Brent Toderian asks the question in his latest column: Does your neighbourhood pass the ‘trick-or-treat’ test?
When it comes to trick-or-treating, walkable communities never fell out of favour. Even in higher density building forms like mid-rises or high-rise towers, if there are front doors along the street rather than blank walls and landscaping, good trick-or-treating is possible.
Here in Vancouver, our walkable streetscapes “by design,” our “podium townhouses,” or more recently our homes with front doors on the street at the base of mid and high-rises, make trick-or-treating a viable option in even the highest densities. Now if only kids could go from floor to floor easily in higher buildings! That’s Door Density!
Ah, but do kids actually show up at the doors on Hallowe’en? Let us know, Downtown Southerners and Yaletown denizens.
UPDATE: Brent responds to responses.
Thanks Gord! I hope you get some responses – I’m very curious to know if kids trick-or-treat in the ground-level townhouses/homes downtown, and if they can go from floor to floor in mid + high-rises (in my building, security prevents, as I suspect many buildings do). Yaletown has a lot of street-level retail rather than residential doors, but what about Downtown South and the West End?
Brent Toderian
Yaletown Kids Trick and Treat in the Neighbourhood Stores on Mainland and Hamilton and Pacific. This is run by the Rnd house for a least a decade now, with Kids from Elsie Roy helping out and doing the treating. There are a few kids who go door to door, very few though, and the main action can be found in the stores near Yaletown Station. http://yaletowninfo.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/halloween2011_route_outl.pdf
I’ve lived in a downtown townhouse for over 3 years and I have not had a single trick or treator even though I put out pumpkins and other decorations.
Silly writer, Yaletown Yuppies have traded in their children for small dogs.
In which case it’s the dogs that leave little treats for the unsuspecting…
Trick or Treat test bonus point. Parents didn’t question the home-made popcorn ball, they knew where it came from. Mr X was the school principle, eldest son was a babysitter. 200 kids was the norm. Dad would light fireworks, ending with the “burning schoolhouse’..
http://www.fireworkssuperstore.ca/pics/BIGBURNING%20SCHOOL%20HOUSE-2.jpg
*principal*… sorry Mr. I
It’s an interesting question because as much as we joke about the reality of trading in kids for dogs, I do live in the area and I do see kids and families. I think I’ll have to wander around Yaletown on Halloween to get a read on it (with our dogs of course!).