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obsess
əbˈsɛs/Submit
verb
past tense: obsessed; past participle: obsessed
1.
preoccupy or fill the mind of (someone) continually and to a troubling extent.
"he was obsessed with the idea of revenge"
For someone who so vehemently hates the place (or oppose those who compliment it excessively, as you would put it), you sure do love to talk about Vancouver a lot
[quote=InvalidUsername;32309615]Either you've never been there, or you didn't know where to go. Vancouver has one of the liveliest downtowns in North America.
well, the qualification "in North America" is so cliche, and so sad.
North American cities are not famous for be vibrant in case you didn't know.
Except for NYC, there is hardly any north American city with a decent entertainment and urban vibrancy. The fact you think Vancouver is "lively" only shows you have travelled so little in your life.
Toronto is not lively at all in my opinion. Do you think I would likely be impressed by a small town of Vancouver? They simply don't have the population to support the liveliness you see in New York, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Shanghai etc.
I appreciate the fact Vancouver could feel incredible busy and interesting for someone from Thunder Bay or Sasktoon though.
Boticelli, I have indeed been to Shanghai, as well as other Chinese cities. Like I said, it's easier to dismiss urban planning than to understand it.
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You have been to Shanghai but somehow made the argument that public transit there is not as good as Vancouver??
Shanghai just opened the extension of subway line 11 two weeks ago. Line 11 is 72 km long, with destination in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province - in a different province.
In Tokyo, the subway system runs that far into other jurisdiction for years.
Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver each has an entire subway system of about 68km. And you think we lead the world in public transit. Canadians do think "North America" is the world, don't they?
well, the qualification "in North America" is so cliche, and so sad.
North American cities are not famous for be vibrant in case you didn't know.
Except for NYC, there is hardly any north American city with a decent entertainment and urban vibrancy. The fact you think Vancouver is "lively" only shows you have travelled so little in your life.
Toronto is not lively at all in my opinion. Do you think I would likely be impressed by a small town of Vancouver? They simply don't have the population to support the liveliness you see in New York, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Shanghai etc.
I appreciate the fact Vancouver could feel incredible busy and interesting for someone from Thunder Bay or Sasktoon though.
if you consider the fact that Toronto is the smallest city that I have ever lived in, you wouldn't be surprised that Vancouver almost seems like a sleepy little coastal town for me. Think about Halifax for Torontonians, that's exactly how Vancouver feels to myself - a nice, small town. I never deny it is a nice and pretty place, but to associate with vibrant, busy, cosmopolitan, exciting, sophisticated, sorry I simply can't do that.
Vancouver is a good city, just be down-to-earth and stop exaggerate its importance or whatever. The stupid Mercer rankings really get into the head of too many people and inflated their egos, which is very unfortunate.
Some cities are world class economically, culturally or historically. Others like Vancouver are world class in the quality of life that they offer. There's nothing wrong with Vancouverites being proud of that, is there?
I appreciate the fact Vancouver could feel incredible busy and interesting for someone from Thunder Bay or Sasktoon though.
Who's from Saskatoon? 1) I'd consider myself well travelled. I've lived on 3 continents, and visited more. 2) I'm not even from Canada. I was *not* born here. I immigrated here (and not that long ago, either), so no, I don't think North America is the world
It's ironic that you're calling people narrow minded for considering Vancouver world class when you're the narrow minded one for not understanding that there are MANY factors that could make a city world class. A simple example is Venice. *Much* smaller than Vancouver, and yet still world class. Or is world class some kind of dick measuring criteria of "OMG. My city has more people in a certain area than yours!" and "There are more homeless people in larger alleys, and that makes my city world class!" Your views are so narrow minded that any travelled/educated person would consider you a joke. Do you think living in/travelling to large cities makes you an expert in the field of defining world class cities? If you don't like my opinion so much, why don't you take it up with the livability surveys that constantly place Vancouver near the top? Or is it that your towny views don't allow you to see that livability is a large factor in some people's definition of world class?
Oh, and re transportation in Shanghai; you might want to go back and actually read what I wrote. My rant was about the poor urban planning and "vertical suburbanization" of Chinese cities. Mass transit size and load are sole factors only for those with poor understanding of urban planning. As I said earlier, it is easy to segregate vertical suburbs in certain areas and workplaces in others and connect the two via mass transit, resulting in high usage stats. A truly successful city is one in which *walking* is a viable method of transportation for most daily tasks.
To be world class, I would say you need to be better than most cities in the world in many things. World class implies being the best or near best in something. Be it restaurants, architecture, innovation, institutions, urban planning, economics, sports, arts, QOL etc. There are many categories and subjectivity is a big part of the equation.
Overall, I think Vancouver is world class when it comes to its natural beauty and to a lesser extent, it's urban planning. Although I think it a great city for its size and I enjoy visiting, it is not world class in economics, social relations (subjective but I seem to constantly hear stories about segregation between the biggest racial groups: whites, asians, and Indians), cost of living, sporting & arts venues, etc. I like Vancouver but I wouldn't classify it anywhere close to London, NYC, HK, etc. I will say that Vancouver does well for its weight class but it's in the feather weight division on a global scale and the best fighter will always hail from the heavy weight division.
As for the surveys that tout Vancouver's QOL, I would never want to live in the vast majority of the top cities on these survey nor do I think they are the most desirably for most. I don't anyone who wants to move to places like Munich, Vienna or Bern for anything - compared to say NYC, Singapore, Paris, etc. For the most part, the survey puts forth nice, stable, mid-sized, (and slightly boring) cities but the criteria doesn't seem to reflect what an educated, reasonably ambitious person really wants in a city in terms of opportunities, amenities, nightlife, etc. The survey seems to disregard cost of living (assumes disposable income is no issue) and focus on nice, quiet, homogeneous cities that have nice amenities to raise a family, which is fine, but not the perspective I take.
Last edited by johnathanc; 11-22-2013 at 08:41 AM..
To be world class, I would say you need to be better than most cities in the world in many things. World class implies being the best or near best in something. Be it restaurants, architecture, innovation, institutions, urban planning, economics, sports, arts, QOL etc. There are many categories and subjectivity is a big part of the equation.
Overall, I think Vancouver is world class when it comes to its natural beauty and to a lesser extent, it's urban planning. Although I think it a great city for its size and I enjoy visiting, it is not world class in economics, social relations (subjective but I seem to constantly hear stories about segregation between the biggest racial groups: whites, asians, and Indians), cost of living, sporting & arts venues, etc. I like Vancouver but I wouldn't classify it anywhere close to London, NYC, HK, etc. I will say that Vancouver does well for its weight class but it's in the feather weight division on a global scale and the best fighter will always hail from the heavy weight division.
As for the surveys that tout Vancouver's QOL, I would never want to live in the vast majority of the top cities on these survey nor do I think they are the most desirably for most. I don't anyone who wants to move to places like Munich, Vienna or Bern for anything - compared to say NYC, Singapore, Paris, etc. For the most part, the survey puts forth nice, stable, mid-sized, (and slightly boring) cities but the criteria doesn't seem to reflect what an educated, reasonably ambitious person really wants in a city in terms of opportunities, amenities, nightlife, etc. - which is the perspective I take.
Some cities are world class economically, culturally or historically. Others like Vancouver are world class in the quality of life that they offer. There's nothing wrong with Vancouverites being proud of that, is there?
exactly how are you convinced that Vancouver's quality of life is "world class"?
By quantifiable metrics? By survey? By expert opinions? Exactly how?
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