Did I get the wrong directions? Did I misread the retweet? Did I have the wrong location? Or when it comes to Occupy Vancouver are the protesters at the wrong address just as much as I was?
The protesters of course are not occupying the Wall Street here in Vancouver. Our Wall Street, that runs north of Powell and McGill streets in residential East Vancouver on a curve by the docks of Burrard Inlet, has no corporate connection to the captains of industry. It just happens to be named the same as New Yorks famous business street.
The OWS protesters in New York arent even occupying Wall Street per se, but two blocks away at Zucotti Park, formerly Liberty Park Plaza. The location is symbolically appropriate at least, as the park was renamed by its current owners Brookfield Office Properties after the company chairman John Zuccotti. In other words, even corporations are changing park names to satisfy their egos.
Instead, protesters in Vancouver have besieged the front lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and like their comrades in New York City, appear to be stuck in for the long haul.
But is the lawn of the art gallery really where Occupy Vancouver should man the ramparts if they want to bring their revolution to the front steps of our local corporate institutions?
If you were an out-of-towner or just passing by and didnt know anything about the Occupation movement (though youd have to have your head stuck in the sand not to), youd be forgiven for wondering why protesters were opposed to the gallerys presentation of 3 Artists from Vancouver, Los Angeles and Guadalajara thats currently featured at the VAG.
Some Occupiers at least had a sense of local history with Occupy Howe Street and attempted to connect the art gallery grounds to the west street it borders on, which traditionally has been the street to the home offices of Vancouver venture capitalists and stock traders.
Perhaps they passed on the idea of setting up at the Bentall Centre because the tent pegs cant stick into the concrete and marble plazas around the reflecting pools that sit at the feet of the four Bentall Towers. The towers are filled with the branches and offices of some of Canadas leading financial corporations and banks, and if Occupy Vancouver wanted to have its message collide on the doorstep of the local financial power centres, facing bank execs on their way to another expense account lunch, wouldnt the Bentall Centre be the place?
Or if the one per cent were not to be met at their place of business, maybe where they relax to ponder the days business should have been the launching pad for the revolution. Like the front steps of the Vancouver Club where just weeks earlier former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney spoke to promote his new book. I know some very rich people who had no interest in hearing Cheney speak, but the clubs membership assured a sold-out $500 per seat event. While protesters outside ridiculed guests entering the club and clashed with police and club staff at the front door, it was all over in a few hours, and the cigar chomping, high-rolling executives went back to their single-malts to laugh about unemployed layabouts trying to change the world.
If those didnt make suitable locations for protest, why not our latest public gathering spotthe corner of Georgia and Hamilton next to the CBC plaza where the riots began just four months to the day before Occupy Vancouvers Oct. 15 kick-off. With no arrests made, and a new Canucks season started, havent we all moved on from the Hockey Kristallnacht of June 15?
Well, Lululemon has. Its latest retail store at Broadway and Cambie contains a white neon sign in the display window by artist Mike Macri that reads In Case of Defeat Break Glass.
And while it might be too soon for some of us to move on, Lululemon CEO Dennis Chip Wilson has. He moved on from being the 18th wealthiest Canadian to the 15th in 2011. Maybe the Occupy Vancouver protesters would do well to set up shop in front of Lululemon, or perhaps its bad form to protest there while wearing Lululemon apparel.
So the Vancouver Art Gallery site may be the most logical site after all. The gallery lawn has been the home to Olympic announcements, zombie walks, pro-marijuana rallies, flash mobs and environmental demonstrations. I imagine the stewards of the VAG cant wait to break ground at the proposed new gallery location at Larwill Park so they can merely be the city's art gallery and not have to worry about whos outside on any given day with picket signs and djembes.
In the meantime, Vancouver doesnt have a large or devoted central public space such as Trafalgar Square in London where the public can properly gather in a central location. NPA mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton spoke a year ago proposing that Robson Street between Hornby and Howe be closed to traffic and the gallery lawn kept as a contiguous space for public gatherings, celebrations and protests.
But the kinds of people camped out with Occupy Vancouver do not look like NPA voters, who likely include the very people the Occupation is rallying against. As the Occupation continues, and perhaps the tone of the Occupiers changes, there is looming talk in the city of setting a deadline as to how long the protesters can stay. That sets up a potential showdown between protesters and the police, all offered up in the midst of a civic election. Anton will be salivating at the thought of Mayor Gregor Robertson, her Vision Vancouver rival, mishandling the potential media circus of screaming protesters dragged off the lawn in front of the cameras. The only problem is a growing number of Vancouverites might be pleased he's doing it.
So, for now, the grassroots Occupy Vancouver movement sits on the grass of the VAG lawn. The location of the protest may just be considered incidental to the Occupy message as the participants feel their issues are larger than any park or street address. So will they stay longer than the housing protesters who camped outside of the Woodwards building? Longer than the large Falun Gong billboards stood in front of the Chinese consulate on Granville? Will camping take down capitalism? (In my experience camping ruins relationships and little more.) Its too early to tell, but both proponents and skeptics of the movement agree the message will need to carry beyond Georgia between Hornby and Howe Street if any real revolution or change is to occur. Until then the Revolution will just be tweeted.
