Signs of tampering

In the internet age, anyone can have their say on anything; news articles, blog posts, YouTube videos, politicians’ Facebook pages and pretty much everything else you can find online all have comment sections. Last week, however, the most striking examples I saw were in real life.

The first two examples are from the same sign: a for-sale sign advertising a whole city block available for purchase in a very rapidly gentrifying part of East Vancouver. The rejuvenation of the Waldorf Hotel is leading the charge in this area, and not before time; it’s a fantastic venue that’s always had heaps of promise, and the new owners have done wonders with the place. We used to live nearby and walked down every other Friday to see my brother-in-law’s band play. It was distinctly rough and ready (although nowhere near as scary as another East Van pub we once ventured into to buy offsales – I actually felt unsafe for the three minutes we were in there. It’s now also been “done oot”, as my Dad would say, and is a fantastic music venue in its own right), and I was always exceedingly glad to have Mr E Man by my side on the short walk home, especially the night we turned a corner and walked right into a drug deal…

Many people share my happiness about the changes in the neighbourhood, but it looks like some residents are not so thrilled:

The third example is from a government PSA poster that’s a very common sight in the ladies’ loos of local bars. I’ve never seen anyone modify it in this way though:

The sad thing is that these three comments are superior to the average quality of those found on most CBC.ca news stories…