Don Cayo penned an opinion piece in the Sun today on how Vancouver “coasts on its beauty, but misses out on creating vibrant city life”. The meat of it focuses a little too much on business as if more retails stores and restaurants along the waterfront were the keys to cultural ascension for my liking (it’s all the stupid by-laws and red tape), but he pulls out some good quotes just the same:
Vancouver coasts on its natural assets, too rarely learning from other cities that do more with less, says Michael Goldberg, a professor emeritus at University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business and an outspoken critic of urban planning and development.
“Great cities are about street-level experiences,” he told me over the lunch the other day at a table near the window of a pleasant little eatery, a spot I chose because there was no functioning outdoor patio this time of year on this section of busy Robson Street.
“But we [in Vancouver] rely excessively on being beautiful and being next to nature. All our planning tends to focus outward toward the views, and there has been no attention to the street-level experience for people.
Read the whole bit here. Vancouver’s relative sterility is hardly breaking news, but it’s nice to see our local paper pause its groan-worthy cheerleading for just long enough to echo what everybody already knows, that our city would be so much better if we just arrested all the No Fun nabobs and sent them packing to gulags in rural Ontario.
There are 7 comments
Popular
Where Does One of Victoria’s Cooler Restaurant Crews Eat When in Vancouver?
From Sketching and Stretching, to Boxed Wine and Old Signs with Spencer Pidgeon
¿CóMO? Taperia and Paella Guys Popular Paella Series Returns in May
Vancouver's Most Racist Restaurant, Remembered
The Curve on Amaro with Local Bartender, Andrew Kong
How can we, as local yokels, organize to overcome our repressive liquor/event/hours/licensing laws? Scout, we look to you. Vive le outdoor drinking!
The BCRFA? Probably not. Learning to love breaking the law is a lot easier. I’m afraid the only way to deal with dinosaurs is to wait for them go extinct.
A lot of the people on this site equate a great city/time with public drinking and intoxication. The vast majority don’t. They don’t even seem to want to get their booze on in bars and restaurants it seems, they want to bring their own to the party.
For the most part the citizens of Vancouver don’t want to turn Granville street into the French Quarter or the old Vegas strip. It would be nice if there was a place for local live music and the loosening of the liquor laws but this desire to be a city full of woo, woo people is lost on me.
It’s about personal freedom versus nannying. That’s all.
I hope so because the No Fun City thing pisses me off. If you can’t have fun in Vancouver you may not be a fun person. So don’t blame the three levels of government blame your self.
“Street level experience” means different things to different people. As far as allowing partying on Granville street, the city seems pretty supportive of that (except for the public drinking part).
However, the same city ordered the red tape in bulk when a neighbourhood art gallery (Little Mountain) started hosting live theatre and music events. Getting rid of the “No Fun” side of the city isn’t about free-for-all pot and booze, it’s about letting small businesses and community groups find ways to serve and connect citizens without making them jump through hoops just because they don’t fit into pre-defined bylaw categories.
Again with the snide remarks about eastern Canada? Quit being so friggin’ insecure, guys.