Indy Dreams and Urban Nightmares: Speed Merchants, Spectacle, and the Struggle Over Public Space in the World-Class City

Ann Turner is the financial and budget manager of the University of
British Columbia Library.

In January 1997, the Molson Indy Vancouver (MIV) auto race organizers
announced their plan to move the event’s venue from the downtown False
Creek area to Hastings Park. The conflict that ensued between the race
promoters and the residents of the working-class Hastings Park
neighborhood is the subject of this exploratory case study as it
examines the uses and development of public space in a world-class city.
The MIV was displaced from its original site by residential and
commercial development of the valuable False Creek waterfront. By
mid-March 1997, it had also been deflected from its intended Hastings
Park site by that neighborhood’s strongly voiced preference for a plan
already underway to restore much of the commercialized Hastings Park
land to green space. The events of the intervening two months and the
tactics used by the various interest groups in promoting their vision of
the Hastings Park space make for lively reading. Thorough research and
careful documentation make this book an insightful contribution to urban
studies in general.