Victoria frequently shows up in rankings of cities, for good or for bad. Those lists can be a source of pride (we knew it all along) or frustration (they just don’t really know this area like we do), depending on where we place, but they don’t mean that much. Those lists are often calculated on numbers crunched from afar or based on perspectives of people who don’t live here.
That’s why a self-examination, such as the Vital Signs report from the Victoria Foundation, is more useful. What others think of us is not as important as what we think of ourselves. We know the good and the bad. We know the problems; we have a stake in finding solutions.
Besides, looking at city rankings can be a confusing exercise.
Victoria placed 76th on MoneySense magazine’s 2014 list of Canada’s best places to live, which ranked St. Albert, Alta., first and Calgary second.
Vancouver sits in 39th place on that list, at odds with the Mercer Quality of Living survey, which ranks Vancouver as the most livable place in North America and among the top five in the world. Victoria isn’t large enough to be considered in that survey.
Yet the Economist magazine, which also didn’t mention Victoria, deemed Vancouver the third most livable city in the world, behind Melbourne, Australia, and Vienna, Austria.
Meanwhile, Victoria sits among the top five of Canada’s livable cities on a chart compiled by the Martin Prosperity Institute, which is associated with the University of Toronto.
And we rank right at the top of another national list — Maclean’s magazine looked at 2011 crime rates and determined Prince George and Victoria are Canada’s two most dangerous cities. (Keep in mind that one incident has a much larger effect on crime statistics in a smaller city than it has in a large city.)
On the other hand, there’s Amazon.ca’s finding that Victoria is Canada’s most romantic city and the survey by Condé Nast Traveler that suggested Victoria is the friendliest city in North America.
So where is the best place to live? Depends on who is asking, whom they are asking, why they are asking and how they interpret the data. A magazine called MoneySense, obviously, is going to be more concerned about house prices and less concerned about the view and the abundance of clean air.
As for the romantic label, that, too, is open to interpretation. Amazon.ca compiled the list by comparing sales of romance novels, relationship books and romantic comedy DVDs from Jan. 1, 2012, to Jan. 23, 2013, on a per capita basis.
A lot of people reading romantic novels, watching romantic movies and delving into books on relationships doesn’t necessarily class a place as romantic, but more as one lacking romance. Perhaps people are turning to media for something they can’t find in real life.
Those lists, with all their biases and subjectivity, are more entertaining than enlightening. Few of us are going to flit about the country, lists in hand, looking for Utopia.
It would be a futile search. One person’s paradise is another person’s hell. What is a boring place to one person is an oasis of serenity to another. The abundance of shopping matters to one, while another is more impressed by an abundance of hiking trails.
The Victoria Foundation asked the right questions of the right people. What do you think of the place where you live, work and play? What is good about it? What are the issues?
The Vital Signs survey paints a positive picture. An overwhelming majority of Greater Victoria residents say they are happy, feel supported by family and friends, like their jobs and rarely feel uncomfortable or out of place because of religion, skin colour, culture, race, language, accent, disability, gender or sexual orientation.
Yet it’s not a whitewash job. People are also concerned about the issues, the top ones being the cost of living, housing, mental illness and homelessness.
Rather than searching for the perfect place to live, we should search for ways to make our region better.
And that isn’t done by comparing Greater Victoria to other places, but by looking closely in the mirror.
Rather than worrying about being better than someone else, we should strive to be better than we were.
That’s the comparison that counts.
