SURREY (NEWS1130) – Who’s Surrey now? It looks like the City of Surrey has backed off its threatened legal action against a local firm that sells shirts making light of the suburb’s problems with gangs and guns.
Yesterday, News1130 reported the city had sent the people behind SurreyShirts.com a cease-and-desist letter, over t-shirts, hoodies, and other items with slogans like, “Better Safe than Surrey,” using the city’s logo.
“That tells me that either it’s not worth their while or possibly that, as we believe, have legal standing to actually have these kinds of shirts out in Surrey,” says co-owner Don Pitcairn.
He adds his site has received a record amount of visits since the story first broke.
“Yesterday, we had 30,000 hits and from talking to the webmaster this morning, he said we had just an incredible amount of traffic that was causing a few issues.”
He claims he has sold more merchandise in the past 24 hours than since the site first launched in mid-December.
Pitcairn says while the shirts are meant to be humourous, they’re also meant to shine a light on the Surrey’s problems and start a conversation about dealing with them and finding a solution.
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Come on people, why so uptight? It’s a joke, well some are true about Surrey but hey, it’s funny, so get over it
Isn’t Don Pitcairn the same person who was waking nude around Crescent Beach a few years ago. I think this poor person is starved for attention. Sad!
Don’t forget… this is the same guy who ran and lost on the municipal elections a few years ago. Great ambassador!
He ran for the Green Party, a party of which we all know has good intentions but will most likely not win an election anytime soon, due to most of the population voting for better known parties.
Your comment, however, should take into consideration the fact that Don got one of the highest percentage of votes out of any Green Party member who had ran for the South Surrey/White Rock riding in the past. He may have lost, but considering the circumstances, he really did quite well.
I’d like to see you try to run and win. Good luck to you.
In any case, I find the shirts to be entertaining. Some may be a little offensive, but it’s true, cities like Surrey need to focus on their crime and violence issues. Just like how Vancouver should stop ignoring their homeless problem and instead spending our money on silly sculptures of poodles.
This guy a piece of work! He used to be our Greenskeeper in our strata and he was plain lazy so we fired him. So obviously he is trying to make a quick buck somewhere else. His wife worked in our strata office and she got fired too. Seems controversary follows them.
Yes Surrey has had problems. Yes Surrey is a big city (Second largest in BC) and with that comes big city problems. Yes Surrey’s location with the largest modern, multipurpose marine terminal on the West Coast of North America (Fraser Docks), 2 border crossings and quick access to both Vancouver and the Fraser Valley make it an ideal location for criminals. That’s just life. Any community of this size is going to have it’s challenges. But Surrey is not the most dangerous city in BC and doesn’t deserve that reputation anymore. Macleans lists Surrey 4th after Prince George (murder capital of canada), Victoria (wanna get robbed… go to the island), and Kelowna. Where are the jokes about thos communities? WHere are the ‘funny’ tshirts? If Mr Pitcairn is so concerned about his safety in Surrey I have to ask 2 questions: #1 – why don’t you leave then? #2 – what are you doing about it? Do you really think that T shirts are the solution to the problem? Instead of sitting around and complaining maybe Mr Pitcairn should be volunteering in his community and an auxilary police officer or a block watch program. I am so tired of people complaining and making jokes but not doing anything about it… all talk no action. And that part about wanting to shine a light on the citys problems…. are you new? Do you really think that the city isn’t aware of the problems? Seriously? I’m sure that mayor and council (and police etc) are completely oblivious to the problem and haven’t put forth any programs or actions to address it…. that’s why the crime rate has dropped 21.2% since 2005 (according to Macleans). They’re just sitting around.
You have just got to love the entrepreneurial spirit of this company!! They found a hole in the supply and demand chain, filled it, and now their bottom line has increased. The Canadian dream.
BOO on the City of Surrey admin team and whomever decided to attempt to play legal games. Im sure glad that my hard earned tax payers are being used by city hall in a malicious and wasteful manner. Perhaps if Surrey was doing a better job at addressing the real issues at the street level, rather than grandstanding at their next catered staff meeting, there wouldn’t be a need for such merchandise to begin with. So stick it your ear Surrey City Hall.