Is Vancouver the best city in North America? 

One of my favorite About Here videos on Vancouver is: When Do We Get a Skytrain to UBC: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-accrf6-vLJU.html

Vancouver is like one of those Japanese sports car icons, amazing and underrated achievement, budget friendly but as soon as everyone realized how good they are, the price rose by 400%, and they kept in sterile garages and never driven. Vancouver is so good, that it has become priceless and unattainable. The ironies of this world i swear.

As a Vancouverite, I love how this video became a gathering place for other Vancouverites to come to the comment section to go “ehhh well actually…” and reveals the actual truth.

I lived in downtown Vancouver, drawn by the misleading headlines of the world's most beautiful city. Everything felt amazing for 3 months. Later I realized that everyday life is expensive, half of the condos are stupidly empty while everyone struggles to pay their rent. Neighborhood life is non-existent, the majority of stores are large luxury chains, small merchants have fled the city, Vancouver feels soulless and cultural spaces are scarce (except the cult of sport and the wearing of leggings as only clothing). More than a year later, I have moved to Montreal, and I feel it is a much better city in North America.

After watching this glowing video I can't help but think that some cities look amazing on paper but fail to truly serve the needs of its citizens. As a Canadian social worker, I know it as a place with poor mental health supports, egregious addictions services and high overdose fatality rates, and unaffordable housing. It is unfortunate that all the positives are overshadowed by its lack of affordability for the average Canadian, leading to a lack of true community feel.

Those "family" townhouses cost about 2 Million dollars. Ideal if you have a few kids and are just starting out.

Vancouver is no longer affordable for the average family.

I think we can appreciate the amazing cities in Canada while also acknowledging the biggest problem in Canada in the 2020's and that is affordability. It is crazy and sad.

The sad part about living in Vancouver is those very long periods of time where all you do is work and don’t really get to enjoy the beautiful scenery cuz you’re so stressed :)

As a resident, I'll tell you if you like mild weather and love being out in nature it's great. But socially it's a black hole and if you don't have tonnes of cash you won't have much fun.

another comment about the pronunciation..it's "vanCOUver" not "VANcouver" It's "leviOHHHHHsa" not "levioSAAAAA"

Me as a vancouverite seeing this title: laughs uncontrollably

Honestly, the best city in North America is the one that people don't know about yet. Like Seattle 20 years ago or Salt Lake City 5 years ago.

VAAAAN-couver

New best city in the world: exists International buyers: Here we go

I just came from visiting Vancouver. It’s a beautiful city, but the people are not very friendly and walking down Hastings street and Chinatown area seeing all the homelessness and open drug use was one on the saddest sights I’ve ever seen in my life!

Great analysis of Vancouver, where I was born and lived for 50 years. I don’t miss the traffic and commercialism (I now live in Switzerland in the beautiful countryside), but Vancouver still hold a lot of great memories for me. One thing you forgot that Switzerland doesn’t have: a lot of great, but inexpensive restaurants!

You have to understand that Vancouver's beauty relies on shoving out people who are not super wealthy. That is a major, major flaw because it produces a giant inner-city ghetto like in the United States and forces many people to live far away. It is beautiful, but a better design would encourage mixed income residents.

VanCOUver does a lot of things really well, but has some serious issues. The insane price of real estate is just one issue of many. Vancouver is rapidly becoming a playground for the wealthy with a dirt-poor underclass cleaning rich peoples' bathrooms. I'm one of the few who was actually born in Vancouver. In early 2019 I left.

As a Canadian, the concept Vancouver as a the best city to live in is odd to me. They're notoriously known as the most expensive city in Canada.

I settled in Vancouver when I moved to Canada and lived in east Vancouver, the city itself is really beautiful and there is so much to explore but I haven’t really felt home. Apart from that the rent is through the roof even in Burnaby and surrey far away from actual downtown Vancouver. Idk it just felt sterile and way too good I would say. I then moved to Calgary after 5 months, where rent is like half and it’s still a fairly beautiful city with the Rocky Mountains in view.

Summer: "VANCOUVER IS BEAUTIFUL! OMG LETS GRAB OUR BIKES AND GO OUT!" Every other season: (inaudible grumbling)

If a city isn't affordable for at least the median person or family, it's NOT a livable city, it's a livable city for only certain types of people

I live in Vancouver. There’s lots of unique and beautiful traits the city has to offer like the breathtaking nature backdrop. All that said, the place is utterly up its own arse. It’s wrought with corrupt politicians and it’s desirability is heavily based on the fact it’s the only city in Canada that doesn’t get much winter.

I went to Vancouver for a 2 week visit and ender up staying for 15 years. I love Vancouver 🇨🇦

I grew up in Vancouver(van-COO-vr), your pronunciation is killing me, as well as foreign buyers.

The pronunciation is killing me

I only got to spend a few days in Vancouver when I was traveling to Nanaimo for work. But I thought it was really really cool and would love to go again. I see all the complaints about housing prices. That is really sad that it isn't affordable to live there. I spend a lot of time in Seattle, and I thought Vancouver was a much nicer city overall.

Adding to the chorus of former Vancouverites who have left the city. Every time I go back there I wonder, “wow, why did I leave?,” but it’s a mirage. Great place to visit, but it’s extremely hard to meet people and make friends, I think in part because everyone is working so hard to afford being there. The social scene and nightlife is pretty lacklustre, especially because most music acts play West Coast American cities Friday, Saturday, and then by the time they play Vancouver it’s a Sunday or Wednesday or maybe a Thursday if you’re lucky. It feels like you’re close to nature, but if you go anywhere on a weekend it’s insanely busy, especially Whistler on Saturdays. I much prefer living in smaller ski towns where everyone is more chilled out, friendly, and not struggling so much. It’s a shame because it is a beautiful city, but they need to do a lot more work to make it livable.

Vancouver is great but I'd never in a million years want to live there because of how absurdly expensive it is

I’m from Nova Scotia I visited Vancouver last year I didn’t feel like I was even in Canada, the amount of homeless people and drug addicts in the city was an eye opener that something has to be done to help people

I live in Southern California and I've been wanting to visit Vancouver since I was 12 years old and I was planning on doing a road trip to Vancouver but then the pandemic hit and it delayed my plans. Still determined even though it is extremely expensive to live there I can't help how beautiful that city is. Los Angeles would be cool at first but it you would get bored. Seen it once seen it all. Vancouver is just one of those cities I've been obsessed over and I always been so fascinated with the Pacific Northwest.

I live in Vancouver, and I've lived in LA. We're spoiled. Downtown LA empties and night, downtown Vancouver is still thriving because people live there. But the big problem with the rest of Vancouver is the same as anywhere else: single family housing. The city of Vancouver proper has way to much single family housing even if the lots are much denser than the typical American house. For all of the highrise density, city of Vancouver actually needs much more medium density housing, which the suburbs in the larger greater Vancouver area do better.

Lived here 10 years without the need of a car. Saves SOOO much money I instantly lost on rent...

Vancouver is the best Cities: Skylines project on Earth.

LOVE Vancouver...spot on!!!

I love Vancouver. I live in Seattle and Vancouver just feels like the amazing Aunty city that spoils you when you visit.

my tiny pet peeve is that i’ve always emphasized the “couv” syllable rather than the “van” syllable

It is really expensive though ... and this is something that really matters when picking a city to live .. Vancouver sure is pretty and well planned... but if you have to struggle so much just to survive in it , is it really worth it? It looks like it is a gentrified city ...

Welcome to Vancouver, we only have 2 seasons: rainy season and wildfire season. In rainy season it drizzles all day every day, and in wildfire season the sun burns down the rainforest until smog fills the sky.

If by “best” you mean unaffordable, then yes, Vancouver is the best North American city.

Honestly, Vancouver is one of my favorite cities in the world. Too bad it's so expensive nowadays...

"vancouver has a lot of foriegn buyers" Richmond: *observe*

Love Vancouver it is incredible. Down Town Eastside is a black eye on the city.

Yes! I love it here! I was born and raised here!

0:24 Ignores "most expensive city"

Hey Dave, love your content however, I have a critique about your "Vancouverism" video. As a born and raised Vancouverite I'd like to respectfully point out that focusing on downtown is by no mean a representation of Vancouver city design. Sure DOWNTOWN is nice blah blah blah, but that's a small part of the city. Im actually surprised you didn't even touch on the Vancouver Special or hwo traffic is restricted to say ~10 major streets in the city. While here did you manage to go to Main st, Commercial st, UBC, Hastings st, or East Van? The City of Vancouver, as I describe it, is like NY city in the downtown and then a giant suburb surrounding that peninsula. Very spread out, grid-like, and suburban with islands of highrises spotted throughout. This is the Vancouver 95% of peopel live in. I was hoping for your thoughts on the city as a whole because, as you pointed out, whenever you search Van up you'll get results such as "the best... etc" and that does not raise issue with the city as a whole, the real Vancouver. Thoughts and your professional opinion?? P.S. Vancouver is pronunced with the stress on the second sylable VanCOUver.

It would be good for you to compare Vancouver to Montreal. Check out the latter's bike lanes, large inventory of mid-density / signature local multiplex housing, and extensive metro system (with future REM). I like to toot my horn about Canada's 3 largest cities (Toronto, Montreal, Vanc) - each one is vibrant/liveable and each has its pro's/con's.

omg! we were DYING to leave there...our departures from cloney coast there've become cherished memories 🍸🍸

"Affluent, cookie cutter, and exclusive". An excellent description of what is just not quite right about false creek, I've always had that feeling about it. Great video, I feel like this was an excellent quick overview of the city.

Well I’ll probably have to move out of the city in a few years because I can’t even afford a studio for 700k

I have lived in Iowa for all my life except the 2 years I went to university in Vancouver. And yes, Vancouver, and particularly North Vancouver is North America's best city. I just visited last week, last November, and I will visit again very soon!!!

I feel like this video was very downtown Vancouver centric. A lot of current development in Metro Vancouver is in the suburbs like Burnaby, Surrey, and Richmond. In fact, the metrotown area is posed to be the most dense area of the city with the province's tallest towers.

They have the busiest bus line in Canada and the US, and hosted Expo 86 and the 2010 Winter Olympics. It looks nice but expensive

I remember staying in Vancouver for 2 days before going on a larger trip, and I didn’t expect it to become such a big part of the trip. It was one of the most fun parts on that trip.

I treated myself for my 44th birthday by going to visit my friends in Vancouver. I loved it there!!!

hats off to this detailed ananlysis

Not sure you're putting the emphasis on the right syllable there.

What a coincidence. When you googled “Vancouver is the” I paused to see what my city was. I’m from Memphis so I google “Memphis is the” just before you did.

Great info, thanks

man i never knew i would be seeing my home in this channel.

I lived in Vancouver for a year and it was the greatest year of my life

I moved to Edmonton from Vancouver when I was 19 and I have lived here 13 years now. I miss some things like the ocean and the mountains. But overall I think my quality of life here is just better. I own a house and I have a good paying job plus I live close to a river valley which is a green belt running through the city. Most of my friends still there are struggling and the ones who are not there parents died and left them a house to live in. I don't think there is going to be much of a future for average families there.

Interesting. Thank you for the video.

I'm so looking forward to traveling there when the border reopens. I live in Indianapolis, where people live not because it's great but because it's relatively cheap. However, we've had an absurd seller's market in real estate, and that affordability is slipping away. It's becoming increasingly dangerous as well. So, if it stops being affordable, why else would you want to live here? Auto racing is fun, but it's only a couple of days a year, with one especially big day. We have the NBA and the NFL, but so do lots of cities. Our geography leaves a lot to be desired, just flat, unremarkable, and quite distant from the ocean. It's even a 3- to 4-hour drive to get to Lake Michigan, the closest thing we have to an ocean. The weather can be downright frigid in winter and oppressive in the summer with little in-between. Our transit system is improving, but that's going from an F to a D. Every time Indianapolis tries to do something progressive, our stupid state legislature undoes it. I was born here, and I still live here because my parents are here (as are my in-laws), and they're not getting any younger. I wish we would all just pack up and move somewhere better. My employer will let me work from anywhere, and a couple of my colleagues have moved away. And, yet, outside investors are buying up homes here like crazy...maybe because it's still cheaper than California? Does this mean California will become more affordable so I can afford to move there? Indianapolis itself is not actually bad. Unfortunately, it's located in Indiana, and the rest of the state seems to hate us city folk.

your "Vancouver" is basically only downtown area, the most expensive area. If you want to live instagram worthy places, be prepared to pay high price.

Why do you keep emphasizing “Van” when you say Vancouver.. as someone born here that annoyed the crap out of me.

I love how you can see my boat 9:47 into the video - Heather Civic Marina. :)

Vancouverism: thought of the urban design, but never of the demographic design.

It's the best city to launder Chinese money.

Whenever I watch a videogram like this I get all excited to visit & know the city, once I am there, many times I do get dissapointed. Like Vancouver.

Vancouver feels like the most international and futuristic city in North America. It's an amazing city and the Sea-to-Sky highway and all it's bountiful beauty being right next door makes the city quite a jewel.

This is a very charming city, I hope I can return to visit sometime in the future when all this is over. Seeing and sharing places like this is why I love traveling and make videos so much!

"extremely narrow" residential streets of only 66 feet (20 meters) had to listen to that 3 times to make sure I heard it right, how is that considered narrow?

Could you do a video reviewing Sacramento city planning? I'd love to hear your opinion as a local!

Awesome video. You should do one on the downtown Eastside of Vancouver. It's one of if not the worst ghetto in Canada inside the best city.

I would agree with everything that is said in this video. I live in the Greater Vancouver area and have spent a lot of time in Vancouver proper. The city is beautiful but it's insanely expensive, my family as well as the families of many of my friends can't afford to live in Vancouver proper because of the insane price, meaning we live out in the cities surrounding like Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Richmond, etc. The construction in Vancouver is insane and it's expanding outwards as the value of land skyrockets. The house my parents bought in the late 2000s has nearly tripled in value since they've bought it. The amount of homeless people on some streets is horrific, something needs to be done but I really can't think quite what. Really the only other major complaint I have for Vancouver is the horrible traffic when trying to get to BC Place on the night of a Lions game lol.

Ironically, as person from Memphis, we are actually facing almost the same problems you highlighted regarding trying to bring the suburban folk that fled during the white flights of the 40s-80s, so it's interesting to see similar problems from not exactly, but similar, origins for two different cities. I'm new to urban planning but I'm a GIS student with an undergrad and MA in anthropology and getting to learn more about urban planning the way you share things with particular interest in how these planning decisions are affecting people's lives has helped motivate me through the more grueling material I'm trying to learn, so, thanks!

no, I don't get those search results. You get those search results, because search results are tailored to the user. when I type in "Vancouver is the" the autopromt gives me "LA of Canada" and "most expensive city" "capital of which country"

Short version: Hong Kong Chinese moved there and built mixed use high-rise apartments above shop podiums typical of East Asia.

Well, when you're rich enough to (comfortably) live in Vancouver, you can get yourself a nice lifestyle in a lot a places lol

Awe man you covered my hometown! So cool!

Wasn't until I learned about urban planning and played some Cities Skylines that I realized how..ridiculous the amount of Vancouver dedicated to low density zoning given the land prices. While many are struggling to afford rent and can never dream of purchasing a home, 1-2 families take up the space that can house thousands, barely 5 minutes away from downtown. They are also often vacant, an investment for the ultra wealthy. Many of them are just single story flat houses. They aren't even fit for living in, just there to call dibs on the land. Because of this, most of the Greater Vancouver Area is effectively suburbia, including parts of Vancouver city. Commercial areas and public amenities are so far away because of the low density housing that a car is necessary, and yet parking is hard to find and expensive due to the regulations, and slow due to lack of highways. Public transit is desperately needed, but buses have the same issue as cars, and it takes decades of deliberation to build even a little stretch of subway, even though the few lines that do exist have proven to be the lifeline of the city. After all, the ultra wealthy investors don't need public transit, and the struggling residents have no say.

You can fit Vancouver and all other major North American cities on one block in New York, and still have the rest of New York to overwhelm the senses.

I recently moved out of BC after living in Vancouver for about 20 years. Sure, the city is nice, but the people not so much. It has changed so much since I was a kid. The place is way too expensive, and so cluttered, that I had to leave. I miss the parks and the ocean, though I am glad I left.

I think that you were surprised by the children walking around without parents shows that there is a big Problem in the US. In Germany Children start go playing outside and on the streets without their parents when they are 7 or 8 years old and in my opinion this is an important step to grant that your children can take care of themselves.

montreal has vancouver beat when it comes to safety, aesthetic, affordability and urban design.

"What makes this city full of wealthy Canadians such a great place to live?"

If Vancouver is the best city in North America, that’s really depressing

I've visited Vancouver a few times recently, and my experiences pretty closely match what you've outlined. My favorite part was definitely the easy transition between residential and commercial spaces; countless eating and shopping options were always a block or two away. But I could never quite shake a bit of claustrophobia, feeling boxed in by the ubiquitous glass midrises even in the city's green spaces. I suppose the latter is a reasonable tradeoff for the former, and I'd certainly consider moving there if I could afford it. But the housing prices there are comically out of reach.

ya those bike lanes and other public transport you praised are also the reason small business is on lifesupport throughout the city

It reminds me so much of the Southloop of Chicago

I love Vancouver, it's a beautiful place to be but because of that it's so insanely expensive to live. You have people trying to rent closets for 1500 per month, ICBC insurance that has rates through the roof, foreign buyers scooping up property like crazy. Like I said I love Vancouver but even the best places have their issues.

I really appreciate your highlighting of the cons of Vancouverism. It's easy to glamourize what planners have successfully done here, but we have to remember that for a huge portion of people, it's not beneficial or viable. And the ripple effect is felt for renters and middle-class folks. And now, cities all over the province are feeling the effects, as those markets become more popular for people fleeing the expensive big city. It's a very complicated issue here, and I'm glad you didn't ignore it.

Like other cities, Vancouver became a victim of its own success. We are now over-crowded, over-priced and over-regulated. Our bridges and roads are horribly inadequate for our bursting population - and still more people come here. And we now don't go to other parts of the city such as Stanley Park or concert venues due to traffic, endless construction detours and draconian parking regulations. If there were a major poem about my hometown it would be Paradise Lost.

Vancouver needs to have like 40% empty home tax and remove the height restrictions. It needs a lot more skyscrapers.

"It's van-COU-ver, not VAN-cou-ver" - Hermione Granger

Great review of the pros and cons. Thank you for mentioning the high expense, rich foreign speculators, and homelessness that makes living in Vancouver a struggle. I have friends there who love their lifestyle, but had to work hella hard to make ends meet. Yes! We need a Van 2.0!

Still fixed mass transit (tram, train, S-Bahn) is the development direction.

I have been to Vancouver. I stayed in both North Van and the downtown area which is an island. The North was alright, the center (besides the large park on the upper part) was what I imagine Central LA to be like. Not somewhere I enjoyed walking around, or somewhere I would want to visit again. But maybe Vancouver is a lady with more than one face?