babycart

This article in the Independent has not gone down well in the local Vancouver press- The comments are worth a read.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...r-1663008.html

dboy

Yes i fear leaving my apartment for fear of getting caught in the cross fire and tripping over one of the corpses that are littering the streets.

I've been here 16 years and i don't feel any less safe now than I did then. The article was a cheap shot.

As for a member of the British press to be pointing fingers at Vancouver... Perhaps he should stick to reporting on the issues that plague every major British city. Glasgow and Manchester come to mind.

The atricle is also inaccurate and seems to suggest that all the shooting are in the city itself. Only one shooting has taken place in the downtown core (Kitisilano) while the rest have been on the east side of the city. Most of the shootings have taken place in Surrey/Delta. This is a metro Vancouver problem which has a population of 2.5 million and is definitely not comparable to Leeds.

In the large scheme of things, the recent rash of shootings, while troublesome are an anamoly and will pass. Vancouver is not perfect by any shot, but I'll take my chances with the gangs thanks rather than the mobs of hoodie clad youth wandering every major urban area of the UK.

I also suspect that we will see a cooling given the arrests of Jaime Bacon et al, all members of the red scorpions.

Drugs, gangs and violence are a reality of large urban areas. Google gangs and numerous hits will be recorded for OZ, England, the US and even Copenhagen:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/26/b...ks-copenhagen/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/6383933.stm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...30/2529912.htm

dbd33

Yes, crime is everywhere but we need familiar measures, which is more dangerous, Vancouver or Detroit?

dboy

Going to go out on a limb and say Detroit. Bit like apples to oranges me thinks.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/08/mur...108murder.html

babycart

Reading the article and getting the interpretation of whether Vancouver is crime ridden or not is rather simplistic and one which everyone knows is not answerable. However the comments are more interesting as they are everyday reflections of people own experiences. The comments are more biased towards whether Vancouver deserves its status as the best place on earth or whatever marketing diatribe they have come up with to try as sell this city.

Danny B

I thought I heard a thud the other day as I drove through Surrey..must have been one of those corpses lying in the road

dboy

I think the surveys tend to focus on factors that are of little real value to one's perception of a place, such as clean water, longevity, etc. A persons particular experience is what really counts.

I've been here 16 years and feel that the city was a better place when I first arrived. It was more of a big town trying to make it as a city. Housing, while expensive was attainable, rent was cheap and over associated costs were lower. Min wage is more or less the same it was when i got here (the uk never had one then as a point of interest).

As the city has grown its changed. Cost of housing has spoiled this city, which has become much more money orientated. I tend to agree that the night life is a little muted, but I see that more of an issue to a young person. There are certainly plenty of places to go and some of the best restaurants in the world.

The downtown east side has always been the same.

Is vancouver the best place in the world? No, probably not, but that depends on a lot of factors. I personally like it here. Are there better places - yes I'm sure there are.

I think Vancouver is definately up there as far as livability. I personally have never been to a more beautiful city - but i haven't been everywhere.

Compared to a typical city in the world, Vancouver is probably cleaner, safer, and better rounded than most places. As far as one's preferences with respect to culture, the arts or the night life and weather - well you cant please everyone. Plus a lot of the people complaining have never been anywhere else. I've lived all over the world and like Vancouver as a place to call home. There are definitely way more exciting places in the world, but for a place to settle down it's pretty damn good.

i don't think the handful of comments represent everyone living here. You really have to come and judge for yourself.

babycart

Fair enough- you cannot apply broad brush strokes as there are + & - about most cities- I just think Vancouver has set it self up to a level of expectation
which a lot cities have not attempted to do. Maybe that is why it is easier to knock it.

dboy

Yes well said. I should imagine if i was only just moving here, had a min wage job and was looking at a west side fixer upper for 800,000 I would wonder what the hell all the hype was about.

jafar_b

I agree totally with the article in the Independent. The Canadian media, especially those in Vancouver (Best place on Earth!) suffers from an incurable form of grandiose delusion, and this article should give them a reality check.

Iain Mc

Nice first post, you're obviously very happy here!

Edit: Vaguely related to the original post (best city surveys), according to the Toronto Board of Trade, and presumably with a business slant, the best city in the whole darn world is now.....

Calgary.

(followed by Dallas and Hong Kong, with Vancouver making 8th spot)

gibsonslanding

ummmmmmmmm.......

http://www.spotcrime.com/vancouver

now lets look at london.....not the UK, just london.......

http://www.spotcrime.com/uk/london?g...FRFMagodIwWNQg

think i'll stay put in van......and let the drugs syndicates blast themselves off the face of the planet.......goodbye.....

brizzle

So from that I can deduce that there have been 25 shootings (this year?) in London, whereas there have been about 50 in the lower mainland since mid-January. Can't say I feel reassured much by that.

Yes they are targeted shootings, but they probably are in London as well and at least you know which areas these shootings are more likely to occur in (Hackney etc). Here they seem to be anywhere and not necessarily in the run-down areas.

It's hardly Mexico, but it is a serious problem at the moment and you know the media love to build a place/person up and then knock them down. If you call yourself the 'best place on earth', you are asking for criticism.

gibsonslanding

so, we're discounting random shootings, stabbings, muggings etc are we? at least i can walk down the streets, kids in tow, handbag on arm, safe in the knowledge that i probably wont be randomly shoot, randomly stabbed or randomly mugged.....just because some little s**t decided that they liked the look of my bag, wanted to molest my kids for the sheer hell of it, etc. etc. right?

oh! and as a total bonus, i can do all this in the safe knowledge that i've got something pretty to look at....not graffitti everywhere, s**t on the roads, rubbish and crap everywhere.......and safe in the knowledge that the home that i left in the morning will still be there, intact, in the evening, when i return....not done over......mindless trashed for fun....

you stay in your place and i'll stay in mine....suits me!!!! can one pressume that you're not moving to vancouver then?.....

dboy

Yep it's hell here, don't come.