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I meant that if you try to be a success you will easily make money, its not true everywhere, not somewhere like Detroit or Cleveland.
You need to get out and travel.
Detroit has beautiful, thriving suburbs that are home of some of the wealthiest zip codes in the nation. And Cleveland has a fairly respectable GDP for it's population.
I personally wouldn't live in either city, but anybody with a desire to be successful can do so just about anywhere.
Being an American who has been to Vancouver twice, I find it to be one of the most beautiful and interesting cities I have been to.
I love the cosmopolitan feel----and the prescense of the gorgeous Stanley Park is amazing. Combine that with the great port area, Gas light city, amazing restaurants, and mountain backdrops, all make Vancouver a great place.
I strongly recommend that Americans visiting the pacific northwest make it a goal to spend a couple of days in Vancouver.
Being an American who has been to Vancouver twice, I find it to be one of the most beautiful and interesting cities I have been to.
I love the cosmopolitan feel----and the prescense of the gorgeous Stanley Park is amazing. Combine that with the great port area, Gas light city, amazing restaurants, and mountain backdrops, all make Vancouver a great place.
I strongly recommend that Americans visiting the pacific northwest make it a goal to spend a couple of days in Vancouver.
Cool, finally someone who doesn't complain about the weather or the new condos.
This thread reeks of inferiority complex (your shot at Surrey is pretty typical). Vancouver was my home for 27 years. It is a fantastic place, but it's residents are much too full of themselves to have an honest, constructive dialogue about the city's shortcomings.
1. No, that is not true at all. I believe Atlanta, Miami and Houston may get more annual rainfall than Vancouver (don't feel like looking it up right now), but Chicago and New York are considerably drier. In Vancouver, the total rainfall amount is not as big a problem as the constant drizzle, cloudiness and disappearance of sunshine for weeks at a time. Other cities see much harder, more concentrated rainfall in short bursts as opposed to lengthy periods of time with no sunshine. Only by Canadian standards is Vancouver's climate considered appealing. By most standards, and especially for a "resort city", Vancouver's climate is absolute garbage. Vancouver does have fantastic (although extremely short) summers, I will give it that.
2. Sure, there are still affordable apartments left in Vancouver's suburbs. Personally, I don't want to raise 2 kids in an apartment in Maple Ridge or Port Coquitlam, but to each their own. Life is good for empty nesters, retirees and singles and people like Natasci, who don't need a reasonably sized living space. But middle class and upper middle class families are feeling the squeeze.
3. That is true anywhere, but some people are more interested in thriving than just supporting themselves. Vancouver's economy is not a total wasteland, there are some good opportunities in certain niches, but it lacks the career and entrepreneurial opportunities that exist in other expensive cities like New York, Toronto and San Francisco. It is a undeniable, statistical fact that incomes in Vancouver are among the lowest of major cities in Canada.
BC does have one of the highest rates of entrepreneurs in Canada - but much of this is out of necessity because not many jobs pay well enough for people to support themselves and their families. However, many of these entrepreneurs are sole proprietors like real estate agents, mortgage brokers and financial planners - which Vancouver has a very high concentration of. Very few locals seem to have the ambition to build large, powerful companies. There are a few made in BC success stories like Pattison, Lululemon etc, but it is rare.
4. Nobody said it was bad, it just isn't perfect. No place is, but most other places recognize this.
5. That's not necessarily true. Places like Victoria and the Gulf Islands have a similar green landscape, yet see considerably more sunshine and less rain.
6. Your point? Vancouver has more bad neigbourhoods than just the DTES - many of which are in it's suburbs.
As to your first point about people. I actually find Vancouver to be friendly (friendlier than Toronto by far), but there is a prevailing elitist attitude that they live on the best place on earth. The fact that they need to print that garbage on license plates is proof.
Could not agree more.
Vancouver has "pleasant weather" by Canadian standars.
To the list of "entrepreneurs" by necessity I would add the endless amount of coffee shops, 649 & newspaper stands, gas station "owners" and so on.
I have quite a few "entrepreneurs" friends in Vancouver and they can barely scrape by.
A lots of immigrants are basically forced to become...."entrepreneurs".
I do find Vancouverites to be extremely polite but not necessarily friendly...very different concepts.
Ask any "work for a living" immigrants why they are in Vancouver.....most of them will reply that it was too freaking cold in the rest of Canada in winter, especially coming from a warmer country.
The NETG factor cut Vancouver a lot of slack.
I do find Vancouverites to be extremely polite but not necessarily friendly...very different concepts.
Yes, I believe this is so: polite vs. friendly, and people do confuse the two. One of the things I like about Canada in general is that the people tend to be reserved. Though I live in the U.S., I was born in northern Europe, and I've always been uncomfortable with Americans in their "ease" in behaving both somewhat brashly and at times overly imposing on personal space. I guess you could say that the American outgoingness has its merits in that Americans can pretty easily strike up conversations with strangers, but for me, this has always been uncomfortable. It's a personal and cultural thing with me, so no offense, Americans.
I realize that these are broad generalizations about both Canadians and Americans, so bear with me. But it strikes me on every visit to Canada that on societal and cultural levels, things are much calmer than in the U.S., precisely because Canadians take their time to know you. Much more comfortable for me.
So back to Vancouver, which is one of my top-five favorite cities in North America (others include San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Toronto and Portland, OR).
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Winston Smith
So back to Vancouver, which is one of my top-five favorite cities in North America (others include San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Toronto and Portland, OR).
With the exception of Salt Lake City I agree with you. I like it there but it's further down the list after a
few others such as San Diego, Las Vegas, Quebec, and Honolulu. This is to visit, I would not really want to live in any of them as I prefer a less urban home.
I just wondered what people actually think about Vancouver, Canada. It seems like people either hate it and say how beautiful the mountains and ocean are. And the other people complain that it rains too much and is too expensive. People say the people are so rude, but they are exactly the same as people in any other city.
1. Vancouver gets less rain then New York or Chicago.
2. My friend's mom died and his dad worked at McDonalds when he was a kid and his dad was still able to support himself and his 2 kids. They lived in a nice apartment in a nice suburb of Vancouver.
3. If you actually try to be a success, you will be able to support yourself in Vancouver.
4. If Vancouver was so bad, why do we have one of the highest foreign born population on earth?
5. Without rain, the city wouldn't be so green, it would be a dry place with brown grass and no trees.
6. Yes, the downtown eastside is bad, but it is a very small area and only about 20,000 of the 600,000 people in the city of Vancouver live there.
Vancouver is just like any other city in the world. You get good and bad people, expensive things and yet affordable things in some aspects.
I'd say overall it is a pretty nice city albeit a relatively expensive one. It is quite liveable based on certain factors but to live comfortably there requires one to have a stable job and good pay check.
It also rains for most of the year which can be a bad or good thing depending on the individual. And its certainly one of the most popular immigrant destinations because of several factors including close proximity to the Asia-Pacific region and a relatively liveable and laidback lifestyle. The media which constantly ranks Vancouver as one of the most liveable cities in the world contributes to the high immigrant inflow too.
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