What has happened to Vancouver?
Apparently, we’re not a very harmonious bunch.
Why else would a well-spoken chap named David Beattie take five minutes out of his day to speak to city council Wednesday about encouraging people to say hello to each other.
Because:
a) Warm is generally not an adjective used to describe the personalities of a shocking number of Vancouverites.
b) Regular folk are tired of surviving in the city and just want to live in it and have no time to chat when trying to make ends meet day after day after day…
c) Like our city, we’re all a little insecure.
d) We’d really like to say hello but we just have to send one more text or tweet.
e) We try to avoid talking to anybody with beards (What are they hiding behind all that facial hair?!).
f) All of the above.
I’ll get to Beattie’s concern in a few sentences.
Beattie, you may have heard, has launched a Just Say Hello campaign that he reminded council about on Wednesday as they heard from representatives of the Mayor’s Engaged City Task Force.
The former journalist is promoting a logo to spark conversation.
“It is a free, easy and effective way for Vancouver residents to invite strangers to chat with them, or be invited by others for face to face conversations,” Beattie told council. “At this stage, we see coffee shops as the prime location for these conversations because they are many of them and usually within easy distance of most people’s homes. They’re safe and coffee is affordable for most residents.”
He also pointed to pubs, food courts, fast food restaurants, parks, buses and SkyTrain as other spots where Just Say Hello logos could be placed to get people talking. But his goodwill was somewhat tempered by his mention of that Vancouver Foundation study from 2012 that revealed how isolated Metro Vancouver residents feel.
This is where Beattie’s concern lies.
The survey, called “Connections and Engagement,” revealed that Metro Vancouver can be a hard place to make friends, that neighbourhood connections are “cordial but weak” and that many residents are retreating from community life.
“I do not mean to be glib or facetious when I note that if this epidemic of social isolation cannot be eroded, the City of Vancouver’s laudable goal of being the greenest city might be eclipsed by it becoming the bluest city,” said Beattie, an East Side resident. “We know that social isolation and depression often go hand in hand.”
But if Beattie wants to get his idea off the ground, he told council it should be promoted by a major advertising campaign in several languages. He offered the arbitrary cost of $50,000 and talked of Just Say Hello logos emblazoned on ball caps, T-shirts, coffee mugs and buttons.
Beattie said he and his crew will approach all Metro Vancouver municipalities, other levels of government and Vancouver Coastal Health about the idea in the hopes it will get some traction.
While Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr told Beattie it was “a great idea” and Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer thanked him “very much for coming today and your work,” there was no commitment of money for the campaign.
Sad, really, that we need such a campaign.
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