I wish my city is like Vancouver

Source: http://holidays2canada.co.uk

What are your standards when you think of a livable city? Your ideal city might be a nature conscious, no smog, no noise, and a relaxed city. But that would differ since each of us have varying tastes and preferences. Someone, thankfully, made this job a lot easier for us. Praise the Economist Intelligence Unit who sends out an annual report of the most livable cities in the world that complies to “30 factors spread across five areas: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.”

Vancouver, a city in British Columbia, Canada is still the world’s most livable city. You might want to use your Google Earth if you want to know where it beautifully sits in relation to the huge country of Canada. Wouldn’t you feel so proud if you were a citizen in this city? And if you were the mayor of Vancouver, you’d be so proud for ruling the world’s most livable city, not to mention retaining the same spot from last year.

Now my city, is the world’s biggest toilet (figure it out why). Although my city is developing, economically and the business sector of it all, it aiming to be a livable city would require years of prayers with a touch of miracle here and there. I do not know how Vancouver did it, but I believe that it has something to do with how people in the public sector operates the city. They do not aim to be the world’s richest, most developed, most advanced city in the world, they simply do not need that, so they focus on their people’s welfare, like giving them the most livable city in.

“Cities that score best tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density. This often fosters a broad range of recreational availability without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure. Seven of the top ten scoring cities are in Australia and Canada, where population densities of 2.88 and 3.40 people per sq km respectively compare with a global (land) average of 45.65 and a US average of 32.” (Quoted from The Economist)

Most Philippine cities aim to be the biggest, richest, most economically developed and let us just say the most advanced in terms of… everything. My city does not escape that ideology. My city aims high, so high that sustainability, health care, culture, and environment are literally left out of the picture. Infrastructures, gigantic business establishments being constructed in almost all parts of the city. I know this is not bad, it is actually good… for the city and the people who rule it. For the people who lives in it? That is another question.

The Philippines, wanting to be one of those “wealthier countries” would also require those prayers and miracles. Population? Oh we have that here and density? Yes we are dense, that’s for sure. I am glad though that the Philippines is doing something which concerns it’s population growth with the passing of the RH Bill, which all of us must know (if you don’t, turn on your TV set). But the country’s trusted religion is not making this stuff easy, they would even resort to civil disobedience just to stop it from being passed into a law. But I won’t go into that stuff in detail, don’t worry. I don’t want to talk about Vancouver and the political & religious turmoils in this country. The latter would require another blog post.

In a more positive view, these economic activities my city is currently undertaking will hopefully lead it to be much more livable (crossing fingers). My city wears this slogan “The City of Golden Friendship”. Very nice, but we can’t really generalize, right? I hope that these economic advancements won’t lead to a much higher crime rate and negative externalities that will result from it. Although minute, I still have hope.

So, I wish my city was as livable as Vancouver is. A city that does not solely focus in it’s economic welfare.

PS: Vancouver might already be the most livable city but that does not stop them from pushing.