What B.C.'s spookiest neighbourhoods on Halloween night could tell us about how cities are designed

B.C. homes combined to hand out thousands of treats on Halloween night this year, and an urban studies professor says there's much to learn from the neighbourhoods that saw the most trick-or-treaters.

CBC News tracked thousands of candies being handed to costumed visitors on an interactive map, in an annual partnership with Simon Fraser University's City Program.

Ever since the treat count started, the Vancouver neighbourhood of Douglas Park — around West 22nd Avenue and Heather Street near Cambie Village — has crushed the competition, and 2023 was no different. One home there reported an astonishing 2,853 trick-or-treaters, and another reported 2,475.

Andy Yan, director of the SFU City Program, said other B.C. neighbourhoods that attracted trick-or-treaters were New Westminster's Queen's Park, Surrey's East Clayton, Richmond's Steveston and Victoria's Rockland.

Yan says that 2023 may signal the rise of "destination trick-or-treating" in neighbourhoods that get the most visitors year after year, and he noticed that the spookiest neighbourhoods were walkable and close to parks.

"[They have] a density, and yet at the same time, it's a density through which I think people feel safe. They feel like they're part of a community," he told Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's The Early Edition. 

"I think it's very much about the importance of green space and … this role of parks and how they kind of help anchor a community."

Even as rising costs continue to affect Halloween traditions, Yan says more than 80 per cent of treat count respondents said inflation had no effect on their celebrations.

The most common treat given out, according to CBC readers, was the humble chocolate bar.

Neighbourhoods with bigger homes saw fewer trick-or-treaters

Yan said bigger and grander homes may deter trick-or-treaters looking for candy and a direct connection to residents.

"There's a certain, if you will, door-to-curb ratio that really encourages trick-or-treaters to be in those neighbourhoods," he said. "Large homes… you would think that would also help create an ambience of menace. But at the same time they don't seem to be very great places to be trick-or-treating."

Yan acknowledged that denser neighbourhoods like Vancouver's West End and Yaletown may not have seen traditional trick-or-treating. Instead, daytime events run by business improvement associations and shops brought the Halloween spirit there. 

Indeed, Yan says that some of Vancouver's busier neighbourhoods like Douglas Park and Trinity Street on Halloween night may have seen visitors from elsewhere in the region.

Yan says surveys like the annual count can help add to a comprehensive analysis of neighbourhood character in B.C.

"It also reveals, I think, a certain truth that allows us to start investigating what makes great neighbourhoods, what makes vibrant communities that people feel that they're able to raise their kids in."