Over the course of its history, Saskatoon's 20th Street has been lived in, loved and cherished, feared and hated, then embraced and celebrated again. It is a street with a long and diverse history, in terms of urban development, cultural diversity and social stratification. In the first part of the twentieth century, as remembered by older Saskatoon residents, the street and its surroundings was the neighbourhood where many proudly established their roots and others commuted from afar to partake in its life, to socialize and to shop for their fares. With the end of the Second World War, bustling 20th Street attracted many newcomers who eventually transformed the area into the urban space with strong Eastern European flair where various Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian commercial establishments and institutions dominated the urban landscape for decades to come. Later in the twentieth century, other cultural groups claimed the street and its vicinities as their home, as evidenced today by many Asian, Mennonite and Aboriginal cultural institutions and businesses.

Given the workings of various complex socioeconomic factors, by the end of the twentieth century, 20th Street became a depressed urban neighbourhood. This condition and reputation lingered on, as evidenced by local conversations today. Known as a street of drugs and pimp wars, plagued by poverty and other social malaises, the area was for the most part avoided by other residents of the city. Yet, the local residents in the vicinity of 20th Street lived their lives to their best, trying to navigate between challenges and possibilities that the neighbourhood had to offer in those depressed times.

The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed another surge of urban development, dramatically transforming the neighbourhood from that time to the present. New businesses, high-end stores, and restaurants started opening their doors, once again altering the local scene and the feel of the street. Today, 20th Street is seen by many as a street of contrasts - rapidly developing, with old and new businesses competing for their diverse and oftentimes strikingly different clientele.

With rapid urban development that brings new social and economic actors into the local area, there also comes along the sense of loss and nostalgia for what is gone. How would we know what it was like to live and work on this street in the 1940s, the 1960s, the 1980s and the early 2000s? How would we know what mattered in this neighbourhood to those who called it home, in times of social tensions and in times of economic prosperity? As residents and city lovers we all have opinions of our various neighbourhoods, but how well informed are our opinions?