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Lots of homeless and drugged out people on Granville St. and over by Downtown East. There are homeless people on Robson st. My favorite street is Burrard st.: line of office and hotel towers though. Gastown is meh. Got downtown by Canada line from airport. I first was in Yaletown. Walked on Granville on to Robson and Howe. Went to library on Howe, I think? Eastern end of downtown. By the way, underground Pacific Mall is meh, dated.
Very telling: didn't know Missiissauga has 721,000 people. This city is completely shun by Toronto outright. San Jose is well over 1 million with a great CBD and airport. Don't forget Sharks, its hockey team and nickname: Capital of Silicon Valley. Sure, I would pit it against any city there is.
Part of the problem is you have S.F eating at your lunch. Or maybe the other way around because S.F is the legacy city of the Bay area. Everything really formed around it essentially because of it more than the other way around. In the case of Vancouver it is the base of everything around it. Sure, you have cities like Surrey that may function as an independent city, but ultimately Vancouver acts as the anchor to everything around it in Greater Vancouver - easier to do in Canadian cities vs American because our cities are typically more compact and dense than American.
San Jose for a secondary city in a metro is actually doing well. I think because it isn't in too close a proximity to S.F (Like Mississauga is to Toronto) helps it just that much more be less influenced by S.F plus the proximity to Silicon Valley obviously. That all said, S.F is still 'the' city in the Bay area - it is more an anchor than S.J.
In any event, I think if S.J focusses on increasing its density and urbanity in another 30 or 40 years it will actually be a more substantial urban competitor imo.
Part of the problem is you have S.F eating at your lunch. Or maybe the other way around because S.F is the legacy city of the Bay area. Everything really formed around it essentially because of it more than the other way around. In the case of Vancouver it is the base of everything around it. Sure, you have cities like Surrey that may function as an independent city, but ultimately Vancouver acts as the anchor to everything around it in Greater Vancouver - easier to do in Canadian cities vs American because our cities are typically more compact and dense than American.
San Jose for a secondary city in a metro is actually doing well. I think because it isn't in too close a proximity to S.F (Like Mississauga is to Toronto) helps it just that much more be less influenced by S.F plus the proximity to Silicon Valley obviously. That all said, S.F is still 'the' city in the Bay area - it is more an anchor than S.J.
In any event, I think if S.J focusses on increasing its density and urbanity in another 30 or 40 years it will actually be a more substantial urban competitor imo.
Even within the Bay Area, Oakland might edge ahead of San Jose as it has historically been SF's rival and competitor. It got sports teams after SF did as well and sports put American cities on the map. Oakland also is better known outside of CA than SJ for both the good and bad reasons which both share. Oakland is also adjacent to Berkeley which has the flagship university in the UC system. All significant social movements also happened in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. San Jose was still sleeping.
Comparing a city like Vancouver to San Jose is an insult to Vancouver
Even within the Bay Area, Oakland might edge ahead of San Jose as it has historically been SF's rival and competitor. It got sports teams after SF did as well and sports put American cities on the map. Oakland also is better known outside of CA than SJ for both the good and bad reasons which both share. Oakland is also adjacent to Berkeley which has the flagship university in the UC system. All significant social movements also happened in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. San Jose was still sleeping.
Comparing a city like Vancouver to San Jose is an insult to Vancouver
because it beats the heck out of Vancouver. That's ok. It's a much bigger city, much more of economic powerhouse and with better infrastructure/downtown core.
Lots of homeless and drugged out people on Granville St. and over by Downtown East. There are homeless people on Robson st. My favorite street is Burrard st.: line of office and hotel towers though. Gastown is meh. Got downtown by Canada line from airport. I first was in Yaletown. Walked on Granville on to Robson and Howe. Went to library on Howe, I think? Eastern end of downtown. By the way, underground Pacific Mall is meh, dated.
Still don't believe you.
Like I said, if you had actually been here, your observations would be more on the mark. They still sound like someone who did " a bit of Googling ".
For example. If you Google for images for the Pacific Centre mall, you will not only get old images, but images of malls that are NOT the Pacific Centre mall in Vancouver.
I'm no designer, but this dome is the most dated part of the mall. A mall that has grown and been remodelled several times since it's incarnation back in the 1970's. The dome is one entrance off of Georgia Street.
If you or the others think the mall is outdate, so be it, however I believe it will put to rest either your observations skills are poor, or the fact that you have never actually been here.
We were talking about a mall. It's not a dome contest, and besides, the dome I posted is over 30 years old and was used as an example of the old part of the mall.
My point still stands about PC mall and your supposed trip there.
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