Each December, we media types like to compile lists of the top so-and-sos of the year. In our own two-part Year in Review, we offer a chronological run-down of the stories we thought were the most impactful or most unusual events we covered in 2016.
This list, though, is compiled by you.
Below, in rank order, are the top news stories of the year from nsnews.com as determined by page views courtesy of our readers.
1. Gold Rush, Priced Out and There Goes the Neighbourhood
The most-read story was actually a three-parter. Reporter Jane Seyd delved into the North Shore’s logic-defying real estate market focusing on what’s driving the previously unthinkable high prices, how it’s impacting middle-class people who want to buy here and how it’s spawned a proliferation of “monster homes.”
2. Bus Driver Boots North Vancouver Passengers for Complaining About Lateness
It was a slap in the face to bus riders already kept waiting on one of the coldest days of the year. Snow and ice set transit schedules back all over the Lower Mainland. One driver on a North Van route apparently decided he’d heard enough complaints about things out of his control and kicked all his passengers off the bus and called in sick. One parent of a child booted from the bus called it “unacceptable bureaucratic power-drunkenness.”
3. Teen’s Body Pulled from Lynn Canyon After Three Weeks
The sad conclusion to a sad story. Coquitlam teen Cole Marsh lost his grip on the slippery rocks along Lynn Canyon and never resurfaced. It took weeks of searching by the RCMP and North Shore Rescue before they could recover his body. The District of North Vancouver later installed new warning signs targeted towards millennials about the dangers of cliff jumping.
4. Dog poop bags raining down on North Vancouver rooftop
A Lower Lonsdale apartment manager was flummoxed by dozens of bags of dog-do showing up on his building’s roof.
"I had the police check it out and they have monitored the street to a degree but we haven’t been able to find anybody actually throwing the crap on the roof,” said Lloyd Martin.
Though the turd hurler was never caught, the bags stopped showing up after the story ran, Martin said.
5. Senior Struggles in North Vancouver Shelter
Readers were shocked and indignant to learn an 82-year-old woman recovering from breast cancer surgery was forced to stay in a homeless shelter while her apartment was remediated for bedbugs.
The story became a media circus, donations came pouring in from around Canada and Fran Flann’s case was brought up in the legislature the next day.
6. Swastika Spray-painted on North Vancouver Street
An Edgemont woman was appalled to find the most notorious symbol of hate adorning her street.
Tamara Komuniecki said she was worried it was placed by a white supremacist feeling emboldened by the recent election of Donald Trump. There was a spike in race-based harassment in the days following and so-called “alt-right” flyers decrying immigrants have cropped up around the Lower Mainland.
7. Young Men Needed to Donate Stem Cells for North Vancouver Volunteer
A longtime North Vancouver RCMP volunteer was diagnosed with cancer and was in need of a difficult-to-match stem cell donation. The RCMP put out a call for young men (who have the ideal cells for harvesting) to show up, get swabbed and added to the OneMatch registry. More than 100 donors took up the offer and Nancy Taylor is doing well today.
8. Vigilante Vows Vengeance on North Vancouver Pit Bull
Dog walkers and animal lovers were shocked to find a series of anonymous notes posted on the trails threatening violence against “Rosie the pit bull.”
“I was attacked once, and will now carry a 20-inch chain with a one-pound steel ball on the end to crack the dog (and owner if need be) on the skull,” the note read.
9. West Vancouver Couple Fined $100K for Causing Landslide
After illegal landscaping work caused truckloads of soil to slide into a fishbearing stream in 2013, a provincial court judge handed down a hefty sentence for the homeowners.
“It sends a message not only to the homeowners but to everyone that our bylaws are important, are there for a reason, and need to be observed,” said a District of West Vancouver spokesman.
10. North Vancouver Man Killed Thursday Night by Suspected Drunk Driver
A 31-year-old man was killed when the driver of a black Cadillac Escalade ran him down in a Lower Lonsdale crosswalk.
North Vancouver resident Aldo Trinetti was later charged with impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and failure or refusal to provide a sample. He has yet to face trial.
