Is Vancouver World-Class?

[Sir Conga]

What makes a city world-class? What makes Vancouver qualify? What's missing?

[trofirhen]

One missing element is excellence in, and strong public support for, all the performing arts. Compare Seattle's Opera to Vancouver's. There's sympton number one for you.

[trofirhen]

Too bad nobody else seems interested in this thread. Plus, I think Sir Conga created it to get the "world class" debate from interfering with other inappropriate threads, and give the "world class" issue free to be debated here. That's a great idea, IMHO. Hope it revives.
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I have a memory of a brief meeting in which I sensed a whiff of "world class" attitude prevailing in Vancouver, both in the persona of who expressed it to me, and the city context therein linked.
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I was standing on Robson, waiting for a bus. It was a station with 2 bus lines as I recall. A pleasant, distingued-looking woman was beside me. We got talking. She was an image of peace and warmth. She was originally from Stockholm, but had lived in vancouver for a number of years, it seemed.
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"Vancouver is so beautiful and so laid back, I wouldnt live anywhere else..." she calmly stated, then winked and waved to me as her bus left.
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A statement on Vancouver from a knowledgeable, sophisticated culture.

[nova9]

I read it but rarely respond because no one who is travelled to many places would say Vancouver is world-class. However, many of us who have travelled still come home to Vancouver. It has so many things not found elsewhere. Also, home is home - all those that keep complaining about Vancouver sucking here or sucking there - it's so tired.

[Pinion]

The concept of "world class" is weird. I assume to be world class you need to be the among the best in multiple categories. But Vancouver doesn't excel at anything other than natural beauty.

We're not world class anything, and that's ok. We're pretty good at a lot of things, and that makes Vancouver a better place to live than most of the world.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Pinion

The concept of "world class" is weird. I assume to be world class you need to be the among the best in multiple categories. But Vancouver doesn't excel at anything other than natural beauty.

We're not world class anything, and that's ok. We're pretty good at a lot of things, and that makes Vancouver a better place to live than most of the world.

I think you got it

[vansky]

vancouver doesn't have the scale, that's the key, u cannot become world class unless u have a lot of power, because ur competitors r 4-5 million plus...

nyc or tokyo won't ever be on top of livablity because they r too large....

wishing van to be on par with world class cities is like asking n.america to be on top in FIFA....everyone got their own specialty...

i'm sure some cities like toronto also want to be on top for livablity...hahahaha...u gota like what u have or u wn't be happy


world class is pretty rational, say sfu and ubc research output will enver match anything close to the schools in nyc, and van doens't have enough headquarters, and the number of top firms...fortune 500s and stuff....population, subway lines etc. but if u look at the canada line, it's way better than the old shit in nyc or tokyo, and i'm sure the condos in van got better glasses than the average stuff in tokyo, but then, they got top designs, and a lot of fancy stuff which vancouver just doens't have

but when i think back on this city, and how much progress it has made as a 2.4million "town", i am asbolustely proud of this country and its hard working and open minded souls...who cares about the rankings, it's all about ppl who live in the big cities who want to research about sth to fancy their shit~~~

[vansky]

one day when ppl get old and realize the true heaven, they'd dump the ranking and come here to live as real human beings rather than as global city citizens...

and van ranks high above as a city of romance, can toronto ever do sth like that? let me describe you a typical torontorian's holiday schedule.

for the first half of the day, torontoians consider swimming and bathing themselves in the great lake as romantic, and looking at the cn tower as if it is a mountain, can u believe that kind of mentality?

for the second half of the day, torontorians would follow vancouverites's style of mixing natural activity with cusine and shopping, so they would rise up from the water, and then dress up in fancy dresses as if they r in paris, only to find snow and hail for entertainment.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by vansky

vancouver doesn't have the scale, that's the key, u cannot become world class unless u have a lot of power, because ur competitors r 4-5 million plus...

§ True enough

i'm sure some cities like toronto also want to be on top for livablity...hahahaha...u gota like what u have or u wn't be happy
§ I saw something somewhere where Toronto claims to be THE most liveable city ...

world class is pretty rational, say sfu and ubc research output will enver match anything close to the schools in nyc, and van doens't have enough headquarters, and the number of top firms...fortune 500s and stuff....population, subway lines etc. but if u look at the canada line, it's way better than the old shit in nyc or tokyo, and i'm sure the condos in van got better glasses than the average stuff in tokyo, but then, they got top designs, and a lot of fancy stuff which vancouver just doens't have

Originally Posted by vansky

van ranks high above as a city of romance, can toronto ever do sth like that? let me describe you a typical torontorian's holiday schedule.

for the first half of the day, torontonians consider swimming and bathing themselves in the great lake as romantic, and looking at the cn tower as if it is a mountain, can u believe that kind of mentality?

§ now, now ...

You can't really compare the two. Vancouver beats Toronto pretty-much hands down for natural beauty, but Toronto does have some stately, beautiful districts (such as South Kingsway), and is 3x bigger, plus enormous corporate/ecomomic power and wealth not present in Vancouver.

[SpongeG]

i guess it depends what world class means to people, is it lifestyle? the arts? the shopping? the business?

Vancouver has all of those but they have it in their own way, we don't have a world famous ballet, symphony or opera company perhaps but that sort of thing doesn't seem to work here anyway, instead we have a thriving, underground, alternative and grass roots kind of art scene, which other cities which they had

i guess it depends what people mean and than look at what we do have and how it fits into the history and culture of what is vancouver

[vanman]

Wow, this thread is completely out to lunch.

[Vestry]

Unfortunately, Vancouver doesn't have the economy befitting that of other world-class cities.

[vansky]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

You can't really compare the two. Vancouver beats Toronto pretty-much hands down for natural beauty, but Toronto does have some stately, beautiful districts (such as South Kingsway), and is 3x bigger, plus enormous corporate/ecomomic power and wealth not present in Vancouver.

it's just for laughs, nobody can deny what it is...

there' so much contrast betw the mentality of these two cities which I always find it interesting, t.o got a bigger looking infrastcture by scale, but van got 10+ bridges in its metro, i guess those r the only things which toronto lacks, not to mention that mountains and ocean r part of this city's infrastrcuture as well~~~~(i consider the burrad inlet thehighway for ships and seabuss) fraser river's a natural gateway anyways

i'd say it's a world class infrastructure compare to toronto in terms of transportation, anyone can argue on that

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Vestry

Unfortunately, Vancouver doesn't have the economy befitting that of other world-class cities.

Yes. That's a huge part of it right there.

[Hed Kandi]

Originally Posted by Sir Conga

What makes a city world-class? What makes Vancouver qualify? What's missing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Cities

[peterprinciple]

I would pose the question this way:

"What Vancouver features do you think are World Class"?

[LotusLand]

Vancouver has a lot going for it despite what I always read on these forums. Is it world class? Probably not but I'd rather live here than in Seattle, despite their great arts scene, Seattle isn't that great in terms of a vibe. I go there and it's just blah.

Here is my mini rant.

Vancouver has:
1.Excellent food scene, easily in the top 3 in N.America.
2. Great outdoors scene: From the beaches, within the downtown core I might add, to epic seawall, Stanley Park (Just one of the largest urban parks in the world),
3. Beautiful people. Sure they aren't the friendliest but that change has to come from all of us. Next time you see someone freaking smile, say hi to a complete stranger, you'd be surprised by the response you get. I've made so many new friends by talking to random people. Plus the women here are down right gorgeous!
4. Multicultural. When I here people say Vancouver isn't multicultural I want to punch them in the face. The only difference between us and Toronto is the African Canadians. We don't have many hear. We got shit ton of all other races. Seriously go to Fraser and 49th, every ethnicity known to the world is probably down there and living together. The west side I'll grant you is not as diverse but even that is slowly changing as kids of immigrant parents from the east side are moving there slowly. Yes, not all born and raised Vancouverites flee to the distant suburbs. I'm one of them, I traded in the dream of immediate detached home ownership to buy a 2 bd and den condo downtown. It can be done, if you have the will to make it happen (barring any medical limitations of course)

5. It has great urban planning, better than average shopping and excellent transportation. Throw in the UBC line and the streetcar and wow!

What it lacks:

1. Festivals and general outdoor events scene. The Olympics ignited a flame in us all to want more large scale community events. I think last summer we started down the right path but need more! I would say look to Montreal and see what they are doing right

2. Business clout. Despite our diversified economy, we don't have financial muscle in this town. We have some great industries and the future is bright.

3. Affordable housing and more rental units: For a city to be truly great it needs a good socio economic mix or else it will become somewhat sterile. This trend I fear is going on in certain pockets of the city and is spreading. Not sure what can be done except for lower house prices somehow or more rental only buildings with rent control etc...

4. Nightlife. Yes it isn't the greatest, but you know what our nightlife scene is way better than Seattle a city with a 1 million more people. We need more bars/lounges outside the core, more neighbourhood pubs open til atleast 2am etc... Also you want good nightlife head to Gastown and Chinatown. Fortune is fucking epic!

There is more that's good and bad and feel free to add to the list or ignore it as many of you probably will.

No city in the world has everything, you will find good and bad in all. A city is only as good as it citizens. So if you want change it has to come from you and not a crooked politician.

[s211]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

You can't really compare the two. Vancouver beats Toronto pretty-much hands down for natural beauty, but Toronto does have some stately, beautiful districts (such as South Kingsway), and is 3x bigger, plus enormous corporate/ecomomic power and wealth not present in Vancouver.

And feels 10x bigger, due to much larger urbanized core.

[PaperTiger]

Perhaps its a little bit douchey of me to post on a thread just to dis it but...

I am So. Tired. of This. Question.

The question is the answer.

Do you think any other city has thread devoted to their "World Class" status?

[MolsonExport]

Is world class Vancouver? Van is awesomely unique, with or without the retarded, over-used qualifier.