Whenever the action in the Wild-Canuck playoff series has switched to Vancouver I keep hearing from the announcers that Vancouver is the "most beautiful city in North America." Having been to the Terminal City on a couple of occasions I must disagree with that assessment.
Yes there are some spectacular views and Stanley Park is a natural treasure. But for me the city itself is vastly overrated. The downtown offers little in the way of compelling architecture and the vast numbers of blocky concrete apartment high rises sprouting up around the city give it a vaguely East European feel. Perhaps the circumstances of my two visits tend to color my views as well.
On my first trip my wife and I drove up from Seattle and stayed in a hotel in the rejuvenated (at least that's what we were told) GasTown section of the city. And while the area does have a certain rough around the edges urban renewal charm to it, Gastown is also only a few blocks away from one of the worst neighborhoods of Vancouver. We discovered this first hand one morning when found the driver's side window of our rental car bashed in and several items stolen (Rollerblades, clothing, and even my belt!). A security guard at the parking ramp informed us that it was likely some local junkies who had chosen our vehicle because of the Washington license plates. Perhaps it was the experience of delicately driving the car to the airport to exchange it for another vehicle while trying to minimize contact between my back side and the shards of glass embedded in the car set that soured me on the city.
But a few years later I gave it another go this time traveling to Vancouver in late May for a hockey tournament. Although I was able to avoid being victimized by indigent drug addicts on my second visit I found it difficult to fully appreciate the beauty of the city. Every day of the five days I spent in Vancouver the weather was the same. Overcast, rainy, high temps in the low fifties. Fargin' dreary. There might have been some snow-capped mountains in the background but with the clingy low cloud cover you couldn't see 'em. We seriously thought about a regimen of Vitamin C loading so as to avoid the scurvy. As a Minnesotan I'm used to crappy weather but this was the end of May for Chrissakes.
Don't get me wrong. I've been to worse cities than Vancouver. It beats the hell out of Oklahoma City for example. I'm just saying that when you hear all the jabber about it being the prettiest city in North America don't believe the hype. Personally if I had a choice of visiting any city in Canada I'd take Toronto over Vancouver any day.
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