Endless sunshine & beaches but..

[crazycanuck]

would you be proud to promote your city just on those two things? (We had a discussion about improving Perth in our planning class & I began to wonder if it'll ever become a world class city just on it's endless beaches n sunshine)

What makes a city & more importantly what makes you proud of yours? If you could make a suggestion for changing one thing in your city(ok, other than the cycle paths..) what would it be? If you did want to suggest a way to improve X, would you know the right place to go?

Just thoughts from the planning student

[cylegoddess]

Canberra rocks for its endless tree lined paths and perfect non pollution air.
To make it perfect, it should be nearer to Perth.Honestly.I love Perth!
All it needs is a beach( and less public servants!)

[OakLeaf]

I think "promote" is part of the equation itself. What makes a city good for tourists isn't usually what makes it good for residents. What makes it good for relocating businesses has a complicated relationship to the benefit of residents.

That said, what makes a city livable to me - in fact, the whole point of living in a city or town rather than in the country - are the cultural opportunities. What's the music scene like (both classical and popular)? How many art shows and galleries? Is there a year-round farmer's market (and is it required to offer only locally produced goods)? Are there good ethnic restaurants, and other opportunities to be exposed to non-dominant cultures? Is there a diverse racial make-up to the population? Is public transit efficient and clean? What about pro sports?

If I had to choose one thing to improve in each of my towns, it would definitely be public transit. I'd know whom to contact, but I'd also know that it was futile, since it's a matter of constant debate. Outside of the major cities (and not even all of those), most American jurisdictions invest very grudgingly in infrastructure, public transit in particular.

[shootingstar]

I think "promote" is part of the equation itself. What makes a city good for tourists isn't usually what makes it good for residents. What makes it good for relocating businesses has a complicated relationship to the benefit of residents.

That said, what makes a city livable to me - in fact, the whole point of living in a city or town rather than in the country - are the cultural opportunities. What's the music scene like (both classical and popular)? How many art shows and galleries? Is there a year-round farmer's market (and is it required to offer only locally produced goods)? Are there good ethnic restaurants, and other opportunities to be exposed to non-dominant cultures? Is there a diverse racial make-up to the population? Is public transit efficient and clean? What about pro sports?

If I had to choose one thing to improve in each of my towns, it would definitely be public transit. I'd know whom to contact, but I'd also know that it was futile, since it's a matter of constant debate. Outside of the major cities (and not even all of those), most American jurisdictions invest very grudgingly in infrastructure, public transit in particular.

Good points about livable city, Oak.
For myself most of what you mentioned, plus if the city itself had or was within 1-2 hr. drive from a college or university. Important particularily if the local population was more homogeneous in racial/ethnic make-up. At least a college or university provides a semi-magnet to bring in people (even if temporarily) from other parts of the country/other countries and also the institution helps foster educational/more opportunities to think/learn outside of local perspectives. We can't just rely on the Internet, tv. Locals sometimes need to meet/confront new things/ideas/people..in their face.

CC- What I do tend to "sell" to other people wanting to visit or about visit Vancouver, is how PARTS of the city is situated to provide many free, outdoor activities.if a person wants to partake in it --hiking, cycling, walking, jogging and kayaking with beautiful vistas in the city.

I don't know about others here, but when one becomes a regular cyclist and also cycles alot when visiting other places, one becomes much more acutely aware how well or poorly designed a certain city is for livability. Vancouver's suburbs to me, is just as annoyingly sprawled out as Toronto's suburbs. When one does a long touring ride, it takes too long to cycle through the suburbs to get into the downtown core. Meaning cycling over 1 hr. just in the suburbs BEFORE reaching/leaving the downtown area and large chunks on major aerterial busy roads. (unless you cycle early in morning or late at night).

When I am in a much smaller city and doing loaded touring, if it requires another 40 kms. from edge of city to get to centre of city that's a population of 75,000 or less, there's something kind of wrong here unless the the natural topography forces a city to grow along a river bank or within a narrow long valley.

General statement: The worst thing of all are some more modern cities where there is no identifiable downtown core at all. Nothing to signify the city's unique history/culture, etc. City hall is located somewhere near a shopping mall on the fringe... I recall awhile ago, we visited Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, located along the coast. Not far from the author's home for Anne of Green Gables. We asked where the downtown area was. Locals pointed out the strip of tacky tourist shops by the ocean ..."There it is".

[Trekhawk]

Canberra rocks for its endless tree lined paths and perfect non pollution air.
To make it perfect, it should be nearer to Perth.Honestly.I love Perth!
All it needs is a beach( and less public servants!)

Perhaps we could organise a swap. You could have Perth beaches for a couple of months and we can have your hop, skip and jump to the snow. I miss snow.

[bmccasland]

CC, one of the things that will affect tourism, and the appearance of your community that you can't directly control - is the crime rate. When N.O. was in the national headlines about having the #1 murder rate in the country, some major conventions decided that they didn't want to have their convention here afterall. Didn't really matter that most of the murders were in areas that conventioneers wouldn't be, i.e. "the hood", and were drug related - what got reported was free-for-all shootings. I think we're still shaking that reputation.

[shootingstar]

As an example of the city I grew up in which did make it livable.

When I was an early teen Waterloo, Ontario population was approx. 30,000+ but we lived near the downtown core where there was regular public transit bus system that ran buses into Kitchener. There were and still are 2 major universities all connected by buses.

We were a 15 min. walk from a shopping mall downtown plus independent smaller stores, several different banks, pharmacy. Library and park with playground was a 20-25 min. walk. At that time, Seagram's distillery was operating at full capacity, located downtown, later turned into a incredible museum, then shut down for reasons I'm not clear. City hall was/still is downtown too. Near our street, were several historic homes and buildings. Primary school was 15 min. walk, middle school was 1/2 hr. walk and high school was 40 min. walk a different direction. Dentist and doctor was 15-20 min. walk. Area has and probably still does have some identifable historic roots because of the Mennonite base also. Farmer's markets --2 highly publicized (probably because of Mennonite roots), 1 accessible by bus in downtown Kitchener and the other, at edge of Waterloo. As a teenager, I took the bus with mother to the Kitchener Farmer's Market to help her carry groceries onto bus, etc.

Some light factories were located in the downtown areas of both Waterloo and Kitchener, businesses long established for several decades before they peetered out or manufacturing became cheaper elsewhere outside of Canada. Of course, livability includes injection of new income sources at the edge of town..which became high tech for Waterloo with its university research high tech company incubators..of which one is famous, Research in Motion--source of your Blackberry PDAs.

By the time, I left home, population grew to 100,000+.

Yes of course, the population was predominantly German-based but changed quickly in its demographic mix, during my late teens and up.

So just because a place has a small population base means you can't have variety and well-balanced services that are accessible for all population segments.

Note: I lived in London, Ontario for 3 years after I left home, which is larger than Waterloo or Kitchener, but at that time, I found it way more boring, WASP than Waterloo. City didn't seem to have the historic warmth as K-W. The salvation of London was its natural park greenbelt along the Thames River that ran through the heart of the city.

[crazycanuck]

Oakleaf-as a relative newbie to Perth í've come to the understanding that Perthites want a city that is vibrant especially for the residents. There's a lack of vision & it's hard to get any change. Shopping hours are archaic & any chance to change that is always voted down...I guess what i'm trying to say here is many people want Perth (and regional areas!!!) to change but there's a reluctance to change. Daylight savings is a perfect example.

We're pretty low on most of the news radars. Well except for all the boat people now arriving off the far north WA coast... Perth's crime rate isn't focused on much outside of WA. There's a real problem with one area of Perth(northbridge) in terms of alcohol consumption. Great area during the day but when the sun sets...

We have farmers markets, pretty good public transport, 4 universities, not sure about the local music scene

Western Australia only has one major population hub, Perth. There are tons of things to see & do in WA but they're often a very long drive. Even for those of us who mtn bike, some of the best tracks are 4hrs away.

Perhaps Perth needs to just sell itself as a great part of Western Australia.

[shootingstar]

Hope more people respond on this thread topic about their community. Already I've learned something about Perth..

And I apologize for my verbose opinion but I do believe I was lucky to have grown up in the area with such walkable access to many amenities with strong historic roots but still with some "sophistication" in terms of outlook, given its educational institutions. The street that I grew up on which was older single detached houses, was also unique and not exactly typical either.
It was a real mix of income levels --our family was one of the poorest with a house that needed serious renos that my parents couldn't afford to do much.

Yet some of our neighbours had lovely mansion like homes with wrap-around balconies --included a bank manager, university president, cop, factory worker, etc. From a socio-economic class mix, it was a healthy environment to raise children. So it gave me as a child a far more "realistic" idea of how people live together harmoniously with wide economic disparities on 1 street. We felt safe living in our neighbourhood.