Vancouver Gets its 15 Minutes of Fame in the New York Times

…or rather its 36 hours. The New York Times Travel Sec­tion has devoted this weekend’s 36 Hours in [Your City Here] to Van­cou­ver. I found the open­ing para­graph par­tic­u­larly interesting:

VANCOUVER, British Colum­bia, is two cities rolled into one. For out­doorsy types, this west­ern Cana­dian city is a nature par­adise, with miles of scenic hik­ing trails and bike paths that sweep along the Strait of Geor­gia, the pine tree-lined water­way that con­nects Van­cou­ver with the Pacific Ocean. For urban­ites, Van­cou­ver is a sophis­ti­cated des­ti­na­tion, with thriv­ing immi­grant enclaves, an ever-expanding restau­rant scene, quirky neigh­bor­hoods, dis­tinc­tive shops and lively bars that party all night. Part of the fun is weav­ing your way through Vancouver’s two sides, and real­iz­ing that’s why the city ranks as one of the world’s most liv­able places.

Since I often refer to the city’s dual nature (although my dual­ity is more about Sum­mer Van­cou­ver vs. Win­ter Van­cou­ver), the out­doorsy vs urban­ite split also works and fits neatly into those two sea­sonal char­ac­ters as well.

I can’t say that they visit the same spots that I’d go to with lim­ited time, but they hit a few (the Granville Island Pub­lic Mar­ket and Jeri­cho Beach), toward the end. (The 36 hours are up? Damn, it was just get­ting good!) Also, the pic­ture they use at the begin­ning of the arti­cle is, I think, one of the city’s most pho­to­genic spots: one of the views from under the Granville Bridge, just as you approach Granville Island that includes the marina, the city and the moun­tains. When­ever I pass that point, I try to stop for a moment to take it in. Of course, you usu­ally have to stop these days due to the crowds, and this arti­cle is prob­a­bly not going help. Oh well…

Thanks to my Aunt Mary for being the first of what I expect will be many links from the East Coast to this arti­cle start­ing today…

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By David Drucker | Filed in Travel, Vancouver | July 14, 2007 7:12 am

6 Comments to “Vancouver Gets its 15 Minutes of Fame in the New York Times”

  1. AvatarWest End Bound
    Posted: Jul 14th, 2007 at 9:56 am
    1

    Thanks to you and your Aunt Mary for the heads-up!

    I put the link on our blog, too.

    Hey, how ’bout Sat­ur­day, Aug. 4th for a lunch with “drf” & Pam??
  2. Avatarddrucker
    Posted: Jul 14th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
    2
    Author Comment

    Sat­ur­day, Aug. 4th should be fine. Will con­firm when it gets closer to the date.
  3. AvatarMJ Ankenman
    Posted: Jul 15th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
    3

    Hey there…checking in on your recent entries. Great to catch up. Con­grats on the new job. Your com­ment on feel­ing that Van­cou­ver was where you belonged gave me the warm fuzzies. Love the pho­tos with the maple leaf tattoos.
  4. AvatarRaphael Alexander
    Posted: Jul 15th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
    4

    The nicest view of Van­cou­ver is dri­ving north along Knight Street as it passes over 33rd and you get the entire vista. I also like dri­ving along tran­scanada turn­ing that sharper cor­ner by Canada Way and you get the Burn­aby moun­tain view and the terra cotta roofs. I also like the view as you rise above the Lion’s Gate and see North Van­cou­ver hov­er­ing in the dis­tance. Sim­i­lar in beauty is the down­shift on the steep north drive down the Sec­ond Nar­rows. Out­side of Van­cou­ver head­ing south on 99 I really like the view of Furry Creek, but it turns out the nicest con­trast is the golf green against the blue sky and ocean.

    Van­cou­ver is beau­ti­ful. Too bad it’s packed with peo­ple, expen­sive, and resem­bles Hong Kong in demographics.
  5. AvatarWest End Bound
    Posted: Jul 15th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
    5

    Sounds good.
  6. Avatarddrucker
    Posted: Jul 15th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
    6
    Author Comment

    Thanks for the other views of Van­cou­ver. Raphael — have not seen a sin­gle one of the ones you describe, but that’s prob­a­bly because I’ve had no car. That will prob­a­bly change soon, so I’ll have to check those out.

    As for the down­sides, I like the fact that it has lots of peo­ple (I guess I side with the ‘urban­ite’ side of the city’s charms). True, the fact that it’s expen­sive isn’t so hot, although it’s cheaper than Boston was.

    As far as demo­graph­ics go, I’m fine with the city’s diverse pop­u­la­tion with lots of pet own­ers, cre­ative types, dif­fer­ent age groups and lan­guages. I’ve never been to Hong Kong, so I have no idea if that’s sim­i­lar there. If, how­ever that’s a veiled com­plaint about the high per­cent­age of Chi­nese here, then I beg to dif­fer, and let’s leave it at that.
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