BC Lags Behind Other Provinces in Life Satisfaction

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

There is no world in which Vancouver traffic is better than Calgary. That's crazy talk.

The idea is that there are far more ways to avoid driving in Vancouver, whereas in Calgary, unless you are in a select few neighbourhoods (or work from home) you have to drive. Vancouver is set up to have far more density, so biking, transit, or even walking are far more feasible alternatives.

If I was selling someone on Calgary, transportation, traffic, and commuting would be the last subject I would bring up.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by blender

Like any debate there are arguments on both sides, and like any debate, rash generalizations are common and only serve to polarize people.
As a transplanted Albertan I feel like most of the generalizations are overstated. Albertans are harder workers? Hogwash. British Columbians are lefty flakes? Hah, come live in the Interior; it's a redneck paradise here.

As always, your view has a lot to do with what kind of window you are looking through.

I'm surprised you would come to this conclusion as Alberta has long worked the longest hours of all Canadians.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...nt-study-finds

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/albertans...iving-1.771124

https://www.mitrefinch.ca/blog/time-...%202.2%20hours.

[RobotTalk]

Count me as someone who really enjoyed living in Calgary and Vancouver, but for whom the cons of living in Vancouver outweighed the pros.

Both are great cities (we were 3 and 4 respectively on the best cities in the Economist's world livability rankings this year), with their own upsides and downsides. That said, even though I was a UBC student I echo the comments here about Vancouver being a lonely city to live in. It was super hard to meet people outside of school and even through school most of my friends were transplants.

What I found interesting is that almost all my UBC friends have left Vancouver, the only ones that stayed were born and raised Vancouverites. The most common reason for leaving has been the high cost of living combined with the difficulty in finding well-paying professional jobs. Most, including myself, say they could have coped with the high cost of living if there were good career opportunities, but there just aren't that many opportunities.

That's what Calgary offers, a very high quality of life enabled by good paying jobs, combined with a relatively low cost of living, more outdoor recreation opportunities and friendlier people. What it doesn't have is the ocean, a temperate climate, non-dry air (as a born and raised Calgarian I didn't realize how dry the air is here until I lived elsewhere), and much more limited nightlife opportunities (although this is a less of an issue the older I get).

[Matata]

Every Calgarian I know that's moved to non-Vancouver BC has commented on how the pace of life felt it came to a grinding halt.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by RobotTalk

What I found interesting is that almost all my UBC friends have left Vancouver, the only ones that stayed were born and raised Vancouverites. The most common reason for leaving has been the high cost of living combined with the difficulty in finding well-paying professional jobs. Most, including myself, say they could have coped with the high cost of living if there were good career opportunities, but there just aren't that many opportunities.

Vancouver is a city defined by money that comes in from elsewhere, middlemen who collect service fees off that money, and rent seekers. It's a retirement villa and a safe location for assets and children of the world's wealthy, not really a great city for most people to build a career.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Yeah, there’s more to BC than Vancouver. I moved to Victoria 2 years ago from a lifetime in Calgary. I’m pretty happy here. BUT it’s well known how hyper local people are here. Preference is always given to those who were born here. Born Victorian > born islander > born BCian > rest of Canada/world > Ontario

Cost of housing is the biggest downside. My house here is double what I sold my house in calgary for. I love Calgary, and the mountains, but I’m 15 minutes from some amazing adventures here, and there’s so much to explore. I was in Vancouver last week for work and I was craving my quiet island life pretty badly.

I go to Victoria quite often and have noticed a shift in the mood of that city similar to Vancouver. It has become quite the rat race as well. For a medium sized city, it's crazy how bad the traffic and cost of living has gotten. If I was born there, I would probably dislike newcomers as well. Parts of the Okanagan have gotten bad as well.

The company I work for does a lot of hiring around the province and it is funny how things have changed. We get way more applicants and competition for positions in the north than we do for the LML now. It's to the point they have talked about implementing a LML living allowance similar to the northern living allowance some people offer.

Pretty much everyone I work with talks about one day being able to move to a small town somewhere which is pretty much my goal too. It's just difficult when you factor in job opportunities for all household members and uprooting kids.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

Calgary winter vs Vancouver year-round raining season, which is the less of two evil?

Calgary winters are pretty mild so I'd take those over rainy Vancouver. Substitute Prairie winter vs Vancouver and I'd possibly view it differently.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

There is no world in which Vancouver traffic is better than Calgary. That's crazy talk.

It is crazy talk. They have more efficient public transit, but their traffic is atrocious.

For all the complaints about Calgary traffic, and they are valid, this is a really, really big City, those people should go for a daily commute in Montreal or the GTA.

Those are real nightmares.

[Swift]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I'm surprised you would come to this conclusion as Alberta has long worked the longest hours of all Canadians.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...nt-study-finds

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/albertans...iving-1.771124

https://www.mitrefinch.ca/blog/time-...%202.2%20hours.

Pfft, most of those longer hours are spent posting on CP.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Swift

Pfft, most of those longer hours are spent posting on CP.

But we're all multi-millionaires here so none of the discussions about things like commute time are really relevant. We're all retired living the good life.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

There is no world in which Vancouver traffic is better than Calgary. That's crazy talk.

No left hand turning lanes on most of their main roads.... yeah 3rd world city. lol

I guess it would cost them $100million for every block houses i guess.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Locke

It is crazy talk. They have more efficient public transit, but their traffic is atrocious.

For all the complaints about Calgary traffic, and they are valid, this is a really, really big City, those people should go for a daily commute in Montreal or the GTA.

Those are real nightmares.

I mean what is a really long traffic jam in Calgary? 15 mins? 25 mins tops?

I was stuck in a 3 hour jam in Vancouver one day and a 2.5 hour one in Seattle on the same day! like wtf??

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Calgary winters are pretty mild so I'd take those over rainy Vancouver. Substitute Prairie winter vs Vancouver and I'd possibly view it differently.

I'm a big fan of sun, and having lived in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto, I much, MUCH prefer Calgary and Toronto winters because of how sunny it remains despite it being - 10 or below all winter over - 5 to +5 in Vancouver winters but overcast cloud cover 85% of the time with rain.

[Mr.Coffee]

I’m really not sure Calgary is “so much friendlier” than Vancouver. I don’t find Calgary overly friendly anymore and is becoming increasingly a lonely place. That could be the reality of aging though, but this city ain’t what it used to be.

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by activeStick

I'm a big fan of sun, and having lived in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto, I much, MUCH prefer Calgary and Toronto winters because of how sunny it remains despite it being - 10 or below all winter over - 5 to +5 in Vancouver winters but overcast cloud cover 85% of the time with rain.

The grey skies in your first winter here can be something. Some people do fall into a bit of a depression due to lack of natural light. I don't think it ever bothered me but I saw in my wife when she first moved out here. Something that a lot of people talk about.

It sucks for kids as you can't really go out and play in the rain like you can in the snow. And soccer in the freezing rain just outright sucks!

[RobotTalk]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Vancouver is a city defined by money that comes in from elsewhere, middlemen who collect service fees off that money, and rent seekers. It's a retirement villa and a safe location for assets and children of the world's wealthy, not really a great city for most people to build a career.

This is very, very true.

My friends and I would always laugh at the Lambos and Ferraris parked at UBC with 'N' stickers on the back. What a first car to be gifted...

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I go to Victoria quite often and have noticed a shift in the mood of that city similar to Vancouver. It has become quite the rat race as well. For a medium sized city, it's crazy how bad the traffic and cost of living has gotten. If I was born there, I would probably dislike newcomers as well. Parts of the Okanagan have gotten bad as well.

Driving in Victoria has always been an adventure. I wouldn't say it's gotten better or worse per se, but with the increase in homes being built in the west shore (Langford, Colwood, etc) the drive times are getting worse. But I barely drive anywhere. We live in Esquimalt, I work from home and my wife works downtown. She can take the bus or walk. I bike my kids to school.

I was talking to one of the Saanich councilors last night at a farmers market about how I moved out of Saanich, but I still want to voice my support for Saanich initiatives since I use the infrastructure in my day-to-day life. There's always opportunities to work on building community, you just have to find the right people and ways to talk to people.

This regional municipality (Greater Victoria) needs to change in ways that people aren't used to. Transit, cycling, people moving, housing are challenging the norms - and the upper crust of 8th generation Oak Bay people are really having a hard time with that idea.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Vancouver is a city defined by money that comes in from elsewhere, middlemen who collect service fees off that money, and rent seekers. It's a retirement villa and a safe location for assets and children of the world's wealthy, not really a great city for most people to build a career.

Vancouver is also a city where not everyone is invited to the party. If you have parents that can gift you a massive down payment or got in at a good time, you are laughing. For everyone else it's a hamster wheel of constantly trying to keep up with living expenses with no gain to show for it.

The economy is strangled with Nimbyism and socialist thought, but nobody ever seems to benefit from this but the people who already have lots.

Vancouver has some big problems.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

I mean what is a really long traffic jam in Calgary? 15 mins? 25 mins tops?



I was stuck in a 3 hour jam in Vancouver one day and a 2.5 hour one in Seattle on the same day! like wtf??

I've been driving in Vancouver for over 15 years and have never been in a 3 hour traffic jam.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by blankall

Vancouver is also a city where not everyone is invited to the party. If you have parents that can gift you a massive down payment or got in at a good time, you are laughing. For everyone else it's a hamster wheel of constantly trying to keep up with living expenses with no gain to show for it.

The economy is strangled with Nimbyism and socialist thought, but nobody ever seems to benefit from this but the people who already have lots.

Vancouver has some big problems.

Yep. It's a hot mess culturally. Take away the mountains and the ocean and you're left with a pretty lame city.

Originally Posted by RobotTalk

This is very, very true.

My friends and I would always laugh at the Lambos and Ferraris parked at UBC with 'N' stickers on the back. What a first car to be gifted...

My wife's work is mostly dealing with UHNWIs here in Vancouver. I'm also pretty familiar with being around that kind of wealth from my own career/education too. One of my friends from Shanghai actually attended UBC as a child in a billionaire family and could easily have been a driver of one of those cars you saw depending on when you attended. I have nothing against people with mad money like that, but it must be said that it's undeniably not great for a place when that money is largely being parked here after being made elsewhere or just dropped into the city with kids who don't really care about doing much productive or have anything motivating them to contribute or build anything. A lot of the money that is here isn't really productive. It's just passively accumulating here while the productive investments and businesses are all overseas. The result is you get a lot of wealth disparity locally without anything really taking place to stimulate the local environment, and you get a culture of bored entitlement with little ambition to do the kinds of things that make a place dynamic and exciting. Culturally, it's awful

Also, it's fairly well understood that there are many ways to get around taxes and to benefit from the social support systems without true need because the enforcement environment is very slack/dopey. That's all just part of Vancouver’s value proposition to the world, and it's part of why real estate will keep going up here and why the most money to be made here will largely go to middlemen roles charging service fees as percentages of transactions for those with huge piles of mostly passive cash.

The large majority of working people here seem to be on hamster wheels trying to keep up while doing their best to enjoy the mountains and beach on weekends, but not having great opportunities to get ahead or benefiting much from the wealth that surrounds them.