One of the best things i love about living in Vancouver is the vitality, vibrancy, and strong community feeling of it's activist scene. Actually, along with the music scene i mentioned in my last emails, the whole Pacific Northwest region is chock full of alternative-community-activist type groups, right down to Portland, Oregon.
Since i've been here i've become involved in, or attended quite a number of events organised for various reasons. Living in East Vancouver, right by Commercial Drive, I am totally in amongst the thick of the action. This area is a hot-bed for radical thinkers, artists, bohemians, students and is a generally open-minded community.
Just a few weeks ago, there was an event called "Roads Are For Hockey". This is basically a "Reclaim the Streets" styled event, highlighting the need for more public space, generally how the automobile industry has taken over what used to be public space, and more specifically a protest at a proposed highway expansion plan that is set to decimate the area.
A coalition of community groups were co-ordinating this event, namely the Cross Pedestrians (http://www.dotank.org/crosspedestrians), the Work Less Party (www.worklessparty.org) - slogan "Work Less, Consume Less, Live More!!!", with the Adbusters spin-off, Vancouver Culture Jammers (www.adbusters.org) also helping to promote the event.
This oh-so-much-fun event had a one block stretch of Commercial Drive blocked off to all forms of traffic, except buses, and an open public game of field hockey took place. The local police were on hand to direct and maintain traffic around the event, and media of all forms were there to report on this crazy little gathering.
It was on for young and old, literally, as kids as young as 3 or 4 were in there mixing it up with older kids, adults, and pensioners, both men and women. The skill level didn't seem particularly high, but the enrgey and enthusiasm levels certainly were. This particular stretch of road is bordered one side by a public park, and the other side has a range of cafe's, bars and retaurants, and there must have been at least 300 hundred people either taking part in the game or watching from the sidelines. A small number of community and activist groups had stalls open selling wares and promoting causes, a small P.A. system was blasting out fun, up-tempo hockey related songs.
A provincial election is coming up soon, and so the local political hopefuls were in there, from the Greens (not surprising given the nature of the event) to the liberal NDP party and the Conservatives, stating their environmental credentials. It was really quite funny when a bus approached as the chorus "BUS, Game Off!" was shouted out, goals moved to the side of the street, and the bus allowed to pass. Then it was "Game On!!", and normal service resumed.
After the designated hour was up, everything was packed up, and normal traffic was resumed, with the participants all either filling up the cafe's and milling about the park, or heading home.
roads are for hockey.
I've also attended a couple of more bike-activist events in recent times, hooking up with the pseudo-anarchist Maragret Charles Chopper Collective - MC3 (www.mcthree.ca), art-bike collective for another ride around town, and also the monthly Critical Mass (http://www.bikesexual.org/cm/links.htm) ride around the city, held on the last Friday of every month. These rides get madder and crazier every month - this month it was tall-bike jousting - a kind of modern day version of the King Arthurs Knights of the Round Table medieval jousting of centuries past.
Apparently there was a tall-bike jousting festival in Portland earlier this month!
The Critical Mass event is now a worldwide phenomenon, starting back in 1992 in San Francisco. This is both a celebration of bikes and bike culture, promoting cycling as a serious alternative to motorised vehicles as a form of transport. It's better for the environment, healthier for you, and quite often, in peak traffic in big cities, faster. The word quickly spread, and I attended my first Mass in Melbourne in 1994. It comes as no surprise to me that they are here in Vancouver, and regularly well attended. It is billed as a global, simultaneous gathering of like-minded people, celebrating the culture of cycling.
As mentioned, it occurs on the last Friday of every month. So in dozens of cities around the world, there is this huge gathering which then takes off in a mass of two-wheelers for a group ride around the city, typically lasting anywhere from an hour to 3 or 4 hours in length, at a leisurely pace, with a celebratory, festival, carnivale type atmospehere. In Vancouver, There are often 100-200 and more bikers that gather together.
At the last ride, it was the night of the U2 concert, and as thier is usually some kind of theme, for people to get inspired and dressed up in costume, last month it "U 2 can be a rock n roll star". There was the most amazing array of people dressed as their fave rocker, and more than one Bono rubber face mask!
As a foreigner, being a part of these groups and attending events like the Hockey game really makes me feel like a part of a scene, especially now that i've been a few times and people recognise me by name. It's so much fun. I love it.
Talk Soon,
Tony
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