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I visited Seattle and Vancouver for the first time recently. I was surprised at how similar they were. I was expecting Vancouver to be a lot different than it

I visited Seattle and Vancouver for the first time recently. I was surprised at how similar they were. I was expecting Vancouver to be a lot different than it was. Vancouver was even more high-rise, glass-everything, gated-community than Seattle. I spoke with the locals who informed me that was Vancouver's MO, and if I wanted a culturally interesting Canadian city, I should head over to Toronto.

fidotron 13y ago
[Insert obligatory Montrealer condescension regarding culture in the rest of Canada here - it's about all we've got] I love aspects of Vancouver, especially the Indian food, but damn it gets boring fast. (Not the Indian food, the place).
canistr 13y ago
The fascinating part about living in Toronto compared to Vancouver (or even another city, say New York), is how we view foreigners/immigrants. A few weeks ago I randomly spoke with a man from Egypt. My immediate assumption, even though he had an accent, was that he lived in one of the various multicultural neighbourhoods in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Only after speaking with him a while longer did I truly realized that this was his first visit to Toronto and that he was not actually living in the GTA. I would hazard a guess that most Torontonians would make the assumption that any visible minority or person with an accent is an immigrant living in the GTA. Tourists and visitors walk invisibly through the city. I compare this to my experience in Vancouver where, even though I may be a visible minority myself who only speaks English, I was treated as a foreigner. In New York, people were shouting racial slurs at me as I walked down the street. Seattle/Bay Area however, I was treated like your typical tech worker.
randallsquared 13y ago
Is "culturally interesting" code for dirty and run down? ;)
- potatolicious 13y ago
  Only in the USA. One of the fundamental differences between Canada and the US is that ethnic diversity and immigration do not immediately imply poverty. Visit Toronto sometime. Tons of ethnic enclaves that are legitimately interesting, and not in the "look at how the poor people live!" way - solidly middle class and not at all run-down. In my experience in the US "ethnic enclave", "culturally interesting", "racially vibrant" more often than not really is code for dirty and run down.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    There's a reason for that: the legacy of slavery for African Americans, and the massive continuous immigration of low- wage- earning latinos. Vietnamese and Indian neighborhoods in the US don't tend to be run down. For that matter, there are middle-class black enclaves. They're just not as noticeable as the huge poor black neighborhoods.

fidotron 13y ago

[Insert obligatory Montrealer condescension regarding culture in the rest of Canada here - it's about all we've got] I love aspects of Vancouver, especially the Indian food, but damn it gets boring fast. (Not the Indian food, the place).

canistr 13y ago

The fascinating part about living in Toronto compared to Vancouver (or even another city, say New York), is how we view foreigners/immigrants. A few weeks ago I randomly spoke with a man from Egypt. My immediate assumption, even though he had an accent, was that he lived in one of the various multicultural neighbourhoods in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Only after speaking with him a while longer did I truly realized that this was his first visit to Toronto and that he was not actually living in the GTA. I would hazard a guess that most Torontonians would make the assumption that any visible minority or person with an accent is an immigrant living in the GTA. Tourists and visitors walk invisibly through the city. I compare this to my experience in Vancouver where, even though I may be a visible minority myself who only speaks English, I was treated as a foreigner. In New York, people were shouting racial slurs at me as I walked down the street. Seattle/Bay Area however, I was treated like your typical tech worker.

randallsquared 13y ago

Is "culturally interesting" code for dirty and run down? ;)

potatolicious 13y ago
Only in the USA. One of the fundamental differences between Canada and the US is that ethnic diversity and immigration do not immediately imply poverty. Visit Toronto sometime. Tons of ethnic enclaves that are legitimately interesting, and not in the "look at how the poor people live!" way - solidly middle class and not at all run-down. In my experience in the US "ethnic enclave", "culturally interesting", "racially vibrant" more often than not really is code for dirty and run down.
- tptacek 13y ago
  There's a reason for that: the legacy of slavery for African Americans, and the massive continuous immigration of low- wage- earning latinos. Vietnamese and Indian neighborhoods in the US don't tend to be run down. For that matter, there are middle-class black enclaves. They're just not as noticeable as the huge poor black neighborhoods.