Vancouver and its unfriendly citizens (cliquey, home, live in)

Personally, I met so many great and friendly people in Seattle and Vancouver and I am from elsewhere that is living in Seattle briefly so I am not a local. This is strange to me to see some people on these city-data forums insulting so many people in these cities. It seems like the people overly insulting the citizens of these two cities might be the ones that are being unfriendly?

I do not believe in the existence of the "Seattle freeze," or a "Vancouver freeze."

I know many people that agree with how I feel related to this topic.

[lucknow]

I didn't insult anyone I just posted my own impressions as a person who has travelled a lot and spent many months in Van. I just don't find the average person you meet out there on the streets very friendly. Compared to the friendliness I have incountered elsewhere it's downright frosty.

[alcm]

Phooey, I have two thoughts regarding your comments.

1. Unfortunately, Vancouverites have a reason to be wary of being approached on the street. It's impossible to walk more than a couple of blocks in this city without being approached by a panhandler. There is such a problem with homelessness and panhandling in this city that it has made us all wary. When a stranger approaches us on the street, of course our first thought is going to be "no, I'm not giving you money, so please leave me alone". I have even had who I thought were nicely dressed people stop me, and I thought they needed directions but they only wanted "bus fare". So, you can't entirely blame people for being wary of being approached by strangers. It's a sad but true fact.

2. As a general theory, however, I do agree that Vancouverites are not friendly enough. I blame a few things, but I really blame these constant polls that put Vancouver as the "number one city in the world". I think it's given people a sense of arrogance and snobbery. We think we're the #1 city in the world but have forgotten the small things like courtesy. You go to small towns and you get much friendlier people. As a lifelong Vancouverite, I do find a lot of snotty, rude people in this city, unfortunately.

[dannimansel]

I am from Vancouver, and people are rude here, Not gonna lie about it!

[Phooey]

Dear . Are you sure you're not from Vancouver? Because you sound really uptight and overly sensitive much like a good sour Vancouverite would. Why are you so defensive? I think having being born and raised in Vancouver gives us a little entitlement of how we view our city and the people...yes? Perhaps you are an expat?

[The_gateway]

Moderator cut: save the grammar critique for English class, please


Okay, back to Vancouverites: This is a very large city with a lot of people going their own way and doing their own thing. Vancouverites are normally snobby and insular. Maybe that's just a Canadian thing, as I've noticed it elsewhere.
Most people will not talk to you. Have you ever been to New York? C'mon already......
Having said that, it is a reflection of our society as a whole. We cannot even stop our lives for 3 seconds to offer directions?

Originally Posted by Phooey

With all the talk and self back patting of how friendly Vancouverites are, is not entirely true. Vancouverites are nasty people. City people who are well dressed is especially not friendly nor approachable but I find in general that Lowermainlanders of all backgrounds are cold and rude! The other day I was looking for the new Save on Foods at 7th and Cambie street. I was not sure of its' location so I thought maybe I should ask the lady walking by. I said excuse me but was ignored. I repeated again but still no acknowledgment, and the well dressed classless late 40ish woman kept on walking, so I asked the next person who was also well dressed in her thirties. Again, I started with an excuse me but was greeted with a dead ahead look as she walked on by. I thought to myself...this is really typical of Vancouverites. What if I was a visitor from elsewhere? I am a well groom and nicely attired male and do not look nor act threatening. Those of you who live and drive in Vancouver knows what I'm talking about! The non thank you wave when you let a fellow motorist out onto a busy street. The sneering and crowding and the non yielding when merging at rush hour. All of my friends who are born and raised in Vancouver have seen and experienced the rudeness over the years. It hasn't always been like this. It has been degraded to the point where people doesn't know how to behave. Computer-texting-me first generation? Too much immigration? Life was so much more beautiful in the early days when people were polite, kind and helpful to one another! Longing for those days again...sadly that's unlikely to happen but I am hopeful.

[thejuliet]

A couple of weeks ago I was crossing the street at Abbott and Keefer, and some young people had grocery bags and were handing out mesh bags each filled with 4 limes each. I realized right away that it was a promotion for Corona beer from the T-shirts they were wearing, I stopped and watched for a while how people would go out of their way to avoid the lime wielding promoters. Keefer and Abbott used to be one of the worst areas for grifters and panhandlers, I took my limes and said thanks.

If I saw someone cracking jokes on the skytrain or bus I would figure it was just another DTES resident talking to the extra little voice in his/her head. I wouldn't laugh because it just makes me sad.

[Swan Dive]

I lived in Vancouver for 11 years and the OP is right, the people are horribly unfriendly and cliqueish and small townish. Having lived in other cities, I can attest to this.

To the OP many people have said the same things over the years, rest assured you're correct in your observations, its not you it really IS Vancouver

[stone-ground]

It's official then. The city stinks and full of horrible, nasty people.

Way too expensive, f-all to do, ugly, ugly, ugly place .. you do NOT want to live here!

.. otherwise you might fall into the doom and gloom presented here by the same old, on every thread.

Makes me laugh when I read about the stuck up attitude of people who think they're so great just because they happen to live in Vancouver. People were here long before a top ten list was compiled, ranking cities of the world.

In almost forty years of living here, have NEVER once experienced nasty or gotten ignored when asking someone's assistance, questions, directions, etc. Funny how you can transform even the most hostile of looks into a beautiful smile with one of your own, along with a respectful and friendly attitude.

Instead of saying .. excuse me .. and they walk away, probably expecting with your pause that in the next moment you'll be asking for money or trying to sell them something, try excuse me please, is the Save On Store around here somewhere? Same on the phone, if someone hesitates on the other end, chances are they're getting ready to read you some sales pitch.

To those that do express interest in Vancouver, it's sad that most of the views you see on this forum are continually negative. Most living here wouldn't agree I'm sure, otherwise they'd move somewhere cheaper with better paying jobs.

[movingwiththewind]

Who cares? Vancouver is still NUMERO UNO!

Seriously, go, travel around, live in some other places, and then come back and post. You'll see that people in other places are no more polite or less "nasty" than in Vancouver.

I think, threads like this are the result of some people being upset about Vancouver's high rankings in livability polls. For whatever reasons.