Quote:
Originally Posted by deasine
Nature and natural setting is what puts Vancouver on top on all lists. If our region decided to focus primarily on entertainment, nightlife, and shopping, Vancouver would be competing with the other major cities that excel in this category. Even if we had more bars, malls, city lights, etc, we will never be able to excel that of New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc. Population, thus demand, is a limiting factor. So if I wanted to visit a big city with all of the world class shopping, nightlife, etc. why would I visit Vancouver over other major cities in the world?
If the argument is, we should have more shopping, nightlife, and a bit more city lights, that's fine as it is a valid point. But if you believe we should solely focus on that instead of marketing our natural setting, I'm sorry to say, you will not see the results you would hope to see.
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I'm not saying that we should focus solely on entertainment, nightlife, shopping (the man made attractions and institutions), but it seems like we haven't even given a real effort to improve them (though I would argue that the region being separated into 21/22 different municipalities has hindered such growth in the arts, culture, nightlife, and shopping.....which is partially why I brought up the amalgamation topic).
We would never be able to match world cities like Hong Kong and New York, but I do think for a region of 2.3-million we're severely lacking in both the quantity and quality of big city attractions.
We should certainly be proud of our natural surroundings, but it seems like we're just far too dependent on it - to the point that we have completely ignored everything else, what a world-class city should be (though we certainly do have a world-class food scene...and I would also rgue that shopping has improved somewhat over the last decade).
In other words, Vancouver should aim to be not just a visual, natural, and recreational tourist destination but also a destination with world-class big city attractions. More (larger and higher quality) museums, nightlife, etc.
The whole thing with closing down the aquarium was just completely asinine.
The whole mentality I have right now is to acknowledge the great things we have (nature, food), but to never be satisfied for that's the only way we will improve (afterall, isn't that how many people get good grades in school?)....but it seems that we may be getting a bit too complacent, becoming a bit too content with what we have because of our natural surroundings to the point we're simply only focusing on one type of thing and ignoring everything else.