You may recall that a while back a group of Hastings-Sunrise residents let it be known they were none-too-pleased with the North Hastings BIA for attempting to rebrand their neighbourhood “East Village.” Not only was the name imprecise, they argued, but they took great offence to the BIA installing a number of East Village banners. On top of that, the banners employed a font that could best be described as “funky” in a mid ’90s Lollapalooza kind of way to capture the essence of this “vintage neighbourhood with a progressive attitude.” Someone was actually paid money to come up with that tag line.
Well, it’s three years on and people are still unhappy with the BIA for its branding efforts. So much so that someone has started an online petition at change.org calling for the removal of the East Village banners and brand and returning to the good old days of Hastings-Sunrise. Freeeeeedom!
The petition states “the ‘East Village’ movement has implemented a visual bombardment of their brand.” And “the name change has received massive disproval [sic] and it is time to officially have the voice of the community heard.”
To date, more than 500 people have signed the online protest.
Clearly this rift is tearing apart the once bucolic neighbourhood and a Hastings-Sunrise/East Village civil war seems all but imminent. Which is why the do-gooders at Kudos and Kvetches have decided to intervene and broker a peace deal between the two warring factions. After much contemplation, we feel the only solution is a new name altogether. One that is both “vintage” and “progressive.” One that captures the positive outlook of a sunrise coming over the horizon of Slocan Street and one that embodies the new, inoffensive, designed-by-committee, condo-friendly future of the ’hood. Here are a few options from our survey that we’ll be sending residents next month. Feel free to share your input with us:
• Hastings Lite
• The PNE’s Long-term Companion
• Where You Move When You’ve Finally Had Enough of Commercial Drive
• Bob Rennie’s Next Conquest
• The Place with the Cheap Meat
• East Hastings… It’s Better Than You Think
• Ragged Charmsville
• The Burnaby Commute
• Denim Town
• Marpole’s Cooler Chain-Smoking Cousin
• No Longer Affordable.
