OFFICIAL: Vancouver is mindnumbingly boring

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      Bearing in mind that it's written for the very worst element in society, Britain's The Economist has decided that your hometown is dullard central.

      Referring to the same magazine's equally ridiculous "liveability" rankings, Adam Barnes writes, in the online Gulliver column:

      "... the most anodyne cities inevitably rose to the top. Vienna, Vancouver and Geneva always seemed to do well. Pleasant cities, yes, but mind-numbingly boring. What right-minded person would rank Vienna a better city than Rio, or Vancouver preferable to Paris?"

      Fair enough. But Barnes scuttles his own argument when he quotes Jeremy Clarkson (yes, Jeremy Clarkson), who once eulogized Detroit for bringing visitors and residents that much closer to the morgue.

      "I like Detroit because it’s dangerous," wrote Clarkson, who is indeed the very worst element in society. "It’s often argued that you never feel more alive than at the point of death and that is what makes Motor City so vibrant and zesty. When you know for sure there’s a mugger round the next bend, you make the most of walking around it."

      Clarkson puts it "rather well," concludes Barnes, who would perhaps find Vancouver a little more vibrant and zesty if he visited as an aboriginal woman, or anything, really, besides a privileged white toff who makes his bread from the globalist's version of Reader's Digest

      Comments

      31 Comments

      Bruce

      May 26, 2015 at 12:18pm

      Here's another chance for Vancouverites to get all neurotic and passive-aggressive about whether their city is "world class" or not.

      You know what would be "world class?" Ignoring stuff like this.

      Anthropocene

      May 26, 2015 at 1:10pm

      I (naively) hope this article goes viral and spurs the global elite to take a pass on Vancouver. Boring city? Bring it on!

      When Vancouver first started getting 'livable city' recognition I admittedly appreciated it and thought it was cool in a novel kind of way. After all, who doesn't want to be recognized and read that they live in one of the "best" cities in the world? It's great for the ego and requires no effort!

      However, my mind has shifted to viewing these 'livable city' titles as a curse for those of us who don't earn 6+ figure salaries or have the luck of being born to wealthy families. Our city is now being sold out the city from under our feet to people who have very limited ties to this place other than it being one of a number of attractive cities to park their money and help build their status on the global stage. This is not sustainable model for Vancouver or any other city. It is instead a model for extreme inequality.

      Livable city, perhaps. But, for whom?

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      out at night

      May 26, 2015 at 1:33pm

      Well it is kind of weird when you want to escape the West End during fireworks and take your out of town friends on a fruitless search for a piece of summer patio life in a supposedly touristy place like Gastown or Yaletown, only to find the pickings are surprisingly thin and many places closed at 8 or 9. Meanwhile down the way in TO some neighbourhoods are still hopping at 3 am on a Sunday night! Oh, sorry, did I suggest Toronto has anything over Vancouver?! Cue rain of indignant accusations re: centre of the Earth, superiority complex, yada yada yada...

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      Less talk more rock

      May 26, 2015 at 2:50pm

      All fine and good to pine for late night eateries and bars that can remind us of one's adulthood/citizenry, I too love to bend out the norms of what time is appropriate for ''shuttin' 'er down'' as do the vast majority of people who go out past a certain time on a certain special occasion. the thing is nobody knows how to change the current currant of the ''no fun city'' on Georgia Strait.

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      Vancouver is NOT boring....

      May 26, 2015 at 3:45pm

      So many things to do here, it's ridiculous. It's the People who are boring...

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      James Blatchford

      May 26, 2015 at 5:22pm

      Vancouver's not nearly as boring as this discussion...yawn, again.

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      Boring city....

      May 26, 2015 at 11:06pm

      I was backpacking through South America in 1985 and got caught in an out-of-nowhere instant anti-government riot in Santiago, Chile which got me tear gassed. That was pretty exciting.

      I was in New York dining in a restaurant when suddenly gunshots rang out... a targeted hit, so I guess I wasn't really in danger. But it was pretty exciting.

      I went to a football match in Newcastle and got into it with opposing fans. Knocked unconscious, so I missed what must have been some real excitement.

      I was in a car in Northern Italy near Milan when a motorcycle that must've been going 280km/h passed us. We passed him a few minutes later, him dead on the side of the road, his motorcycle in flames and embedded into the truck he hit. Excitement!!

      Give me you bland, boring architecture, your snooty Lulu-wearing divas, your entitled millennials, your immigrants with purchased driver's licenses driving $350,000 cars with Ns on them, your one symphony, your one opera house, your hockey team that'll make it past the first round once a decade... give me all of that any day of the week, because let me tell you -- you want excitement? Go travel a bit... go anywhere, but do it for real -- and you will quickly realize that this is by far the greatest fucking city on this planet. Because when you get home, and the customs guy has stamped your passport and you've grabbed your luggage and step out into the fresh air at YVR -- let tell you -- the excitement you feel at that moment..? It's the greatest feeling ever.

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      Accurate Observation

      May 27, 2015 at 9:17am

      Vancouver is 'dullard central', with spring rolls.

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      Snackster

      May 27, 2015 at 9:32am

      Vancouver is a nature-lover's paradise. Anyone who is bored with nature is dead inside, which is exactly what you'd expect from people who read magazines about economics. Let them go to high-tech playgrounds like Vegas, Macau, Dubai, or better yet, Fort McMurray.

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      jiminyk

      May 27, 2015 at 9:34am

      I love this place. I can't speak for anyone else. I hate certain things about it, but so far outweighed by sheer awesomeness. And yes, arriving at YVR, lush green, oceanic breezes: nothing better.

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