Groundhog Days

How Life Has Changed During The Pandemic

“Enjoy Our Park But Stay Apart” became and still is a familiar sign in our parks (left). Even the two proud lions, guarding the Lions Gate Bridge, at some point each ported a face mask. Very patriotic ones.

Streamed across more than 175 countries, Together At Home raised more than US$127 million

Stronger Together/ Tous Ensemble was watched by almost 12 million viewers and raised over C$6 million in donations for Food Banks Canada

Music For Hope became the biggest ever classical live stream, with more than 28 million views from across the globe in its first 24 hours

So, it would appear that toilet paper is the first thing that occupies an anxious mind when the end of the world is nigh. Worldwide, the supply chain first creaked and then broke in mid March, as the worried masses descended upon supermarkets the world over - with one thought racing through their concerned minds “should I get one pack of 24 rolls or four?”. And this previously unrecognised pre-occupation with the soft, cushioned comforts of home was not the only thing that we learnt about over the last few months. It seems that we all now have a bang-on idea how long 2 metres or 6 feet are. We have also taught ourselves to sew or otherwise improvise in order to create a home-fashioned face-covering; our cooking and baking skills now pretty much rival those of the celebrity chefs that grace our television screens – our barber-skills, on the other hand, still require some work; grown-ups stole their kids’ LEGO sets, and, maybe much to the dismay of some guys, we all know exactly how long 20 seconds lasts.

No, we don’t want to make fun of the root cause of this desperate situation. However, we thought after having experienced such an unrelenting and challenging assault on the routines of our daily lives for far too long, we owed it to you to put a smile on your face.

These last few weeks have been quite something. But here in Vancouver, and in BC in general, we have learned to adapt and make the most of a rather unprecedented situation. Yes, it has been, and still is, stressful and, whilst we have arrived at a new normal, we are still far removed from the lives we were living before the first cases appeared in the province. We have made the best of it, often without thinking too long about the choices we were forced to make. Do you remember when the first stores got boarded up? In just a few days, downtown Vancouver looked like a huge movie set for an apocalyptic blockbuster. Deserted streets, traffic almost completely absent, with the eerie silence only punctuated by the occasional ambulance or police siren. A different life was taking hold, a life with ...

Empty Shelves & Line-Ups

Uncertainty reined and no one had any inkling how long this situation would last, and consequently, how long the stores would remain open was a mystery. The result – panic buying. The herd mentality took hold and long line ups in front of grocery stores became commonplace. Once inside, the signs of desperation and self preservation “at all costs” precipitated the stripping of staple goods from the shelves. Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, pasta, bread, canned goods were all swept into shopping carts at gameshow speeds – some people must still have overstocked store cupboards at home. Whilst there was plenty of inventory at the top of the supply chain, even the smartest artificial intelligence software had no answer to the logistical challenges that were being posed to the stores and fulfilment depots, as ordering patterns changed overnight and the system took weeks to recover.

The 7pm Ceremony

For many Vancouverites, the era defined by coronavirus brought a new ritual of solidarity – making as much noise as collectively possible every night at 7pm. Inspired by similar displays of appreciation for frontline workers in other countries, pockets of the West End and Kitsilano adopted the outpouring in March. It turned into a de rigour event, where neighbours came together whilst standing far apart at our windows, on our patios and balconies or in our front lawns. Rain or shine, we stood cheering, clapping, banging pots and pans, blowing trumpets and horns. Some resident DJs even moved their equipment outside to volunteer their beats to the pulsing movement. Not to be outdone, the Vancouver Park Board even joined in, signalling their desire to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of us, bringing the firing of the iconic Stanley Park gun forward from 9pm to 7pm.

Zoom-Parties

If you didn’t know about Zoom before, you found out rather quickly. The video-communication service saw a stratospheric rise in it’s stock market valuation, with millions of people being forced to work from home. Downloads of the app increased as fast as the R value in the worst hit countries, adding 200 million users in just 3 months. And outside of work hours, with people unable to visit friends and family and with no bars or nightclubs open, social isolation offered up a new twist: virtual dinner parties, events and nightclubs. It was fun, at least for a while but let’s hope we don’t have to rely on them again.

Netflix, Prime and the World Wide Web

We all did it. Quaran-streaming. Movie theatres were closed, cultural events cancelled, sports postponed. Pretty much all live entertainment was put on hold. So what did we do? Yes, we turned to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and the likes. The demand for anything new was immense. Were we the only ones that binge-watched all Star Wars episodes when Disney made them available?

Then there was live-streaming. Millions watched Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli perform a solo Easter concert at an empty Duomo di Milano. Together At Home, an historic virtual concert series organized by Global Citizen and singer Lady Gaga in support of the World Health Organization, presented a six hour special on April 18th, featuring dozens of artists from around the globe, each performing via livestream from their own homes. The Canadian version soon followed, with a star-studded Stronger Together/Tous Ensemble event on April 26th. And Call To Unite, a 24-hour livestream global relief event, brought together more than 200 celebrities, entrepreneurs and world leaders, including Oprah Winfrey and former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, in an attempt to inspire people to surge onward and overcome their personal challenges during the pandemic. Even the Pope, the Dalai Lama and Queen Elizabeth used online services to address their followers.

A Soft Reopening

The word we all had been waiting for: “Reopening”. “We will reopen in phases,” we were told, and how great (and at the same time, utterly uncomfortable) it was to finally walk-back into a store. Well, we did have to wait in line or make an appointment. Put on a face mask, maybe gloves, answer a few questions and leave our name and phone number, but it was a first glimpse of normality and as we write these lines, we are only halfway through June.

Keeping our Fingers Crossed!

Well, actually, that’s not enough. Let’s enjoy what we have right now, and let’s hope that we will be through this soon. To get there, we need to remain cautious, considerate, compliant and keep following the remaining rules. We don’t want to slide back to where this started, do we?

For weeks the downtown core of Vancouver looked like a sound stage for an apocalyptic movie. Empty streets, boarded up stores, no traffic and very few people roaming the streets. The Vancouver Mural Festival then started the #MakeArtWhileApart project, transforming the storefronts and with it, the downtown area into a huge art gallery. Well done!