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VANCOUVER — The Olympics came with a lot of hype, and culturally, lived up to it. For the past two weeks downtown Vancouver turned into a big street party as up to 150,000 people per day flooded into the core to wander around, take in the sights and check out the many cultural events.
“Downtown feels like a downtown should,” said heritage expert John Atkin.
“It’s busy, it’s crowded, it’s active all hours of the night and everyone is having fun. The best thing is they turned Robson Square into what comes as close as we’ve ever had to a civic square.
“One of the best goofy things they should do at the end of the Olympics is leave the zipline up. Robson Square is lovely as a piece of architecture, but it doesn’t work for its intended purpose. I think it’s working now, and it’s really cool.”
The question is, can they keep the vibe going, post-Olympics, or will downtown revert back to what critics have dubbed a “no fun” zone?
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson thinks one of the keys to the success was one of the simplest: closing off several blocks of Granville and Robson.
“The road closures have enabled people to have the space to celebrate, to sing and dance and shop,” he said.
“We don’t have one giant civic square where people in [other] cities would congregate, so we had to work with the layout of our city. It’s been a bit of a smash hit, closing a bunch of our streets and creating this walking celebration.”
Atkin agrees.
“That’s one of the things about the Olympic downtown experience, they have had these spaces where people can go,” he said.
“To have all of Granville street closed from Nelson all the way down to Hastings has really helped a lot. The Royal Mint pavilion couldn’t work if the street was actually open [to traffic]. Now you’re able to line those people up, and there’s space to breathe.”
People also don’t have to wander around aimlessly. The streets are animated with art, with musical acts, with street performers.
The most important single factor in the vibe might be the Cultural Olympiad and the LiveCity sites, where the masses have been exposed to a tremendous amount of music and culture.
“I stand to be corrected, but I think this is the largest arts and culture festival in Canadian history,” said Mayor Robertson.
“The arts and culture [part of the Olympics] I think has been the secret to our success, bringing crowds out and celebrating downtown, adding more depth to the whole event. It broadens it. Not everyone can get to the sporting events, tickets are pricey. [But] a lot of people have taken in arts and culture.”
The Cultural Olympiad was programmed by Robert Kerr, who put together a diverse program ranging from a ballet based around the music of Joni Mitchell to a tribute concert to Neil Young featuring Elvis Costello and Lou Reed.
“So many people have commented that the Cultural Olympiad has become their Olympic experience, and it’s turned their attitude around to a very positive one towards the games,” said Kerr, who came to the Cultural Olympiad from another famously eclectic event, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
“It has certainly captured a whole lot of people’s attention, and engaged them. When you combine [the Cultural Olympiad] with the celebration sites, I think more people will experience the cultural program than they will be in attendance at the sporting events.”
The interesting thing about the cultural stuff is that it hasn’t been mainstream. Kerr’s philosophy is that people will respond to intellectually challenging music or culture, if only they get a chance to experience it.
“You want to turn people on to new artists and new experiences, get them to get out of their comfort zone and take a chance on things,” said Kerr.
“It works, and it’s about building audiences. We’ve had great success with that at the jazz festival over the years, and if you can keep doing it and are consistent about it, people start to trust you. And will take a chance on things they otherwise wouldn’t take a chance on.”
The masses have responded by coming out, and Kerr is delighted.
“By and large we’ve had just fantastic performances, the exhibitions have been very strong, and the audience response has been amazing,” he said.
“People are coming out. There’s the hardcore, but there’s a lot of people who have come out of the woodwork who don’t normally attend cultural events. That’s exactly what we had hoped would happen, that we would be able to inspire people to get out and get involved, to check things out they wouldn’t normally check out. “˜This is something special, this isn’t going to happen every day of the week, so let’s get off our duffs and take it in.’”
The city has been transformed in other ways as well. Several years of construction projects seemed to finish all at once, so that you wound up with all sorts of new buildings, new streetscapes, and new attractions.
The Skytrain line is an obvious example, along with the beautiful skating oval in Richmond. But you’ve also got subtle changes that enhance the city, such as the elegant blue lighting that now illuminates the Birks store at Granville and Hastings.
“That is brilliant,” said Atkin.
“And it should stay after the Olympics, because it really helps contribute to the ambiance of the street. It’s a nice surprise, you come out of the Canada Line and it’s “˜Oh, cool.’”
Another example is on Carrall street in Gastown, where BC Housing erected a glorious new neon sign for the renovated Rainier Hotel. A block away, one of the city’s oldest buildings was given a new lease on life when the front of the Blarney Stone bar was opened up with folding glass windows. When it’s nice out, the windows in the 1889 building open up to the street, giving Carrall a festive air, like something you’d find in the French Quarter in New Orleans.
“We were down there for the Canada/US [hockey] game,” said Atkin.
“We came down the alley in the third period, and the doors were open, people were on the sidewalk. You could hear the game, there was just a really neat feel about the place.
“I’m hoping we learn from this that we can actually do crowds. We don’t need an omnipresent police [presence] that scares people.”
Atkin said the throngs of people downtown have even helped bring a new life to parts of the long-depressed Downtown Eastside.
“There’s enough venues in close proximity that you have tons of people,” said Atkin, who has been leading walking tours in the neighbourhood.
“I’m really surprised. A lot of people are coming down, both tourists and locals, and taking in the venues. In Chinatown right now people are walking down the street at 9 and 10 at night. A few Chinatown businesses have figured it out and stayed open. When you have that kind of pedestrian traffic you tip the balance, because now the scary guys aren’t there – they don’t own the street anymore. It works.”
Kerr hopes the cultural revitalization of downtown continues.
“It takes investment, it takes commitment, and it takes an understanding by the public sector, by the private sector, by the audience,” he said.
“There’s a huge opportunity in this, not only economically but also spiritually, for our mental and social health, to have this kind of rich cultural program and that kind of rich fabric pulsing through the city.
“You’re not necessarily going to be able to sustain it at the level we’ve got right now 52 weeks of the year, but you can raise the bar and increase the concentration and intensity of it beyond what it has been, there’s no doubt about it.
“I’ve always been an advocate for the strength of this [cultural] community. It needs some watering, it needs a bit of fertilizer, it needs some care and attention, [but] it can really blossom.”
Atkin said one of the ways the city has blossomed is that authorities have relaxed and allowed street life to just happen.
“I think the city is at a really fine balance, because no one has over-reacted,” he said.
“The inspections people said “˜Let’s close the liquor stores early,’ which was a really smart move, and the cops are there, but the cops aren’t there in the same way they were for the Stanley Cup Riot.
“I think there’s just a totally different vibe. Which is really kind of cool. It’s crowded as hell, but it’s actually kind of fun.”
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