Burnaby - BC low point?

[Jack Bennest]

METRO VANCOUVER — Burnaby may have been Canada's best-run city in 2009 but it placed low on a list of most livable cities in the country in 2010.

MoneySense magazine ranked Burnaby 137 out of 179 cities across Canada on its annual Best Places to Live list. Burnaby dropped from its 94th-place ranking in 2009.

But Mayor Derek Corrigan thinks it is still a pretty nice place to live, and pointed out that the many people who move here seem to agree.

"I'm still pretty proud of our portion of the world," Corrigan said.

Burnaby's low ranking in the livability survey was affected by a literal damp cloud hanging over the city, according to Dan Bortolotti and Phil Froats, who wrote the story accompanying the survey.

"In the precipitation department, we look for the sweet spot of 700 millilitres of rain or snow annually," the pair wrote. "British Columbia communities lay at both extremes in this category: bone-dry communities in the interior, such as Kelowna and Penticton, scored low, as did soggy coastal cities such as Prince Rupert and Burnaby."

Corrigan acknowledged that people who have an ability to move anywhere they like do consider the weather when doing so, mentioning his brother-in-law who started a business in Sydney, Australia, partially for that reason.

But New Westminster ranked exactly the same as Burnaby, weather-wise, and placed at 50 on the annual list.

Both cities ranked at 146 out of the 179 cities for rain and snow days, and 173 for annual precipitation levels.

Burnaby, however, also ranked low in the affordable housing category - at 175 - and was second-to-last for how long takes to buy a house here, at 7.6 years.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Burnaby+scores+Best+Places+Live+list/3033845/story.html#ixzz0o7O9v2df

[Howaboutthat]

The preceding message approved by JB, official agent for DC.

WE'RE NUMBER 137!!!

[Jack Bennest]

howaboutthatteamburnabyunion
will you be campaigning for the opposition next time around?

Corrigan and his group (BCA) - highly successful - seem to do well in all slates - school board and council

Corrigan's wife is a vote getter as well - in the legislature

[groundwave]

I sometimes wonder about the practical relevance of these periodical/magazine surveys. Winnipeg came in at #10 in Money Sense's "livability" ranking. That would be same Winnipeg that Stats Can ranks as having the nation's highest metro-area homicide rate for 2008 (the latest compiled data).

[mightymouth]

I sometimes wonder about the practical relevance of these periodical/magazine surveys. Winnipeg came in at #10 in Money Sense's "livability" ranking. That would be same Winnipeg that Stats Can ranks as having the nation's highest metro-area homicide rate for 2008 (the latest compiled data).

And I'm sure during the mosquito season (all summer) it must have the highest suicide rate

[Jack Bennest]

Back to being serious:

Money sense says: We rated cities based on climate, prosperity, access to healthcare, home affordability, crime rates and lifestyle with subcategories in each area. Being the best in one category does not improve a city’s chances — a city has to score well in all categories to come out on top.

BC cities rated:

08 Victoria
29 Vancouver
37 Vernon
50 New Westminster


I think the MoneySense survey is severely flawed. Vernon has a high crime rate. My vote would be Penticton for most
liveable city. Small, great weather etc.

[Dan Sys]

B.C. cities at the bottom of the list:

170 - Terrace
173 - Prince Rupert
174 - Campbell River
175 - Port Alberni
176 - Quesnel
178 - Williams Lake

The big surprise to me is Campbell River. My impression of the place during our visits in recent years was that it's a very vibrant and affluent little city with real nice homes and not a single piece of litter to be found on the streets, not to mention it's a mecca for fishing ethusiasts & tourists.

[Jack Bennest]

I doubt anyone visited the cities - they used a template score card with the following factors - and info from various sources
I think most people will disagree with its findings. But - then who cares and who makes decisions on where to move to?

Penticton was 130

MoneySense’s Best Places to Live is based on data compiled from 179 Canadian cities and towns with populations over 10,000 people. We rated cities based on climate, prosperity, access to healthcare, home affordability, crime rates and lifestyle with subcategories in each area. Being the best in one category does not improve a city’s chances — a city has to score well in all categories to come out on top. Our top city, Ottawa, captured 73.5 out of a possible 105 points.

[Coolcat]

The funny thing about these surveys is that if a city receives an award (like Burnaby did on the financial thing) then they slobber all over themselves with praise but if the city is farther down the list then they start asking questions of the pollster as well as how relevant the poll was. Maybe the truth is these polls shouldn't be believed either way.

[Mike Cleaver]

As one political wag once put it: polls (poles) are for dogs to pee on."

[tuned]

Any poll that has Ottawa on top is suspect. The only good thing about Ottawa is Hull.

[jon]

I worked right next door to Stats Canada during my Ottawa/Hull summer job in 1973. Which gave me a chance to conclude that random use of Stats Canada stats was like the Psychology I was learning at UBC: "you can prove anything in Psychology" becomes "you can prove anything with access to enough stats".

Like so many of these "Rankings" published these days, there is little expertise involved. And certainly no polls or surveys in the true sense of trying to figure out how people feel about things. Because that might cost some real time, effort and money....

Instead, some Stats Canada stats are typed into an Excel spreadsheet for each city, then averaged, the results are sorted and, presto, a ranking of Canadian cities. Likely, no weighting, to say that the number of public toilets is less important that the affordability of housing. Or any attempt to offset housing costs by average wages. For example, unless you are retired or happy to be living on welfare, who cares if housing is cheap if there aren't any jobs in the area?

Quite frankly, it is extremely difficult to do a meaningful job of ranking Cities on livability. That should be pretty obvious based on how much controversy is (quite rightly, in my opinion) involved in the lengthy and well thought out ranking of North American universities that sells a lot of magazines each year. In theory, ranking universities should be easier than determining the livability of a city.

Besides, so many factors are different for different people. I've seen a few interesting approaches to resolving this by offering you the ability to state what is important to you and get results off a web site that ranks according to your perception of what is important. The problem is that you are not given enough background to understand what it is exactly that you are stating the importance of. For example, Housing Affordability could be the dollar value to purchase (1) a specific size and layout of a house; (2) an average house; (3) an average house/duplex/condo; or (4) one of those first three numbers divided by the average family income.