An Urban Myth

There is one story I never become tired of relating, whenever I am at some meeting, feedback session, strategy meeting, presentation, etc. regarding cultural planning in Vancouver. It goes like this:

In the late 1980's, a well-known and established performance artist became fed up with the red tape culture of the City of Vancouver, and moved to Montreal. Once there, he/she applied to the City of Montreal for a liquor license for a garbage can - they planned to stand in a garbage can on St. Catherine's Street and serve shots of vodka in plastic cups for $1. The license was approved. The artist created video documentation on the entire process, and mailed it to the City of Vancouver. 

Now, I'm not sure if this was real, or even where I heard it anymore. I don't know that it matters. But whenever I tell it, people laugh, and more importantly, they get it. It probably does as much as any other platform to elucidate the differences between Vancouver and other, more libertarian, cities (though an admittedly extreme example). 

Despite this type of program, I admit that I find it all too easy to jump to conclusions regarding the CoV and 'their program'. I admit that, while not really sympathizing, I subscribe to some sort of empathy with such a large organization forced to attempt to balance so many different political agendas, while simultaneously having to traverse it self-made quagmire of rules and regulations. I only vaguely understand the scope of the structure that a government is, and I mean in terms of really, lucidly, tangibly, understanding it. 

But its like watching a circus hi-wire act repeatedly doomed to fail; we have to remember, that in the above example, the safety issues, among others, inherent in the performance piece are antithetical to the avowed purposes of a City, within a social contract. A polis survives in order to save the populace from itself, or more tangential whims and positions of fringe elements. However, they also exist in order to facilitate the aspirations of citizens.  The City of Vancouver has obviously chosen to focus on this former type of paradigm as a government, on such a scale, for such a time, and to the exclusion of all else, that it has become an entirely predictable machine, striating and inscribing all that comes across its desk into safe, digestible segments. 

I find myself asking whether it is a matter of understanding the structure that you are engaging with - whether dialectically unravelling the soul of the city (and/or its government) is necessary before you ask it any favours, demand of it any concessions... and methinks that urban myths like the one above are only muddying the view.