What’s up, Vancouver? Why can’t you behave nicely and enjoy the party?
Yesterday evening, we were down at Lacarno beach with another couple and their kids. We had a lovely time playing in the sand, swimming and lapping up the sun (Yes!! Sun!!). At around 8 PM it was time to pack it up. Our kids are still young and they were “done”. As we headed back to our cars we noticed an unusual amount of loud, obnoxious groups of younger people. Guys in Tap Out shirts and embroidered jeans puffing out their chests, dropping more f-bombs per sentence than you would think possible — and girls, trailing behind them, rolling their eyes and (I imagine) wondering how on earth they got so damn lucky. Then, the giveaway: guy hunched over puking in the middle of the sidewalk…yep, it was fireworks night in Vancouver.
My Facebook and Twitter feeds last night and this morning were full of commentary about the first night in the Celebration of Light annual fete. However, the posts and tweets were overwhelmingly about the state of the people in attendance and not the quality of the pyrotechnics.
My friends and I marvel at this each and every year. What is it about public events in Vancouver that bring out the drunken, disorderly worst in people? Some argue the “Bridge and Tunnel” crowd (i.e. suburbians) are to blame. Others say it is the sheer lack of public events in our city…we simply don’t know how to behave due to lack of exposure. One friend, now living in Montreal, stated:
“It’s strange. The fireworks here are bigger, with way bigger crowds (made up largely of families with small children), with people drinking (openly) in public, and the whole thing is peaceful and clean. I can’t figure out why the Vancouver one is always so controversial and messy. My current theory is that because there are so few free, public festivals in Vancouver – we don’t know how to behave when there is one. We’re like teenagers who were never allowed to drink on a binge. In Montreal, a festival isn’t an excuse to act like a teenager; it’s Tuesday.”
Not a huge fan of large crowds, in general, I tend to avoid these kinds of events. The fact that many of them end up becoming an excuse for some people revert to lowest common denominator behaviour, is even more reason for me to stay away. Now that I have kids, I pick and choose, considering which of these mass gatherings are truly “family friendly” and make sure I enjoy them from a location that will be enjoyable for all of us.
What are your thoughts? Why do we continually end up seeing this kind of behaviour at public events in Vancouver? Is it just certain events…why?
The aftermath in English Bay from a Celebration of Lights Gathering.
Photo source: Flickr
I’ve stopped going all together. I was jumped by 5 people couple years back for no reason what so ever. Cops just watched. However, I do live in downtown with an amazing view of the fireworks. So all you drunken idiots can tear each other apart. I’ll watch on the other side of the cage where the civilized roam.
It’s privilege. Or rather being privileged. People here have a false sense of entitlement thinking that because the city has forked over so much money for a pyrotechnics show (or any event) they’ve also put in place the resources to clean up after their sorry selves. It’s not understanding just how privileged we are here that there are such events to attend, for free, in a beautiful setting. Rather than having been taught that this is something to nurture and care for, I suppose a lot of the revellers think that it is their right to have such little regard for themselves, their city and their surroundings. It’s sick really. People in so called developing countries take more care of their surroundings then we do here in the ‘developed’ world. My friends and I were stunned at what English Bay looked like when everyone walked away. Shameful but it’ll happen every night.
It always really bothers me when people blame just those who don’t live in downtown for the irresponsible behaviour. It is just people who don’t care, who have little to no regard for anyone aside from themselves. The lack of events in Vancouver probably has something to do with it, but it is part of the culture too. People honestly and truly believe that the rules don’t apply. Maybe one idea would be to have “drunken yahoo zone” – a specific area wherre people could go to act like jokers and allow the rest of the families who actually want to enjoy themselves to do just that.
So disappointing that it’s always like this. I don’t think this is the reason why but I do think it would help if Vancouver was more on top of waste disposal. We were just in Portland and San Francisco and they are way ahead of us on supplying appropriate bins for garbage/recycling/compost etc. In Vancouver I always have to search for places to put waste and bins are generally overflowing. I know the city is broke but you really shouldn’t scrimp on things like garbage.
Definitely a “lowest common denominator” thing!!
Lots of good points here. Lack of festivals/events is part of it, and shortage of waste bins is another. But bottom line is no respect…bad behavior has been tolerated for so long and there are no consequences for perpetrators. I have to think that if we had more police on horseback that weren’t afraid to use their billy clubs these problems would disappear pretty quickly and our feativals wouldn’t become magnets for the 1% of idiots that ruin it for the rest of us.
My wife and I took our 3 yr old and 7 yr old down to the fireworks last night. We took a blanket and sat among other well behaved, friendly families, older folks, and younger people. No one was obviously drunk, no one was belligerent, there weren’t even any people smoking anywhere near us. Where were we? Vanier Park, with a great view. The infamous areas (English Bay, Kits Point) might have their share of scum and villany, but there are lots of family-friendly places to enjoy the fireworks. And, we did.
Great to know! Thanks for sharing!
this is why we cant have nice things.
Actually I have a totally different perspective, on this behavior at public events as well as the Stanley Cup riots.
The insane cost of housing here forces people right up into their thirties to live like a teenager. At home. With their parents. Some even have kids and then move back home. With their parents.
In this city you can afford any two of a car, a girlfriend, a place to rent – but not all three. Those who get all three are sickenly stressed and straddled with work and dont have time for public events, let alone the energy.
I was looking to move five years ago and noticed that a one bedroom basement suite in most areas of the city between the Fraser river and Burrard Inlet was around a thousand bucks a month. I was actually looking at two bedroom places, seeing as I worked from home at the time, so we were looking at $1600.
When I got out of high school, I rented a one bedroom apartment for $280 a month. I lucked out and got a 3 bedroom apartment that was run down for $333 a month. I rented a really nice tiny basement suite for $245. This was in Powell River, in the late 90s. I worked at McDonalds and made a killer $400 per paycheck (lol). I had enough money for drinking, partying, going to the bars, girls, whatever.
Well even factoring in inflation, that same job at McDonalds full time will net you a lovely $500 per paycheck now. But your rent is $1000, higher if you want to be close to anything to do. So you have no money to eat, no money to do anything. Hence, you have to go with option 2 – work at McDonalds but live with your parents.
I’m not saying that McDonalds is the life to live, but hey, at 19 or 20 and when you’re still figuring out what to do, it works, and there’s a lot of openings.
So as you comment that “a public festival is not an excuse to act like a teenager”, you couldn’t be more correct – despite being in their 20s and 30s, these people haven’t grown OUT of being a teenager yet.
Part of maturing past adolecsence, inarguably the most important part, is figuring out how to establish a household. Remembering to buy groceries because eating out every meal will run you broke. Learning to cook. Learning that having wild parties at your house all the time will get you evicted. Learning to move. Learning to pay the rent and the bills on time. Learning that buying liquor instead of paying the electric bill means living in the dark with a fridge full or rotten food that you can’t cook because the stove doesn’t work. Learning that it might be nice to buy some things to put in your house so it isnt so boring sitting on the floor staring at the wall.
These are very important aspects of maturing into an adult in Canadian society. Yet Vancouver has MULTIPLE generations now who arent even beginning this stage of learning until they are in their mid 30s.
The result? Men are annoyed that all the women in this town cheat on them repeatedly. Women are annoyed that all men want to do is sit around, loaf, and play video games. Couples are annoyed that every public event turns into a frat party because the public acts like. Well, teenagers.
Because that’s the kind of stuff that teenagers do. Teenage boys loaf around, creating a mess, gobbling junk food and playing video games. Teenage girls bat their eyelashes and compete for the attention of the cutest boy in the room – even if they have a boyfriend. Its teenage life – extended for another ten or more years.
I’m all grown up now and I have lived on my own since 1993. I have a kid, a girl, a house, a truck, a boat. Despite having all the aspects of life, I can’t find any like minded couples who have any time for the simple things in life – like hanging out with friends or coming over for a BBQ.
Why? All the 30 somethings are busting their chops just trying to get by. Having a kid means needing at LEAST a two bedroom place – preferrably a nicer one and not a dump. Near a school, preferrably near transit (gas is expensive). Which drives up the price. Even a kid-friendly basement suite 2 bedroom can go for $1700 if it’s close to a school, quiet and safe.
Buying a home? Of course all the baby boomer parents are babbling that us that the thing to do is buy our own home. So everyone is also scrimping for a down payment.
Down payment? Laughable. The price a lot of our parents paid for their houses is EQUAL to what we’d have to pay for a downpayment. $50,000 for a condo – at 10% down. $100,000 for a house – at 10% down. And unfortunately, since we don’t own houses already, and are young parents… they will probably make us put 30% down and pay a higher interest rate.
Hence… we have a lot of 20 and 30 something teenagers in this city.
Which, getting back to the point of your article, means that any public event is going to suck, no matter how hard they work to make it good and nice – because the public, sucks.
I do love this city, I was born here. But I’m getting the F out of here as soon as I can find some gainful employment up the coast.
Only few minutes of firework…annually
In a rich prosperous city where average housing price is more than 500 grand…Vancouver is a world class city and should have at.east 1 hr of fireworks…every 2nd week at least … People need to spend less money on jjunk small houses with 3rd world appliances and pay it more tax for public events.. Like a world class city..hehe…