For years, the parking lot at Burnaby’s Market Crossing shopping centre was the place to be for car-lovers.
The lot played host to an unsanctioned car meet on Thursdays that at its height, drew hundreds of car owners showing off their wheels.
That all changed in June when mall management decided to clamp down on the meet because of complaints.
Management 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. It worked. Within a couple of weeks the meet was history.
“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,” Julie Wright, the mall’s property manager with Westbank Projects Corp. told the NOW at the time. “It was becoming such a safety issue, we felt like we had to go beyond just having a security presence.”
She also noted some of the people attending the meet were engaging in “aggressive behaviour,” including public drunkenness, racing and doing burnouts.
In March, a YouTube video surfaced showing a fight at one of the meets.
However, car enthusiasts defended the meet and suggested the event got a bad rep. While there were rumours the meet moved to another part of Metro Vancouver, it’s unclear if that ever happened.
