FINDING THE HUMANITY IN DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER.
The views are great, but despite its setting, [Vancouver’s] downtown has the cold, generic feeling of a developer’s boom town.
— Knute Burger, “Vancouver is Shangri-Not”
I can’t help but notice how lately, anti-Vancouver articles and rants are rampant in both journalistic and blogosphere-based realms of discussion. Writers sling insults at Vancouver’s ‘vapidity,’ its coldness and its fake tendencies — and these insults are especially directed towards the city’s downtown core.
I’m all for criticism when it is constructive (as many of the anti-Olympics signage and security dialogues have been), it can be essential for fixing what’s going wrong and helping create a better world. However, the anti-Vancouver rhetoric I keep hearing from all sources is starting to remind me of a pack of cats (older cities) attacking a squirrel (Vancouver) just because he happens to have a shiny new winter coat, without actually realizing that squirrel might have had some chestnuts (good ideas) to share with everyone.
Disregarding my assumption that cats can even eat chestnuts, I’d like to defend downtown Vancouver from my own perspective — from someone who actually lives there, in the West End, on a dense urban street lined with old trees next to a city park. It is one of the most friendly, community-drenched places I’ve lived in — my street is filled with the sounds of human laughter, residents blasting obscure 90’s dance mixes and joyful dog barking at all hours of the day and night.
I think I’ve said enough in Vancouver’s defense, however. A better way to display the downtown community I have grown to love is through some photos — mine and two others — of Vancouver as I see it. Here they are.
You can find tranquil places to be alone even when you’re downtown…
Yet, a few blocks down the road - a busy urban street. Image by Flickr user ‘TPower.’
And then you can walk down to events like the Gay Pride Parade — one of the biggest in North America.
Dogs are everywhere in the West End, especially in the summer. Image by flickr user ‘Harry2010’.
And I always find small things when I look around this area of the city that make me happy - like the christmas tree on the top of the building at the end of this alleyway.
Or like an impromptu flash-mob Zombie walk in the heart of downtown.
…Or a dog show down the block from your apartment. (image by WestEndDogShow on Flickr.)
This is the Vancouver I think of when I read stories about what downtown is to other people. Of course, each opinion is based on one’s own personal perception of reality, but I believe that other cities have a lot to admire about Vancouver’s West End and downtown core.
—Kat
