Yup, Vancouver is one of the Top Ten Walking Cities in the world.
Who says so?
Frommer’s, apparently – the travel-guide people – as conveyed, with photos, on The Huffington Post. Here’s their choice of an image which captures Vancouver’s walkability:
The seawall at Brockton Point light – kinda boring, though.
Kaid Benfield, a staffer at the National Resources Defense Council, picked up the list and decided to illustrate each city by picking up an appropriate image off the web. Here’s what he chose for us.
Cambie Bridge, looking south. Much nicer.
Anyone got something better?
Didn’t Frommers also say that we’re one of the top ten overrated cities in the world too? Not that I don’t disagree with their assessment on our brain-dead civic boosterism. I wretch, maybe even dry heave, anytime I hear the “Best Place on Earth crowd” brainlessly claim this is the Best Place on Earth because we happened to have founded our Lulu Lemon obsessed, Latte drinking, overpriced Condo infested berg near some mountains and water. Lest we consider our deficiencies. I mean honestly, does, culture, impressive architecture, true urban vitality or history (let alone economic opportunity, equity and upward mobility) not count for anything in the “Best Place on Earth” crowd’s thinking when assessing what city is truly the “Best Place on Earth”? That said, I still think Frommers was a bit harsh when they laid this gem on us:
“Vancouver. “Blandcouver” looks great on TV, where it often masquerades as other, more interesting cities. This Canadian metropolis is indeed like many other places, just duller. I actually heard a Vancouverite call their city “diverse” and “cosmopolitan” when what they mean is “we have some Chinese people as well as the Anglo-Canadians.” Anyone who thinks Vancouver is cosmopolitan has never been south or east of Portland. Most of Vancouver’s other attributes, meanwhile, are seen in better form in either Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco. Spend your time in Victoria instead, or Whistler, or, heck, Nanaimo. If you insist upon going, try our much more enthusiastic destination guide.”
But, now that I brought up that blast from the past, to answer your question, my favourite walk in Vancouver is along 10th between Cambie and Main. It’s close enough to Downtown to get the view, when you meet the North/South streets. It’s one of the few neighbourhoods in Metro Vancouver with any sense of history and interesting architecture to counter the drab glass tower on podium retches that have infested this city. And it’s close to the urban hustle and bustle of an uptown, soon to be part of Downtown, district while still being quiet, shaded and civilized by trees, grass, shrubbery and gardens like a traditional streetcar suburb.
These superlative lists are most often nothing more than attention-grabbing, filler headlines when the media hit slow spots, and are often forgettable as Letterman’s low-brow lists.
First of all, a walkable ‘city’ should be walkable in almost ~all~ its areas. Several of Frommer’s cities are dominated by motor vehicles, and only have a few limited oases of pedestrian areas.
Having spent much time in Italia, Firenze would not be my selection. Between (and excluding) the two highway-scale crossings of the Arno between the centro storico and the city’s suburbs, there are ten bridges (not six), and only one (Ponte Vecchio), is pure pedestrian. A new bridge near the Cascine is for the tramline. Firenze is perilous for biking, too. The areas that are walkable are often overrun with mass tourism in good weather.
In my opinion, the most walkable city is Siena, the largest vehicle-free city in the western world. Venezia has a greater population, but rubber-tire roads are not possible, and one must account for the extensive gas and diesel-powered boats and barges that ply its veins. And large cruise ships are brought through the Canal Grande right into the centre of the City. I believe Morroco is the world’s superlative largest car-free city.
The winding, undulating passages of Siena’s intact medieval form lead to Piazza del Campo, which to many, is the most perfetto urban space for people, in the world. Kostoff’s monumental 1999 text chose an aerial of Siena. https://portfolio.du.edu/portfolio/getportfoliofile?uid=138816