Questions on Canadian Cities

[514gal]

Originally Posted by jambo101

I used the term Kodak Coderre to describe our mayors penchant for being at all media events to make sure he gets his face photographed. I've Never heard the term Kid Kodak.

That is so true. Coderre never misses an opportunity for a photo op or to get in front of a television camera. Perhaps he should concern himself a little less with media attention and a little more with running the city properly.

[trainrover]

Originally Posted by 514gal

That is so true. Coderre never misses an opportunity for a photo op or to get in front of a television camera. Perhaps he should concern himself a little less with media attention and a little more with running the city properly.

I agree, although crooked Applebaum himself took to overly bombing his borough's quarterly bulletin .. I bet more and more civic reps and politicians take to fuji fudging.

Originally Posted by Lieneke

You need to read the news!

Why must you put more faith in crooked mainstream news outlets publishing incentivised statisticians' deceptive output over feedback from contributors to these message boards here (Détroit), pray tell?

[Lieneke]

Originally Posted by trainrover

I agree, although crooked Applebaum himself took to overly bombing his borough's quarterly bulletin .. I bet more and more civic reps and politicians take to fuji fudging.

Why must you put more faith in crooked mainstream news outlets publishing incentivised statisticians' deceptive output over feedback from contributors to these message boards here (Détroit), pray tell?

Perhaps we need some clarification ... please see appropriate discussion thread.
Cheers

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11

Been to just about every decent sized U.S. city, but haven't been to Canada in over 10 years. Planning trips now to Calgary and Vancouver, and had a couple q's.

What's up with the dense downtowns? Vancouver, for example, has a metro population comparable to a 20-30th rank U.S. metro like Charlotte. Yet its downtown looks like it could be a top 10 US metro. Calgary is comparable to Jacksonville, FL, yet looks like a bigger city.

Are the schools as bad in the cities as they are in the U.S? Do people flee for suburbs, or is it more typical to stay in the city when you have kids?

Does the lower number of large metros limit most young, professional Canadians to Toronto or Vancouver?

Montreal (which I visited many times growing up near Boston), seems to be losing rank and importance relative to Toronto. Is it turning into a cold, Canadian New Orleans? (Party city with French influence and weak local economy)

Thanks in advance for any of your thoughts on this.

This thread seemingly got taken over by irrelevant posts but let me try to pull it back to your original inquiry.

I just visited Vancouver this past June and loved it! In fact, I've been to Canada no less than four times the past year and a half and have seen six different cities. Practically all Canadian cities look and feel denser than most American cities because Canadians seemingly held on successfully to the notion of a thriving downtown. You'll see this in Vancouver as all activity seems to center around a big financial center or shopping center. I've seen the same concept in Toronto and Montreal. Office parks, retail malls, and residences are not as spread out like they are commonly in the US and you'll scarcely see hollowed out downtown cores. I visited, Hamilton, ON and Albany, NY on the same trip, both cities' metro areas are similar in size but Hamilton's downtown was undoubtedly much livelier than Albany's. In fact, Hamilton is often compared to nearby Buffalo, NY as gritty cities but even Hamilton to me was livelier than Buffalo.

People do get priced out of the downtown core in Canadian cities and forced to move to the suburbs, this is happening greatly in Toronto and Vancouver and to a lesser extent in other cities. Your second to last question pretty much gives the hint on why the biggest cities are getting so expensive and it's because more young professionals want to live in such cities if they can.

Lastly, Montreal is not growing as fast as Toronto or Vancouver but it is definitely not dying either. Politics and the French language do present an obstacle to individuals wanting to move there from the US or other parts of Canada but given the increasingly unaffordable Toronto and Vancouver metro areas and the shaky financial situation of Alberta, don't be surprised to see more people moving to Montreal and investing in it in the near future.

I hope you have a fun time in Canada! Be sure to take advantage of the presently good currency exchange rate.