Statistics Canada has just released a story in The New York Times. Urban planners scoured the world for inspiration and came up with a Central Park of 100 acres, a Venice-inspired seawater canal, a scuplture garden, Park Avenue-like residential towers and hotels, bike paths, Parisian tree-lined boulevards, Savannah-style pocket gardens, a museum by a star architect (Peter Zumthor), and a Sydney-style opera house. Songdo is a parody, but it points to a serious international trend for cut-and-paste urbanism, one-of-each monuments, and imported familiarity. That's a long way from St. John, N.B.
Famous cities don't have happy residents
Statistics Canada has just released a fascinating study of how people feel about Canadian cities. There's a big surprise. Cities that rank high in international surveys of livability, such as Vancouver and Victoria and Toronto, score poorly with their local residents, when ranked for satisfication among residents.
The top cities in Canada, as rated by those who live there, are Saint John, New Brunswick, followed by Quebec City, and such where's-that-again? places as Charlottetown and Moncton, N.B., and Kitchener, Ontario. Victoria? Dead last, tied with booming Calgary. Vancouver was 12th (of 18 cities measured) and Toronto was 15th.
Statistics Canada has just released a fascinating study of how people feel about Canadian cities. There's a big surprise. Cities that rank high in international surveys of livability, such as Vancouver and Victoria and Toronto, score poorly with their local residents, when ranked for satisfication among residents.
The top cities in Canada, as rated by those who live there, are Saint John, New Brunswick, followed by Quebec City, and such where's-that-again? places as Charlottetown and Moncton, N.B., and Kitchener, Ontario. Victoria? Dead last, tied with booming Calgary. Vancouver was 12th (of 18 cities measured) and Toronto was 15th.
