So Wen and I have been living in Vancouver for a little over a year now and are learning all about Vancouver exceptionalism. Vancouverites feel qualitatively different from the rest of Canada, driven largely from living in a tiny-but-spectacularly-beautiful setting that is hemmed in by ocean, mountains and an international border.
You’re essentially cut off from the rest of Canada – heck, the world – out here and most people like this.
But it’s not just the stunning locale, great food, abundance of rain, etc. that makes Vancouver exceptional. There are some other, more disconcerting elements as well.
The one that I haven’t been able to get used to are the ubiquitous missing persons posters.
These posters are found everywhere in the city, not just in the Downtown East Side (where people who really want to be cut off from the rest of the world move). They make their way into residential neighbourhoods and anywhere where there’s a traffic hub.
I’ve lived in cities all around the world and Vancouver is the only place where I’ve ever seen a single missing persons poster anywhere outside a police station. And here they abound; these photos were taken in the past two weeks.
What I find additionally strange is the uniformity of the posters: a bold headline of the word missing. The name in big letters. A brief bio and a concluding admonition to call 911 if the individual is found.
But what’s truly striking is the photo: every photo is of the individual smiling. A photo from a better time before whatever private tragedy that led the person to disappear occurred. It’s like the friends and family of the missing individual are trying to reach out to them, hoping that they’ll see the picture and remember the good times and just come back.
And Vancouverites see so many of these posters every day that they don’t even notice these tragedies playing out around them.
Exceptionally shocking.