Best of the City
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 2007 brought us wonderful books, a better ski hill, affordable housing, a first-rate health club, an overdue memorial, and fairer taxation. It also brought us two severed feet, a mobile grow op, and green blood

By Michael Harris, Anna Moorhouse, Matt O’Grady,
Nicola Pender, and the editors

Related story: Worst of the City
The best bizarre news from 2007.
Illustrations By Steve Wacksman

Girl Loses Boy
Without the Vancouver International Film Festival, many local flicks with tricky subjects and tight budgets would never get made. Gwen Haworth’s remarkable 70-minute documentary, She’s A Boy I Knew—chronicling her seven-year journey from man to woman—is a prime example: at this year’s VIFF, the self-funded feature won the People’s Choice Award for most popular Canadian film, as well as the juried Artistic Merit Award from Women In Film & Television. Witty, brave, and vulnerable, Haworth gave us the most affecting and memorable documentary of the year.

Puttin’ On The Holts
The arrival of luxury brand stores (Hermès, Gucci, Tiffany, et al.) over the past two years culminated in the city’s most anticipated store opening: the new, improved, double-the-size Holt Renfrew. At the red-carpet opening in June, champagne flowed, Patti LaBelle belted out tunes, and fashionistas finally had an occasion to don outrageous party frocks. As for the store: racks upon racks of designer clothing, an unparalleled selection of cosmetics and accessories—what’s not to love?

Go Blo
The blow-dry bar is all about doing one thing and doing it well. Trashy celebrity magazines, pink decor, and yummy-smelling products make Blo in Yaletown a perfect spot to chill before a special event. Eight flirtatiously named styles (from Red Carpet to L.A. Confidential) let you indulge your Hollywood fantasies with stylists who are young, fun, and uniformly competent. A Blo tab entitles you to eight wash and blows for about $25 a pop (before tip). A new location is set for South Granville in mid-January.

Now That’s Building Community
Bing Thom gave South Main Street a much-needed shake when he replaced the modest community centre with this wave-roofed treasure. Featuring exterior window walls and variegated rectangles of glass, the new building, which cost $10.5 million, is somewhat reminiscent of the architect’s Aberdeen Centre in Richmond. A preschool, gymnasium, fitness centre, and art room share its 30,000 square feet. The interplay of concrete, glass, and wood (the holy trinity of Vancouver building materials) is beautifully orchestrated, and the gentle undulation of the building’s roof plays delightfully off the surrounding landscape.

The Puck Stops Here
Thirty years after Stan Smyl and the New Westminster Bruins won the Memorial Cup, the Vancouver Giants, in just their seventh season, gave home-team fans a chance to celebrate again, winning the 2007 Memorial Cup by defeating Medicine Hat. The 16,241 folks at the championship game at Pacific Coliseum capped a week of record-breaking attendance for the 89-year-old junior tournament, proving that hockey fever can take hold in this city even when the Canucks fail to make the grade.

Get Me The Police
Their reunion produced the most-anticipated and top-grossing North American tour of 2007. The Police chose Vancouver as their base, rehearsing under tight security in North Van before performing their first two shows—both sold out—at GM Place. The band played such jazz- and reggae-tinged hits as “Roxanne,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” and “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” as if they’d never broken up. Sting had promised that the show would be “simple but spectacular,” and judging from the ecstatic reaction of fans, it was that and more. Big Byte
Our tech sector got a shot of adrenaline thanks to the new Microsoft building in Richmond, and we have U.S. Immigration Services to thank for it. After the States put a cap on their H-1B visas (which go to highly skilled temporary workers), Microsoft started scouting for a place to put all their newly recruited (and visa-less) international software developers. Six months later, the development centre opened up on Commerce Parkway. Besides creating 700 new tech jobs, Microsoft’s move north is likely to attract other major technology players to the Lower Mainland.

Show of Shows
The Vancouver Art Gallery has been on a growth spree since the driven (yet intriguingly opaque) Kathleen Bartels became its director in 2001. With last summer’s Monet to Dali: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art, the VAG not only brought Vancouver the grandest exhibit of European paintings anywhere in Canada, it busted attendance records in the process. Nearly a quarter of a million people came to see the exhibit (which was studded with gems by van Gogh, Cézanne, and Picasso) more than doubling the gallery’s previous record of 95,000 for the Carr, O’Keeffe, and Kahlo show back in 2002. Now, if they can just finalize details on their new home.

Fully Booked
This year’s superb crop of local books included SFU prof David Chariandy’s first novel, Soucouyant, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. It’s about a struggling family from Trinidad trying to make a go of it in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. Jen Sookfong Lee’s debut novel, The End of East, is a beautifully written, sensitively nuanced portrayal of immigrant life, familial obligations, and generational divides in Chinatown. Douglas Coupland offered up The Gum Thief; William Gibson’s high-tech, high-stakes Spook Country—his eleventh novel—won sparkling reviews; Brian Payton’s Shadow of the Bear infuses spirituality and natural history in a travelogue; Bruce Grierson’s U-Turn explores human-scale epiphanies and mid-life 180s; UBC prof Michael Byers’s Intent for a Nation critiques Canada’s foreign policy; and Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon’s memoir-cum-environmental-manifesto, 100-Mile Diet: A Year in Local Eating, helped to popularize a new way of thinking about where our food comes from.

Beyond Beauty & the Beast
When Robert Lepage, Canada’s theatrical ambassador to the world, gave 24 performances of his gorgeously staged play, The Andersen Project, at the Playhouse, the story of a frustrated writer in Paris was a formidable reminder that theatre can deliver a more powerful emotional punch than even the best live television. Set pieces zipped on and off via an elaborate pulley system; Paris appeared by massive video display; and through it all the brilliant Lepage kept an assured, nearly superhuman control of his tragicomic craft.

Crash Site
Twenty-two years after Canada’s worst act of terrorism, Vancouver finally paid homage to the victims of the Air India bombings. A memorial was unveiled in Stanley Park in July as a place for victims’ family and friends to remember those who perished off the coast of Ireland on June 22, 1985. The commemorative wall, inscribed with the names of all 331 victims, brings tears to the eye—and, perhaps, some closure.

Passing the Buck
City Council’s decision to freeze business property taxes at 2006 rates was a long-awaited, much-needed move towards reducing the tax load on businesses and making the city more competitive with the rest of Metro Vancouver. Despite complaints that the freeze increased homeowner tax rates, homeowners currently account for only 47 percent of civic taxes while consuming 76 percent of all civic services.

Gym Dandy
When billionaire Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks, he tricked out the locker room to the envy of the entire NBA. Seems Steve Nash, then with the Mavs and now with Phoenix, learned a thing or two. His health club, at Granville and Dunsmuir, comprises 38,000 square feet of state-of-the-art gear. Classes are offered in everything from yoga and pilates to spinning and cardio hip-hop. It’s spacious, spotless, and spa-like: sauna, steam, flat-screen TVs, and digitally coded lockers make workouts a blast. And you might find yourself next to a visiting NHL team, or a bikini model.

Home for the Holidays
With the announcement that the provincial government would be spending $80-million on 15 apartment buildings in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Victoria—including 10 in the Downtown Eastside, totaling 595 rooms—Premier Gordon Campell and Housing Minister Rich Coleman finally proved they’re taking Vancouver’s housing crisis seriously. Add the 287 supportive housing units the government will be funding at three city-owned sites in Vancouver, and we have a bonafide affordable-housing initiative.

Life vs. Art
New York artist Dennis Oppenheim was a heavyweight in Vancouver’s Sculpture Biennale and his 1,500 kg upside-down church, Device to Root Out Evil, survived the festival to become a feisty landmark in its Coal Harbour setting. Rejected in 2004 by a squeamish Stanford University, the controversial sculpture looks comfortably at home among some of the city’s ritziest condo towers. By contrast, Oppenheim’s second contribution to the Biennale, Engagement—a pair of massive wedding rings that seemed to reference gay marriage—inspired shrugs and eye rolls from bored West Enders and has been quietly removed.

Mountain Makeover
As the official venue of the freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions for the 2010 Olympic Games, Cypress Mountain was in serious need of a makeover. Crews have been busily clearing, landscaping, and building. Skiers and boarders will be thrilled to learn that the nine new runs and three new lifts (including a high-speed quad chair) that recently opened represent a 40 percent expansion in overall terrain, the first such expansion on the North Shore Mountains in 20 years. Other upgrades include a state of the art automatic snowmaking system and a new base area lodge. Who needs Whistler? Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

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