Vancouver becoming the no-fun city again???

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by EastVanMark

You are right on all accounts. All this will do, is take the partying underground. In the 80's and 90's illegal after-hours were a dime a dozen. I remember it being a ritual of club patrons asking staff where the that weeks spot was. Then you had the police allocating resources to shutting them down (keeping them from doing...other..MORE IMPORTANT things) Both alcohol and drugs flowed freely and unregulated at these places. Organized crime had a field day with these and made a ton of money.

Then something magical happened. The city moved into the 21st century and extended bar hours. Almost immediately, these type of places disappeared because they were simply not needed.

You are also correct that this will put many bars/lounges out of business and will force those who remain to jack up all prices (because their landlords also read the paper and once they realize the leverage they have, they jack up the rents); and guess who those extra cost will get passed on to...

I actually have two across from my back alley. One is a Vietnamese restaurant and the other one is a Pool Hall. There is no more than one day a week that a people dont come stumbling out at 4-6am. The restaurnat is a younger crowd and gets pretty lively, the Pool hall is a older crowd all they pretty much do is gamble, drink and smoke. I dont go in these places personally because their both more or less asian crowds but there are many other places that I know of a bit more east of Vancouver. There are also two other restaurants within a 5min walk that serve after hour and alow smoking and what not. Obviously all these places are closed from the Kingsway front and you have to go in from the alley. Anyways who still thinks the bs that they live in a free country?

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by zivan56

In Europe (parts that I've been to) during the summer, most younger people go out from around 12am-1am to 3am. Most of the clubs are located near the city centres and are open to at least 2am or so (depending where). I've yet to see a fight and an unfriendly environment like Granville Street over there, not that there aren't fights and whatnot...but Vancouver is really a joke compared to other places. Personally, I haven't been to a bar on Granville for years, as all the hicks go there....Yaletown is decent, but severely overpriced and filled with yuppie posers. Overall, it's pretty sad compared to other cities in the world.

Its because A) there is a large selection of places to go so you dont mix different crowds together.
B) the places are open much longer so you dont have crowds of people being all kicked out at the same time who have been drinking and arent ready to end their evening but sudenly find themselves on the street with nothing to do.
a combination of A and B is what causes just about ALL the problems that Vancouver complains about, and now their trying to make it worse.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by giallo

After living in Asia (Taiwan and Shanghai) for the past five years, I can assure you how lame Vancouver looks to an outsider that likes to have fun at night. Being away from Vancouver for so long has afforded me a different perspective on it's nightlife, and it isn't good. In Shanghai I can buy an assortment of wine, spirits and beer 24 hours a day from the corner store. Clubs close when they feel they should as there are no laws saying otherwise. Listening to live jazz at 3am with a bunch of barflys in Shanghai is a unique experience, let me tell ya.
If Shanghai is an unfair comparison due to it's size then I can use Tainan, Taiwan (pop. 1,100,000) as another example. Same thing there. Clubs close when they want. Spirits and beer available at the 7-11 24 hours a day.

My main problem with Vancouver is how it wants to be this premier international tourist city, yet keeps it's restaurants, pubs and bars at arm's length. Travelers want to be able to explore the city in the day and at night. Why limit their experience? It makes no sense.

Whatever, it's Friday, so I'll be getting together with friends, buying our drinks from the neighborhood corner store and then going to see DJ Kentaro play at The Shelter. After he finishes at 4am, we'll go to a favourite 24 hour noodle joint and enjoy a caesers until the sun kisses the sky. I'll enjoy it while it lasts because I'll never have this sort of lifestyle in Vancouver when I move back.

I know exactly what you mean, but if I can give you a word of advice then dont move back to Vancouver because your just gonna end up like me, all disappointed and eventually your going to give up. Your just going to end up wasting more years of your life on this city which has so much potential yet it never comes close to reaching it, its so depressing living here.
All of Europe is pretty much the same way, places to go to are plentiful and open late. Infact one place in particular where I grew up(and lived for again not to long ago) you always have a 24/7 pub within a walkable distance(no more than 30min) in any town or city with at least 10,000 people and the people from these places disperse through out the evening never causing problems because guess what their evenings done when they leave and they just want to go home, and no you dont have people with alcohol poisoning drinking to much etc. because people have limits, and no you dont have problems outside because people leave at their own time and dont get all kicked out at the same time.
Ok i should end now because im just getting my self pissed off.

[giallo]

^ There's a reason why I've been in Asia for so long. I want to go back eventually, I just don't know when. Vancouver has become a great place for me when I'm 40+ and in a stable job with a family. Shanghai, on the otherhand, offers so much in terms of job opportunities and excitement in general. What I've managed to accomplish here in two short years would have been impossible back in Vancouver. I also feel like I'm treated like a child in Vancouver/BC. Whether it's an asshole bouncer or a condesending cop, I'm just not feeling the love.

[Rusty Gull]

^Join the club. There's a mentality in this city, and by extension this province, that just stifles the human spirit. Whether it's midnight closing times for bars, or this region's lack of imagination when it comes to everything from architecture to transportation, you have to wonder how and why we all choose to put up with it.

I have no doubt that Vancouver is well on its way to becoming the retirement mecca of the world. With Kelowna, Victoria and White Rock already there, it was just a matter of time before the retiree spillover effect into Vancouver happened. Just look at Coal Harbour, Point Grey, West Van, even Kits: this is the land of RRSPs, baby boomers, and empty bedrooms.

But it goes beyond Vancouver, frankly. The cities of Asia, including the ones mentioned here (Hiroshima, Hong Kong) are young, dynamic, dense, vibrant and business-friendly. Compared to North America's cities, they are the future.

[flight_from_kamakura]

'No-fun city' seeks change of image
City successful in attracting events that engage the city's residents and provide attractions for tourists
Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, March 28, 2008

VANCOUVER - An international triathlon, a South Asian dance and music festival and car-free days in five Vancouver neighbourhoods are three of the hundreds of special events proposed in the city this year. Muriel Honey, co-author of a city of Vancouver staff report going to council Thursday, says most of the 167 applications on file come from organizers of the largest events, events that seem to be getting larger and larger. She expects about 500 events this year, roughly the same number as last year, but street festivals seem to be getting larger.

"We have bigger and more complex events coming to Vancouver all the time," she said Thursday during an interview.

Media pundits and entertainment entrepreneurs branded Vancouver a "no-fun city" when police warned rowdies in 2000 not to get caught with liquor in downtown Vancouver on New Year's Eve. Nightclub owner Vance Campbell later cooked up a "Funcouver" campaign.

In 2001, the Vancouver Grizzlies basketball team moved to Memphis. The Molson Indy, an annual car race, left in 2004.

Honey, who in the past did media relations work for the mayor's office, doesn't like to be reminded about that "no-fun Vancouver" buzz.

According to the report she co-wrote with Dave Rieberger, "the city has been very successful in attracting events that engage the city's residents, provide attractions for tourists, and contribute to the city's image as a fun and vibrant city."

The report states that the public has been "very tolerant" of street-oriented events, but recommends that staff investigate the merits of a policy that would restrict the frequency of events in any one area.

It notes the Vancouver park board already has that kind of policy: "For example, road closures to facilitate running events in Stanley Park are limited to one per month and no road closures are permitted in July and August."

gbohn@png.canwest.com

haha, does it seem everyone else (like it does to me) that these people are out to lunch? a south asia dance festival?? an international triathalon??

vancouver barely even has neighborhood pubs! and they're telling us we're going blast of to funcouver land with festivals! my oh my...

and riddle me this: if the public has been "very tolerant", why would staff recommend that events be limited? people want lots of things going on in their neighborhood, it makes the hood feel vital.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by Jacques

I don't know if that law has yet to have taken effect, due that I live right next door to the MODERN Club in Gastown and the noise has not ceased at one Am nor at two Am but at four Am on week-ends and tonite the bitches are out there screaming their stupid howling cat noises again, when I first moved here the club was closed and we were assured it would only open as a high end bar, but it is not, big SUV LIMO and BUS LIMO with BOOM BOX music rattling our walls.
SO for once I couldn't care less if they shut this place down. We paid a lot of money to live in a quiet place, but like everything else this area is ever changing and the hooligans are underneath my loft windows 4 times a weeks.
Let them party if they so wish but let it be in the Entertainment District as per requested.
that's my take, when you have to get up at 8.00 Am its no fun to have those morons making such immature noise til 4AM 4 days out of seven.

No offense but I had to laugh when you said "paid a lot of money to live in a quiet place." and "Gastown" in the same post.

I'm sorry but a quiet place = living up in Vanderhoof, or 10 minutes off the highway near Hope with nothing but forest around you. It floors me how people go and buy a place downtown or around downtown, a region with well over 80,000 people crammed into a small little area, then they cry about noise.

That's exactly the type of reasoning that had the Indy in Vancouver on the ropes for so long before it was eventually moved anyway. "It's so loud!" then everyone else says "It's 3 bloody days!"

If you want quiet go live in the forest with the deer or buy an appartment that backs onto either a non-busy street or back alley.

[zivan56]

Modern is a "higher end" club, but higher end just means higher priced. In fact, it is a standard club at best compared to worldwide ones. It has been open for quite some time, so I am baffled why he would buy a place so close to a bunch of clubs...and especially close to that one.
I would say he is lucky that the club is the only source of noise, as Gastown is far from a quiet place like say Coal Harbour.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by giallo

^ There's a reason why I've been in Asia for so long. I want to go back eventually, I just don't know when. Vancouver has become a great place for me when I'm 40+ and in a stable job with a family. Shanghai, on the otherhand, offers so much in terms of job opportunities and excitement in general. What I've managed to accomplish here in two short years would have been impossible back in Vancouver. I also feel like I'm treated like a child in Vancouver/BC. Whether it's an asshole bouncer or a condesending cop, I'm just not feeling the love.

Doesn't it say something about you if you have to interact with the bouncers and cops so much to matter? It tells me you're not a squeaky clean model citizen who always stays out of trouble.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by Rusty Gull

But it goes beyond Vancouver, frankly. The cities of Asia, including the ones mentioned here (Hiroshima, Hong Kong) are young, dynamic, dense, vibrant and business-friendly. Compared to North America's cities, they are the future.

I thought Japan, of all places, had an inverse age distribution pyramid that was getting so severe that they've started programs to encourage its citizens to have more children. (I guess importing young foreigners or holding off retirement till 90 is out of the question, eh?)

[zivan56]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

Doesn't it say something about you if you have to interact with the bouncers and cops so much to matter? It tells me you're not a squeaky clean model citizen who always stays out of trouble.

Have you been to a club recently?
There is usually a line outside, which the bouncer decides which of who he lets in. When you get to the door, he can tell you to "fuck off" and not let you in if he decides to. Also, there is always a police car near the line, with the police hassling people they see fit in the line.
So I would love to you actually go to a club and avoid at least one of those two

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by zivan56

Have you been to a club recently?
There is usually a line outside, which the bouncer decides which of who he lets in. When you get to the door, he can tell you to "fuck off" and not let you in if he decides to. Also, there is always a police car near the line, with the police hassling people they see fit in the line.
So I would love to you actually go to a club and avoid at least one of those two

Under what circumstances will they normally tell you to "fuck off" and turn you away?

Clubbing while brown?

[Nutterbug]

One more thing. There's a perfectly simple solution to the above problem.

Vote with your feet and boycott establishments with asshole staff. Spread the word about them too. That is how a free market economy works.

[zivan56]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

Under what circumstances will they normally tell you to "fuck off" and turn you away?

Clubbing while brown?

When they feel like it. They can just say the place is full if you call the police or someone. I don't think it's hard for them to make up an excuse.
The point is you are bound to come into contact with one or the other, or both, no matter how much of a model citizen you are.

[Nutterbug]

If a club is so popular that people wait in line to get in, why don't they jack up the cover charge to keep the supply in balance with the demand, not to mention making more profit?

[Rusty Gull]

^Because club owners often think with their egos instead of their understanding of economics.

No wonder so many clubs in this city go out of business.

[SpongeG]

the after hours on granville is usually ok and if you want to drink you ask for the "special" but the cover charge is getting outrageous the last time my friends went it was like $35

but at least you can dance till 8 am

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

wtf? midnight???? whose idea was this?


this city is becoming a complete joke.

no kidding eh

waht if you work till 11 pm and want to join your friends on west 4th or broadway or wherever outside the downtown core for a drink or two and avoid the "entertainment" district

you will have no choice - no wonder more and more people just stay at home and have house parties

[Vancity4life]

Don't worry...if this law does come into effect underground raves will once again become part of the forefront of Vancouver's nightlife, this I can guarantee. No matter what law the government decides to pass they can never stifle one of the most basic human instincts. To Party it up!!

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Vancity4life

Don't worry...if this law does come into effect underground raves will once again become part of the forefront of Vancouver's nightlife, this I can guarantee. No matter what law the government decides to pass they can never stifle one of the most basic human instincts. To Party it up!!

or how about SkyTrain raves? at least it opens till past 1 am.


anyhow, this is making me sick....all of a sudden, we've taken 4 steps forward on this issue and then all of a sudden we took a huge backwards leap.