Vancouver's Olympic draw
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Just like in Salt Lake City, construction is the dead
giveaway to the Winter Games in this beautiful Canadian city, where urban
culture mixes with a rugged outback.
A tall set of Olympic rings were illuminated in the the streets of this city a
couple of months ago, you'd never know it was about to host the 2010 Vancouver
Olympics.
Except for the construction, anyway.
Yet just as our Olympics emerged triumphant, local tourism officials here expect
the last of the dust to be swept up in plenty of time for visitors to fully
enjoy one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan cities in the world when one of
its biggest sporting events begins Feb. 12, 2010. Most of the indoor events such
as hockey and speed skating will take place in the city, with skiing, sliding and
snowboarding events at nearby Whistler and
Cypress Mountain .
"The world will really feel comfortable here," said Rick Antonson, the president
of Tourism Vancouver.
Honestly, how could it not?
Ranked again as the world's most liveable city in a survey by The Economist news
magazine earlier this year, the largest city ever to host a Winter
Famous for its panoramic views of the nearby North Shore mountains and the
shimmering water that nearly surrounds it on a peninsula, the city features a
diverse population -- about half of it is comprised of ethnic minorities, most
from China and the Pacific Rim, plus a large aboriginal community -- and a
variety of distinct neighbourhoods surrounding a compact and walk able downtown
core. Dozens of languages are spoken, and signs outside many businesses are
posted in both English and another script.
The forest of gleaming high-rise apartment buildings is part of the city's plan
to foster a more livable area by avoiding sprawl, and it contrasts nicely with
the waterfront and the serenity of sprawling
Stanley Park , one of the largest
urban parks in North America (about 20 percent bigger than Central Park in New
York City).
A highly regarded dining, nightlife and shopping scene, vibrant gay community
(same-sex marriage is legal here) and boundless recreational options such as
cycling, skiing and kayaking complete the picture.
"Vancouver is the most wonderful place," actor Terence Stamp once said. "I put
it up there with San Francisco and Sydney as a kind of magic sort of harbor
city."
A wet one, of course.
Much like
Seattle, about 140 miles to the south, Vancouver is known for its
cloudy and rainy weather, though winter temperatures are much more mild than in
most Winter Olympic cities. The average daily high in February is 44 degrees, so
visitors probably won't freeze while waiting for the bus to take them to their
event.
And that is key.
Traffic in the city can be challenging even in the best of times, and officials
are hoping to avoid serious snarls by asking residents to cut down on driving
and encouraging visitors to use public transportation, including the new
Canada Line SkyTrain from
Vancouver Airport to
Downtown Vancouver.
In fact, there will be no public parking at any of the Olympic venues, and fans
should plan on using the Olympic Bus Network -- departing from locations
throughout the area -- to reach the skiing sites at Whistler and Cypress
Mountain.
But even visitors without event tickets will be able to enjoy themselves at any
of the free daily celebration sites -- two of them in central Vancouver, one
near the speed skating oval in the southern suburb of Richmond and one at the
Whistler resort. That's in addition, of course, to everything else Vancouver has
to offer, which officials like Antonson hope can ignite a new "decade of
tourism" for the city, long after the Olympics have gone.
"Much of what the next decade can be will depend on how we use the year 2010,"
he said. "Ideally, we'll come out of the Games with a collective self-confidence
that we can do it. ... We want that, and that's going to I think embolden us" to
become an even hotter city in the eyes of others around the world.
And perhaps make all of that construction worthwhile
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Michael C. Lewis
12/03/2009
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