Next stop: Matzah Ball

Editorial

Some Indo-Canadian merchants and community groups would like the proposed Canada Line rapid transit station at 49th and Cambie dubbed "Punjabi Market-49th Avenue-Langara."

An individual representing the Cambie Boulevard Heritage Society suggested an emerging theme: "We need to be consistent and we need to then designate every single station with some kind of representation of the culture that is living in that area. So 41st and Oak, let's call it Matzah Ball Soup station because that's where all the Jews live."

Where to begin?

Is consistency imperative? If one station has a multicultural indicator as a name, must every station? This seems like a red herring.

But we couldn't resist fixating on the Matzah Ball Soup idea. Giving the 41st Avenue stop a stereotypically Jewish moniker because "that's where all the Jews live" is a generous but misguided offer.

While the Jewish community campus may be the most visible sign of Jewish presence in this city, it is not where most of us live. We've considered the matter though, and have some additional recommendations.

Since the Jewish community is now spread out over the Lower Mainland, perhaps a Coquitlam station could be renamed Can't Afford the West Side (this is appropriately multicultural because Jews are hardly the only ones fleeing high city real estate prices). The Jewish neighborhood in the downtown peninsula's dense highrises might demand a stop called Vertical Shtetl. Richmond, whose most noticeable multicultural community is Chinese, is nevertheless home to the province's second-largest Jewish community. Shouldn't they get a Sweet-n-Sour Brisket station? And what about all the Jews who are unaffiliated, who appear on Yom Kippur or not even then, who live where few Jews dare to tread? Assimilation station? Many of the growing Russian Jewish immigrant population live in Burnaby, so why not a Metrotown-Central Park-Ostjuden Junction? Shouldn't the Jewish newlyweds in City Hall-area walkups have a Basherte station? Might the Orthodox of Oak Street not expect to await the train (and the Moshiach) at To-and-Frum? (And train cars with mechitzot, dividers, and maybe extra infant seats?)

We can have fun with the idea – and ultimately isn't that the idea? Celebrating diversity should not drive us into competitive one-upmanship, but common sense should indicate whether a uniquely named neighborhood station is reasonable.

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