Is Vancouver World-Class?

[logan5]

If you steer away from Granville St. and go east, Vancouver night life is not so bad. The Waldorf has a Lotus Long Weekend type thing with 4 rooms with different genres of electronic music. Club 23 is alright if you like trance. Fortune in Chinatown has some good nights.

Even Mt. Pleasant on its own is alright - I was at a (semi regular) party a few months back at around Industrial and Main that had a good mixed crowd, and there's an after hours club at 1st and Main. There are live acts at the Biltmore and Anza Club, as well as plenty of smaller type places along Main St.. On Cambie, Kino Cafe Flamenco bar is an interesting place, and there's Biercraft Bistro just down the block that has a large selection of beer.

Granville St. is so large and loud and obnoxious, it draws attention away from other things that are going on around the city.

[trofirhen]

Funny. Geneva, Switerland. Banking, supranational organisations, nonstop flights to many cities, including YYZ.

Geneva, world meeting place, great decisions made there, enormous wealth there.

And fewer than 300,000 population entire metro area.

Size ins't everything. (not that anybody said it was)

[vansky]

it's all about money, and elites, of course then population,
in other words power,

vancouver, dont expect it to command the world, or shake the world when its stock market crashes, but there r some very talented souls living in the city, like myself and u guys of course.

but r we world class?

[Hourglass]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Funny. Geneva, Switerland. Banking, supranational organisations, nonstop flights to many cities, including YYZ.

Geneva, world meeting place, great decisions made there, enormous wealth there.

And fewer than 300,000 population entire metro area.

Size ins't everything. (not that anybody said it was)

As someone who has visited for business, I found Geneva expensive and boring. And during big events such as ITU, it becomes almost intolerable. Lot's of other places in Europe I'd rather visit (or live) -- even in Switzerland. I prefer Vancouver any day (not least because I don't like being told what day and time I can do my laundry or having the Polizei called out if I accidentally put my recycling in the wrong bin. Yes, seriously).

Vancouver has a lot of unique things going for it, and already punches above its weight globally. Does that make it 'world class'? Don't know. Should it matter? Not really. I think with good governance and focus on the right areas (liveability, transit, infrastructure, education, the arts, economic development and opportunities, etc..) a lot of this stuff takes care of itself -- and that's more important than focusing on trying to be 'world class'

But anyone wanting validation about Vancouver's perceived place in the world should check out the Atlantic Cities website to get an interesting perspective on Vancouver. It's ranked the 20th most economically powerful city in the world and 3rd most bohemian in North America. Who would've guessed?

[SpongeG]

there is a lot of money in this town - a lot of rich kids go to school in europe or the states

[jsbertram]

Cities that are "World-Class" don't need to ask if they are.
They just know.

[agrant]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Cities that are "World-Class" don't need to ask if they are.
They just know.

Either know, or don't care.

[whatnext]

(Hopefully) that kind of nightlife is only really important to 19-29 year olds. After that, its just kind of sad...

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Cities that are "World-Class" don't need to ask if they are.
They just know.

EXACTLY .........

[osmo]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

The night life argument has always seemed funny to me. I think people enjoy the night life a lot more when they are out of town somewhere, hence the self-hate for Vancouver's night life.

The only thing I can think of is the time restrictions. Otherwise clubs here seem just as good as clubs elsewhere. And considering our controlled, high prices for alcohol even in liquor stores, the price in clubs is not so bad.

^ I have parties all over Canada and Vancouver's nightlife is very mild especially for a City its size. I had more fun in Victoria then Vancouver, for a small place that City had some great things going on.

Spending time all over Canada IMO the only world class City we have is Montreal.

Vancouver and Toronto both suffer from the same issue that they them selves have to constantly compare them selves to others. Montreal does not do this, they know they are a good City and do not care what others think. A world class city is a City that is solid and thrives from whiten. It does not need to measure up to anybody except itself. Until Toronto and VanCity can do that they will forever bet stuck in little man syndrome trance.

[Zassk]

Originally Posted by osmo

Vancouver and Toronto both suffer from the same issue that they them selves have to constantly compare them selves to others.

This is brought up a lot in threads like this, but I am not on board with this. A city's self-consciousness does not determine whether it is world-class or not. Being world-class is based on concrete properties of the city, not some vague measurement of the mood of its population. An outside observer has no idea what Vancouverites think of their own city, and probably doesn't care. The outsider will measure Vancouver by more concrete things than that.

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by Zassk

This is brought up a lot in threads like this, but I am not on board with this. A city's self-consciousness does not determine whether it is world-class or not. Being world-class is based on concrete properties of the city, not some vague measurement of the mood of its population. An outside observer has no idea what Vancouverites think of their own city, and probably doesn't care. The outsider will measure Vancouver by more concrete things than that.

Well said.
And don't think for a second that Montreal doesn't suffer the same self-loathing that all cities suffer. Montreal constantly compares itself to Paris and is rightfully self-depricating when it comes to it's brutal infrastructure, archaic language laws, and it's once glory days.

[golog]

Originally Posted by osmo

Vancouver and Toronto both suffer from the same issue that they them selves have to constantly compare them selves to others. Montreal does not do this, they know they are a good City and do not care what others think. A world class city is a City that is solid and thrives from whiten. It does not need to measure up to anybody except itself. Until Toronto and VanCity can do that they will forever bet stuck in little man syndrome trance.

I do agree to an extent, but I would say a huge part is the current cost of living. Housing is simply cheaper in Montreal, in addition to other provincial benefits. Cheaper rent also applies to businesses, including restaurants and clubs. The banks and other Canadian oligopolies built up the city, and even though they left for Toronto a lot of the infrastructure remained for whoever the next highest bid was.

When people get a bit of breathing room, can afford stress-free time off, they'll naturally figure out what they like to do for a good time. I hear a lot about when Vancouver was cooler during the era it had a club called the Cave among many, and the big difference is the cost of rent really. If anything, liquor laws and other regulation has eased up since then.

That also makes me think about whether Montrealers spend more of their time off in Montreal, and if that then is either a cause or effect of the city's night life.