For nearly a month, Vancouver Redditors voted for which neighbourhood should be wiped off the face of the Earth until all but one remained.
Instead of using data that usually determines the best places to live like housing prices, the prevalence of bike lanes, or crime statistics -- this poll took a more personal approach. Started by Reddit user u/RedactedBrainz (who we're calling "RB"), the idea was borrowed from an Irish subReddit where a similar vote had seen widespread success and interaction.
A content creator by profession, RB explained in messages to Vancouver Is Awesome that they had never done anything like this before and thought it would just be a fun and silly side project.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect, to be honest. Some people took it way too seriously at the start, but after a few rounds, more people started getting involved which was great to see and people were just having fun with it,” RB said.
From day one the “Neighbourhood Destroyer” idea took off. Hundreds commented and hundreds more upvoted those comments. Ultimately, commenters struck Vancouver's Downtown Eastside from the map first.
“I think the reason it became so popular is because people are competitive by nature and if you live in a Vancouver neighbourhood, then you had a stake in the game,” RB said.
After the DTES fell, Shaughnessy’s fate was sealed with the comment: “Shaughnessy - EAT THE RICH” which garnered the most upvotes the poll would see with 1,104.
RB says “eat the rich” was a common thread for the first few rounds while members of other Vancouver subreddits like r/SFU did their best to get rid of UBC.
“The UBC students had the numbers to save themselves,” RB said. “Some neighbourhoods got kicked out for very specific reasons e.g. the coyotes in Stanley Park, or Kilsilano’s controversial Corduroy restaurant. Arbutus Ridge was knocked out because its geographical shape made people uncomfortable!”
Here is the complete list of the neighbourhoods in the order they were knocked out with the comment that doomed them.
- DTES "DTES" - 962 votes
- Shaughnessy “Shaughnessy - EAT THE RICH” - 1104 votes
- Oakridge “I'm gonna throw Oakridge on the board. It's a constructions sh**show. Make it be gone!” - 532 votes
- Coal Harbour “Coal Harbour and its empty condos and its 2fast2furious car collection and its rich vaccine line-jumping CEOs. BYEEEEEEE we never liked you” - 838 votes
- West Point Grey “West Point Grey - Get rid of Lululemon and all their leggings.” - 456 votes
- Dunbar-Southlands “Dunbar-Southlands. There's nothing even there!” - 531 votes
- Marpole “F*** Marpole.” - 605 votes
- Yaletown “F*** Yaletown” - 637 votes
- Riley Park “My (now) ex lives in South Main which would be Riley Park and I'm feeling a bit bitter. Down with Riley Park!” - 643 votes
- South Cambie “Get rid of that skinny b**** South Cambie. There isn't even a North Cambie so what good is it.” - 890 votes
- Kerrisdale “Kerrisdale! How is Riley Park gone but Kerrisdale is still here. Maybe I'm just mad because somebody blew through a red light and almost hit me with their Range Rover there.” - 975 votes
- Killarney “Killarney - it’s Burnaby West.” - 640 votes
- Stanley Park “Stanley park because it's my cake day and trash pandas stole my hot dog once” - 438 votes
- UBC “Ubc” - 587 votes
- Strathcona “Strathcona (DTES Light)” - 747 votes
- Downtown “Downtown. It smells like piss and is full of wannabe hipsters” - 570 votes
- Arbutus Ridge “Arbutus Ridge. It’s time for it and its nose/pants tent to go!” - 802 votes
- Sunset “Can we PLEASE just get rid of Sunset already.... Even the "no sunset view" jokes are getting old!!” - 802 votes
- Victoria-Fraserview “Victoria-Fraserview… get thee hence, we hardly knew thee but that makes parting such sweet sorrow.” - 494 votes
- Renfrew-Collingwood “Renfrew-Collingwood is way too much of a mouthful. Bye” - 550 votes
- Kitsilano “Kitsilano... KitsBeGoneYoooo. EDIT: F*** Corduroy and Rebecca Matthews.” - 409 votes
- West End “I used to live in the west end and I was smug as all hell about it. Now I've moved out and looking back at the smugness of all my old friends and neighbours is infuriating. "Ooooohh in the west end you can do this, in the west end you can do that, why would anyone ever leave the best end?". Let's sink them.” - 606 votes
- Hastings-Sunrise “Hastings-Sunrise. Gotta get rid of the last of the Burnaby touchers.” - 503 votes
- Kensington-Cedar Cottage “round 24 and "Kensington-cedar cottage" is 24 characters total ok BYEEEEE” - 576 votes
- Grandview Woodland “Grandview-Woodland. It’s Kitsilano with a chicken rendering plant instead of a beach.” - 608 votes
- Fairview ”Fairview defines banal bland, dull, drab, featureless, lame, soulless, uninteresting, vapid, etc. The only two things it isn't are flat and pedestrian. That place is hilly and needs to go.” - 477 votes
- Mount Pleasant - Winner
RB’s own neighbourhood, the West End, was eliminated in round 22. While Mount Pleasant survived all the rounds, RB isn’t exactly sure what winning means.
“I guess it means that the neighbourhood is the least hated in Vancouver. Perhaps that means it’s also the ‘most loved’?”
RB has received many suggestions to create another map to knock out Greater Vancouver districts and says they are contemplating the idea.
