Can Seattle be more like Vancouver, BC? (Bellevue, Redmond: real estate, apartment)

[urbancuriosity]

In order for Seattle to see improvements, the government will need to strengthen its laws and fund its police department adequately. The Seattle City Council has twice cut police funding. It sends a bad message to police and to the people of the city. I used to go to Seattle regularly until just before the pandemic. Belltown was very different five years ago, but I started to see signs of decline since then. It's so sad to see this happen.

[87112]

Vancouver BC is just fine for visiting. Living there? No thanks, it feels even more crowded than Seattle. Not that I can afford a home there Unless I hit the lottery.

If you want a better place look to its neighbors Richmond or Burnaby. More room and has everything to offer that Vancouver has.

[pete98146]

I've lived in Seattle for almost 40 years. I've been to Van 50 times and absolutely love it. As others have said, the two cities are dissimilar in many ways. Van has a much larger vibrant international and urban feel whereas Seattle has suburbs.


Seattle will never be as cool as Vancouver. Sorry, not even close. Seattle is to Vancouver as Tacoma is to Seattle.

[Natnasci]

Originally Posted by 509

Interesting thread. So I tried thinking about the difference between the two towns.

I lived in Vancouver during the early 1970's. I moved up from Berkeley to attend graduate school at UBC.

At first, I found Vancouver to be an incredible, boring city. Hey, remember I was 23 years old. So one weekend I drove down to Seattle for some excitement!! Wow, was that a mistake. Seattle has and always has been one of the boring cities on the planet!!!

BUT, why???

Vancouver was boring because of Canadian culture. Canada is boring. It is a great country for OLD PEOPLE. I remember hanging out with other immigrants and making fun of the boring Canadian culture. At grad school, the big excitement was playing hockey after work!!!

Seattle was boring because of its white, bread Boeing culture. Yeah, want some excitement in your life, hang out with Boeing employees. I have actually done that in old age, smart people in the sciences, but at 23, even majoring in a science field...BORING.

Vancouver had a great immigrant culture, from Chinese to Greek and everybody else in the world. Vancouver had great ethnic neighborhoods.

Seattle had BOEING engineers. Seattle had great suburbs.

Seattle had freeways. Remember in the 1970's Seattle thought they could become the new Los Angeles and built freeways instead of transit.

Vancouver did neither. No freeways even to this day, and in those days no transit either.

Seattle was CORPORATE...always in its soul. From Boeing to MicroSoft to Amazon. It is a corporate city. It has ALWAYS been about the money, rather than a place to live.

Vancouver, was a pretty rich town. BUT I don't remember any Corporations that ran the town. It was about a place to live instead of a place to rip off for money. Which really is pretty surprising since Canadian culture was founded on a corporation, the Hudson Bay Company, and later CP Rail.

Canada made the corporation part of their culture, instead of the Corporations making Seattle in their image.

Canada is not a SOCIALIST country...it is a corporate country. The culture reflects that.

Seattle, has always had a get rich quick mentality and screw everybody else. I guess it started with Klondike gold rush and never really quit. That is very American.

Canada is corporate left, but rather socially conservative. It still is to this day.


Seattle is corporate right, but rather socially liberal.

Will Seattle become like Vancouver?? Doubtful, you really need a socially conservative society to get Seattle to be like Vancouver.



I don't think that is going to happen.

Not sure what you mean by no transit, but Vancouver had it's first streetcar system in 1890. By the 1970's it was no longer rail, but trolley and diesel busses.

As for boring in the 1970's, I guess you never went to Wreck Beach, or hung out in Kits where all the hippies had fun.

As for today, calling Vancouver socially conservative is simply wrong.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

You would have to figure out what they do about their homeless issues that is different than what Seattle does.


For a start, they don't allow just anyone across the border. You have to prove that either you won't be staying or that you can support yourself if you plan on staying. So, the homeless are being turned away at the border and returning southward until they get that great welcome and invitation to stay when they arrive at Seattle.


Seattle has been a working town with high paid jobs. Vancouver has been a retirement resort. Different occupants have different cultures.


Their immigrants are in the high income, high education bracket with no criminal record. Not so much the illiterate with no job skills that no one does any background check on. You can't cross the border into Canada if you have a felony.


I'm close to the Canadian border so I get at least a small amount of Canadian news and I've not heard anything about Canada defunding the police. You can get yourself arrested in Canada for breaking the law and you can get yourself deported and not allowed back in for breaking the law.


Canadians are not nearly so self-indulgent nor nearly so entitled as Americans. it's a different culture.

[87112]

Originally Posted by pete98146

I've lived in Seattle for almost 40 years. I've been to Van 50 times and absolutely love it. As others have said, the two cities are dissimilar in many ways. Van has a much larger vibrant international and urban feel whereas Seattle has suburbs.


Seattle will never be as cool as Vancouver. Sorry, not even close. Seattle is to Vancouver as Tacoma is to Seattle.

I completely agree. Seattle and Vancouver are not close for a competition which is more world class. Vancouver is already there. Seattle good lord it needs a massive overhaul.

[primaltech]

Being from the southeast, and only living in Seattle/ the northwest for almost 2.5 years now (and during these crazy times), I haven't been to Vancouver, yet. But I'm planning to hopefully visit up there for the first time this summer. I've been to Victoria once, and that was a lovely town. But obviously small city.

From what I've seen/read, the SkyTrain is impressive, as a fully automated Medium-rapid transit system. No doubt the transit there beats Seattle.

But, one thing, the skyline of Vancouver looks so bland and boring, and nothing but tons of mid-height.



I'm sorry, that's a terrible looking city skyline. Almost looks Soviet.

Seattle wins in that category, and especially with the iconic Space Needle.

[Ruth4Truth]

Can Seattle be more like Vancouver, BC?

You mean, like--if Seattleites were Canadians?

Lower individual tax rate (both at the state and federal level)

How is that an advantage, when comparing Vancouver with Seattle, the lack of homeless on the streets, and other signs of a well-ordered society? You realize, don't you, that it's the higher tax rates in Canada that pay for homeless shelters and services, affordable ferry fares for people commuting to Van for work, a criminal justice system that deals better with crime, better road maintenance, and other benefits, like universal health care? When people's needs are met, there's less crime.

Also, don't people live in downtown Seattle? I'm not sure now when it was, that downtown got re-populated, after some new high-end condo buildings went in: late 80's/90's? There's one near PP Market with a spectacular view of the Sound on one side, and Belltown got some remodeled buildings that were renting out as shops and apartments. At the time, Seattle was in the vanguard of creating a residential downtown that was a desirable place to live, even (at the time) considered prestigious, due to those higher-end condos.

[Natnasci]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

You would have to figure out what they do about their homeless issues that is different than what Seattle does.


For a start, they don't allow just anyone across the border. You have to prove that either you won't be staying or that you can support yourself if you plan on staying. So, the homeless are being turned away at the border and returning southward until they get that great welcome and invitation to stay when they arrive at Seattle.


Seattle has been a working town with high paid jobs. Vancouver has been a retirement resort. Different occupants have different cultures.


Their immigrants are in the high income, high education bracket with no criminal record. Not so much the illiterate with no job skills that no one does any background check on. You can't cross the border into Canada if you have a felony.

This will come as news to Vancouverites. Victoria is where people go to retire

It's always difficult comparing two cites of two different sizes. Seattles city boundaries are 100 square kilometres bigger than Vancouver, so age stats are going to be even more difficult to compare, if one believes the age demographic changes the further one goes from the city core.

That said.

"
In the city the population was spread out, with 15.6% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 38.6% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.5 males."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Seattle

"Population by age groups
In 2016, the City of Vancouver’s most populous age group was 25 to 34 year olds which make up 20% of the population (125,195 people). Its least populous age group was people aged 80 years and older which constitute 2% of the population (14,230 people). Fifty percent of Vancouverites were between the age of 20 and 49 in 2016.
Vancouver’s population grew by 4.6% between 2011 and 2016. People aged 65 and older were the fastest growing age demographic (19%), followed by 30 to 34 year olds (16%). Meanwhile, the 10 to 19 and 40 to 49 age groups declined by 4% and 7% respectively. The ‘missing middle’ (20–44 year olds) grew by 4% to 262,145 and the number of children aged 0 to 4 years old"

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2017-...ta-release.pdf

So Vancouver does appear to be slightly older, but I'm not sure if I feel that difference when I visit Seattle.

[primaltech]

Canada actually has about the same or similar taxes as the US, but they get way more social benefits out of it. Here's a 2017 article about the topic:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/cana...s-a-catch.html

The US has the burden of having such a large and powerful/advanced military to pay for, but whether that's necessary or not (or to what % level it is), other western liberal democracies which are our smaller partner countries (such as Canada) get indirect benefit from the US military without having to fund it through their taxes, like we do. So that's kind of an advantage for their citizens in terms of tax revenues and how the funds are allocated. But of course, not the whole picture.