Since the installation of a giant LED screen at B.C. Place, Douglas Coupland's memorial to Terry Fox has taken on a weird twilight vibe. The four sculpted figures are positioned with their backs to the screen, as if the one-legged athlete is attempting to outrun a wormhole of electronic advertising.
Downtown resident David Cookson has been petitioning for the removal or relocation of the screen (one of three on the site) for weeks. He insists it "desecrates" the memory of Fox, and it's difficult to argue otherwise. The brief video clips on the screen honouring the athlete, bumped up in frequency since Cookson's campaign began, sit uncomfortably with ads for mobile phones and pop drinks.
Beyond the optics of a Canadian hero stomping away from three-storey advertisements, there is the matter of public safety with the screen overlooking the pedestrian-clogged corner of Beatty and Robson. Cookson is mostly focused on candlepower, however. It's impossible to get used to the bombardment of a "flashing electric lighting bolt" into his home every 30 to 40 seconds, he says. "The flashing in the house is very different from the constant light that stays on when you have a hue or glow coming off the top during a game."
Cookson feels that the official attitude is that residents of the downtown core are "open game," having freely "invited this kind of harassment because we live downtown."
He added: "This is an entertainment district up to Beatty Street but that's a residential neighbourhood beyond. You'd think they'd be super-sensitive that we have these two very different kinds of zoning in very close proximity."
PavCo, the Crown corporation behind the new B.C. Place and the screen, has chosen to turn off the offender at 7 p.m., excluding "major event nights" at the stadium. This concession is a non-starter for Cookson. He notes that the sun sets early for a large portion of the year, ranging from 4 to 6 p.m. "So to say this thing is going to turn off at 7 o'clock means they decide when we can enjoy our homes."
The frequently flashed, all-white Telus ads are particularly bright. For Cookson, the telecom's darling piglets and beatboxing owls no longer suggest connectivity, but rather a disconnect between business and community. "I explained to them [Telus] that by providing ad revenues to PavCo they_ should take some responsibility for this." Earlier this week, Telus media representative Shawn Hall responded to a Courier email enquiry with this statement: "When the issue first came to our attention we spoke to B.C. Place about it, and were advised the screen's hours of operation would be reduced and that it would be dimmed after twilight. Given the screen is operating at an existing facility in a downtown core full of round-the-clock bright light sources those seem like reasonable measures."
Cookson claims that before buying his condo in November 2010, he looked into what kinds of zoning changes were being planned for the area. He found no paper trail. There was no public record of the giant screen's introduction, "because they snuck it up and ambushed residents of this neighbourhood, and ambushed city hall." The 40-year-old environmental consultant and his wife have postponed having a baby, because he says they no longer have the proper conditions at home for a sleeping infant.
"I'm doing the right thing, and I'll tell you why. If you listen to Mayor Robertson's greenest city action plan, we're trying to reduce the amount of transport. My wife and I have decided not to buy a car_. we use public transport whenever we leave downtown, but for the most part we walk to work. And that's what city hall is telling us we're supposed to do."
Cookson could well be Vision Vancouver's poster boy: a civic-minded professional living sustainably in our eco-conscious corner of the Pacific coast. If anyone has a right to complain about a gap between Vancouver's ideals and its infrastructure, it's this guy.
The Twitter feed StopBillboard is thick with posted complaints about the screen, including one about the "inescapable ads" flashing before daylight, at 7 a.m. Glaring injustice? On Monday, Mayor Robertson posted the tweet, "I wrote to BC Govt asking to address neighbour concerns of light disruption + be compliant w city by-law."
It will be interesting to watch this overlit production unfold.
www.geoffolson.com
