Vancouver named 'world's best city'

[Spazito]

For the fourth year in a row, Vancouver has claimed the top spot on an international ranking of the world's most livable cities.

In its annual survey of world cities, the think-tank division of London-based Economist magazine ranks the British Columbia metropolis first among 127.

To create its list, the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed the cities, assigning each one a 'hardship rating' based on such factors as infrastructure, health care, public safety and access to goods and services.

snip

The EIU's top ten cities:

Vancouver

Melbourne

Vienna

Geneva

Perth

Adelaide

Sydney

Zurich

Toronto

Calgary

more

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051004/EIUcitysurvey_vancouverfirst_200501004/20051004?hub=Canada

[LiberalEsto]

1. No U.S. cities in the Top 10, I see

Why am I not surprised?

[niallmac]

2. Has something to do with our foreign policy I guess...

"According to the report's editor, cities in Canada, Australia and Western Europe topped the list, largely because they are not perceived as targets for terror attacks."

[WhiteTara]

26. I would think it also has to do with our domestic

policy of letting the infrastructure decay, lack of disaster preparedness, etc. Not to mention the ugly strip malls that blight th e landscape.

[WhiteTara]

27. I would think it also has to do with our domestic

policy of letting the infrastructure decay, lack of disaster preparedness, etc. Not to mention the ugly strip malls that blight th e landscape.

[etherealtruth]

3. 3 Canadian cities in the top 10 ...

... and we in the US are so afraid of their healthcare system ...

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

7. Vancouver and Toronto don't count.

Ask any Canadian. ;-)

[Brundle_Fly]

17. heh.

montreal and calgary sure do!

[Brundle_Fly]

18. ohhh

and ottawa!

I love ottawa!

[GayCanuck]

47. Ottawa

should have made the list.

[Dancing_Dave]

16. Four Australian Cities in Top Ten

The people who did this ranking must feel very comfortable down under.

[Demoiselle]

44. I've been to Sydney....very very liveable indeed!

Beautiful climate, lots and lots of water views (all those bays and inlets) great HEALTHY food (everybody serves lovely fresh green stuff, even snack places) . Sydney's divided into neighborhoods that have their own shopping streets....wonderful individual shopkeepers, very few boring chain stores and not many malls. And, by the way, their national health care is superb, efficient, available to all.. and everybody looks too healthy to need health care,
Only problem....housing prices are through the roof. And then there was my feeling that I had moved to another planet. (Feels very very far away!)

[drm604]

4. I love Vancouver.

I spent 5 weeks there in '96. What a great city. I haven't been to all of those other cities so I really can't compare them but Vancouver definitely deserves a high ranking.

[grace0418]

34. Absolutely. I was just there this summer and LOVED IT.

I'd move there in a heartbeat if I could.

[Jacobin]

5. I've been there and I agree

Its an amazing city.

[FourStarDemocrat]

6. Vancouver IS the best city I've ever been too.. but shhhhh...

I don't want it to become too crowded in case I ever have to leave Bushco country and move there someday. ;)

Geneva and Zurich are also gorgeous, but I didn't find the people particularly warm there at the time, although it's been many years ago.

[Amonester]

43. I love Vancouver also. I don't know if the 2010 Winter Olympics

will make it known to (and visited by) a lot more people around the world though. Probably... (Happened to Montreal after the '76 Summer Olympics).

[Dez]

8. I agree!

I LOVE Vancouver! I haven't done a lot of world travel (yet), but I have been to Munich.. I wouldn't place an American city in the top 10 either.

[Coventina]

9. I wonder what the bottom 10 cities are?

:shrug:

[Spazito]

12. Here are the bottom 10

The EIU's bottom 10 cities:

Tehran
Douala
Harare
Abidjan
Phnom Penh
Lagos
Karachi
Dhaka
Algiers
Port Moresby

[Barrett808]

41. How is Baghdad not among the ten worst cities? n/t

[pitohui]

10. and modest too

:-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I was in Toronto for an academic convention during grad school, and

after a few days, all of us American grad students were very disappointed to find that it's almost impossible for a non-Canadian to get a teaching job at a Canadian university. :-(

[RevolutionStartsNow]

13. I was just there (here's a photo)

Incredibly beautiful city. Also very laid back, cool people, never have to worry about someone being pro-Bush there. Lots of good and inexpensive sushi. What's not to love?

[The Roux Comes First]

14. My Uncle

Like the song says:

Well I don't know how much I owe my uncle
But I suspect it's more than I can pay
He's asking me to sign a three-year contract
I think I'll catch the first bus out today.

So I'm headed for the nearest foreign border
Vancouver might be just my kind of town
Cuz they don't have the kind of law and order
That tends to keep a good man underground . . .

[RevolutionStartsNow]

19. Hey I just heard that song...(Steve Earle)

He played it on Saturday at the Bluegrass Fest in SF.

[maxsolomon]

15. ahh, yes, the constant drizzle is just the best!

no other city can compete for drizzle!

and be sure to visit the lovely east end!

[Anywho6]

20. Hey, don't knock the drizzle!

The most amazingly fun, unforgettable and romantic bike ride I ever took was through Stanley Park and along English Bay in a steady, cold drizzle. Mud up and down our backs and all, it was just beautiful...

[maxsolomon]

24. don't wear glasses, do you?

i heart vancouver, and i live in seattle. i know my drizzle. vancouver drizzle is drizzlier as they're right up against the mountains. very very drizzly. you could even call it rain.

[Anywho6]

32. Actually, I wear contacts most of the time and it was definitely drizzle!

[Megahurtz]

40. Ha ha!

Whatever you guys, I love the rain!:7

[TrogL]

21. CALGARY ahead of EDMONTON????

You've got to be fscking kidding.

Their streets are unnavigatable.

Their symphony sucks.

They don't have a decent concert organ.

Their LRT (and the rest of their transit system) sucks.

[Spazito]

22. I totally agree! Their streets are, indeed, unnavigatable

I love Edmonton, it is so easy to get around, LOTS of greenspace, much prettier city for sure, imo.

[Canadian Socialist]

30. But, how about dem Flames, eh? n/t

[Orrin_73]

23. Did they put Tehran on the other end of the scale

because it is about to be bombed?????

[saigon68]

25. Nice Pic of the CHIMP

[Orrin_73]

28. Thanks

n/t

[davidinalameda]

29. when the pogroms come

I'm hightailing it to Vancouver

[superconnected]

31. coud be good, could be bad

the last time I was in vancouver - '98 there was massive car thefts and crime because of chinese gangs. The place had turned into a giant China town and me and one of my asian friends went up there because we loved dimsung. But we stopped going because her car got stolen when her husband went up there one weekend and her sister who lived there was complaining about all the crime.

Either 1. They solved the problem, or 2. All other cities are even worse.

Vancouver is very beautiful and has an incredible public transportaion system that is all in sync with each other. I used to love that city. That alone should have won.

But the crime now? What happend to that? Did they not look at crime stats?

[drm604]

37. I went back for a week in '98

and some of the locals did complain about the crime and warned me to stay out of certain parts of town. I hadn't heard anything like that in '96 so maybe some things changed in those two years. I haven't been back since '98 so maybe things have improved since then. I would think that they would have taken crime statistics into account when they made the list, but who knows?

[Bridget Burke]

49. I've never been to Vancouver...

But a Vancouver "crime wave" might be a normal month in Houston.

[Danmel]

50. There is a big homeless problem in Vancouver

The downtown east side is very bad - lots and lots of homeless, drug addicts and aggressive panhandlers. We were there last summer and we were constantly confronted by aggressive homeless people. ALthough we were not attacked or robbed, it was very uncomfortable and the people at our hotel warned us to avoid certain parts of town.

Coming from NYc, it takes a lot to surprise me and I was pretty surprised. I figured Canada's social services would be better and there would be fewer poor and homeless, but it really was bad.

That said, a lot of Vancouver is lovely. It is cool to go ten minutes out of town and be in temperate old growth rain forest, the mountains are gorgeous, the people are nice and the food is good. No place is perfect though.

[TrogL]

42. Car theft is still a huge problem

Last time I was there I staying near downtown and was warned to keep an eye on my car. First time I've had to buy a steering-wheel "club".

My understanding is they steal them, drive them to the docks straight onto a container ship bound for Russia.

[Orsino]

33. Soon as my property sells, I'm gonna find out for myself.

It ain't Bush's America, though, so that's good enough for me.

[Fiendish Thingy]

35. Great news! I'm headed there by 2010 if nothing changes

i.e. more war, more corruption, more defecits= Canada here I come!

[Amonester]

45. Vancouver 2010 = Welcome/Bienvenue/(In all languages) ;))))

http://www.winter2010.com/

Hope they'll have enough ice & snow by then...

[bikebloke]

36. At work, I'm still lobbying...

...for an office in Sydney or Perth(or Barcelona even). And to think another southern summer is beginning, and we don't have an office down there. The shame. The awful shame. One day, they'll come to their senses.

[northzax]

38. interesting that The Economist

would pick all cities that is great to be wealthy and White in? and 8 of the top 10 are commonwealth cities?

by the way, Geneva and Zurich are two of the top five most expensive cities to live in in the world and have aggressive anti-immigration policies.

[Amonester]

48. Vancouver has a big Chinese community...

Alright, a lot of 'em are wealthy, but they (might) pay a lot more in all kinds of taxes than most of the richest whites (1%) south of the border (?)...

(And we'll keep our social programs no matter what the BFEE threatens us with...)

[northzax]

51. I am aware of the Vancouver Chinese community

that mostly came from Hong Kong after 1986, when the Brits didn't renew their lease on Hong Kong. the fact that, at the time, a 10 million dollar investment could buy you permanent residency helped (interestingly, the destination of choice for most of them was San Francisco, LA or Seattle, but the Reagan administration didn't want to accept so many immigrants or piss off the Mainland, so hundreds of millionaires moved to Vancouver and took their money with them.)

[Megahurtz]

39. That be right! n/t

[GayCanuck]

46. Gawd

they are so right. We are headed there next week. I love it!!

[Dudley_DUright]

52. Granville Island in Vancouver has the most incredible farmer's market

I have ever seen (all indoor). It is humongous with every imaginable kind of produce and foods. The Granville Island Brewery is also very nice. I spent some time talking to a Victoria BC real estate broker in the beer tasting room who was trying to convince me to move from FL to BC. A few more years of BushCo and I will be ready to go.

http://www.virtualvancouver.com/granville.html

[regnaD kciN]

53. Why do they Hate America?

:sarcasm:

Personally, although Vancouver is nice, it has become overbuilt and overcrowded in the past twenty years. While it would certainly be an acceptable place to go into exile should that be necessary ;-) , in terms of sheer livability, I wouldn't take it in a head-to-head choice over Seattle.