Recently Forbes ran an article on the top cities in the world for which to live in. The ratings were taken from the recent quality of life survey done by Mercer. Clearly any such list is a subjective one and lends itself to heavy opinions and criticism, especially from the residents in cities that did not make the list or received a lower ranking than they’d like.
What wasn’t surprising is that Vancouver rated high on that list (tied for 4th) and it was again the top North American city on that list. Of course that brought out the usual whiners in our city who probably haven’t visited many other cities for an extended period of time to appreciate what we got going on here. Maybe I’ve drank way too much juice from the Happy Planet factory, but I love this town for all it is, good and bad. Of course I’d like to change the bad, but let’s get realistic here, there will always be an element of “bad” in any city on this planet. Why would Vancouver be any different?
Furthermore, I realize that Vancouver does lack a few things, but people need to realize we are still a relatively young city that is constantly evolving. Our liquor laws and closing hours will eventually change, our night life is already getting better and our city is on the forefront of the green movement, at least we think we are. Moreover, our public transit is better than most cities in North America, but it is sub par compared to many European cities, but that will improve as we continue to push towards higher density neighbourhoods.
So when I read comments such as the ones below it really makes me scratch my head, if it is so bad here, why not just get up and leave? We all know this city is expensive, blah, blah, blah get up off your ass and move to Philadelphia or Saskatoon and quit ragging on Vancouver.
Judge for yourself, here are two rather one sided comments:
Posted by rocco_1997 | 07/09/09 03:38 PM EDT
3rd World Vancouver 4th???
No wonder the city is broke must be paying out to all the people who put these polls together to try and convince us we don’t live in an ignorant, drug gang fueled dump with people who don’t know how to drive.
Come on nations of the world send your criminals to Vancouver, they can do whatever they like and receive benefits it’s the best place on earth.
Posted by thinking1 | 07/09/09 05:26 AM EDT
I also agree with the people that were floored by Vancouver’s place on the list. I live near Vancouver, and as someone stated previously, it had the 6th most overpriced real estate market in the world in 2007, public transit is ridiculously unaffordable ($5.00??!!), and we have some of the highest per capita ratings of petty crime, property damage, car theft and iv drug users in North America. Not to mention all the fun new shootings in mall parking lots. So..huh?
It seems like the whiners always drown out the positives.
Photo courtesy of Canadian Veggie @ Flickr
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