This just in, Victoria is the culture capital of Canada.
Hooray! Victoria is the best! Our work is done!
Oh, wait. In the words of The Missus:
"Best in Canada? If I live on a pile of dung, and someone says 'hey, you are on top of the pile!' I still live on a pile of dung."
2 comments:
Appreciate your insight in the article preceding, but I'm not overly convinced by the way MacLean's defines "culture" - it refers to spending money on performance and books in a pretty predictable sense but ignores a lot of the other factors that build culture... particularly the "sidewalk" level interaction aspects you previously mentioned. On a side note, I noticed their "social engagement" ranking was also pretty unbelievable.
Not to say that, for example, Halifax (because it's what I know), doesn't increasingly suffer from compartmentalized exurbanism, but the type of valuable regional culture that exists there can be credited to the quality and spirit of musical tradition, history represented through architecture, the presence of a university student population, the accessibility of (free) events for all, and otherwise.
Unfortunately (too many) people have turned their backs on these qualities far too often.
Ultimately, I would not recommend that expenditure on books replaces the social value or spirit that can be found in a well operated and usable (urban or rural) library, or that attendance at ticketed events replaces street performance, public exhibitions, group bike rides or concert posters on telephone poles.
When I read the title of your "no culture" post, I was a little surprised, but reading through, I was able to understand my own position better. I thought I had understood the "pod world" when I lived in Halifax, but it took leaving there to realize how much worse it gets, and possibly what it tends toward.
Now living in the Western US, I see a prevalence of apathy toward building sidewalk culture and community unlike anything I had known in Canada; free events are few and far between; the university campus here is physically akin to a business park, and the commuting university students have an absolute disdain for any sort of subculture.
One simple factor I didn't realize would make such a dramatic difference to social dynamics is the drinking age, and the exclusion this creates, preventing mixture between the "kids table" and "the adults", creating a rift between teachers and students and a certain excusable (and persisting well past 21...) immaturity that I did not see in the Canadian universities I attended. Less definable is the spirit of a place based on unpaid effort and the ability to look toward creative quality in advertising over traditional marketing-through-conning techniques. Other, more obvious factors are rigid zoning, wide roads, suburban development etc etc etc, but we all know that story. I hope.
In short, I hope that MacLeans isn't simply evaluating places based on what actually seems to be a pod-world-accepted definition of "culture". Then again, I wouldn't be too surprised, either.
Hi Jess,
Thank you very much for the thoughtful response.
To be clear, I put absolutely NO value on such rating systems and their methods -- whether in relation to 'culture', livability, or anything else. Peer-reviewed, empirical academic research is dodgy as it is.
In other words, I would not and do not give that system the time of day. To be honest, I have not even looked it. I was merely being tongue-in-cheek about the whole thing.
I think Victoria and Halifax probably have a lot of similarities. For one, relative to other 'pod worlds', they are hardly symptomatic. I know: I've lived in LA -- Podland.
Victoria and Halifax both benefit from, as you say, a large student population and an arts scene. Though, my impression is that both carry a little more weight in Halifax.
That said, the bright spots in Victoria, at least, as so few and far between that it's depressing to consider. The major benefit to the city, for me and many others, is purely a) the natural environment and setting, and b) thee number of family and friends there that you enjoy making a 'reservation' with.
Like you say, though, it gets so much worse.
Very interesting point re drinking age. I have not experienced that, myself, but have talked about that very subject, before. Hmm...
More good thoughts, thank you.
Yes, I would say that your hope is hopeful, at best.
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