It’s been a few years since I’ve published here at Social Cities. It’s been busy, but I also lost focus on my original message about creating great public space and encouraging social connections. My interest in writing has revived. I have fresh doubts. I have questions about beliefs I held firmly only a few years ago. I’m worried that many ideas on city building are inadequate, perhaps even wrong. Writing gives me a chance to sort some of my ideas into a more coherent form.
Many doubts come from a city I’ve never visited – Vancouver. Vancouver is often rated as one of the most livable cities in the world. Urban planners laud the city for its urban design. It has excellent travel choices, especially cycling and transit. Vancouverism is the name of a design philosophy that uses tall, slim towers to create high population densities. The high density is combined with walkable, bustling streets. Vancouver is a model (perhaps the model) for progressive cities.
The Vancouver paradox? The model livable city is not necessarily a great place to live. Housing is notoriously expensive – at a crisis level. High housing prices have created huge gaps between wealthy and poor residents. Drug use and opioid overdoses are a massive problem. Unsurprisingly, some rankings aren’t as kind to Vancouver. Maclean’s gives the city a middling rank for safety. Moneysense ranks Vancouver as the 88th best place to live – in Canada.
There is of course no right answer to which city is the best or the most livable. Every person has different needs and values. Every ranking prioritizes different things. You can of course question whether ranking complex, diverse cities has any value at all. But we are still left grappling with Vancouver – wonderful opportunities and devilish problems. Vancouver is thousands upon thousands of overlapping stories, relationships and experiences. For some people, it really is a great place to live. As a local paper describes the Moneysense rankings: “Vancouver shoots up to the nation’s #1 spot if you prioritize a strong economy/wealth and great amenities, and de-prioritize housing affordability and low crime. No surprises there, then.”
The most damning opinion on Vancouver, however, comes from residents. People in Vancouver self-report that they are among the least happy in Canada. Granted, Canada is a happy country by world standards – Vancouverites are not miserable. But the paragon of modern city building is home to some of Canada’s least happy residents. This is a profound problem, which deserves careful thought. There’s a gap between Vancouver’s reputation and the (relative) unhappiness of its residents. Vancouver is repeatedly touted as an overwhelming success. But many people don’t really enjoy living there.
If this mismatch between hype and happiness were unique to Vancouver, it might be a curiosity. But Toronto also ranks high on world livability rankings, and also has (relatively) unhappy residents. Vancouver is particularly interesting because it is often cited and imitated. It represents the goals and challenges of many cities, big and small. Vancouver’s successes are inspiring, but Vancouver’s challenges and failures raise critical questions. In future posts, I may not write specifically about Vancouver, but I plan on writing about about some of the big challenges in city building: housing affordbility; building social connections; wealth creation; inequality; loneliness. I hope you’ll read my posts, and I hope you’ll share your ideas and experiences. Together, I hope we can discuss how to build healthy, strong communities.
Photo credit: www.tourismvancouver.com/
