Which of these cities have the best downtown: Montreal, Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver? (moving to, architecture)
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Regarding Portland, I am pretty sure there are quite a few people in Zagreb, Croatia, and Croatia in general (and also Bosnia, his home country) who know the Oregon city because Jusuf Nurkic plays in the NBA there. (He played for many years for Cedevita in Zagreb.)
And as a result the girlfriends and parents of some of the basketball fans have heard of Portland, Oregon.
Just as my wife and kids who are totally non-sports fans are aware of certain teams and places as well just by living with me.
This is another good point. Kind of like how everyone I knew back in Jamaica was a Knicks fan because of Patrick Ewing. Or happened upon the Celtics because Ewing and Rumeal Robinson both played HS ball in Cambridge after immigrating to the US.
I have no idea what Mariners, Sounders and SuperSonics are. And yes, Frasier outside North America is not well known at all.
Seattle has no "coffee culture". Unless you think this is coffee culture. I deleted a couple of friends from my istagram because they posted this thing as if it is something slightly interesting.
Starbucks is well know for free wifi, not coffee.
I don't drink coffee so I am not into coffee culture. But you see? This is a good example... I don't drink coffee but I know about Seattle's (self-proclaimed?) coffee culture. Starbucks. "Seattle's Best Coffee". Etc.
(I am not commenting on the quality or authenticity of that culture BTW.)
I don't drink coffee so I am not into coffee culture. But you see? This is a good example... I don't drink coffee but I know about Seattle's (self-proclaimed?) coffee culture. Starbucks. "Seattle's Best Coffee". Etc.
(I am not commenting on the quality or authenticity of that culture BTW.)
I know.
Starbuck, no matter how I dislike it and avoid it, is an indisputable huge marketing success. The fact that such sub-par coffee can be widely popular from Europe to East Asia is amazing.
I don't know how the hell happened in Europe, but in China, it is popular despite the high price is because many Chinese (naively) believe starbucks represents a typical middle class American lifestyle they aspire (despite the fact that even high school students study at Starbucks regularly in Los Angeles). It is somehow a "status symbol", which is laughable.
It is off topic but often some businesses are successful because many customers are incredibily ignorant and stupid. Not believing? just think about the skin-care industry, or better diamond
Seattle is relatively well known, but definitely less so than Vancouver. For some reason, Montreal is not particularly well known in Asia, most likely due to the relatively smaller number of immigrants.
I am sorry to say none of these three Canadians cities are able to offer a pedestrian only zone. It is almost the standard in many parts of Europe. Too many cars on every street and it is hardly to have an enjoyable downtown. Toronto is especially notorious for the car culture.
Starbuck, no matter how I dislike it and avoid it, is an indisputable huge marketing success. The fact that such sub-par coffee can be widely popular from Europe to East Asia is amazing.
I don't know how the hell happened in Europe, but in China, it is popular despite the high price is because many Chinese (naively) believe starbucks represents a typical middle class American lifestyle they aspire (despite the fact that even high school students study at Starbucks regularly in Los Angeles). It is somehow a "status symbol", which is laughable.
It is off topic but often some businesses are successful because many customers are incredibily ignorant and stupid. Not believing? just think about the skin-care industry, or better diamond
Seattle is relatively well known, but definitely less so than Vancouver. For some reason, Montreal is not particularly well known in Asia, most likely due to the relatively smaller number of immigrants.
I am sorry to say none of these three Canadians cities are able to offer a pedestrian only zone. It is almost the standard in many parts of Europe. Too many cars on every street and it is hardly to have an enjoyable downtown. Toronto is especially notorious for the car culture.
I dont find Montreal bad in the pedestrian friendly department. As far as I know they already have pedestrian only streets and are adding another 5 this year. Toronto is planning on doing the same, but I admit right now I would not consider it a pedestrian friendly city. Vancouver I dont know enough about to comment, but I do not remember it being noticeably pedestrian friendly to stand out in my mind from my visits.
Montreal is definitely making an effort in terms of pedestrian-only streets.
These are just for the downtown core, and include several substantial sections of Ste-Catherine, which as you know is the main street of the entire city.
There are a few other parts of the city that also have pedestrian streets, most notably in the Plateau Mont-Royal north of downtown (well, it's actually west but Montreal's a bit special when it comes to east-west and north-south).
Seattle is relatively well known, but definitely less so than Vancouver. For some reason, Montreal is not particularly well known in Asia, most likely due to the relatively smaller number of immigrants.
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Yes, I have noticed this too and I think you are right. From India to Japan, the most known (often the only) known Canadian cities are Toronto and Vancouver. In some circles Vancouver is even more famous than Toronto. Montreal doesn't register much of a blip.
Of course, in the Middle East (which is still Asia) Montreal is very well known, and depending on the country can be more "famous" than Toronto.
Toronto isn't as universally tied to Canada's international identity, unlike Sydney is to Australia or London is to the UK.
It's more surprising in the case of Australia, given the size proximity between Sydney and Melbourne. In the UK it's no contest as London is so much larger than any other city.
In Canada, the two main reasons for this are the long period where Montreal was the biggest city (until around 1980) and the fact that Montreal has "outlier" elements to its personality that make it stand out in the minds of many.
All of this pulls Montreal about equal to Toronto overall in terms of renown, even if the latter is now much larger (about a third in fact).
This won't last though and there are many areas and signs where Toronto is now ahead of Montreal by some measure.
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