#VancouverIStay campaign rallies around unlucky-in-love city
Series of ‘breakup’ letters prompts bloggers to push positive aspects
Vancouver keeps getting dumped.
The city’s skyrocketing real estate, ‘No Fun City’ reputation and chilly residents have all been cited as its major flaws in recent breakup letters penned by residents fleeing for more affordable pastures.
Earlier this week, The Province published a Dear John from Jennifer Fox, a founding member of the Association for Generational Equity and social-media activity coordinator with Generation Squeeze. She plans to move to Halifax.
“I’ve been involved in an abusive relationship for the past eight years and I’m finally breaking free,” her letter began.
It was viewed more than 180,000 times.
Aaron Hildebrant claimed in his February breakup letter that he loves the city, but there was a big problem with the relationship: “Vancouver doesn’t love me.”
Yet despite all its perceived shortcomings, Vancouver got plenty of love this weekend.
The hashtag #VancouverIStay — created by three Vancouverites fed up with the city’s poor luck in love — began trending on Twitter as residents took to social media to sing the city’s praises. They spoke of its beautiful views, access to nature and trails, inclusivity and great food, as a few examples.
Lifestyle and food blogger Mary Sheridan created the campaign with YouTube star Josh Rimer and fellow blogger Cassandra Anderton.
The three friends rallied residents to make posters announcing what they love about the city and created a charming YouTube video.
Sheridan said when she read Fox’s claim that Vancouver is unfriendly, she felt compelled to speak out. Sheridan met her husband on the SkyTrain. When her apartment burned down last year, strangers sent her money to buy clothing for her family.
“There’s so much negativity out there, it’s so easy to get caught up in it,” Sheridan said.
“We get it, we don’t have our heads in the sand. Sometimes, Vancouver can be a little tough to live in. We get the housing market, we get the living-wage situation, we get it. “But there’s so much good here.” Rimer said he wasn’t in the mood to hear another person “whining” about his city.
“I just thought, ‘Oh, why is this such a hobby, for people to complain?’ I just feel like we’re so lucky to live here and there’s so many great things about it.”
Rimer believes a lot of the criticism directed at the city could describe any world-class metropolis.
“For me, I have to rent here and have a roommate ,” he said .“But I am a block from the seawall. Where else can you do that? I don’t want to buy a house in Regina because I don’t want to live in Regina.”
But #VancouverIStay didn’t quash the negativity for long. The campaign was met with sympathy and support, but also sarcasm and cynicism.
And the debate quickly focused back on affordability, with one user tweeting, “last I checked, sunsets and mountain views don’t pay for mortgages.”
Such a reaction was perhaps inevitable in a city where the most popular dinner-table topic might be the average price for one of its detached homes — $1.8 million.
Recent statistics have shown the exodus of young people from Vancouver is gathering pace: In 2013, Vancouver lost 1,571 residents between the ages of 20 and 30, up from 770 in 2012. Between 2001 and 2014, Metro Vancouver housing prices rose 63 per cent while salaries increased by only 36.2 per cent.