What qualities make a city 'livable' to you?

Question

Vancouver takes top honours in a global survey of cities by Economist magazine for the fifth straight time. Toronto ranked five on the list.

Read more: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070823/national/liveable_cities

Answer 1

For the environment, clean air and recycling are important to me. A good living environment, i.e. a neighbourhood for children to grow up in. A neighbourhood where people can rely on their neighbours when in need; Cleanliness of streets and gardens kept neat and tidy. In other words, be proud of your neighbourhood. Parks intermingled with city life where one can go for enjoyment, even if it is just to relax and enjoy the beauty of a park. Tree lined streets; good transportation which flows properly during rush hours; non-polluted lakes and streams, and more importantly, people who care about their habitat.

Answer 2

What makes a city truly livable is a good transit system that connects all parts of the city by metro.

I lived in Mumbai, India for many years. It had an excellent metro system that ran 24/7. It linked all the parts of this large city and with a monthly pass, I could travel anywhere within the city and its suburbs at a very low cost. There were slow trains, and express trains, and in fact from the downtown Churchgate station there was a train every two or three minutes. I had a car, but it was hardly used.

We need this kind of connectivity in Canadian cities. Toronto comes close, but its not quite there - all parts of the city and suburbs are not well connected. Montreal has a good system, but the many of the suburbs are not connected.

I wish Ottawa had a good metro system.

Answer 3

I have lived and visited all over the North American continent. Vancouver is definetly NOT the best city to live in. Too many homeless,transients,and dopers for safety. Pricing of EVERYTHING is way too high. And the weather, well that depends on whether you want to be rained on most of the year. Toronto is alright, but it's crime rate has really increased over the past couple of years. So one cannot say that it is such a safe place anymore and that tends to over ride most any other qualities it still has. Montreal, it is full of beauty with it's dark side hidden from most tourists. Yes, it is less expensive to live there if you want to put up with the junkies and the attitudes that get slung around if your an English speaker. I cannot honestly say that any of Canada's big cities are all that impressive, at least not as of 2007. In the States, well as one can imagine, it is far worse. What bother's me the most is that I can see where Canada seems h*ll bent on becoming the same as the U.S. I truely wish those in power here would NOT lick American boots. We all know what happens when a country does this. All this coming from someone who was for most of my life ...a U.S. citizen.

Answer 4

I'm in Vancouver right now. I very recently spent six months in Algiers, which is at the bottom of the list.

From my personal experience, I would rank the following as things as the most important quality of life differences. You don't know what's most important until you deal with the loss of it:


1. Air quality and general pollution

In Algiers, pollution is so bad that street cleaners burn garbage (including plastic) on the corner of the streets every single day. Discarded plastic bags are everywhere. I know in other countries, plastic bags have already been banned. It's time for the same ban here and everywhere else too.

2. Fresh water

There is not enough fresh water in Algiers to support the population the way that Vancouver people are accustomed.

3. public / personal space

It's hard enough to find an actual sidewalk in Algiers. The very few parks around don't meet the needs of people to get some peace and quiet.


4. food quality

Meat-on-a-stick or ketchup/processed cheese/egg pizza are the only menu items-- everywhere.


5. transportation

We were MUCH more afraid and definitely more likely to die in Algeria in a traffic accident than for any other reason.

6. Safety -- least concerning factor

Personal safety is definitely an issue in Algiers. The chances of being involved in an incident are extremely rare, though, unless you happen to be working for KBR.


Surprising ways that Algiers is better or equal to Vancouver:

1. price of gas is 25 cents per litre in Algiers
2. cost of everything is much cheaper in Algiers
3. health and prescription drugs are cheaper in Algiers-- likely similar quality.
4. telecom prices are about 1/7 in Algiers, even though the technology and service quality are the same or better in Algiers.

Answer 5

Livable city doesn't means just a place with good weather, beautiful area, low crimes,low traffic,a lot of job opportunities and so on. The best criteria more than this is low discrimination and low poverty in spite of those good criteria.Vancouver really has too much distance being a symbol of healthy livable city because of poverty and discrimination that everybody can see under beautiful face of this city. The distance between rich and poor people is a lot and is going up day by day which will cover it's nice face.
Vancouver's government should consider this distances and try to decrease them to make really livable city.

Answer 6

Having a beach front for people to enjoy the water is important. Clean streets and no homeless people tops list. Tourists and visitors need to feel safe walking around the streets without being approached several times by someone asking for money. It all comes down to personal space. Offer tourist rates at downtown hotels. In the USA there are tourist books available which offer walk-in specials at hotels. If the hotels are not full why not offer a cheaper rate to take care of the empty rooms? Offer a free continental breakfast at all hotels. Have a special tourist day pass on the subways so a car is not necessary. Bring back happy hour at the bars.

Answer 7

Well, I live in Vancouver, and I would say an important factor in making a city liveable is its cleanliness. VANCOUVER IS A DUMP, and it definately does not deserve to be at the top of the list. Sure from an outside perspective Vancouver looks really good, but take a walk in its downtown core and you'll be disgusted by the amount of garbage and litter everywhere...and the smell of urine doesn't help matters either! I've lived in and been to many Canadian cities from the East coast to the West coast and Vancouver is by far the dirtiest I've seen!

Answer 8

Every city should have free and extensive mass transit (paid for by taxing everyone, after all when only the poor fund mass transit, you get a poor system). If the rich don't want to use it fine, it's there for them on those rare days when their Mercedes won't start. Read "Streetcar Conspiracy" to find out why we are in the environmental mess, energy crunch and traffic nightmare we live today. Vancouver has a subway, but 1/10 of the track it should have &1/2 the bus fleet needed.

Answer 9

Vancouver is a nice place where the tourists are, but outside of those areas you will find its dark side, i.e., too many poor people caused by a lack of decent paid jobs.

I cant understand why there are million dollar cruise liners and one mile down the road there are homeless people wondering around with no support and no hope.

I would not vote Vancouver the most liveable city.

For me, a liveable city has to be able to sustain its population, be clean and have good public services with little crime. Perhaps if BC had a premier who was not a drunk driver it would help!

Answer 10

A livable city, my opinion, one that enables progress, stability, peace and security, has lots of childrens'
attraction, activties, and level of education - Toronto !. One that has interactive/ interconnective places for teens, Toronto is getting there.... One that has places for adults to intertwine
Wait.... doesn't Toronto have that! If i can go to work, my chlidren are in school and at the end of the week, we can relax, entertain, explore whatever thought we might have about life within means, WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

In my opinion Vancouver is getting all the rave reviews
because it is close to California...... What about that!

Answer 11

What I fail to understand why Vancouver was first. The cost of living is ridiculously high in Vancouver... I live here and have looked.

The only way to afford to live is to move to the suburbs. I fail to additionally see how West Coast Express and Sky Train even comes close to the Go Train and the TTC.

Don't get me wrong, I love living here and will remain to live here, but Vancouver, outside of the location pails miserably to other cities in Canada... them being Montreal and Toronto.

Vancouver has no culture... an elaborate condo filled, suburban, downtown core... placed in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Toronto's big miss is the crime rate, the location and as well the cost of living. I know that it is getting up there, but at least it has the arts.