We're #2!!!!!!

Brett · Post by **Brett** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 5:39 pm

The Mercer survey says Vancouver is the second best place in the world to live, right behind Zurich. Viva Vancouver!!!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&e=18&u=/nm/20030303/hl_nm/cities_livable_dc

Maverick · Post by **Maverick** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 12:29 am

Several of my friends that are sick of hearing me bitch about how there's no professional film or tv gigs in Seattle keep telling me to defect to Vancouver, unless I want to live in Smell A again.

Maybe there's something to that...

martino · Post by **martino** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 1:47 pm

last autumn i was friendless in vancouver and therefore didn't like the place so much. the chinese were unfriendly and tenderloin smelt badly. in contrast, seattle was great and i had a fine time with assorted members of the paxacidus gang.

so it is strange -- i know vancouver is a beautiful and dynamic city but we did not get along so well the first time. better luck next time, perhaps.

anyway, these quality-of-life reports are pretty bullshitty, generally speaking. my home base frankfurt number 5? forget it, i'd give it a 20 at best.

zurich is a fine spot indeed but given a choice, i'd go for geneva, where i was on wednesday and thursday. i had a coffee and a piece of carrot cake in a cafe on lake geneva in the sun, facing the snowy alps, whilst flirting with incredibly smart and sexy diplomat-daughter type girls. what more does a guy need, beside money?

<rosie> · Post by **<rosie>** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 10:55 pm

wow. poetic . it makes me want to eat a schnitzel.
again, marty, i am sorry i had the misfortune of not meeting you.
i decided that i like paxacidus better left un met.
this is a non commited relationship that feels sensible.

Brett · Post by **Brett** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 6:14 pm

The tenderloin smelt badly? How very strange. I'll tell you why I live here, I don't know of any other place where you can snow ski, water ski and scuba dive all in one day. If you are an outdoor enthusiast this is the place to be. I can walk across the street and kayak down a river, I'm 10 minutes away from two ski hills and live at the base of a third. The public elementary school that my kid will be attending offers French immersion and I'm surrounded by parks and wildlife. Downsides? The city itself is rampant with drugs and hookers, although that to has it's upsides.
Martino, next time you come up I'll show you around and we'll try to find some less offensive bovine.

martino · Post by **martino** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 10:16 pm

i'll take you up on that one brett!

and then, i will surely be among the masses of people who say that vancouver is one of the nicest places on earth.

martino · Post by **martino** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 9:37 am

oh, fuck me. i am just stupid, spelt s-t-o-o-p-i-d. sloppy and incomprehensible like rosie.

i wrote "tenderloin" but i meant "Gastown"; the downtown area of vancouver where i was staying. tenderloin of course, is in san francisco but gastown is in vancouver; in both live many homeless people.

instead of complaining about the smell i should appreciate that both cities are liberal enough to allow homeless people to stay. mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

marky · Post by **marky** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 3:34 pm

I feel the same Martino. My one time in Vancouver I just had a bad time.

Post by **mccutcheon** » Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:23 pm

I've always thought Vancouver was better than Seattle. as the saying goes, I guess the herb is always greener on the other side.

Post by **Sloth** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 2:49 am

Vancouver and Seattle are both fantastic places. I would rather live in Vancouver if given the choice. There are no dumb USA hicks in Canada and that is reason enough to move there.

rabbit · Post by **rabbit** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 3:22 am

hey i resemble that remark.

marky · Post by **marky** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 6:48 am

I hold out hope that in the future I will experience a better trip to Vancouver. I'm actually thinking of making the trek up there at the end of May to catch Coldplay. I could see them here in Washington but they're part of this gigantic festival that would be more time, money and trouble than I'm willing to put up with.

Post by **Sloth** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 7:05 am

I will be in London, Dublin, Stockholm, and Copenhaagen in May.

Have fun in Vancouver.

marky · Post by **marky** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 8:01 am

Also, in Vancouver's favor, the Brit Pop night there was delightful (if you didn't like what they were playing in one room you could catch Velvet Underground and Curtis Mayfield in the other) and it's hard not to trip over the fact that you can be driving downtown and all of a sudden find yourself in the back of beyond because of that huge park right next to downtown. What a surreal wonderful experience that was! In general, though, I just didn't like DRIVING in Vancouver. I didn't feel safe at all with these gigantic intersections that just weren't regulated with stop lights to the same degree I'm used to here. I just cannot handle driving in Vancouver. I refuse to do it. I'm sure there's a great art to it but I'm not that kind of artist!

Also I could never figure out why none of the pedestrians ever seemed to run across the street. Weren't they the least bit concerned they could be hit? That's a pretty regular phenomenon here, you know, to hurry across the street? Maybe 30 to 50% of pedestrians do that here? It wasn't a big deal, I wasn't mad about it, it's just something I noticed that seemed a little strange to me. And then these obnoxious guys almost ran me over with their run down truck! I got real homesick after that.

I think most of my lack of enjoyment there had to do with loneliness and general mood, though, not so much the fault of the city itself.

Post by **mccutcheon** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 2:38 pm

Mark you are just great. I have never known someone to get homesick for Seattle after being in Vancouver for a day. That's just great. I gotta go run across the street now. You should see the streets here. they have a lane called suicide lanes where cars come at you from the same direction. You wouldn't like it.