Why Vancouver owns Seattle

[ErikJ]

http://matadornetwork.com/life/why-vancouver-owns-seattle/

Why Vancouver owns Seattle
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Since the 1950s, Vancouver has pushed growth vertically with residential highrises closely surrounding the business core of downtown, making the whole city easily walkable. Seattle, on the other hand, has been described as “a city of neighborhoods.” Over a dozen distinct neighborhoods are found peripheral to downtown, each a virtual independent town, yet all officially part of the city. Downtown itself is almost completely occupied by industry and office buildings and has very little livable space. It generally has to be reached by bike or motorized transportation from the surrounding neighborhoods.
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In Vancouver, a similar system for medicinal pot is in place. Taking it a step further, minor use and possession is virtually decriminalized completely. Some of the city’s cafes like New Amsterdam even permit dope smoking on their premises, with local law enforcement tending to look the other way. It’s a tenuous balance, however, as local or federal law enforcement can choose to enforce the laws at their discretion.
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Finally, the thing I care most about: natural beauty and recreation. Seattle has coastline — Puget Sound — and the Cascade Mountains that surround the city give a sea-to-mountains range of recreational options. But just like its urban layout, Vancouver’s recreation is more accessible, diverse, and condensed.

Just on the edge of downtown is Stanley Park, an enormous place with dozens of beaches, over 100 miles of trails and roads, and numerous attractions and facilities such as the Vancouver Aquarium. Public transport can get you to any of the city’s three nearby ski areas, and beyond the city the options just get better. You can drive up the road to Squamish, or a little further to Whistler and have access to some of the most intense climbiing, biking, and skiing on the continent.

[eridani]

1. No fair! It's in Canada!

Single payer health care, nationwide marriage equality, legal medical pot.

[SophiaGreen]

2. Nice post

Nice post. I want to know the answer, too.

[mahina]

3. Aloha e SophiaGreen

Welcome to DU!

[pnwmom]

4. That's crap.

Literally.

Every year, British Columbia dumps millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, just as it always has, and they won't begin to treat it until 2016.

http://www.king5.com/news/national/Canada-OKs-to-treat-raw-sewage-flowing-into-Strait-of-Juan-de-Fuca-101596813.html

SEATTLE - The British Columbia government has approved a plan to treat for the first time millions of gallons of raw sewage that pours into marine waters between Vancouver Island and Washington state.

British Columbia's environment minister, Barry Penner, said in a statement Wednesday the plan to treat sewage from Victoria and its suburbs meets provincial requirements and will reduce contaminants.

The region discharges about 34 million gallons of raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca each day, and the issue has been a sore point on both sides of the border.

SNIP

British Columbia officials said the government's approval is a key step toward getting federal and regional money for the 782 million Canadian dollar ($738 million) project and allows them to meet a commitment to provide wastewater treatment by 2016.

MORE AT LINK

[CreekDog]

5. Your article is about Victoria not Vancouver

not exactly useful in this discussion.

and Vancouver isn't even on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the waterbody mentioned, it's on the Strait of Georgia.

[pnwmom]

6. Do you really think the Island's raw sewage doesn't affect the other coastal cities

on the same waterway?

By the way, Canada has a problem with dumped sewage in many cities across the country.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/823043--millions-of-litres-of-pollutants-dumped-in-cities-analysis

OTTAWA—Far more sewage has been spilled in Canadian urban centres over the last six years than any other harmful contaminant, newly released figures show.

An analysis by The Canadian Press reveals hundreds of millions of litres of sewage, as well as many other dangerous liquids, have been dumped right under Canadians’ noses.

This never-before-released information has been kept in a classified government database called NEMISIS. The acronym stands for National Enforcement Management Information System and Intelligence System.

SNIP

The analysis looked at spills in 18 cities and metropolitan areas across 10 provinces.

They include the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and the cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton, Windsor, Ont., Quebec City, Fredericton, Moncton, N.B., Saint John, N.B., Charlottetown, Halifax and St. John’s, N.L.

SNIP

_______________________________________

http://leas.ca/BC-falling-behind-rest-of-Canada-in-treating-sewage.htm


Not all BC communities were reviewed in the survey, however the report did highlight how coastal communities are lagging behind inland communities in accepting the impacts of dumping raw sewage into the environment. “We have to stop thinking there is no price to be paid for dumping raw sewage into the ocean,” says Mae Burrows, Executive Director of the Labour Environmental Alliance (LEAS). “Sewage contains toxic chemicals, including PCBs, POPs and PBDEs (fire retardants). With the largest sewage treatment plant in BC – the Iona plant in Vancouver – only providing primary sewage treatment, these toxic chemicals are contaminating our coastal waters and harming the animals that live there, like the endangered southern resident killer whales and harbour seals.”

[CreekDog]

8. but you were blaming Vancouver for something originating in Victoria

[pnwmom]

9. Vancouver is affected by it, and has its own problems with sewage treatment as well.

http://leas.ca/BC-falling-behind-rest-of-Canada-in-treating-sewage.htm


Not all BC communities were reviewed in the survey, however the report did highlight how coastal communities are lagging behind inland communities in accepting the impacts of dumping raw sewage into the environment. “We have to stop thinking there is no price to be paid for dumping raw sewage into the ocean,” says Mae Burrows, Executive Director of the Labour Environmental Alliance (LEAS). “Sewage contains toxic chemicals, including PCBs, POPs and PBDEs (fire retardants). With the largest sewage treatment plant in BC – the Iona plant in Vancouver – only providing primary sewage treatment, these toxic chemicals are contaminating our coastal waters and harming the animals that live there, like the endangered southern resident killer whales and harbour seals.”

[CreekDog]

10. but that's not what your initial post was about -your initial post was flat out wrong and misleading

your initial post blamed Vancouver, your initial post however referred to an incident that Vancouver had nothing to do with.

now you've expanded your argument and that's okay, but the issue i'm criticizing you over is your first issue.

and Vancouver has an excellent environmental record overall, the envy of many cities.

[pnwmom]

11. It wasn't wrong. I'm saying that the quality of life of Vancouver and every other coastal city

in the region is affected by the raw sewage dumping that Victoria engages in. Like Victoria, Vancouver is part of a province, British Columbia, that has had lax regulation on sewage treatment and, as noted in the other post, Vancouver has its own problems in that area.

I disagree with you that any large city that dumps sewage after only going through a primary treatment can be considered to have an excellent environmental record.

http://leas.ca/BC-falling-behind-rest-of-Canada-in-treating-sewage.htm


Not all BC communities were reviewed in the survey, however the report did highlight how coastal communities are lagging behind inland communities in accepting the impacts of dumping raw sewage into the environment. “We have to stop thinking there is no price to be paid for dumping raw sewage into the ocean,” says Mae Burrows, Executive Director of the Labour Environmental Alliance (LEAS). “Sewage contains toxic chemicals, including PCBs, POPs and PBDEs (fire retardants). With the largest sewage treatment plant in BC – the Iona plant in Vancouver – only providing primary sewage treatment, these toxic chemicals are contaminating our coastal waters and harming the animals that live there, like the endangered southern resident killer whales and harbour seals.”

[Ron Obvious]

7. I-5

We have I-5 bisecting the city.... That's the big difference. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is an exercise left up to the reader.

We used to love going to Victoria and Vancouver when the border was trivial. Now, we at least have the internet for first-run English books, marmite and Mars bars.

[ErikJ]

12. Inner city freeways leads to suburban sprawl and inner city decay

Last edited Fri Jul 6, 2012, 08:18 PM - Edit history (3)

That may be the biggest reason for the downfall of American cities. The freeways pierce the downtowns which make it too easy to commute out to the burbs which caused uncontrolled sprawl and the deterioration of their downtowns.

That never happened in Vancouver which encouraged more people to live downtown or closer in keeping the inner core vibrant. You'll see the sidewalks of downtown crammed with people and shoppers until 11 pm. People can easily walk to work or take a short bus ride.

Then they have their lightrail Skytrain to the suburbs and every station has several highrise condos or apts clustered around it making it very convenient to get to work without driving.

Vancouver consistently ranks #1 or 2 of the most livable cities in the world. I dont think there is any American city in the top 20.

[regnaD kciN]

13. Personally, I prefer "a city of neighborhoods"...

...to one based on apartment/condo high-rises everywhere. Each time I visit Vancouver, I get a claustrophobic feeling, much the same as in Manhattan. And Seattle's neighborhoods are not all that far from downtown -- we aren't talking L.A.-style urban sprawl here.

Personally, part of what I like about Seattle is that its density and neighborhood orientation reminds me a lot of San Francisco. Can you imagine someone arguing that "New York City owns San Francisco" because the latter hasn't "pushed growth vertically" for the last sixty years?

[ErikJ]

14. I think Van has both-neighborhoods and high density core.

Last edited Sun Jul 8, 2012, 05:44 PM - Edit history (2)

Surrounding the downtown inner city is regular residential houses and apts. I dont know it they have them named as neighborhoods. They are quite nice though with good sidewalks etc. On the long drive out to UBC is all houses and 2 or 3 floor apts. I visited there 3 summers ago and was quite impressed with the city. I like Seattle too but not as much as Van. The downtown throbs with life and excitement that Seattle cant. The beaches encircle the city. The architecture of Van BC is great too. I think this is Yaletown. These are what they call skinny towers which are narrower and farther separated than traditional high-rises to allow more sunlight and human interaction/landscaping to occur.