Vancouver Riots – 2011
Unless you’ve just come from under a rock, and even then, you’ve probably heard about the riot that took place last night in Downtown Vancouver. Not only was it extremely sickening to witness, but it unfortunately tarnished Vancouver’s image and will cost the City financially as well. Current counts estimate close to 50 Downtown businesses were hit, I believe the Hudson’s Bay Company building at Granville and Georgia being hit the hardest. Nearly all, if not all of it’s large store front windows were smashed (on Granville, Georgia and Seymour streets), the store looted and the East awning on Seymour street was singed as a car was set ablaze underneath it. If that’s not disturbing enough, there were staff in the building selling t-shirts when the mayhem started. According to sources, the employees were moved up to the seventh floor for their safety as the first and second floors were being ransacked and looted, by, what is now looking like a small group that had every intent to cause trouble no matter what the outcome of the game. Later in the evening, and several hours into the riot, the HBC employees were safely evacuated through a rear exit. Thank goodness none of them were hurt.
Last night, Jen and I were fortunate enough to attend the game at Rogers Arena. After the game, we stuck around to watch the Stanley Cup presentation to the Boston Bruins. I know, I know, it hurt. I’m not going to lie, especially being a born and bred Montreal Canadiens fan. My contempt for the Boston Bruins runs deep. But alas, I was at a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs – How often do you get that opportunity? Exactly. We decided to leave about 25 minutes or so after the game, as we headed for our usual exit to Dunsmuir Street, Rogers security quickly blocked access and instructed us to use another exit, as we peered through the glass we could see people on the viaduct wall looking down. It was evident that something had happened, but we just didn’t know what. We later found out through watching CTV that reports indicated someone had fallen off the viaduct – a vary scary thought.
By the time we reached the Georgia Street viaduct exit, Tweets started coming in about violence erupting Downtown. Not taking any chances, we took a longer detour to get back home. Our usual route would have taken us straight through the epicenter of the riot. Essentially, by staying to watch the ceremony, we averted getting caught in the nonsense that was taking place Downtown. A very fortunate circumstance.
Once back, we watched the live coverage that CTV was providing and were taken aback by what we were seeing. Disappointment, disgust, anger so many emotions its hard to verbalize. There was simply no need for it. These fan zones were sent up for the citizens of Vancouver and the surrounding area to come and enjoy the hockey game, due to the inexcusable actions of a few, I highly doubt we’ll see them anytime in the near future.
Aftermath
The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was check Twitter to find out any news as to what was happening, through a tweet by Miss604, I found out that a Twitter group @vancouverClean had created a Facebook page to organize a clean-up of Downtown. Without question – I’m in. The scheduled clean up was slated to start a 7H00. Which didn’t leave me much time to run to my local Starbucks and get ready to head Downtown. Once Downtown, the damage was apparent. The streets were unbelievably clean thanks to the hard work of Vancouver’s City crew, but several buildings were vandalized. None of which more than the HBC building. It’s sad to see one of Vancouver’s most notable heritage buildings hit like this.
After walking around trying to find some @vancouverClean people I finally ran into a small group cleaning the remnants of a burnt car in the parkade off Richards Street. I slapped my work gloves on and got to work. It didn’t take all that long before we had the area cleaned up. Time to move on. A shout out to those who helped clean that area!
By this time, I had to get back to work, I was Downtown for a meager three hours. Fails in comparison to some of the time spent by other great Vancouverites, but I was glad I was able to help out, however small the contribution.
Our thanks and appreciation to the men and women of the VPD and other first responders for the efforts last night!
And of course, a big thanks to the volunteers who helped clean our Downtown streets!
Were you part of the clean up Downtown yesterday? Send us your pics and stories and we’ll publish them on our site info@justlist-it.com. We want to hear your account.
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