BC Place Stadium in Vancouver is set to host matches of the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in June and July.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
In many ways, Expo 86 was Vancouver’s coming-out party.
The World’s Fair, which opened on May 2, 1986, introduced the city to a global audience. The more than 22 million guests helped boost the city’s profile everywhere from China to Spain.
The physical legacy of the fair is still evident today. There’s the waterfront convention centre with the iconic five sails and the region’s light-rail transit system, which was born around the time of the event. It would also instigate the stunning residential and commercial development of the previously dormant grounds on which the fair was held – the north shore of False Creek. That would spur a formidable leap in population growth.
Perhaps as much as anything, the fair announced Vancouver as Canada’s gateway to the rising Asia Pacific.
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Fast-forward 24 years and the city was ready to host another party – the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
It would be less a coming-out party than an affirmation of Vancouver as a global metropolis. There were certainly physical gifts left behind from the Games: a long-discussed transit line from the airport to downtown, a magnificently improved Sea-to-Sky highway to Whistler, another long-needed convention centre, ice arenas and community centres. Yes, the cost to taxpayers was nearly $2-billion, but many would argue it was money well spent.
What it also did for the psyche of the city and the country was incalculable.
Which brings me to the coming World Cup matches in Vancouver over a roughly four-week period in June and July. It’s another global spotlight on the city, but at a far different moment in its evolution.
If Expo 86 was Vancouver’s debutante ball and the Olympics a sporting festival hosted by an ascendant city with a burgeoning global reputation as an urban-planning trailblazer, the World Cup arrives at an unsettled time for the West Coast gem. While Vancouver may look as gorgeous as ever, its underlying fundamentals have deteriorated in recent years.
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One measure of this is the Global Power City Index, a city ranking adjudicated by international scholars. It is the more respected cousin of the Global Liveability Index put together by the Economist Intelligence Unit. In 2015, the City Index ranked Vancouver 20th out of 48 major cities. Today, it ranks 36th – 12 spots behind Toronto.
The ranking is based on the evaluation of several categories, including the economy, livability, research and development, environment, transportation and cultural integration. So what has accounted for Vancouver’s fall? For starters, the city scored poorly when it came to the economy, research and development, transportation and cultural integration. It did better when it comes to the environment and livability.
The City Index really docked Vancouver points for the cultural integration component, which identified the lack of nightlife in the city, not to mention the dearth of art galleries and museums. Shopping isn’t great either.
Ultimately, the City Index is a reflection of what most people can see with their eyes, certainly those who have lived in Vancouver (or surrounding environs) for any length of time. The city seems to have fallen into a period of stasis; it has lost whatever momentum it had 10, 15 years ago. After the 2010 Winter Games it was easy to imagine Vancouver as one of the truly great cities of the world – a destination attractive to just about anyone on the socioeconomic scale.
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But the high cost of real estate and the rancour caused by foreign investors has had a stultifying effect on any forward push the city had. People started leaving because they couldn’t afford to live here. The rich residential investors left because no one wanted them. Societal problems began piling up. The often violent drug den that is the Downtown Eastside is worse than ever. Crime is a growing concern.
Maybe those who decided to make a bid to host the World Cup thought it might be the lift the city needed to get it out of its doldrums. And maybe it will be. But I think the city’s issues run deeper than anything the World Cup will fix. There certainly won’t be the type of tangible benefits left behind like there were after Expo 86 or the Olympics.
There may well end up being a $1-billion bill for a party that some will enjoy for a short period of time. But its legacy will surely be inconsequential compared with the last two global spectacles the city hosted.
This is a different city acting as host this time around. It is more mature and maybe a bit more cynical. And its citizens may well ask after the circus leaves town whether it was all worth it.