Please expound upon your understanding of the “typical Vancouverite.”

Your analysis is impressive.

The problem is that the typical Vancouverite has no desire to have a career oriented job. (To be fair, there *is* a lack of head offices in Vancouver: it’s a branch office town.)

I wouldn’t call the arts here lame. I’m not sure where you people get that. Comparing it to Toronto selectively is disingenuous: there’ve been plenty of Toronto theatre companies that have failed over the years too, and independent bookstores in that city aren’t exactly thriving (Pages closed a few years ago: it was the best bookstore in Canada.)

I think your comments are ignorant and from what you’re saying and your attitude I can stereotype and generalize where you live and what you do.

What Shawn says is true, “it’s an expensive city no matter which way you look at it.”

One of the problems with this city is the rise of the Hipster Slacker class. Main Street has become almost a Nirvana for these folks.

The same people who complain about the 700,000 strong city of Winnipeg being “fly over country” move out here and get serve industry jobs, don’t pursue an education then complain about the cost of luxury products like dining out at expensive restaurants and hand crafted lattes from Gene and its ilk, while deriding things they consider to be beneath them. The ‘working class’ of the city spends much time consuming those things.

That daily Americano habit at $3 a hit is $60/month for 20 working days. Run the calculation on how much money you could put towards your downpayment on a home if you skipped it an invested it instead. It’s substantial.

Focus on education when you’re young, get a job in a field you like (or be entrepreneurial and start something like The Snipe!) and save. Aspire to more in life than “Barista” on your business card, and you might one day be able to afford that $30 burger too.

I’m going make a movie called “Vancouver: Rise of the HIpsters.” Wait…no one’s going to pay to see that, they’ll just steal it on bittorrent.

Damn Hipster class.

Bon’s on Broadway is still plenty busy, and there are lots of low cost options in the city.

As for the price of a glass of wine: blame a taxation regime that while set provincially, is pretty typical of the entire country.

Wanna know why?

Because this place is expensive. Arts and culture, though nourishing, are expensive. A glass of wine is $9. A late night burger-joint with a $5 burger made by some guy with sweaty forearms named Nick the Greek doesn’t exist here – but an organic bison burger topped with blue cheese made from the milk of ayurvedic yoga-cows might be an option, if you can afford a $30 burger.

This is not an easy place to live, sorry.

It didn’t make money in any of those years, as far as I understand. Not once.

It was essentially an institution entirely dependent on tax dollars for it’s livelihood. Entirely.

It’s time was up a long time ago.

I fundamentally agree with the premise though: either Vancouver is done, or I’m done with Vancouver. I’m out…in 2014 probably.

It’s great to feel nostalgia for a previous era but everyone thinks they’d rather live in another time (as a good example, watch Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris). There are a lot of great things happening now and if you want more, create the culture you want. Contribute something to Vancouver culture and you’ll have no reason to complain… Well, except for housing prices. That’s just crazy.

But the city is not a lost cause, despite of all the legalities frustrating the masses, there is still a lot of underground culture hoping to get noticed.