Letter: Vancouver fine just like it is
Thursday, July 26, 2012
In some of Lou Brancaccio's Saturday "Press Talk" columns, he has espoused the name, "The Couv," for Vancouver. I take offense to this name in trying to call Vancouver something it is not. It sounds insulting and crude to me.
The immediate analogy is calling San Francisco "Frisco." We go to San Francisco regularly. and without purposely going to Golden Gate Park, a shopping mall, Fisherman's Wharf, etc., to eavesdrop, we never hear people who live in San Francisco call it "Frisco." We hear it only once in a great while from someone who is obviously a tourist. Even the extremely liberal and tolerant residents of San Francisco don't like it, and sometimes — politely — correct a person who says it.
I am requesting that The Columbian get off the trail of trying to sound "cool" or rename the city of Vancouver something it is not. I like the heritage of Vancouver and why it was named Vancouver.
If people complain that it is confusing because Vancouver, B.C., is just up the road, I'm very happy to explain the difference. The person now knows that difference and has learned something.
J.J. Steffen
Vancouver
