Today marks the 2 week point before the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the signs are popping up everywhere.

It feels like every open lot or parking area in downtown Vancouver has had a tent or bigger building erected in it and most buildings have had a bit of sprucing up done. Power wash, new signage or paint has really given the downtown a facelift, and it’s quite nice. Too bad it’s probably a one-off. It would be great if the building owners and tenants continued to take this amount of pride in their appearance.

Too many buildings in downtown (business mostly) look like they were nice about 10-20 years ago, but the owners forgot you can still buy paint, or hire a pressure washer for a few bucks. With the annual Vancouver Rains buildings get this dirty streaking where the water runs down and very few people ever clean it up.

There’s a travel office 2 doors from my office (Creatively named ABC Travel) who have been getting a facelift. What was once an older building with classic features is being updated to be a nice fully-glassed in front. Very modern/contemporary. Unfortunately the business inside hasn’t caught up. They moved in 2 years ago (moving down 4 doors) and the place is a disaster. I swear all they did was carry everyone’s desks covered in years of detritus down and drop them in. So here’s this lovely new glass front, giving you a nice view into a filthy, messy, dark office full of desks covered in 5 year old travel brochures.

Meanwhile, outside our home here on Abbott Street, we’ve finally been cut off from the rest of the city. Well, mostly.

When I took Rumble out for his nightly walk, they’d basically created a corridor of giant traffic cones leading into and out of our garage, but preventing traffic from going anywhere else.

This morning, they’ve been allowing 1 or 2 vehicles past (Casino shuttle for one) and turning away a bunch of pissed off motorists because they’ve also closed Expo Blvd and Pacific Blvd from Quebec to Nelson! They’re in the final stages of putting up the concrete dividers and chainlink fence to completely block the intersection of Expo and Abbott here and should be done when Rumble and I leave for work shortly.

The Olympic “garbage collectors” have started appearing. Basically 2 pinch rings attached to various light posts around the city, with transparent green garbage bags hanging out of them. Not a very “pretty” sight, but as Chris pointed out, they are anti-terrorist friendly. The can collectors will also be thrilled to be able to see which ones to target.

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