There’s no shortage of high-end souped-up rides running around the Lower Mainland, and one of the bigger gatherings for car fanatics has been at Burnaby’s Market Crossing shopping centre.
For years, on Thursdays when the weather was nice in the summer, the market’s parking lot played host to an unsanctioned car meet. At its height, hundreds of cars would show up, with owners showing off their wheels.
But the meet, at least at Market Crossing, appears to be coming to an end.
After receiving a number of complaints from both customers and businesses, the shopping centre’s management has recently decided to clamp down on the meet.
Julie Wright, the mall’s property manager with Westbank Projects Corp., said some of the customers felt intimated by the crowds or couldn’t find parking.
She also noted some of the people attending the meet were engaging in “aggressive behavior,” including public drunkenness, racing and doing burnouts.
“I’ve tried to reach out to these groups, but no one wants to take responsibility for the group, and no one wants to talk to the manager of the mall to discuss a better resolution for this,” Wright told the NOW. “It was becoming such a safety issue we felt like we had to go beyond just having a security presence.”
In March, a YouTube video surfaced showing a fight at one of the meets.
So in the last few weeks, management has hired a security team to set up at the entrances to explain to anyone coming to the car meet that the event is not allowed and the mall is on private property.
Wright said the message appears to be getting through, noting last week hardly anyone showed up for the meet. She said she’s heard through social media the car group has moved their meet to another location.
London Drugs was one of the businesses that received and passed along complaints to the mall management.
Tony Hunt, the general manager of loss prevention for London Drugs, said the business received complaints, about people having trouble finding parking to aggressive driving.
He said the business asked the mall management to address the concerns.
“Clearly we want to have a nice, safe, easy-to-visit parking lot that people can come to and park while they’re doing their shopping,” Hunt said.
Not everyone is pleased by the mall’s approach. The NOW received an email from a customer who said she was told she couldn’t enter the parking lot because of the car she drove, which was a Honda Civic.
Both London Drugs and the property management company acknowledged the complaint, suggesting it was never the intention to prevent people from shopping at the centre.
The NOW also attempted to reach out to the organizers of the car meet, but was unsuccessful in getting a response. The Facebook page Van City Meets had recent posts about the car meet, but it was unclear who was running the page.
For their part, Burnaby Mounties said they were called to the market in the last couple weeks for the event, but just to keep the peace.
RCMP Sgt. Derek Thibodeau said he’s not aware of any criminal trouble, noting the number of cars has dropped off recently.
“We’re not anticipating there to be any issues or problems,” he said.
As for why Market Crossing was chosen for the car meet, Wright suggested the location is central, it’s well-lit for people to take pictures and there are 24-hour restaurants.
