What I Love About This Place - Part 3

Vancouver is well-known (and oft-maligned) for its high hippie population. It seems like if you're at all serious about being a real hippie, you end up a resident of the Republic of Cascadia at some point. And why not? There's tons of forests to frolick in, the lack of road salt means that your vintage VW bus will last way longer, Wreck Beach is here, and there's, like, the BC Bud, dude. So yeah, Vancouver's got lots of hippies. But even if nappy dreads scare you, eternal noodling jams bore you to tears, and that ever-so-pungent patchouli/BO cocktail makes your eyes water, be aware that elements of the "hippie psyche" are present to varying degrees in the general population and are sometimes responsible for great things.

Take, for example, this piece of news about the proposal to develop the farmland on Barnston Island and turn the area into an industrial park. It got shot down (for the time being, anyway). How great is that? Considering Vancouver's current more-development-at-all-costs-and-damn-the-consequences atmosphere, it's my favourite piece of news today.

Photo courtesy of Aunt Owwee