, Kingsway, both a destination and a point of departure, while Bud Osborn’s hundred block rock (1999) presents the world of Vancouver’s disempowered: criminals, drug addicts, and prostitutes. The focus of the analysis will be on the representation of historical and contemporary figures, with a view to the spaces they prefer(red) and in which they move(d), of the historical and poetic imaginaries that often draw attention to Vancouver’s colonial legacy.