Open During the Paralympics and Beyond
byOnce the Vancouver 2010 Olympic party comes to an end it won’t be with a grinding halt. Many attractions will still be open to the public throughout the Paralympic Games March 12th until the 21st.
Pavilions & Attractions
From my master list of pavilions the following will still be open:
This may be the perfect time to check out some of the pavilions that were just too crowded during the Olympics. With 150,000 people leaving the streets and heading back home, I know Vancouver will suffer a bit of depression when the party’s over.
Our city’s equipped to entertain year-round so be sure to check out Vancouver once its out of the spotlight as it’s just as luminous without it. However, my suggestion is to have an annual winter festival at Robson Square with every highlight we’ve seen so far. I think the area is underused (normally) as a public space and it would be a nice legacy of the Games.
Which Olympic attraction would you love to see stick around?
Leave a comment to list your favourite
62 Comments — Comments Are Closed
The Streetcar for sure! I would pay to have such easy access to granville island year round. And parking is usually such a pain there!
The Zipline should stick around…it should be a permanent fixture, at least during the summer. 🙂
With the Olympics we’re finally seeing Robson Square as it was envisaged: A place for people to be, hang out, meet, and have fun. The zip line would be great to have as a summer attraction, and I know the waterfalls are due to be turned on as soon as the Games are over.
I’d love to see us keep the Olympic Line Streetcar and expand the system into Chinatown, Gastown, and Stanley Park, as well as out on the Arbutus corridor.
Love the streetcar. Should be dual-tracked and extended at one end to Denman/Stanley Park via Chinatown/Hastings; and at the other end down Cornwall or Fourth Avenue to Alma. Oh wait. It used to do that!
Of course, no way to pay for that stuff after spending $120Million on the killer luge track.
I would love to see the streetcar stick around. It’s so much more convienient to get to Granville Island.
I would love to see the zip line stay open. It would be such a great attraction over the spring and summer and it might just let me get a chance to ride it.
I have not had the chance to ride the streetcar but think it would be great if it was expanded.
The streetcar is fantastic and it would be great to see Vancouver get (back) some more street-level trams. They’re convenient and building the tracks are much cheaper than skytrain lines.
Would love to see Bombadier streetcar stay, but I recall the Mayor saying we don’t have money to keep it.
Definitely the Robson Square zipline!
The streetcar for sure. My husband and several of our friends have been using transit for the first time in years during the Games; I’m hoping to persuade them to keep it up when the Olympics are over, and having easy and frequent transit into Granville Island would definitely help!
Of course the streetcar, it is so practical!
I love the Olympic streetcar line and all the additional capacity on the transit system. I hope many residents continue to use transit after the crowds are gone and leave their cars parked at home. It is more of a community experience to travel by transit.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a streetcar system on the North Shore from Londsdale toward the ferries?
The Olympic streetcar definitely has to stay, and should be extended not only to Stanley Park (as suggested by Bombadier) but out the Arbutus corridor to UBC as well.
The Zipline would be a great in-the-city attraction, although Ziptrek would probably charge an arm and a leg for non-Olympic maintenance. Perhaps they could keep it open through the Paralympics to allow locals to get decent opps to experience this one?
Molson Hockey House should be a permanent structure throughout the year – let’s have more celebration of the sport that captures so many of our hearts.
Oh, and on a media-related note: I would LOVE to see more ski cross and snowboard cross coverage. What fabulous spectator sports these are! So much fun!
I would love to see the zipline extended, and the streetcar to stay. The streetcar should also extend to Mainstreet, and beyond to UBC. (as mentioned by a commenter above!).
Another thing that I’d love to see stay? Some of the pedestrian only areas, if even only in small patches, and even only on weekends only at first. DT looks so amazing with a sea of people, and perhaps it is my imagination – with better air quality?
@Jason the good people of the Arbutus corridor would never allow a public transit system to invade their fair neighbourhood. Don’t you remember the fuss they kicked up over the Canada Line when it was proposed to go down Arbutus instead of Cambie?
Can i vote late-night Seabus service to continue? I want to that and the Olympic Streetcar (extended) please.
I heard that the Olympic Line streetcar could stay depending on funding.
Last paragraph:
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100220/bc_streetcar_100220/20100220?hub=BritishColumbia
After all the bulk of the expense has been made. All they need a couple of street cars (and they can work at expending it too.
I think the streetcar and Molson Canadian Hockey House should be kept on afterwards.
The Olympic Streetcar! It was enjoyable, fun, novel, and useful!
Absolutely the Streetcar, and I’d like to see it extended as far as possible. The Zipline is cute, and certainly the info signs around town should stay, but Vertical Elevation would be a big annoyance to those who want to sleep without all of those light beams crisscrossing the sky, not to mention the conspicuous energy usage.
Definitely the Streetcar! It’s made the trip to Granville Island So So much easier. We don’t have a car and rarely bother to make the trip to Granville Island because getting there is a pain. The boost in business would be huge for the Market and surrounding stores.
Streetcar! I actually haven’t been on it, but I have heard good reports and it would expand the options for people – and get more cars off the road.
I’d love to see Vectorial Elevation continue.
The streetcar is the most useful. Vectorial Elevation would be cool to have on occasion, such as maybe around the fireworks festival in July and August, but it’s too disruptive to be there regularly. I don’t know if the zipline could be engineered to stay at Robson Square permanently, but having one downtown-ish somewhere would certainly be a good attraction.
I think all BC houses should stay open during the Paralympics, that would include the Aboriginal Pavilion and Richmond O Zone. After all, we are the host and it doesn’t make sense when the host doesn’t even have the presence during the Paralympics.
I’d also like to see the Mint pavilion and Coca-Cola pavilion to stay. Mint pavilion simply because of its popularity, allowing more people to visit them during the Paralympics (or even to do the coin exchange all over again in case people missed it). Coca Cola is one of the fewer ones that offers fun activities for both kids and adults.
My vote goes to the Olympic streetcar! As much fun as it is to watch the zipline, it’s not as convenient a method of transport 🙂
Definitely the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion. With Paralympic medals featured, why wouldn’t they leave it until the Paralympics is over?
Vectorial Elevation would be my choice. The streetcar however, should not even be on that list; there shouldn’t be any discussion and it should be one of those things that ‘they’ have already decided will stay!
Can anyone confirm whether the cauldron will be lit and stay lit during the Paralympic Games??
Definitely the street car!
I like the idea of a street car system in the downtown core. I also really like Vectorial Elevation, Hong Kong goes all out and has “light shows” at night, we should try to do something similar with our fabulous skyline!
The streetcar would be the most beneficial thing to stay after the Olympics. Extend this sucker to the West End by Stanley Park and it would make getting around so much better. I would not mind seeing the zipline kept until the end of summer since most of the locals probably didn’t get a chance to take a ride, what with the massive lineups. But after the summer, most people who would have wanted a ride would have already done so and then Vancouver can take it down. As for Vectorial Elevation, we should get rid of that immediately. I still see it as just big spotlights shone into the sky; I don’t really see the “art” that it’s supposed to be projecting. Plus, how much energy is this sucking from the grid?
I also vote for LiveCity Yaletown to be an annual weekend thing in the summer. Why can’t Vancouver have it’s own Sasquatch or Coachella? Virgin Fest is not a viable option until they can make sure it runs every year and they actually have decent acts (like what Toronto gets).
Sorry too many comments and not enough time to read them so if these thoughts are there sorry.
I would like to see the streetcar stay even if it gets into car accidents. I was under the impression from the Transit people who I listened to that this feature was going to stay and extend to Main Street Skytrain station.
If they changed their mind it would be an awful shame.
All about the streetcar! And I really think all the pavilions should stay open for the Paralympics…lets celebrate ALL the Olympians!
COOOOOOLLLL!!!!! I’m coming home to Vancity next week and I was hoping on some post-olympic action. SO GLAD I get to still catch some stuff minus all the line ups! SWEEEEEET
All of the above! But I’d like to add to that list the Canadian Mint exhibit. Eight hour line ups to touch Olympic medals might be ok for visitors to our city, but for those of us who have day jobs and keep this city running, it is too much of a time investment.
The street car between Cambie and Granville Island is nice, but unless they extend it even longer it really isn’t necessary. It is a mere 10 minute walk from there to Granville Island OR hop on the #84 bus anywhere along 2nd Ave. and you’re there in minutes. IF they extend it further then I say keep it.
The mint pavillion should be kept open longer as it truly is a wonderful experience. If you can, get in line early (8 am). I only had to wait until 9:30 and was in and out of the building by 10:45.
I would love to see LiveCity Yaletown stay open as the lineups within there are just too long right now.
hmmm… the Streetcar, with people zipping on it’s cables? And the Vectorial Elevation lights all over False Creek, on the streetcar’s path?
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Streat car! Yeah! Im going down for paralympics wont be so crowded!! ZIP LINE! (:
I seem to be outnumbered, but I LOVE Vectorial Elevation! I have no idea how much power it takes to run, but think it makes our city look spectacular. Running along the seawall at night is also so much more enticing 🙂
Streetcar should stay!
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THE VECTORAL ELEVATION lights for sure!!! I could sit for hours every night and watch them
Keep Molson Hockey House open during hockey night in Canada!!!
BC Pavilion is re-opening as well:
http://www.yougottabehere.com/new_events_centre/b.c._canada_pavilion
That was one that had huge lineups before and I felt I missed out… now I get to go! Yippee!
I’d love to keep the streetcar and to have a winter celebration where the Vectorial Elevation lights are active for the month of February every year. February usually needs some cheering up!
The streetcar should be our Olympic legacy. It’s already called the Olympic Line.
Streetcar for sure!! With a future expansion to Stanley Park : )
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Vancouver city council has a detailed plan to increase the streetcar line over the next few years. It is published online. Not sure if the actual streetcars will stay but I presume we will use similar Bombardier products. See link here:
http://vancouver.ca/ENGSVCS/transport/streetcar/nextstep.htm
Yes – you can get involved!
1. Streetcar. This would also be good for evergreen line technology.
2. Zip line – we need some fun!
The streetcar should absolutely stick around if it can, though I’ve heard something about it only being rented from Bombardier. If we could somehow replace it (and add in safety measures for paths and streets crossing the tracks), it would be a fantastic way to shuttle people from the Canada Line to Granville Island now that the 98 B-Line no longer exists.
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I have heard through the gossip mill and then after checking their facebook site that Atlantic Canada House will be opening (at a different location) for Atlantic Canada celebrations during the Paralympics. The pavilion will be in Whistler this time I believe but further details have not been made public.
The streetcar is a brilliant addition to that section – I hope something works out to keep that running. I loved being able to take transit right down to the Island. That zip line is a great thing to have downtown, too; it really adds to the vibe around Robson Square.
Vectorial Elevation can go any time. It’s nothing more than additional light pollution that we certainly don’t need (and didn’t need, but the concept of light pollution seems to have blown right over the heads of the planners…)
I’d like to see Granville St. remain a pedestrian street. It’s a longheld dream of mine.
I would like to see Granville as a permanent walking street. I think it would give our city a real buzz and an increased cultural feel.
The zipline is also really cool and would be a good idea for the summer. Also a great tourist attraction.
I definetly agree that Robson Square is immensely underused. This is PRIME real estate and should be better utilized.
Rishad
roomwithaviewblog.com
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The zip line for kicks and giggles! We need more free stuff in Vancity, seriously. And more inspiration for having fun together.
The street car as well, for practical reasons. It connect Granville to the Canada Line, thank goodness!