This month, two bands share their perspectives on the impact of Vancouver’s changing skyline — MOSFETT mourns the loss of late night practicing at Renegade as a result of noise restrictions, and So Loki blames unaffordability for the struggles of artists seeking to establish themselves.

Thus, accelerated commercial and residential development became an unintentional theme of this issue, also showing up like an elephant in Brenda Grunau’s contextualization of the SXSW panel, “Why Every Music City Should Have A Night Mayor.”

With the closures of local venues, and the constant threats towards affordable studio spaces, it’s no surprise our community of artists, musicians, promoters, and friends are feeling sad and pissed off at the rize of condominiums. (Though, Jane Jacobs would argue we only have ourselves to blame — we made our neighbourhoods attractive and trendy for exploitative developers, when we should have been hiding in our live / work studios filtering coffee through toilet paper.)

But it’s okay, we can shuffle around the city finding other neighbourhoods to call home. And one day, when we can no longer afford the costs of food from the periphery, we will charge back into Vancouver and eat the mould off condos as if feasting on fine cheese platters.

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