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Where Portland does better than Vancouver

September 8th, 2011 · 44 Comments

Portland is not the nirvana that urban planners and Portlandia fans would have you believe.

It’s got persistent high unemployment that its own economic development commission has noted is worse than other cities.

The famous streetcar and light-rail transit? I’ve concluded that that is the only option the city has, since it has about 60,000 fewer people than Vancouver does but spread out over three times the land. They can’t afford anything else.

It’s stunning in its Caucasianness. All of its immigrants are living out on the edges of the city, while young, white hipsters and middle-class professionals rule among the never-ending neighbourhoods of historic houses.

But it does have, as I note in my Globe story here, a sense of creativity and innovation that I only see sporadically in Vancouver. And it radically different from this city in the way its interesting restaurants, shops and bars are spread out all over the city instead of being concentrated so heavily downtown.

Think about it — when have you ever travelled south of 16th or east of Victoria in this city to go to a cool new pub with live music, experimental new shop showcasing local talent, or inventive new restaurant. There are a few tiny little enclaves — Main Street from 16th to 25th, a few spots on East Hastings. But otherwise, everything is focused on downtown, Gastown, and little bits of Fourth and Commercial.

The map below showing the location of bars in Vancouver, generated by Andy Yan at Bing Thom Architects, tells the tale.

As I note in my story, Portland gives me the feeling of a city that is an interesting place to live for everyone there, no matter which neighbourhood they’re in. Vancouver feels like a place that has invested all of its energy in the downtown, because that’s where visitors go.

Liquor Establishments II

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