Port Moody is an outstanding area. The Heritage Mountain part and surrounds are expensive, but there are plenty of condos in around the Newport Village area that are more affordable.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Moving to Vancouver, Advice?
- Thread starter br.avery
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Port Moody is an outstanding area. The Heritage Mountain part and surrounds are expensive, but there are plenty of condos in around the Newport Village area that are more affordable.
Omg, oh yeah
forgot to mention, a LOT of movies are filmed here. Not that it would matter to the Original Poster, but i've met quite a few huge celebrities here in Vancouver. Like Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga and Michael Buble OH Zac Efron too The other cool thing about Vancouver is area that surrounds it. If you are a "localvore" (you eat food that comes no further than 100 miles away) you can eat fresh and healthy all year long. Fish, meat, vegetables, fruit are all grown locally - and with the mild climate, some are grown all year long.
The recreation is endless, with year round golfing, skiing and snow-boarding options that are mind boggling, year-round boating that ranges for sedate day trips to exploring untouched wilderness within just a few days cruising. Biking, hiking, rafting, kayaking, canoeing, long-boarding, roller-blading, running area all possible in the metro area, or within a couple hours drive.
You can do easy camping at dozens and dozens of provincial parks, or do hike-in wilderness camping within a day's drive of Vancouver.
At the end of a full-day's drive you can be on Long Beach, recent location of an international surfing contest and home to Pacific Rim National Park; Campbell River, one of the two Salmon Fishing Capital's of the World; Botanical Beach; Lund (northern terminus of the Pacific Highway that ends at Terra del Fuego); Osooyos - the northern tip of the Mojave Desert; the Wine Country of Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, and the Gulf Islands; The National Parks of Banff, Jasper, and Waterton Lakes.
The Metro area is home to "in-the-wild" bears, coyotes, cougars, deer, eagles, herons, ravens, and all the usual smaller urban animals. Heck, there is a population of bears and cougars in Burnaby, just a few miles from Downtown Vancouver.
There is a reason home prices are high in Vancouver, people are moving there in droves.
The recreation is endless, with year round golfing, skiing and snow-boarding options that are mind boggling, year-round boating that ranges for sedate day trips to exploring untouched wilderness within just a few days cruising. Biking, hiking, rafting, kayaking, canoeing, long-boarding, roller-blading, running area all possible in the metro area, or within a couple hours drive.
You can do easy camping at dozens and dozens of provincial parks, or do hike-in wilderness camping within a day's drive of Vancouver.
At the end of a full-day's drive you can be on Long Beach, recent location of an international surfing contest and home to Pacific Rim National Park; Campbell River, one of the two Salmon Fishing Capital's of the World; Botanical Beach; Lund (northern terminus of the Pacific Highway that ends at Terra del Fuego); Osooyos - the northern tip of the Mojave Desert; the Wine Country of Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, and the Gulf Islands; The National Parks of Banff, Jasper, and Waterton Lakes.
The Metro area is home to "in-the-wild" bears, coyotes, cougars, deer, eagles, herons, ravens, and all the usual smaller urban animals. Heck, there is a population of bears and cougars in Burnaby, just a few miles from Downtown Vancouver.
There is a reason home prices are high in Vancouver, people are moving there in droves.
Also, anyone interested in visiting/moving to/living in Vancouver:
http://vimeo.com/7764570
It doesn't necessarily show the best side of Vancouver. But it's a cool video and happens to be an intimate portrait of the city regardless.
http://vimeo.com/7764570
It doesn't necessarily show the best side of Vancouver. But it's a cool video and happens to be an intimate portrait of the city regardless.
The Vimeo movie above is, I think, a fairly good representation of Vancouver - as known by the residents. It misses some the "thump you in chest beauty" moments, but it does show some of the very real social issues the city is dealing with.
Here is another YouTube link that is just out-and-out gorgeous.
Here is another YouTube link that is just out-and-out gorgeous.
Amazing video.. I don't know if you guys seen this documentary
http://scoutmagazine.ca/2010/02/02/watch-this-surprising-streets-of-plenty-dtes-documentary/
I never thought things were that bad in Canada real eye opening
They aren't. DTES is a very small part of Greater Vancouver. A few thousand people in a city of 2 million. Its tragic and shouldn't happen but let's keep some perspective.
I find Vancouver too fast paced for me so I live on the Island.
No, I didn't mean it like I thought it was some sort of wide spread epidemic I am just shocked to see how those few thousand are living and the stats of drugs and diseases in that area.
Where I live we have a major homeless population too but all are accounted for and tracked. Not sure by whom but they all wear special jackets w/ a logo.
Sounds like Nazi Germany!
Out of about 16000 people, DTES has about 2000 homeless.
DTES is a problem 50 years in the making. Its also a bit of a sink for all the poverty and deprivation from all over Western Canada so you are seeing a concentration of sorts.
It is kind of creepy and I am still confused as to what is going on all I know is they were kicked out of the city next to us.
Still watching the documentary I am not sure if what they are saying is bull about having the largest AIDs area, living conditions similar to Africa,etc.If it is true that is insane and I never thought would occur to that extreme in Canada like I said. But it does seem like everybody is hyping it up worse then things really are.
Its probably not unlike many parts of other big cities. I won't defend the apologists, however. Its a mess. The difference is DTES is concentrated. In the 80s the police drove a lot of the prostitution (and ensuing drug abuse) out of the West End and they naturally ended up in the low-rent district of the DTES. No wonder AIDS is such an issue there. The other unique problem is that Canada has an absolutely appalling record in its relationship with the indigenous population. THe result is sexual abuse, drug abuse and extreme poverty. Many of these people end up in the DTES which has a large native population.
Where abouts? For similar reasons we moved to Salt Spring.
Can I ask you, puffnstuff, where you live? This jacket and logo thing is not something I've heard of before.
As flopticalcube has written, the problems in the DTES are serious, and a mess. And they are not typical of most Canadian cities. The problem, imo, is that decades of bad decisions by governments put a wave after wave of dis-enfranchised people into the same neighbourhood, and created a critical mass. Plus, Vancouver is a port town (the busiest port on this side of the Pacific i.e. busier than LA, Seattle, etc) so it started off with the issues that any port town has - easy drugs and prostitution. Plus a huge change in the Province's economy away from being primarily resource based put huge numbers of displaced miners and foresters in to the city.
On the flip side there are also large organizations working to make the DTES a better place, governments are trying all sorts of things to help people - for example a government sanctioned safe injection site. Federal election rules were modified to allow the homeless to vote. There are government programs to train homeless people in trades and to get them working.
The problems of Vancouver DTES are unique, and in some cases unavoidable. Governments have been slow to act, admittedly, and their decisions have often made the problems worse. And no Vancouverite I know is not embarrassed or ashamed by the DTES. But like any large social problem, how to fix it is open to debate, and difficult.
I live in Tampa there those reflector vests that construction workers wear. I ended up googling to find out more it's apparently the law that they most wear the vests if they want to panhandle and the logos are the charity they give the money to. I am not sure why any charity would have people stand out on the street and get money just to take it from them but I guess they give them something in return. I don't know if they all are working for a charity but the ones I have seen with homeless signs had the logos.
When I heard people talking about the issues in Vancouver I just figured all major cities have these issues with drugs,crime,homeless and never thought that the issues there were to an extreme.
In the documentary it showed a place where he shot up heroine called Insight. Is that place still open? I was disturbed that they would help someone who never did heroine before shoot up.
Nanoose Bay. Home of Torpedo Testers, Retired Golfers and me.
Insite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insite
Its well respected by just about everyone except those who pay the bills. I doubt they would help someone who was not addicted but I have never needed their services.
It is extreme because it is so concentrated. Vancouver was/is that people from around the province flock to looking for a better life. And again, consider the numbers - the DTES has a couple thousand, out of a metro area of couple million. I haven't seen the documentary, but does it show that the DTES is only few blocks wide? And that there is Chinatown on the south, and the tourist destination of Gastown on the north? Each area is just a block or less from what is generally shown in videos about the DTES. It literally is a very small pocket of very concentrated poverty surrounded by what one would see in any other city.
The other thing to consider is the American and Canadian models of social safety are not exactly the same. All the homeless residents of the DTES are covered by the same basic health insurance plan as anyone else in the province. When sick they can walk into any clinic or hospital and be seen by a doctor. Welfare then picks up dental and eye-care. The bad news is that welfare payments are not enough to pay rent on anything but the worst accommodations in Vancouver. If they need crutches, wheelchairs, etc that is provided by the health region. There are very good supports for people who are trying to get out of the poverty spiral. One of the other differences is that many of the people you are seeing would be locked up in jail in other countries. Canada tries to avoid incarceration if possible.. We also have a much more modern approach to minor drug use - which leads to .....
Yes, the Insite facility is still operating. It is run by the regional health authority, with funding from the province and city, and at least at one point, the federal government. The whole point of Insite is to save lives. People were putting themselves in hospital and/or killing themselves by using dirty needles and/or overdosing. Insite does not promote drug use, it merely makes it possible for addicts to use what they are going to use in anycase, safely. And if they do overdose they so so in the presence of trained nurses who can stabilize them until the ambulance arrives.
Insite is also a place where someone who has decided to quit can get connected with the resources they will need.
If that fellow chooses to use an illegal substance, that is his choice. It is a free country. If he was going to try heroine, would it have been better to give himself hepatitis shooting up with a dirty needle in back alley?
I have friends who are involved in some of the efforts to figure out solutions to the problems of the DTES. And that is the big realization, IMHO - that the DTES is not the problem. The DTES existsbecause of a set of common societal problems that put a number of people who needed help into the same neighbourhood at the same time.
Enough sermonizing, I think, for a Sunday - eh?