Double Blind

I went for a stroll around downtown Vancouver Tuesday evening, and had the following thoughts:

1. The Canada Line operated very well at peak time. Trying to pick out the people in the train that were locals and those that were tourists was an interesting exercise. Of amusement was one girl (guessing a teenager) that was texting on one phone, and swapped phones and was texting with another. Maybe one phone was reserved for her girlfriends, and one phone was reserved for her boyfriends? Who knows. Almost nobody on the train was talking on their phone – for those using their phones, it was mostly texting.

2. Yaletown (by this time, Canada had started playing Germany in the hockey game – a game highly anticipated to be won by Canada, otherwise a national emergency would have been declared) had all their restaurants packed with people.

3. I’d estimate 1 out of every 5 people (including myself) was NOT wearing a shade of red or had some sort of Olympic Canada swag. I kind of felt out of place, but the psychological effect of having people united was quite inspiring, and is probably a great justification for national sport – as an organizational unifier, rather than for it being intrinsically “useful” for something. This is probably why sport, historically, has evolved the way it has.

4. The new Olympic torch is quite nice to look at, but up in the viewer’s platform, all I could think of is “I wish I could have a really long stick and roast some marshmallows on that thing” – although the flames were hot enough that they’d probably incinerate too quickly. Still, a professional marshmallow cooker like myself can make good quality marshmallows with any heat source! Friends that camp with me can attest to my marshmallow abilities (both preparation and consumption).

5. Olympic torch suggestion – on the last couple of days, just get rid of the chain-linked fence. Leave the concrete barriers up but just keep a heavy security presence. Even if the vandals and protesters get to it, it won’t matter – ever since the rioters that smashed windows at Georgia and Seymour, any protesters will just end up looking more and more silly as time goes on. They have long since overplayed their hands, to the point where they have absolutely discredited their organizations in an attempt to gain media attention.

6. Urban planners and the social engineers at many municipalities will be studying this event for years to come – how to make cities feel “alive” is a challenge. Downtown itself was full of people, and felt more “alive” for a rainy winter day (which felt like a typical Vancouver winter day – slightly windy, cold air, drizzle) than I can ever remember it for what was otherwise a routine mid-February day in town. This “alive” statement is coming from somebody that doesn’t really subscribe to “downtown living”, but if downtown Vancouver was more like this, I could see why people would want to live there.

7. The crowd, in terms of age, felt like an “under 40′s” demographic. I wonder what older people think of the city when they walk through it.

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