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If for 5 years, every time someone asks about life in Vancouver, Person A always enthusiastically talks about how beautiful the city is, how close it is by the ocean and mountains, how walkable downtown is, how fantastic it is a place for outdoor activities and how livable the city is.
On the other hand, Person B always mentions how ridiculously expensive it is, how the city lacks culture and sophistication, how scarce good jobs are, how depressively rainy it is for 5 months every year and how provincial people are. (while admitting the great things about Vancouver)
What many are saying is A is such a helpful forum member while B is such a troll and clown? Why isn't A considering a troll since he is repeating the same tiring message over and over again?
I honestly don't know why repeating the cons of a city is considering trolling while repeating the pros is totally fine.
I agree with this. I grew up in Alberta and moved to Vancouver - loved it the first few years but missed sunshine and found the rain boring and limiting (I go outside in winter where there's snow because you can stay dry, not so much in Vancouver). I didn't need to live there to work so I had choices and left.
Many of my friends love it there for diverse reasons and some live there because the job market is better than other areas of BC. I live in the Okanagan and love it but I'm not blind to the perspectives of those for whom it's not a "fit".
Vancouver is advertised as "the Best place on Earth". So, people should only post the good and positive about it or nothing at all
Actually it's the province of BC that uses that slogan. It's an embarrassing slogan and most people I know don't like it. It sounds arrogant and of course is subjective.
The slogan "Best Place on Earth" was used in 2010 for the winter olympics. 2010. Period.
It was not used before 2010 and has not been used since 2010. After 2010 BC went back to using the same slogans that were used before 2010, which are "Beautiful British Columbia" and "Super, Natural British Columbia". Those slogans have been used for decades.
Nobody asked the people of BC if they wanted that "Best Place on Earth" slogan to be used for the winter olympics in 2010. BC let it go and forgot about it after 2010. Maybe the people who didn't like it or don't live in BC should let it go too instead of still letting it burn their butts and harping on and carrying a stupid grudge about it as if they think BC people were trying to thumb their noses at the rest of the world.
You guys are something else....embarrassed by some over the top slogans?? .almost every Vancouver pumper I talk to, within 5 minutes he/she will invariably spout the "Vancouver has been voted the best city in the world where to live bla bla bla...", expressions like "where do you want to live over then here??", "is so beautiful, it's almost paradise", and so on.
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I like the clown comment myself.
So you like to gratuitously offend people you do not even know....
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As far a movingwiththewind not addressing issues, .. been addressed many, many times. Probably got tired or bored with it all, and can't be bothered anymore.
Movingwiththewind has not addressed any specific issue as far as I recall other than repeat the same story line.....the only thing he/she did when occasionally debating with me was to demonstrate this person did not know squat about Seattle but surely had an opinion about it (called West Seattle "rural", which is beyond laughable) with me dismantling every point she/he made and ending up making a fool of himself/herself in front of everybody else.
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We don't jump on your opinions, but you don't give us the same respect.
Really?? Any criticism is labeled by many pumpers as "Vancouver hater", a person that "is bitter about Vancouver", that has been "rejected" by Vancouver....please...
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We also have the right to voice our opinion. Unfortunately if it's anything positive about the city, you can't let it rest.
As Botticelli already said, there are many newcomers on the Vancouver forum (as in any other forums) so opinions and point of views happen to be repeated, good and bad...is not that some have a "negative obsession" about Vancouver.
If for 5 years, every time someone asks about life in Vancouver, Person A always enthusiastically talks about how beautiful the city is, how close it is by the ocean and mountains, how walkable downtown is, how fantastic it is a place for outdoor activities and how livable the city is.
On the other hand, Person B always mentions how ridiculously expensive it is, how the city lacks culture and sophistication, how scarce good jobs are, how depressively rainy it is for 5 months every year and how provincial people are. (while admitting the great things about Vancouver)
What many are saying is A is such a helpful forum member while B is such a troll and clown? Why isn't A considered a troll since he is repeating the same tiring message over and over again?
I honestly don't know why repeating the cons of a city is considered trolling while repeating the pros is totally fine.
I have no issue with people saying that it is wet and overcast for much of the year - weather data clearly backs that up. Its rainforest, and has very very high rainfall. Moreso if you look at weather stations that are not at the airport, like coquitlam or north van. These are facts, coquitlam gets almost double the rain of the airport. There is a high percentage of high cloud cover days - this is not someone's opinion of a city formed before they left to go somewhere else, its backed up by statistics.
Lots of places have bad weather, as i've mentioned - we have several months of very high temperatures. The difference for us is, when you have 450w/m2 of UV index 15 sunlight blasting down on you - you do not have a city setup for it. Malls have huge sprawling carparks without shade, you can get burns from your car seat and steering wheel when you sit down (i'm serious!). Many houses only have evaporative airconditioners because electricity is so expensive here, so its 40c outside, 35c and humid inside.. its better, but still really uncomfortable. You can't take off more clothes outside without having the police called on you when its too hot. Businesses still expect you to wear a suit and tie!! Give me cold weather and an umbrella any day. All of canada understands that you need heating, you can always wear another layer to keep warm/dry. Cold and wet is far preferable to me. To others, this might not be the case. I'm not going to
Saying there are no jobs is bullcrap. It depends on the field you're in. If your only skills are as a factory worker - its probably not the city for you, vancouver is a high tech city. There are almost as many tech startups in vancouver, with almost as much funding as there are in silicon valley. That is hard facts not generalisations. My wife is a teacher, however while she is waiting for her qualifications to be transferred she needs some work - she emailed one gymnastics club (she also coaches gym) and they are very interested in having her - the rhythmic gymanics community in all of australia is smaller than this one club.
Vancouver *does* have a huge amount of outdoor activies, this is a feature of the city no matter how much the haters say that nature isnt something you can say is good about a city. I can't go hiking here, because its dead flat. I cant go skiing here, there's no snow. I can't go for a stroll through a forest, there's no forest. Here, you can go to the beach, or you can go to the river. To me, vancouver offers a lot more options for fitness in some simply stunning scenery. This is one of the things I'm most excited about for the move. Calgary has mountains very close by, but not 10 minutes drive!
Saying that vancouver has a lack of culture is also very subjective. Even with coming from a larger city, both spatially and by population, vancouver offers me a whole lot more culture, nightlife for those who are interested in that, variety of shopping, services and all at a far far better price. If you go into the central business district in Perth on a Saturday night - you *will* be the only person there. Unless there are some tourists there wondering why the city got evacuated. I've only made the mistake once when out with friends thinking we could find somewhere to eat at 7pm in the CBD on a saturday night. It was very weird being in the downtown area of vancouver seeing people walking around after dark (and not because it's unsafe here, just nothing is open!)
As i've said, vancouver isnt our first choice of city but it is where we are heading because it was very easy to get a job there in a high tech industry. Most people consider calgary uncultured and cowboy, and vancouver to be much more high fashion and sophistication... its not really something that comes into the decision for us.. we cant afford any culture here, the rolling stones are finally visiting here, and its $2000 a ticket. CAD, AUD, USD are all basically the same btw. It used to be $200 for VIP tickets, or $80 for regular tickets to go to cirque du soleil here, they would run for 2 months 4-5 times a week, all sold out. Now it's over $1000 for a VIP ticket and hundreds of dollars for even the cheapest of tickets. Eating out at somewhere similar to The Keg or Milestones is *at least* $120 for the two of us, with no alcohol, deserts or sides - the keg is $50 for the same meal. We get to eat out maybe once a year, and the service sucks here. In Canada, the food industry bent over backwards for us at all times - it was incredible.
The government only just recently allowed trading on sundays here, and there was a huge fuss about how it would break up families (wtf!?) and cause businesses to close. I mean, geez, having people who work actually able to get into stores on a sunday and spend money, thats going to be terrible for business! They are still only allowed to open from 11am to 5pm on a sunday. In vancouver, and pretty much the rest of the world shops are all open from morning to evening every day of the week, if they are not open 24hrs. Vancouver is a huge step up for us. We do not come from a small town, just a huge sprawling city that acts like one. You say vancouver is a small city that things big of itself - i'd much much prefer a city that is acting like a bigger city than a big city acting as if it was a country town.
Speaking of shopping, I said i'd go get some chocolate to the wife.. I'd better get out of here before the damn shops close as much as I'd like to continue saying how many fantastic opportunities vancouver and canada in general will offer us
You guys are something else....embarrassed by some over the top slogans?? .almost every Vancouver pumper I talk to, within 5 minutes he/she will invariably spout the "Vancouver has been voted the best city in the world where to live bla bla bla...", expressions like "where do you want to live over then here??", "is so beautiful, it's almost paradise", and so on.
Its not actually voted, the several world-livability indexes out there are a non-subjective - based on amenities, unemployment, average pay, cost of living, environment, education, etc.. Many things that vancouver generally does quite well at on paper. I saw an ad in a mall the other day saying that Melbourne was the top city in the world, but I hardly believe that. They are based on census data and other standard data sources with little human input other than weighting of factors. If vancouver comes out on top, its because the weighting of the various factors play in vancouver's favour. If you happen to agree with the factoring of the data used, then you'll agree... if you dont, then you wont. There are several different studies with pretty varied orderings of city, and several canadian cities (including vancouver) are always in the top 10. If you buy the list off the company (some give them out, some are a whole white paper you pay for) they have a breakdown of all the scoring that lead to the city getting the position it has.
Saying there are no jobs is bullcrap. It depends on the field you're in. If your only skills are as a factory worker - its probably not the city for you, vancouver is a high tech city. There are almost as many tech startups in vancouver, with almost as much funding as there are in silicon valley. That is hard facts not generalisations. My wife is a teacher, however while she is waiting for her qualifications to be transferred she needs some work - she emailed one gymnastics club (she also coaches gym) and they are very interested in having her - the rhythmic gymanics community in all of australia is smaller than this one club.
Sorry I have to call you on that...I know the high tech industry very well and where Vancouver does have indeed quite few startups, the comparison to Silicon Valley is laughable at best (and so to Seattle).
Funding is not that easy and usually, a typical problem with Vancouver young tech companies, the owners are itchy to sell out to an American firm (typically) as soon as possible.
You can get a job in Vancouver in the high tech industry but except for few exceptions, salaries are not competitive at all considering the city cost of living....a lot of high tech firms in the Burnaby area in reality are low cost service centers (for example IBM BCS)...so there are jobs (but hardly a hotspot or easy to come by), but there are just not good salaries.
One of the few really top class companies is Ballard Systems. D-Wave for example is a very interesting start-up but it still has a lot to prove
I repeat what I said before, Vancouver is a joke among experienced globe trotting professionals. Have you ever heard of the brain drain issues in Canada where lots of Canadian professionals move south to the US?? Did you research the issue of young Vancouverites moving out of Vancouver in search of better opportunities and lower cost of living in other provinces??
You can settle is Vancouver, you can eventually find a decent job but is hardly fertile ground for ambitious people. It depends on what your expectations in life are.
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Saying that vancouver has a lack of culture is also very subjective. Even with coming from a larger city, both spatially and by population, vancouver offers me a whole lot more culture, nightlife for those who are interested in that, variety of shopping, services and all at a far far better price. If you go into the central business district in Perth on a Saturday night - you *will* be the only person there. Unless there are some tourists there wondering why the city got evacuated. I've only made the mistake once when out with friends thinking we could find somewhere to eat at 7pm in the CBD on a saturday night. It was very weird being in the downtown area of vancouver seeing people walking around after dark (and not because it's unsafe here, just nothing is open!)
There you go, you are comparing Vancouver to Perth...in that case, definitely Van can hold its own....this does not make Vancouver a world class city by any stretch of imagination.
The arts and entertainment scene is pathetic vs. the city world class ambitions.
I do have to agree with you on one aspect, on my last visits to Sydney and in Australia in general in fact the cost of living has skyrocketed excessively,...as much as I love that city and that country.
However you will soon discover things you will not be able to easily afford in Vancouver.
Finally let me tell you that trying to judge a city from afar , no matter how much research you have done and no matter on how many people you did talk too, is very difficult....you need to live in it and get the "pulse" and the vibe.
Having said that, my best wishes for your upcoming Vancouver adventure.
Last edited by saturno_v; 11-09-2014 at 12:04 PM..
Whats it like in Vancouver for working class families? From reading the posts on here it seems like it would be really hard for a working class family to make it in Van, compared to other cities in Canada.
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