I like to think of Vancouver as a teenage girl: always trying to improve herself with glittery, eye-catching accessories while desperately trying to remain authentic as to not be scrutinized too harshly by her peers. Ever since the Olympics, Vancouver has grown on top of itself.
This is just what happens with a young, desirable city. It grows. I get it. I live in Mount Pleasant. Mount Pleasant now looks like its name, except for one sore thumb that seemed untouchable: Fox Cinema. Resting between the painfully high-end Lark boutique and a tailor-made suit store, the Fox Cinema was always a mystery. Everyone knew they played shitty old porn flicks and that the activity that went down there was seedy.
But recently, Fox announced it would be closing its doors so they could renovate and become the replacement for The Waldorf Hotelβa multi-complex of music, art and bar activityβthat was forced to shut down earlier this year.
I had never been in the Fox in its past iteration as a dirty movie theatre, but I was curious to see what was happening inside before it got made over. In , neighbours complained about illegal prostitution and drugs going on inside the theatre so, Constable Mark Jarvie went undercover and, surprise, found some hookers.
So, yes, the Fox was acting as a social club for anonymous blowjobs and a dark, semi-quiet place to shoot dope. The city was super pissed. Not a big deal, right? Anyway, I decided to go to the Fox on a Friday evening with my friend Nick. When we entered the theatre, an old, salty man stuffed behind a booth sat between a mess of small television sets. As we paid the man, I tried to ask him questions about the closure.
