The Globe and Mail

This is a column about Vancouver aimed directly at Toronto. Torontonians who can't get beyond the stereotypical, bifocalized view of Vancouverites as sluggards dressed perpetually in fleece and open-toed sandals won't take kindly to this. Let them grow old in their sleep. Where Toronto once inspired the world, Vancouver has taken oven as a model of urbanism. Urban planners and designers in Bangkok, Shanghai, San Francisco and Seattle are travelling to lotusland for lessons in city building. Fools the lot of them, you say? Perhaps. But The Vancouver Achievement is hard to ignore. Written by British academic John Punter, the 400-page hardcover makes a compelling case for the wisdom of Vancouver. Anybody interested in remaking Toronto should sit down and read it.