It's not just museums. How about theatre? How about a real arts scene? Having hipster locals shopping at American Apparel and playing with their iPads at Starbucks does not count as an Arts scene.

The elites of the world simply do not choose Vancouver as a city to relocate or live in. They may have a holiday home where they spend a week or two of the year, but that's about it.

love everything here except for the drivers. this city is wonderful other than that

We have our theatres/ theatre groups/ a very large arts scene but...

Im speaking in terms of scale here if we had 8-11 more million people in our population like NYC or Paris the various different scenes would be far more developed but based on our size I don't think you can discredit what is here

heck I don't think you can really discredit what is here even when ignoring the population differences equivalencies are apparent but there's a more laid back tone to them ;)


As for the remark of Elites, they live where they work; unless you mean the true elites (multi billionaires) they live where they grew up and bring their work home :)
(gates; buffet; tata; slim; arnault; etc)

A lotta whiners in here...

my biggest hates
-Expensive to live here.
-too many hills make walking and biking difficult.
-The night life is incredibly meh.
-All of the underground construction/patchy paving jobs in this city makes for some really uncomfortable roads. But every canadian city has road issues, hell every city on earth has road issues in one way or another.

To everyone who complains about the bad drivers, try living in a different city. Every metropolis has terrible drivers or terrible infrastructure. There is no perfect road or transit system on this planet, nor is there a perfect place for drivers either.

The people who don't appreciate the outdoors and clean air could care less about pollution because they probably like to spend their time indoors in malls, restaurants, at home, etc. Air conditioning works wonders. As much as we identify ourselves as enjoying the outdoors, half the people in Metro Vancouver look like they barely climb any stairs on a regular basis.

Some people like fast-paced cities. I enjoy them myself.

I will agree that HK has uglier girls on average. But, as I mentioned, there's always Macau or Shenzhen if you want to have a good time.

ALR and dumb building bylaws. We will never be a real city if we are attached to houses. We needed to expand out of DT and make this city real. We are keeping prices artificially high for no reason.

even if you're indoors the air is still polluted in HK no matter how much you filter ;)



I h8 how its handled theres almost no point to it since someone can easily get a plot of land removed from the ALR

look at all the blueberry farms in richmond... lol at the mansions on them.

All the wannabe high-school gangsters thinking they're cool wearing North Face bomber jackets during the summer season and Christian Audigay...

can't thank you..but considering Vancouver being pretty multicultural the food actually isn't.

In Van, it's a small group of people that go to all the cultural events. It's just not the city's culture like it is in Paris, London or NY. Vancouverites just do not have the sophistication that you see in some major cities.

The difference is not because Vancouver has a small population. Copenhagen has a bigger cultural scene than Vancouver.


Until Vancouver can start attracting elites to live and work here, I would not consider it a world-class city.

French? :fuckthatshit:
EOL
english only language

not enough black people (need more)

You know what I really truly hate about Vancouver, it's filled with people who love to complain.

There's the constant discussion about housing prices being to expensive, but everyone expects a large home in the perfect location for an affordable price. You can buy a house in Abbotsford for the same price as a condo in Burnaby, just be realistic and prioritize. Location or space, pick one.

Not enough of an art culture in Vancouver, the reason for that is simple, our city is young and not positioned to have a large art culture. If Vancouver weren't surrounded with some of the best terrain in the world I'm certain we would have a more prominent art culture, but instead we have an athletic out doors scene. That said, I've been to many art galleries in Vancouver and always enjoyed myself.

age n size


Copenhagen is also over 1000 years old thats over 800years to develop that scene... and it was also around through the ages in which the arts were reborn and refined...


you act like there aren't any... and when you consider the costs to stay here you would have to be... and its not like major corps dont have officers here.... (but i dont consider that a requirement to be considered world-class anyway, especially considering most cities in the USA with a say Fortune500 corp HQ are crap)

Vancouver isn't even as old as we say we are. We can talk about how we are 125 years old with all the celebrations this summer - but really, we didn't start "growing up" until the last 20 years.

Before Expo '86, we were a bunch of tree hugging hippies, without much infrastructure. It's only really in the past few decades, did we really start developing into more of a metropolis.

I agree to a lot of what people say about how Vancouver doesn't have the same amount of culture as other cities around the world, but we do have amazing art at the same time - some amazing festivals, some amazing local artists, some amazing amateur theatre productions around the city.

They can "fix" the transportation infrastructure situation and with proper sustainable planning by densifying and growing vertically.

This city has the potential to be so kick ass in 20 years.
I just hope I'm around to see it.

our roads and speed limits

if more "cultural elite" people in Vancouver means more pretentious douchebags like marco991 I think it's better the way it is. Down to Earth people are infinitely more interesting to talk to and get to know.
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If by "pretentious douchebag" you mean that I'm cultured and sophisticated, I'll take that as a compliment.

Seriously, Vancouverites are anal and not at all down to earth. They practically froth at the mouth whenever someone has a nice car and deigns to drive it the way it was designed to be driven. There is no fashion. No art. No joie de vivre.

noone gives a shit if your sophisticated or culture because it will still come down as douchey.

No, by pretentious douchebag, I meant the type of person would take being called a pretentious douchebag as a compliment somehow :)

Really? I've traveled and lived outside of Canada for many years and still hold this to be true.... SE Asia has extremely cheap and delicious food as well, but most would agree it's much dirtier....

Not only is Marco pretentious, he's also a contrarian.

I'm certain somehow he'll also take that as a compliment, seeing as that's inverse of the intention.

Anal about what exactly, I have never viewed Vancouverites as a whole to be obsessive or overly detail oriented?

While reading an automotive forum, it makes sense that individuals feign over pictures of exotic cars. I have yet to witness a Vancouverite having any more than a subtle reaction to exotic car in person.

There is a limited number of high end fashion retailers in Vancouver, but again, that comes down to population size. A city of 2.5 million people cannot support the same number of retailers in that niche market as larger American cities, that's a simple fact.

Vancouver has an art scene with enough depth for all but pompous aficionados of self-importance to enjoy. Of course, it does not compare to Paris, London or New York but with a fifth of the population and several centuries of catching up to do I would consider it more than respectable. If Vancouver has no art, what exactly is being displayed in this short list of galleries?

Jacana Contemporary Art
Vancouver Art Gallery
Bau-Xi Gallery
Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery
Dianne Farris Gallery
Monte Clark Gallery
Bill Reid Gallery
Lattimer Gallery
Douglas Reynolds Gallery

The joie de vivre I feel living in Vancouver is immense, I can only attribute that to the incredible beauty that surrounds the city in every direction and that is of a far higher importance to myself than any superficial complaints. As stated earlier in this thread, where else can you go snow boarding and visit an ocean beach in the same day.