Up in Ontario

Local protest: Squamish Nation Billboards on the Burrard Street Bridge

Kitsilano.ca reports that the Squamish Nation intend to build 3 - 10.97-metre by 3.05-metre billboard in early 2007 on the south-east side of the Burrard Street Bridge.

While I'm very conscious of not coming off as a NIMBY flake, I can't stand the idea of the billboards. I've lived in the neighbourhood for 8 years now and I think that huge advertisements shadowing the bridge and blocking the view of Granville Island will greatly devalue the place.

Don't get me wrong. I'm perfectly happy to have a business in harmony with the built and natural environment of the community operated on the Squamish Nation land. But I have no desire to see huge, garish commercial messages completely blocking the view and destroying the aesthetic mix of city, water and nature.

And don't discount the impact of aesthetics. Vancouver's international reputation is greatly cemented by its aesthetics, the congruity of the mountains, sea and city. Wrecking the aesthetics will take away from something we can all enjoy. It will make Vancouver just like so many forgettable cultural wastelands across North America, with the same triumph of commercialism and the same commercial messages.

Crossing the Burrard Street Bridge today, either on foot in wheels, is a pleasure. I remember just a few weeks ago heading to an early morning meeting across the bridge and thinking aloud that it was such a great treat to live in Vancouver. Placing huge billboards beside the bridge will destroy that peace. It will be like a tiny pocket of that abhorrable stretch of highway from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal to Victoria - a crowd of shouting visual messages cluttering the world.

I know no one who supports the billboards. Everyone I mention it to shakes their head. I've already emailed BCCEARAdmin@inac-ainc.gc.ca because I can't make the hearings, which are on the north shore at the Squamish Nation Recreation Centre, 100 Capilano Road in North Vancouver, 4 pm to 8 pm. If you care, spend 10 minutes and send an email. Or we'll all be doomed to nothing but the view of what an advertiser wants us to see.