A "Drive" by any other name...

According to Commercial Drives own champion Kevin Potvin, the second annual Commercial "Drive" Car-Free Festival was a smashing success, even in the absence of local government representation. Although both Libby Davies and Shane Simpson managed a showing, no one from City Hall got the opportunity to bask in the glow of Commercial Drives version of a car-free utopia.

So what! Would the event have been any more successful or popular if they had been there? I'm sure that the Courier could have found better use of a third of a page.

While Mr Potvin may be right in saying that a community doesn't need "car-borne customers to thrive", the truth is that his vision doesn't necessarily match the reality of the "Drive" on any other day of the year. The Tuesday following this event my family and I went to our favorite gelato place on Commercial Drive and what did we see? The perfect view into a "gasoline dependent, mean and barren future" where parking was at a premium and conversation was frequently smothered by the bellowing exhaust of another cultural phenomenon, the "chopper".

Incidentally, I was at the Dog Days event at Trout Lake the day before and I just happened to glimpse Vancouver's own Kim Capri. While I wasn't there all day (just most of it), I did not see Shane Simpson or Libby Davies. This can only lead me to believe that maybe even this socialist super-duo can't make every one of the dozens of events that are held every weekend in this city. Or maybe they did their own Fathers Day things on Saturday, just so they could clear their calendars for the Commercial Drive event.