Wall of Forgiveness

Posted on June 16, 2011 by nfg

I decided to go home after work, which naturally meant that I wandered down to Granville Street to look at the aftermath. Today hundreds (if not thousands) of Vancouverites went downtown and voluntarily started cleaning everything up. And all the boarded-up windows became impromptu… shrines, I guess, for lack of a better word.

And wow, the rioters smashed just about every window on all three sides of the Bay. Not sure why that was such a target, other than for looting. And there were crowds of people there today, writing on the boards, taking pictures, hugging cops, painting flags, etc.

First things first, from a few days ago:

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At the Bay:

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ZOMG, someone signed this “Bronies”. For those unfamiliar with the term, a brony is a male adult fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

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Mahal kita, Vancouver. <3

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Some guys (I think they were ESL students) getting in on the action.

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Flags along the Bay.

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Flag, close-up.

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I tried to get a picture of the crowds outside the Bay, but alas.

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They broke windows at Chapters, too. :(

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Riot 2011

Posted on June 16, 2011 by nfg

This is just a quick post the morning after with my gut impressions.

  • Yay for the City of Vancouver for having the fanzones. They clearly needed better security (IE: don’t let drunk people in), but it was good to give people a place to congregate and celebrate.
  • That said, the rioting broke out in the Georgia fanzone. It’s pretty clear that the police didn’t have enough people to keep the peace.
  • They really should have had volunteers to help keep things orderly. There wasn’t nearly enough police there to manage things by themselves.
  • Likewise, all those people just hanging around and taking pictures and videos? They should’ve put down their phones and done something, even just boo-ing the troublemakers.
  • I ain’t got no proof for this, but I strongly suspect the troublemakers would’ve gone downtown last night anyway, even if there weren’t a fanzone.
  • Also, if you’re going to have 100 000 people downtown, make it easier to get home afterwards. Running frequent skytrain was good, but the line-ups must’ve been crazy long. There should’ve been buses parked along Georgia to get people out of downtown after the game.
  • The cops really should’ve radioed for more support once the third period started. They really should’ve seen this coming and been better prepared to cope.
  • Boo, people smashed the windows at Chapters. :(
  • I feel bad that I joked about looting a Nintendo 3DS yesterday. :(

It should be interesting to see what information comes out and what the repercussions are going to be. I really hope the police arrested or will arrest some of the instigators.

Wark.

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Never really…

Posted on June 3, 2011 by nfg

Never really thought I’d bicycle in Vancouver.
Never really thought I’d use that bike strip down Burrard.
Never really thought I’d ride through downtown at night in a dark jacket and no reflective pads.

I’m going cycling with Andy and Jay tomorrow. I’m not going to last very long. :)

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Sun Run 2011

Posted on April 17, 2011 by nfg

So. I totally did the Sun Run this morning (or “walk”, in my case). And I actually did better than I expected:

Official time 1:48:28
KM Pace 10:51 per klick

Considering that this time I didn’t even try to run, I’m surprizingly pleased. It’s faster than my previous two tries, which were both just over two hours. This year it was frosty (not literally), so perhaps that encouraged me to keep the pace up.

Unfortunately, this means that I’ll have to actually prepare next year to have the slightest chance of beating this time… doh!

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