Sure as hell ain't Algiers

It's been a month since I moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and the occasion has neatly coincided with the 2007 edition of The Economist's annual survey of the world's most livable cities. Vancouver ranks first out of 132. A citation, if you will:

The Economist Intelligence Unit says Vancouver was chosen number-one due to a low crime rate, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed transport and communications infrastructure.

While I cannot disagree with the premises of this assessment, a few things I've noticed in the user comments I agree with:

1. Vancouver is tremendously aesthetically pleasing — epic, even. It easily qualifies as the most visually stunning city in Canada, architecture included.

2. Downtown Vancouver has a startling number of panhandlers, junkies, and homeless persons. And I don't just mean the notorious Downtown East Side. I mean the whole downtown. I'm don't mean your usual 'sign-out-front-head-down' homeless person, either — the sort that reminds one of the cruel and unusual realities of society, nature, and capitalism. I'm talking down-and-out v. 2.0: legion, mobile, and aggressive. I'm certain 99.9% of Vancouver's homeless population suffers from cruel life circumstances and means absolutely no harm, but I actually feel less safe at night here than in other places in Canada and abroad as a result — counting in Montreal, Toronto, London, Geneva, and Paris, for example. Has Canada's shelter/mental-care system really failed this badly?

3. B.C., as one reader points out, stands for "Bring Cash."

4. Despite the condos and downtown density, Vancouver's urban centres are spread out and very 'suburb.' The white culture downtown (and I mean on the downtown peninsula only) is very 'experientially'-oriented, in a suburban sort of way: car, kids, condo, kayaks, mountain bike. It's an inward-looking, if outward-experiencing, existence. The city life, being disjointed and stretched out around large residential 'deadzones' (to borrow a phrase), seems to suffer as a result. One must, following the rule of the Vancouver road, be mobile.

(On an aside, I'm told there is a sizable indie population at 12th and Main, though I'm not sure if that's a plus.)

5. The Georgia Straight is the best weekly in Canada.

6. Fresh air is a great, great thing.

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