Riot epicentre becomes tourist attraction

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The Bay on Georgia has become a bit of a new tourist attraction, thanks to Wednesday’s riot. It has drawn people eager to dispel that night’s negative energy.

Thousands of people disgusted by the rioting have written condolences on a so-called “Citizen’s Wall.” Plywood covers windows that had glass smashed out and covering that wall are thousands of messages supporting the Canucks and denouncing the violence.

Lisa Bovay came downtown to see if she could help the cleanup effort. But she and a handful of other strangers decided they’d give out free hugs instead. “There’s a lot of people that actually said that they appreciated it and that they really needed it. I feel like I’m making everybody’s day.”

Ingrid Tamboline was determined to come down to join a clean-up crew, but wound up conceiving a mini-flag-making project for passersby who want to make a more artistic statement. “I started finding some old rags and ripped them up into squares.”

“I ran around my house and pulled some stuff together. I picked up more stuff. Before I knew it I had a chair and a table,” she explains.
    
Thanks to her, dozens of those flags now flap along the Bay’s Georgia Street facade.

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Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
Volunteers, many who mobilized via Facebook, took to the streets of Vancouver yesterday morning to deal with the aftermath of the riot. Many wore Canucks jerseys as they picked up garbage and debris.

News1130’s John Streit checked out the cleanup effort and says  in some places it’s already it’s hard to tell how badly things were damaged. “A few glass chunks here and there, but I just walked past the front of the Sears building and it looks like they got most of that cleaned up.”

He adds volunteers are still working hard. “There’s also other people with Canada flags and Canucks jerseys wearing blue rubber gloves and meticulously cleaning the garbage cans.”

Carli is part of the big crowd taking part after what she calls ‘last night’s disgrace. “I thought it was disgusting. I’m writing we love our Canucks no matter what.”

She blames it all on hooligans and says a lot of people were trying to stop the violence. “The first thing I saw was people in Canucks jerseys cleaning up.  Those are the real fans and that made me feel better.”

Lindsay is another volunteer cleaner who hopes people start to focus on the positive like the community clean up effort. “I wrote thank you Van-City citizens for reminding us why this is the best place on earth.”

“I think it’s shameful [what happened] and it really wasn’t what Vancouver is all about,” she explains. “Today is really what we’re all about. Getting back together, showing our true colors, and showing people who we really are.”

The premier and some city councillors also wrote on the board. Former mayor Sam Sullivan was overcome as he read some of the messages and saw people volunteer to help clean up.

“My wife and her daughter came down,” says Sullivan. “They were pretty moved by the real Vancouver. So it was just a beautiful demonstration of the spirit of the city.”

He tells us he watched rioters run amok from his downtown apartment.

Positivity Trends on Twitter

For most of Thursday #thisismyvancouver was a trending topic on Twitter in Vancouver. Vancouver’s Don Falconer first Tweeted the idea on Wednesday after watching the riot on TV.

“(I said) let’s stop the negativity and try and spread some positive vibes,” he says. “I wanted people to talk about the things they love about the city, the places they like to go. Post pictures of how beautiful it is when it’s not on fire.”

Thousands of Tweets later, he can hardly believe how many people are sharing their favourite parts of the city. “I’m not going to lie; I tear up on some of them. I wanted it to be something people could sort of rally around. I never expected it to get as big as it did, it sort of just took on a life of its own.”

He says the momentum of the group that planned yesterday’s volunteer clean-up helped the hashtag take off.

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