Putting the fun back in No Fun City (aka Vancouver)
 

Putting the fun back in No Fun City (aka Vancouver)

STEPHEN QUINN | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Feb. 04, 2011 6:12PM EST

The issue was probably best summed up by former Vancouver city councillor Jim Green a few years ago in a conversation with the operator of the Cottage Bistro on Main Street.

“So you can have two mimes but not three?”

Such was the state of live music and performance venues in Vancouver. Art strangled by frequently nonsensical regulation. It’s how we got to be No Fun City.

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Many years later, coincidentally in an election year, the city is finally trying to shake that nickname.

This week, council passed a series of recommendations that will allow more live music and performance to take place in more venues.

In this, the first phase of a multiyear plan, venue capacity could be increased, performances could be allowed to take place in less traditional venues like artists’ studios or warehouses, and people might even be allowed to have a drink in some of these places. Legally.

But contained in the recommendations is a small nugget that may have gone unnoticed. It is a provision written in classic city-report-speak: “That the city explore a mechanism for purchasers [of new condos] to acknowledge potential impacts of neighbouring live performance venues.”

In plain English: You moved in beside a heavy metal bar. Guess what? There’s going to be some noise. Get over it. You live in the city. Now sign here.

This could be a hard sell in a city where condo-dwellers are unwilling to live next door to dying people, who tend not to party very loudly. Okay, different issue.

But people who have just moved into a new building that happens to be near a bar or nightclub that predates their own tenure by several decades have effected change in the past.

The closure of the Cobalt on Main Street in 2009 has been blamed largely on the complaints of new condo residents who moved in long after the bar had established its reputation as a haven for lovers of punk and metal.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1895432/

Good to see things slowly changing. I have been following this for a while. About 10 years too late, but any move in a more liberal direction is welcome and seriously needed. God i hope this is the start of something good. The state of the night life here has made me old and boring before my time

Vancouver needs to become much less regulated to allow creative types to flourish; for that to happen one needs an organic atmosphere that will find its own way and not be too forced as is the case now. To steal a line from No Fun City...." there is culture everywhere here, but no cultural infrastructure." To me that sums up the problems here and from a different perspective, you have to admire the efforts made by those who have taken the music scene underground.

One problem though, is the fact that the city has built residential just about everywhere and needs to be creative in where nightspots can grow without upsetting the citizens.

Bring it on!

If it has not been posted yet, here is the trailer for the film No Fun City. Vancouver plays itself in this one:


• Video Link

The Zombie walk is always fun. http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2011/07/v...august-photos/

Every City does that.

Vancouver has sold it's soul and has turned from being a city to a real estate development.

Do you want to elaborate on that?

:previous:
Even from a distance, that's the feeling I get, too.

Do you want to elaborate on that?

Nah.. Vancouver's soul always has been real estate development.

Read the history of Canadian Pacific Railway...

It's quite interesting how the good citizens of Victoria in the 1870s wanted to the Feds to build the railway through Bute Inlet and over bridges to the island. Many of them were speculating on real estate; they threatened to pull out of Confederation if the railway didn't terminate there.

:previous: Yes. Even from here, when I hear about Vancouver, the topic often centres on the cost of real estate. Also, looking at theis forum, there's so much about condominiums, houses, etc, compared to the corporate world and its requirements. Vancouver is great, we all know, but it seems (again, from a distance) to a be a fair-sized city without a real powerhouse economy like Seattle, and becoming more of a gigantic resort.

But that's just an impression, I have to re-iterate.

Now, regarding the "no fun" city aspect, I think that is largely due to the pull of the great outdoors, which is so strong in Vancouver.
If the city were on a prairie river, it might turn to its own resources and become more "fun." But it is very outdoor-oriented,
and that could play a role in the "no fun" part, that's all.

Vancouver's never really been a major corporate city, but more of a lumber and natural resource port, and still is. So I'm just wondering why some people say we've "sold our soul..." Our soul is still intact as far as I'm concerned.

It is amazing how little people know about Vancouver's gigantic corporate mining industry...

People base their opinion on what they see on the skyline. Very few big office buildings apparently means we've lost our soul.

i volunteered at the lantern festival last night and numerous american tourists were talking to me and they all remarked on how busy the city is everywhere they go and there is so much to do and see, and the one guy was here on his first day and was overwhelmed with how much stuff was going on in the city on day

Yesterday was pretty fun, spending the afternoon at the Japanese Festival and then watching the fireworks at English Bay. These are the type of events I love, and it is nice to see them embracing more street fair attributes (such as the fantastic food booths at the Japanese fair!)

No soul....what a load of bollocks....there has been so much street life of late, tons going on, people everywhere. I have family here from the UK and they love the city.

Real estate certainly dominates our mindset at times, but I would hardly say it defines us. As I said, total bollocks.

The no fun ditty only really emerged with respect to the outdated approach to drinking laws. There is lots of fun things to do here. And the attitude towards booze has certainly loosened up of late. Vancouver is actually allowing alcohol to be consumed on the golf green at city owned clubs.