I saw Canadian YouTuber Piper Blush’s most recent video, where for the first time she shows where she is now living in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.  Her video begins inside what you might call an artist’s loft, or an artist’s studio in an old historic building downtown.  She leaves her apartment, and exits the building onto a busy street and begins walking.

Me, being curious and looking into what women are doing more than they would ever want, the very first business that Piper Blush walked past, I did a Google Search for this business and got its street address.  Then, I used Google Earth Satellite View and Google Street View to look at this location for myself, and see exactly where Piper Blush was living.

Looking at Google Earth Street View, I was surprised to see how old these buildings were, and what good condition they were in.  It was like they were completely new buildings, but they were actually built in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  They were three, four, and five story buildings, side-by-side, touching each other, constructed of various kinds, colors, and styles of brick.

On the ground floor of each of these old downtown buildings, there were shops, stores, boutiques, offices, galleries, cafes, restaurants, and bars.  Now in Piper’s video, where she leaves her apartment building and walks down the street, you can see some of the architecture, and she stops at some monuments like the statue of the founder of this downtown area called “Gastown”, and the old “Steam Clock”, but Piper doesn’t dwell on or focus on anything, and I had not known how interesting this area was, until I was able to look up and down, around and around using Google Street View.

Right below Piper’s apartment there were two out-of-the ordinary very small seafood restaurants.  Now, I was born and grew up in Florida, and I never had an interest in eating clams, scallops, oysters, crabs, and lobster, though I went and caught them and brought them home.  I now know what a rare treat these things are when you can eat them right after they were caught locally, and I was impressed that you can get them in downtown Vancouver.

Just a few businesses away from Piper’s apartment there were Chinese restaurants, Indian restaurants, Italian restaurants, and upscale long-established fine dining restaurants, one after the other, separated by old bookstores, and high-end jewelry, accessory, art, and fashion boutiques.

This downtown Vancouver, just went on and on, in every direction, for many, many city blocks.  It was so clean, well-kept, appealing, attractive, and inviting,  Vehicle traffic flowed fairly quickly and orderly, but walking seemed to be the preferred way to get around, with the pedestrians all being courteous and moving at a brisk pace.

I was just sitting in my apartment in Dickinson, North Dakota looking at this on the internet, dumbfounded, Huuuuh?  I can’t even drive to the grocery store in Dickinson without either the Dickinson Police trying to stop me or an ignoramous tailgating me in a Ford F250, nor go to a bar or restaurant that isn’t like being in a county jail with the other inmates.

I couldn’t believe that other people live like what I was seeing in downtown Vancouver.  You didn’t really need a car.  I imagined what that would be like, to wake up at any time of the day in your apartment, to shower, get dressed, step out of your building, and be able to walk on clean, beautiful, well kept sidewalks, past historic businesses and buildings, to one of fifty different wonderful restaurants, several bakeries, small markets, many cafes, old bookstores, and many bars, pubs, and taverns.

I am not liberal, not a Democrat, not a socialist, not a lover of diversity, or a believer in excessive government control, but from watching Piper Blush’s videos from Montreal and this one from Vancouver, the Canadians have us beat as far as civility and quality of life.  I don’t know what it is that Canadians do for a living, that makes their standard of living so much higher and their lifestyle so much better.  Their communities are so much cleaner, more attractive, more beautiful, and the people seem to be so much more educated, respectful, and civil.

I was jealous and envious of what I was seeing.  I couldn’t understand why Vancouver was so different than the United States, it is only about one hundred miles north of Washington State.

When I looked up and read about Vancouver, it turns out that I was correct in my amazement of how clean, beautiful, and civilized it appeared.  For many years, Vancouver has been recognized around the World as one of the top five cities to live in, in the World, as far as quality of life.  Here is a quote that I read:

“Vancouver has been ranked one of the most livable cities in the world for more than a decade.  As of 2010, Vancouver has been ranked as having the fourth-highest quality of living of any city on Earth.”

But before you go trying to move to Vancouver, it has the second highest priced real estate market in North America.  I guess that explains that, and that takes care of that.  Here is Piper’s video: