You would think that living in a city that it about to host a major sporting event, that there would be more of a buzz from the locals.
The newspapers are full of nothing else. Daily warm and fuzzy stories about what neighbourhoods are doing to support the Olympics, parades, block events and where the Olympic torch is passing by. Local sporting heroes are being dragged out of obscurity in order to opine on the Olympics and what it means to them.
Details about what road and bridge closures are taking place and daily exhortations to use transit and not take your car downtown. This is really blindingly obvious as there is nowhere to park when you get there!
More disturbing are the stories of people being ripped off by Olympics ticket vendors, being left without hotel rooms or the whole “anti-Olympic” protest which seems to polarising the general population. However, many people feel that the whole event is just a political, money making event designed to exclude the locals from any of the events. Some people are simply leaving town and heading for warmer climates.
That business will be disrupted is not in dispute. From friends being told that they need not come into work for the next few weeks, to others adjusting their working hours for a 6am start (not usual at all on the laid back left coast!) The real estate business is slower than normal at the start of the year, with many people holding off listing their properties until after the Olympic circus has left town.
The sheer load of information that is around at the moment is enough for most people to want to bury their heads under the duvet and sleep until it is over.
Not everyone is facing the next two weeks with dread. More and more flags are appearing on people’s houses, showing their support for the home team or a.n. other. (One of the houses up the street is supporting the Swiss in a big way.) Cars are sprouting Maple Leaf flags with the same enthusiasm as if the Canucks had made the Stanley Cup final. Sales of the Olympic “red mittens” have reached epidemic proportions and everyone of European extraction is holding an Olympic party (of course they are!).
A recent article in the paper said that survey of Brits and Americans thought overwhelmingly that Vancouver was a clean and safe place to visit. Apparently 80% of Brits thought this, despite only 5% having been there! Well on a day like this, with the sun shining and the temperature at a mild 12 degrees, there are worse places in the world to be in.
