The best 2023 April Fools' jokes on changing Vancouver's urban realities

April Fools' Day 2023: Goodman Commercials' vertical expansion of BC Place Stadium (left) and TransLink's SkyLift (right). (Goodman Commercial/TransLink)

There were more April Fools’ Day jokes in Metro Vancouver than usual for 2023, and a number of these pranks directly related to urban development, public spaces, and transportation.

Here is a roundup of some of the most head-turning jokes that were unleashed this past Saturday.

You might also like:

April Fools' Day 2023: $3.8 billion Boundary Road Bridge to link Vancouver and Burnaby with Richmond
April Fools' Day 2023: $7.1 billion Universal Studios theme park coming to West Edmonton Mall
April Fools' Day 2023 jokes that nearly got us from Square Timbits to plaid Jeeps
April Fools' Day 2022: $141 million giant VANCOUVER sign to be installed in West Vancouver
April Fools' Day 2021: $450-million Vancouver Zoo to take over Queen Elizabeth Park

TransLink’s SkyLift

SkyTrain, SeaBus… and now, SkyLift?

Metro Vancouver’s public transit system expanded its multi-modal options with the addition of SkyLift — a new network of electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicles. Riders can book their SkyLift flights through TransLink, initially departing from the hubs of Waterfront, Olympic Village, YVR Airport, and Coquitlam Central stations.

These large drones vary in size, ranging between a single-seater aircraft to an eight-seater vehicle.

Just launched!https://t.co/UT7Os6G1Sa

— News from TransLink (@TransLinkNews) April 1, 2023

In preparation for the SkyLift service, beginning today, all Transit Police dogs have been equipped with parachutes. https://t.co/4eNHOL4rnI pic.twitter.com/Xt7PLREHlA

— Metro Vancouver Transit Police (@TransitPolice) April 1, 2023

Vertical expansion of BC Place Stadium

Local real estate firm Goodman Commercial completed the sale of BC Place Stadium’s air rights, providing the Government of British Columbia with a $505 million windfall.

As it turns out, the steel masts that support the retractable roof can support a 27-storey, mixed-use development extension of commercial and residential uses. There would be about 3.5 million sq ft of net rentable area above the stadium bowl, featuring 4,662 homes — a combination of market rental and below-market rental housing.

The unique, open-centred circular design provides residents with a front-row seat of the stadium events below, along with residential amenity perks such as open access to the green roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre for overnight campaign managed by BC Parks, and bungee jumping and repelling opportunities from the Lions Gate Bridge.

Removal of Canada Place’s landmark sails

The Port of Vancouver announced the iconic five sails of Canada Place would be removed in a year from now on April 1, 2024.

“After several years of comprehensive risk assessment, structural engineers have confirmed that the Sails are catching wind and slowly pulling the building apart from the shoreline,” reads their joke.

Of course, in reality, the sails of Canada Place form the roof for Vancouver Convention Centre’s East Building’s exhibition halls, and the sails were completely replaced in 2010/2011.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Canada Place (@canadaplace)

No longer foes

Kareem Allam, the former ABC Vancouver party campaign manager and interim chief of staff for Vancouver mayor Ken Sim, briefly joined “the other side” — cycling advocacy group Love The Lane. The group has been critical of the municipal government’s governing party’s plans to remove the Stanley Park bike lane.

pic.twitter.com/HjzRAAhbgu

— Kareem Mahmoud Abbas Allam (@kareemallam42) April 1, 2023

“Flatulent Chip”

The “Vancouver Apparel Association” installed a statue of Chip Wilson on West 4th Avenue in honour of his contributions to the world of technical apparel.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chip Wilson (@chipwilsonofficial)

Daily Hive Urbanized 2023

And of course, for 2023, Daily Hive Urbanized announced a new multi-modal bridge for vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, freight trains, and high-speed rail as a southward extension of Boundary Road — a new link from Vancouver and Burnaby to Richmond. This was imagined as the first phase of a $19 billion transportation corridor project between downtown Vancouver and Delta, including a freight railway and high-speed rail tunnel under Boundary Road and East 1st Avenue.

For our Edmonton publication, we also spruced up the West Edmonton Mall with an indoor Universal Studios theme park.

Daily Hive Urbanized continued its annual April Fools’ Day tradition of providing a case study/opinion analysis on fun, big picture ideas.

Preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of the extradosed bridge design for the Boundary Road Bridge over the north arm of the Fraser River between Vancouver/Burnaby and Richmond. (Government of BC)

The three phases of the Metro Vancouver North-South Corridor Project, including the Boundary Road Crossing (red). (Government of BC)

Conceptual artistic rendering of the redevelopment of West Edmonton Mall into Universal Studios Canada theme park and Universal CityWalk Canada mall. (Universal Destinations & Experiences)

Preliminary site plan of the redevelopment of West Edmonton Mall into Universal Studios Canada theme park and Universal CityWalk Canada mall. (Universal Destinations & Experiences)

You might also like: