Three Metro Vancouver Papers to Shutter

Three Metro Vancouver papers to close in a few months

Moving back to Vancouver it was gut-wrenching to see local media being decimated because of a lack of money. 

The Georgia Straight was taken over by a company that immediately fired the existing staff, which made it difficult for the new bosses to hire; the Vancouver Courier became Vancouver is Awesome with an online presence only; CTV regional stations in British Columbia were shuttered and TV anchors gave tearful goodbyes on air.

And suddenly News 1130 was taken off the air, and it was a shock to many listeners as the radio station that had given crucial traffic reports "on the ones", every 10 minutes.

Burnaby Now to close by April 21

Now three more community papers can be added to the list of the dead. Parent company Glacier Media has announced Burnaby Now and the New Westminster Record will close no later than April 21, and Tri-City News will close its doors by May 21.

In a statement, Glacier Media said in part that it "explored all possible options to maintain operations" but the industry's "ongoing financial challenges have made it unsustainable."

The three publications had been serving their respective communities for more than 40 years and transitioned to online only in August 2023.

"We're incredibly proud of the work we've done and we're so grateful to our hardworking staff who have made these publications so special, and to our loyal readers and advertisers who have supported us over the years," said publisher Lara Graham.

The news worries New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone.

"I don't know what it means when a community can't tell its stories anymore, when there's no record of our day-to-day, never mind the history of our city," he said.

Johnstone concerned about lack of local media

Johnstone wondered how New Westminster could some how continue to disseminate information through traditional media.

"I don't know what the solution is here, but we have to rethink what media means to us and what journalism means to us as a country and as a community, because this is not sustainable," he said.

"We have to be able to talk to each other through traditional media, or through every media that works that includes an aspect of journalism to it and separates the truth from what the algorithms do to us, which is push us towards division and push us towards mistruth."

Thirty years ago when I went into this industry, never did it ever cross my mind that so many news outlets would literally fall off a cliff into the abyss. But now it is the reality, because hardly any news companies has managed to figure out how to make money from good journalism.

Community papers are what keeps neighbourhoods informed, and that's how these stories get regional and even national attention.

Who else is going to keep city councils and government officials in check, expose corruption or wrongdoing, or tell good news stories that make communities proud?

It's a sad day when news outlets close, and three community papers shuttering is three too many.

Subdivided Rooms in Metro Vancouver

A one-bedroom unit here was subdivided into three bedrooms

I thought subdivided flats were only a Hong Kong phenomenon, but it turns out it's happening in Metro Vancouver too.

In a rental building in New Westminster, someone -- it's not clear if it's the landlord or the tenant -- was trying to convert a one-bedroom into three subdivided rooms with makeshift walls so that each had a bed and big-screen TV, though the three tenants would share the kitchen and bathrooms. Rent would be over C$1,200 each.

A screen-capped listing of the subdivided unit

A tenant living in the building heard the construction noise and armed with video evidence of the subdivided rooms, complained to New Westminster City Hall.

"I got scared, I got nervous," he said. "The first thing I thought of was my security in the building."

Soon after the same tenant heard noise again, and this time the temporary walls were taken down.

The building is run by Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, or CAPREIT. When contacted by the media, CAPREIT didn't respond to a request for an interview, only saying that units must comply with all safety standards, including those in the National Building Code of Canada and the BC Fire Code.

However, a tenant advocacy group says municipal governments need to have more oversight over rental housing.

Meanwhile, the tenant who first complained about the subdivided apartment says he's heard from other residents in the area who tell him similar things are happening to their buildings.

"It needs to be an election issue across the country," he said.

Possibly, but the main thing is some kind of oversight and regulation by municipal and possibly provincial authorities to stop this from happening, particularly in rental buildings. 

Neighbourhoods that Gave Out the Most Candy

Science World lit up like a giant glowing pumpkin

Today people are recovering from their sugar highs from Halloween last night, while one academic has pored over the statistics to see which Metro Vancouver neighbourhood had the most trick-or-treaters.

Since around 2016, Andy Yan, director of the Simon Fraser University City Program has tracked which areas give out the most candy, and the winner like all previous years is... Douglas Park, around West 22nd Avenue and Heather Street near Cambie Village.

One child getting candy via a kiddie slide

One home reported handing out a whopping 2,853 candies, and another 2,475.

Other popular areas are New Westminster's Queen's Park, Surrey's East Clayton, Richmond's Steveston, and Victoria's Rockland.

Yan observed the popular areas for trick-or-treating are located near parks, making them walkable.

"[They have] a density, and yet at the same time, it's density through which I think people feel safe. They feel like they're part of a community," he said in a radio interview this morning.

"I think it's very much about the importance of green space and... this role of parks and how they kind of help anchor a community."

And despite the rising costs of candy this year, more than 80 percent of respondents said inflation did not deter them from buying candy to give out for Halloween.

Interestingly it's the wealthier neighbourhoods that have fewer trick-or-treaters like Shaughnessy, as Yan explains there is a lower "door-to-curb" ratio that forces kids to have to walk or run further to the next house, whereas if the houses are closer to each other, they can collect more candy in the same period of time.

Neighbourhoods near parks gave out lots of candy

It's all about the strategy.

Which includes more "destination trick-or-treating", a relatively new phenomenon where kids are driven around to other neighbourhoods to collect even more candy. 

Whatever happened to just being content with what they got in their own area?

There are also opportunities to trick-or-treat at neighbourhood businesses, as various BIAs or business improvement associations organise shops to give out candy during the day.

Another factor is new immigrants who may not have experienced Halloween before and are unfamiliar with the traditions involved, and hence didn't participate.

Nevertheless, with Metro Vancouver -- heck the province of British Columbia -- focused on densifying cities, will this mean even more candy for kids in the future?