The annual Celebration of Lights has arrived in Vancouver and Spain was the first to display on Wednesday night. Every Wednesday and Saturday night for the next two weeks there will be a fireworks display from a different country at Kitsilano beach. This event attracts thousands of people and this Wednesday night was no exception. Three hundred thousand people crowded into the downtown core of Vancouver for this event. I live in a town about twenty minutes from the city and have not been to this event for many years. The crowds and the time it takes to get back out of the city and home are just too much for me. However the fireworks are very beautiful especially on a nice night.Three hundred thousand people can leave a lot of garbage on the beach and streets. Usually in the morning the civic workers are out there with trucks and rakes cleaning up a ton of garbage. Not a very pleasant job especially in the hot sun. This year there was a bit of twist to the event. City managers were out there cleaning up the mess instead of the civic workers. No it is not be nice to your city employee week. The civic employees are on strike in the middle of summer. No garbage pick up, no libraries, no swimming pools, no recreation centres! Soon we will have to wear a mask to travel in the downtown core because of the stench. I think Mayor Sam Sullivan should be made to participate in the clean up after Saturday nights maybe he would reconsider negotiating in good faith with these employees.
I must say, every time I hear about one of these fun (minus the stench, of course) events you have going on around you I get jealous of you! I wish I lived in an area that had fun stuff, too. We have a once-a-year event called "Poolesville Day" here in my town, and that's it. And all Poolesville Day is is a parade, and vendors sell stuff under tents. Boring stuff, I tell you. Keep telling me about all these fun events, I'm drinking it up!
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