el_richo

http://www.biv.com/article/20120717/...m_medium=email

Vancouver’s fall from grace in city livability raceAny respectable mid-sized city with nine months of rain, ringed by tall mountains and interrupted by steep hills has no illusion that bicycles have more than a very limited transportaction function.


The humiliation of it all.

It’s one thing that Toronto is the Centre of the Universe – indisputable to the typical jowly, pink-faced T.O. businessman, tubbiness camouflaged by his $3,500 suit. Let ’em have it. For much of this youngish century, Vancouver held the title of World’s Most Livable City, bestowed by the Intelligence Unit of prestigious London magazine The Economist. Take that, Hogtowners!

The ugly dethroning began last year. Melbourne, inhabited by persons who speak an untranslatable dialect of the English tongue, and Vienna, a shrunken 19th-century imperial capital populated mostly by tuba players, displaced Vancouver at the top (inexplicably just one notch above Toronto, which throws into doubt the Economist Intelligence Unit’s, well, intelligence).

This year Vancouver vanished from the top 10 altogether. Melbourne held on to first place.

Why? Choose any or all:

1. Any respectable mid-sized city can have a riot. Vancouver police (“we also serve who only stand and watch”?) blew the 2011 Stanley Cup orgy. Investigators are blowing the slow-mo investigation. The Crown is blowing the glacial prosecution. The judges don’t get it. The supposedly shuffling U.K. cleared away its coincident riots pronto.

2. Any respectable mid-sized city has public transit hurdles. TransLink hesitates to jump. Suburbanites standing on buses for an hour or two twice a day – that’s a real-life scandal. (Solution: an overseeing body that forces TransLink to perform, like the U.S. Environment Protection Agency forced Detroit, ignoring its piteous whines, to clean up exhaust pipe poisons. It worked.)

3. Any respectable mid-sized city has traffic problems. Look at Vancouver’s arterial choke-points. Check your watch. Hmmm, nothing’s moving, or has the watch battery died?

4. Any respectable mid-sized city has a community intelligence, and knows that mendacious mankind will cheat the ferry (or any) system if invited to. Naïve Vancouver was astounded by this discovery. Also that attacks on bus drivers by fare-evading reptiles require lightning response and very harsh penalties unforgettable even for the reptile brain.

5. Any respectable mid-sized city with nine months of rain, ringed by tall mountains and interrupted by steep hills has no illusion that bicycles have more than a very limited transportation or even exercise function, also restricted by the rider’s age, wellness and ready access to showers at each end of the journey (or sniff-challenged colleagues/customers/family).

6. And then there’s Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision dwarfs. Mayor Moonbeam, as he’s kindly referred to by irresistible radio ranter Bruce Allen, isn’t a predictable left-winger in a politically leftist city (bad enough) so much as an unpredictable nostalgic 19th-century reactionary, blunderingly winging it – imagining a simpler and simplistic life, beating cars into bicycles, fighting wraiths of golf-playing robber barons, replacing urban lawns with wheat and chicken coops, and giving the colour green a bad name.

A recent city hall concept drawing saves a thousand words: a re-imagined Granville Bridge dominated by well-used central bicycle and pedestrian lanes. On the flanking roads are four thoroughly ashamed cars, decently obscured by greenery.

“It is absolutely an idea that we could investigate and look at further,” enthuses transportation director Jerry Dobrovolny.

Can Victorian gents on penny-farthings, and demure lady cyclists in bloomers, be far behind?

Or perhaps The Economist (founded 1843) simply noticed Robertson is taxing already pressed mortgage-payers to subsidize housing for the undeserving and deserving poor alike, and, like another famous Victorian, was not amused.

ExKiwilass

I love the bike lanes and I'm looking forward to biking in winter

people who choose to live in the outer reaches and then whine about their commute don't have my sympathy and I'm pretty tired of the way they expect the other cities that are in the way of their commute - be it Burnaby, or New West, or Vancouver - to just chop up neighbourhoods and put highways through so they can get to work faster. Eff. U. But it's never going to happen anyway, ha ha!

I also regularly read the Age, which is the Melbourne daily paper cos I used to live there. Melbourne has a lot of problems with urban sprawl (without amenities) and a gutless government that is in the hands of the developers. I liked it but I don't agree that it's more liveable. Especially not when it's hot - it's horrible.

Alan2005

The economist changed their criteria. I think the real reason that Vancouver slipped is because it's too small and provincial by the new metrics they use.

It's been out a while - no mention on the news though.

getoutofbritainquick

What planet are you from? Obviously do not understand the dynamics of the city. Try and recruit trades in the city at $38 per hour. We have lost most of our skilled trades to private companies paying $120 per hour for the same job because my crew cannot afford to live in the city and have to live in the suburbs - so much for the public sector being overpaid vs the private sector - its called supply and demand. I can only hire apprentices who are forced in the city before they bid out on seniority. Cant wait until your power goes out and watch you whine when you electricity dies, and thats very close. Try getting a full set of tools on the Sky Train or transit to maintain equipment that is over 50 years old. Stagnated wages and rising cost of living have created the same problem as in Europe. You must work in an office?

phat-dave

"Melbourne, inhabited by persons who speak an untranslatable dialect of the English tongue"

haha having moved from vancouver to melbourne.... i found this amusing, despite being an aussie

Alan2005

Seniority and the high cost of housing is your problem not so-called "low" wages of $38/hour.

ExKiwilass

Well, firstly, I agree with what Alan said. Seniority is the problem along with low wages.

Secondly, no one's saying they have to use transit? You can still drive into the city. Arguably, the whole idea of bike lanes etc is to get people who don't really have to take a vehicle in to use alternatives, thus hopefully making it easier for those who do have to drive in.

And finally, no one has to live in the 'burbs. That's rubbish. There's plenty of alternatives closer in. You choose to live in Fraser Heights..I bet because you didn't want to deal with the so-called downsides of living in the city. That's a choice. IMO a lot of suburbanites are the ultimate NIMBYS (I also live in a 'burb, just a closer one in, fwiw).

The fact is, Vision and the NPA etc were voted in by the people. SO that means most of the people on your commute route don't agree with you. It's time to wake up.

Alan2005

Well, there's all these electricians living in the suburbs earning $250,000 a year. No wonder the public sector can't compete with that.

jandro

I thought the Economist poll was geared towards corporate types choosing their next international posting - not the average prospective immigrant. Vancouver never gets top overall marks on national ratings.

I heard today that Vernon was listed as one of the most desirable places to live in North America. That's probably meant for retirees and those with wads of cash however.

danfolkestone

There's a simple reason that Vancouver isn't in the new ranking:

The cities that were in the top spot last year on the EIU's liveabilty index -- Melbourne, Vienna and Vancouver -- were not ranked because Lovato chose cities that were the biggest and most geographically diverse.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business...#ixzz21KXWbfEi

Alan2005

It is. Although that never stopped the locals from banging on about it while they were number 1.

getoutofbritainquick

I chose to live in Fraser Heights because it was were my work was when we arrived in BC i.e. Surrey/Langley area so I didnt have to commute (done that in London for far too long). We didn't plan on living in the LM but there was were the work was. Being flexible we took it but it doesn't mean to say we like it here (have plans to move on) and are lucky enough to have the funds to get out when we choose. I wouldnt want to bring my children up in the city in any case - can't stand the place. Unfortunately because of my experience of running a power system in a large cite e.g. London I was pressurised into taking the City job because we couldnt get anyone else with any experience to do it. My business competes with the energy sector not the transport sector as our dear Premier would like us to believe. $38/hr is very, very low for the energy sector (and one of the lowest pay rates in Canada for a Utility) so forget the seniority crap its not the issue. We are losing people to the competition (supply and demand) and being a Crown corporation cannot compete because of the politics involved. We have very good business connections on Fraser Heights with very successful local business people and they all same the same thing. The Vancouver area is a very expensive place to live in but it does not pay large city wages, period. Forget about what the rates are elsewhere in Canada (compare apples with apples) its about attractions and retention in specific areas. Talk to nurses. police, fireman and they will all say the same thing. If you cannot recruite from the local area you have to travel people in - what else do you do?

getoutofbritainquick

....and guess why. Attraction and retention, supply and demand. The EL's earning this type of money work lots and lots of OT and virtually have no home life or the are having large 'banked' $$$ paid out accumulated over many years. Oddly enough for these positions you will see job vacancies all the time because we cannot get the skills to fill them (If the pay was so good then why can't will fill them?) So, the next time we have a storm we say to them ....you have to wait to do the repairs in normal hours and cannot work any OT????? Works for me, keep the lights off! Simple equation for you, I have a finite volume of work, X hours in a day, and not enough people to do the work. Answer; you hire extra people (can't - capped by the government), pay OT (large Salaries which the public complain about) or hire a contractor at 3 times the $ rate we pay our crew. What would you do? We are in a period of the largest asset replacement program in the last 50 years and that goes for right across Canada and North America. If you know anyone with the right skills and experience I am hiring

ExKiwilass

YOu must be working for BC Hydro.

Alan2005

You work for BC hydro? I know what I would do - I'd privatise it.

Still, if it sucks, why not contract yourself. $120ph x 40 x 48 = $240k - I wouldn't call a 40 hour week with 4 weeks off as having "virtually no home life" myself, I'd call it normal.