A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If…Helicopters Kept Crowds Off Beaches During Pandemics

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If is a column that advocates for things that exist in other cities that could serve to improve or otherwise celebrate life in our own.

Police in Italy (above) and Brazil (below with bonus dance music) are employing helicopters to clear beaches that have been closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The videos show them using rotor blades to blow sand towards small groups ignoring the emergency laws prohibiting beach visits. It’s an extreme measure, for sure. Here in Vancouver, enjoying our beaches is still allowed, though the Park Board has temporarily closed their adjoining parking lots as a deterrent. But with a partly sunny day being predicted for tomorrow (the last one before a week of forecasted rain), there’s a good chance we might see the same sort of irresponsible idiocy on display as last weekend.

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If We Had More Safe Indoor Spaces for Skateboarding

Its vaulted ceilings may have once carried the tenors and altos of Catholic choirboys, but nowadays the acoustics of the abandoned St. Liborius Church have been repurposed to carry the screeches and echoes characteristic of a DIY Skatepark. We think Vancouver would be cooler if we had an all-inclusive indoor community skatepark of our own...

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If It Had a Massive Floating Housing Project at the Port

Imagine a colourful, mixed-used, housing complex like Amsterdam's Silodam floating at the foot of Victoria Drive.

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If It Had Floating Camp Sites in False Creek

Imagine Belgium's Vlot Kamp - essentially eight floating campsites accessed from the shore by canoe - next to Olympic Village.

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If It Had a Cocktail Bar Hidden in a Skytrain Station

This 15-seat speakeasy-style bar is located behind a nondescript door in New York City's 28th Street subway station.