How Boring is Your City
The other day, I was speaking to a friend who was visiting from Montreal and I asked him whether he liked living in Vancouver or Montreal more. He made the standard first response about how beautiful Vancouver is and then added the eventual but…”Vancouver’s roots go down only so far, that’s why all your tree’s fall over”, (this was after a wind storm where we lost a large amount of trees and took out the power for two days). Having moved from the United Kingdom a year before, this completely reflects how I have been feeling about the city. Don’t get me wrong, Vancouver is an interesting city. It’s a place where you can see hundreds of Ferrari’s with L plates (new drivers) parked next to ten people living off the street. It has a rich history relating to making a profit off America’s prohibition times, as well as a leader in environmentalism, with a large dose of historical racism thrown in for good measure. It’s also a city of multi-culturalism and the celebration of integrating cultures without losing them (see Gung Haggis Fat Choy). But the surface of it, is just really, really pretty (and so are the people).
So as a new series of blogs, I’m going to be attempting to challenge myself to find the hidden gems of Vancouver. Because if you talk to anyone that has lived here long enough, there is a rich tapestry to this city, it’s just buried underneath the artifice. And I want to disprove, or at least challenge the The Economist’s article of Vancouver being a boring city, even though the article does have some very valid points. The motivation for this endeavor is both as a sort of review of Vancouver’s ‘culture’ and a motivator for me personally to let go of netflix and not to fall into ‘‘winter hibernation’.
First up was Vancouver Art Gallery for their exhibit on Italian paintings, ‘Of Heaven and Art’. The art was obviously very beautiful but for this blog post, I was much more interested in the art gallery itself. The building is beautiful, having been built in 1906 and was the provincial court house previously (you’ll see it in every tv show filmed in Vancouver continuing this history). It is a lovely old building, which in a city that knocks buildings down once they reach their 20th birthday, is a rarity. Unfortunately, the space has grown too small and they will be moving the art gallery to a new building custom built for the purpose. It too will be a contrast to its downtown neighbours, as the proposal has it made out of wood.
My second trip, was to the Vancouver Film Festival. I’ve never been to one of the big film festivals (TIFF, Cannes etc.) but I’ve always enjoyed our smaller version. It showcases a lot of Canadian and international talent, and doesn’t get overshadowed by the big Hollywood films. I saw ‘Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World’, the only thing I knew previously about Haida Gwaii was that it was an island off the BC coast, with lots of earthquakes. I’m not going to do a review of the film as that’s not the focus of the blog but I would highly recommend it, as Haida Gwaii is not just a beautiful island, it’s people (largely First Nations) are making huge strides to combat corporate takedown of their land. What excited me about the screening, was how many people there were and how happily people were to stand outside for an hour (having already bought tickets) waiting to get into the theatre. We were let in late for the film yet I didn’t hear anyone viciously complain or attack any of the volunteers. This would not be the case in other places. And even though the film didn’t end until well after eleven on a Tuesday night, people stayed for the Q & A. I think this shows how much Vancouverites crave ‘culture’ and maybe this does speak to not having enough of this in the city.
For a city that has a First Nations band (Musqueam) within its city limits, there’s very few interactions with that culture. This is an entirely different issue, with conflicts within ‘Canadian culture’ as a whole but relating to this blog, it does highlight that though we have many different cultures living within the same city, it seems to be kept separate from Vancouver. And maybe that is what the problem with our boring city, we just have so many options that we suffer from choice paralysis, therefore resulting in a ghettoization rather than the multi-cultural tapestry that is supposed to reflect Canada.
I will try and find some dance shows, theatre, interesting restaurants, museums, live music perhaps even an Opera (really pushing my boundaries on that). Hitting not just the usual tourist sites but finding off the map places, as well as the odd-ball events (pub quizzes, singalongs, and rodeos) So please send in any suggestions, even if you’ve never been yourself (you can use me as a tester). Or perhaps you can tell me the places in your city and we can see if we can find a Vancouver equivalent. Or we can just have a discussion on what constitutes ‘culture’ and what makes a good city. Does safety, cleanliness and being a ‘livable city’ equate to a gentrified culture?
Next month, I will be attending Writers Fest, a hockey game (that pretty much is Canadian culture) and hopefully something a little ‘off-book’.
Originally Posted - Oct 24, 2015
