Vancouver state of mind

In the absence of having much to report I thought I’d just talk about Van City in this time before it becomes warm and gets to be a wicked city again.

I read somewhere that Douglas Copeland said his favorite thing about the city was something like “it hasn’t become what it’ll be yet”. At the time I thought that was kind of a weird thing to say but now I know what he means. One cool thing about this place is you really get the vibe that things are changing. A year from now we’re going to have the Olympics here, and from the sound of things the legacy wont be as terrible as some of the other Olympic tragedies – ahem, Montreal, Greece. For one, apparently all the facilities are going to be on budget, plus we get a wicked subway line out of it. Granted apparently the security is going to be over budget, but hey we can’t win them all.

The weirdest part of the whole thing is what they’re going to do about the east hastings problem. As much as it’s probably not the most PC thing to say, this city could use a little bit of Giuliani. With a year left before the Olympics I still don’t see how they’re going to sort out that whole situation. Sometimes in the press you’ll read about people complaining about the treatment of people down on skid row, the thing that the press always seems to mix up is the difference between poor people and drug addicts/crackheads/people with mental problems. They’ve considered offering affordable housing down in that area but every poor person who isn’t addicted to drugs just said “screw it, I’d rather live in Burnaby”. Other times you’ll see headlines like “East hastings residence protest treatment by police”. The problem is the stories will usually end with a sentence like:

“The man, who goes by the name ‘crunchy’ said the people of Hastings have had enough of their profiling by the police.”

Okay, I have a feeling “crunchy” probably isn’t a business owner, or a member of the local community board. Why aren’t they talking more to the honest business owners who are actually trying to turn around the neighborhood and see how they feel? The people who have to deal with Crunchy and others smoking crack in front of his business. God knows in the limited times I’ve been there I’ve seen people smoke crack in front of me. Most Vancouverites don’t say it in public, but in private it’s hard to draw up sympathy for those people.

With that issue aside there’s a ton of awesome stuff going on. Recently we got awarded an MLS team for 2011. BC Place is about to get decked out and modernized to look sweet. There’s also a real positivity around the city. As much as I often complain about the lack of nightlife and stuff, it’s also sort of because there’s so much awesome stuff to do during the day. Every time I drive more than 5 blocks I go by a skate park. There’s giant mountains everywhere, the pink salmon are going to run this fall (note: if anyone wants to go fishing, come out here in September, they say during the pink run you can walk across the river on the backs of the fish) and even the Vancouver Art Gallery has switched their focus from trying to get traveling group of seven shows to trying to push contemporary artists (Hamilton art gallery take note, you’ll never compete with the big boys, might as well try and show new and exciting stuff).

One funny thing about this place is I still miss the people of Ontario. At heart I really am a Hamilton guy and I notice it out here sometimes. People tend to be in their bubble a bit out here and a little unreceptive to strangers, it might also be because if you stop anyone on the street they automatically assume you’re homeless.

This city is like that party you go to where they have an open bar, wicked music playing and a dance floor choked with good looking girls. But for some reason unless you go with a big posse of friends you still somehow only have a good but not great night. The people can sometimes be a bummer.

Not really sure what this post was all about, just thought it was worth sharing a few opinions right before spring comes again and this city really becomes awesome again.