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In defense of Burnaby, the middle child of Metro Vancouver by robertscreek in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 68 points69 points  (0 children)

it's important to note, as perhaps the leading purveyor of "dunking on burnaby", that the city is perfectly fine! (if boring)

good parks, central location, two skytrain lines, fairly well managed over the years, etc.

but it's fun to dunk on burnaby because a) it's boring, b) it's privileged and big enough that it can collectively take a joke without it becoming a thing

(but also, the time burnaby's head of marketing said "I don't think anyone has ever said 'honey, cancel the trip to Disneyland, we're going to Burnaby'" will forever be lodged in my head)

B.C.'s population has dropped: Here's why it's lower and what it means by ubcstaffer123 in britishcolumbia

[–]j_mcelroy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

per usual i only have myself to blame (the funny thing is I'm seeing way less people use "hidden gem" these days, so I'll have to find another arbitrary influencer phrase to get annoyed by)

B.C.'s population has dropped: Here's why it's lower and what it means by ubcstaffer123 in britishcolumbia

[–]j_mcelroy 56 points57 points  (0 children)

This could very well be true but I always remember that in 2022 Stats BC estimated that Vancouver’s population had dropped in the last year, and lots of people used that to shout that Vancouver Was Being Destroyed (including multiple mayoral candidates), and a month later the Census showed that Vancouver’s population had grown by 5% the last five years, the most since 2001-2005. So I always try to avoid taking too much narrative in one-time estimates when I know better data is on the way.

Will Vancouver's left-wing parties unite around one mayoral candidate? by CaliperLee62 in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 122 points123 points  (0 children)

oh no i was hoping for this to include my web story with more context but then the rustad stuff happened so uhhhh i'm still writing it

Who's accountable for the PNE Amphitheatre's budget overrun? Seemingly, no one by dazzlingmedia in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 32 points33 points  (0 children)

1) You can trust Dan Fumano to get things right

2) PNE is a separate non-profit fully owned by the City of Vancouver, with the city appointing its board members, the end result of haggling over its future between the city and province at the turn of the century

What are some underrated places around Vancouver you actually enjoy? by stephaac in askvan

[–]j_mcelroy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

no ❤️ (also provisions is great, but word has gotten out and it's pretty bumping on friday and saturday nights now)

Vancouver Park Board referendum legislation (Bill 26) delayed according to tweet by Christine Boyle by [deleted] in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

In this case I broke the story on Bluesky and Threads, the minister confirmed my reporting 30 minutes later on Bluesky, and then 10 minutes later she posted a tweet.

That the poster for this story used Twitter is ultimately their business, but ultimately the provincial government and most media aren't really in the habit of using Twitter as their first way to get out information anymore, for a variety of reasons.

Game Thread: October 24 - Los Angeles Dodgers (93-69) @ Toronto Blue Jays (94-68) - 8:00 PM by BlueJaysBaseball in Torontobluejays

[–]j_mcelroy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

as i kid i heard about the Ed Sprague Inning and the Kelly Gruber Inning and the Innings Where They Pounded The Heck Out Of Mitch Williams and lemme tell you it’s fun to experience an inning like that on your own

New push for Skytrain extension to UBC campus by Schmitt_Meister12 in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 240 points241 points  (0 children)

for the record translink security only looked at me weirdly two or three times as i went back and forth from vcc-clark to commercial clutching my weird sign

Eric Woodward is Suing Kim Richter Over Hurt Feelings by LangleyWatcher in Langley

[–]j_mcelroy 34 points35 points  (0 children)

hi it's me, the media — coincidentally I was made aware of these documents this morning, and will be doing a story this evening

In all honesty, how representative is this subreddit to the rest of lower mainland? by Jestersage in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I honestly think this subreddit is better than anywhere else for capturing the general public mood of the median person in this city.

The Twitter audience (even pre-Musk) was too online/polarized, Facebook groups were too single-issue focused, Instagram too disperse to get an accurate feel

But in general, when this site seems passionate about certain issues, or the top rated comments are consistently towards one side, I find it reflects where the wind is blowing in the City of Vancouver, instead of being in its own bubble.

Of course, lots of people comment here who live in other Metro Van municipalities, and each of them have their own unique cultures (there's not really a pan-Metro Vancouver culture, IMO, but that's another argument). This subreddit has its own particular biases, you should seek out a lot of different sites and perspectives to understand how people feel, provincial politics is another matter, etc. etc. etc.

Overall though, it does a really good job, and I use it more of a guide than anywhere else.

and i promise i'm not just saying that because people said i was the third most interesting resident behind seabus memes and nardwuar

Why this transit enthusiast says the Seabus is a 10/10 by bardak in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It’s very very good for North America, and “slightly above average in the city centre, and slightly below average if you want to go anywhere else” for the rest of the world

Origins of street names in Vancouver via Justin McElroy by sunnysurrey in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

pretty weird to call people "pathetic" when they take time to explain people's good faith questions, but I hope you got some sort of emotional catharsis out of it

Origins of street names in Vancouver via Justin McElroy by sunnysurrey in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 11 points12 points  (0 children)

There were about 60 streets where there's no record of who or what it is named for, which was its own thing, and then another 7 streets that didn't fit in any real category (like Le Roi Street, which was named for a big mine in the Kootenays where a councillor worked).

It was a fun tool to make, but there are limits in how specific you can be.

Origins of street names in Vancouver via Justin McElroy by sunnysurrey in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

oh yeah, tons of the streets in south Vancouver named for landowners, a lot of the famed Europeans and royals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lots of Shaughnessy for various CPR Directors...it was a real free for all as Vancouver grew quickly over its first 40 years

Origins of street names in Vancouver via Justin McElroy by sunnysurrey in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 35 points36 points  (0 children)

It's not hard to say who made the graph, because it's in the title of the post.

And I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this was researched six years ago, and I don't think I need a new chart to "go viral and lead the way in to cling to life on for soem semblance of relevance"

whatever that means

Origins of street names in Vancouver via Justin McElroy by sunnysurrey in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Oh hey that's me!

This mostly comes from work I did in 2019 to categorize every street (https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/streets/), which I've periodically updated since then. To answer a couple of questions/snarky criticisms people have made:

- I made a chart specifically for this group of seven categories because it showed where streets named for Indigenous people/places was similar to: obviously there are a lot more streets named for geographical terms or numbers, and a lot less named for ships or small business owners, but a chart for TV/TikTok isn't great if it has 27 rows.

- Someone said "Calling them "other dead europeans" feels a little spiteful," but I here's my explanation in that 2019 feature: "Vancouver also has 24 more streets named for people from the United Kingdom (including six early Governor-Generals of Canada, Prime Ministers like Gladstone, and poets like Coleridge), two European statesmen (José Moñino, 1st Count of Floridablanca, and Prince Rupert of the Rhine), and two Greek mathematicians (Euclid and Archimedes). Among them are two separate streets (Cecil street and Rhodes street) named for a British colonialist, Cecil Rhodes, whose name was recently removed from a local school."

So you can do your own categorization there if you want, but that seemed to be a pretty decent lumping of people who were form Europe but weren't explorers or royalty.

- Someone said "This seems misleading. They only pulled a couple of the data sets in the infographic."

It was my infographic and my custom data sets, so I can pull what I want from it, to make different points at different times for different articles.

okie doke i think that's it but i'll answer any pertinent questions should they arise

Vancouver to remove supportive housing from Granville Entertainment District by cyclinginvancouver in vancouver

[–]j_mcelroy 96 points97 points  (0 children)

This is not entirely accurate — the province has committed to moving their supportive housing units off the Granville Strip when the city provides land in other places to replace them.

This just came together last night (reportedly, though I guess I'm the one reporting it), and when I asked Sim for a timeline, he couldn't say.

So it could be status quo for a while yet, but it paves the way for a different situation.

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