Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Monday, December 31, 2012
Another indication of America's problems
A list is just out, ranking the best and worst cities of the world, based either on "Quality of Living", the second on "Infrastructure ranking."
Not one US city ranks in the top ten of either:
Worldwide top 50 cities: Quality of living ranking
Worldwide top 50 cities: Infrastructure ranking
Repeat after me: "WE'RE NUMBER ONE!"
Original article: Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living ranking highlights - Global
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Springfield, MO No. 3 on list of "Cities Gaining the Most Jobs"
This out yesterday, according to the 24/7 blog, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They're findings:
3. Springfield, Missouri
> Employed pct. increase: 4.96%;
> Total employed increase: 3,610;
> Workforce: 82,429;
> Unemployment rate: 7.4%
The employed workforce in Springfield, Mo., jumped nearly 5% between November, 2010 and October, 2011. The city has added 3,610 jobs over the course of the past year, and unemployment has dropped to 7.4%, below the state rate of 8.5%. The city of Springfield says its sales tax revenue increased more than 10% from last year. The improvement came in "sectors like restaurants, department stores, and home improvement stores," according to Ozarksfirst.com. This growth points to a healthy, growing economy — the most important component of job growth.
By contrast, Washington State had cities in the "Losing the Most Jobs" category. That would be Spokane (3rd worst), Tacoma (4) and Vancouver (5). Who knows what's going on in Washington State, eh? Link to original post: http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-113812-11705-4-the-american-cities-that-gained-and-lost-the-most-jobs?ywaad=ad0035&nc
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Vancouver Olympics: So many things going wrong
This Winter Olympics started out on such a bad foot, what with the young luge competitor being killed in trials, the day before it opened.
Horrible.
And from there, it hasn't gotten worse, certainly, but it's definitely gone badly.
In the opening ceremonies, the fourth pillar of the Olympic cauldron failed to lift, screwing up the all-important introduction to it all.
Then, the rest of the world seems covered in snow--including Dallas, Texas, for pity's sake--but Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada didn't have enough snow for the games for a while.
Does that make any sense?
China has too much snow. Washington, DC, the list goes on.
What a bad break.
Let's see, what else has gone wrong?
Yesterday I heard a report about the mountainsides being groomed by people with shoes (wth?), which made the course rough, uneven and slow.
Then, the Alpine race schedule for the Vancouver Olympics had been revised--again--after the postponement of Tuesday’s men’s super combined and the women’s events were rearranged last week (though there were no new revisions to the women’s schedule this week).
Next, check this out--first, not enough snow, then this: "Tuesday’s Olympic men’s super combined has been postponed because of heavy snow on the top of the Whistler Creekside racecourse and soft snow conditions brought on by snowfall at the bottom of the mountain. The cold temperatures that helped bring about a smooth men’s downhill on Monday after two days of weather delays turned what had been a forecast of light rain for Tuesday into a significant snowstorm overnight. Tuesday’s women’s downhill training was also canceled."
I don't think I ever remember an Olympics with such problems.
But wait. There's more. This from last week:
"Vancouver Olympic organizers announced Tuesday that 20,000 tickets would be canceled for events at Cypress Mountain, including high-profile sports like men’s and women’s halfpipe and ski cross. Warm weather and rain have created unstable conditions in some spectator areas at Cypress, organizers said. They previously had canceled 8,000 tickets for snowboard cross events this week."
Finally, yesterday, it seems the Zamboni-type machine on the men's speedskating course broke down . (I say Zamboni-type because it wasn't a Zamboni. Somebody thought they'd save money by getting a cheaper one from another company. Anyone ever hear of "you get what you pay for"?).
How embarassing.
It seems the officials "stood looking sheepish as a small technical crew scratched their heads and tried to solve the problems."
Not good.
If this doesn't change, these may go down as the "bumbling, non-working, Socialist Olympics."
Man, let's hope not.
Horrible.
And from there, it hasn't gotten worse, certainly, but it's definitely gone badly.
In the opening ceremonies, the fourth pillar of the Olympic cauldron failed to lift, screwing up the all-important introduction to it all.
Then, the rest of the world seems covered in snow--including Dallas, Texas, for pity's sake--but Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada didn't have enough snow for the games for a while.
Does that make any sense?
China has too much snow. Washington, DC, the list goes on.
What a bad break.
Let's see, what else has gone wrong?
Yesterday I heard a report about the mountainsides being groomed by people with shoes (wth?), which made the course rough, uneven and slow.
Then, the Alpine race schedule for the Vancouver Olympics had been revised--again--after the postponement of Tuesday’s men’s super combined and the women’s events were rearranged last week (though there were no new revisions to the women’s schedule this week).
Next, check this out--first, not enough snow, then this: "Tuesday’s Olympic men’s super combined has been postponed because of heavy snow on the top of the Whistler Creekside racecourse and soft snow conditions brought on by snowfall at the bottom of the mountain. The cold temperatures that helped bring about a smooth men’s downhill on Monday after two days of weather delays turned what had been a forecast of light rain for Tuesday into a significant snowstorm overnight. Tuesday’s women’s downhill training was also canceled."
I don't think I ever remember an Olympics with such problems.
But wait. There's more. This from last week:
"Vancouver Olympic organizers announced Tuesday that 20,000 tickets would be canceled for events at Cypress Mountain, including high-profile sports like men’s and women’s halfpipe and ski cross. Warm weather and rain have created unstable conditions in some spectator areas at Cypress, organizers said. They previously had canceled 8,000 tickets for snowboard cross events this week."
Finally, yesterday, it seems the Zamboni-type machine on the men's speedskating course broke down . (I say Zamboni-type because it wasn't a Zamboni. Somebody thought they'd save money by getting a cheaper one from another company. Anyone ever hear of "you get what you pay for"?).
How embarassing.
It seems the officials "stood looking sheepish as a small technical crew scratched their heads and tried to solve the problems."
Not good.
If this doesn't change, these may go down as the "bumbling, non-working, Socialist Olympics."
Man, let's hope not.
Friday, February 12, 2010
US shut out of "Top 10 Cities" ranking
US "the best"?
The Economist Intelligence Unit doesn't think so.
Their survey "ranked 140 cities on 30 factors such as healthcare, culture and environment, and education and personal safety, using research involving resident experts and its own analysts" and decided the US doesn't have one city in the top ten.
Ouch.
Following is a list of the top 10 most liveable cities as ranked by The Economist:
1. Vancouver, Canada
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Helsinki, Finland
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Perth, Australia
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
Neighbor Canada, however (you know the one--"Socialist Canada", the one with mass transit and national health care for all?) has 3 cities in the "top ten."
More ouch.
Between this and health care (we rank 37th in mortality rates, internationally, folks), we just keep getting put in our place, so to speak, don't we? So much for that "we're number one!" crap, huh?
The good news?
We didn't have any cities in the "bottom 10", either.
Thank goodness for that silver lining.
The Economist Intelligence Unit doesn't think so.
Their survey "ranked 140 cities on 30 factors such as healthcare, culture and environment, and education and personal safety, using research involving resident experts and its own analysts" and decided the US doesn't have one city in the top ten.
Ouch.
Following is a list of the top 10 most liveable cities as ranked by The Economist:
1. Vancouver, Canada
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Helsinki, Finland
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Perth, Australia
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
Neighbor Canada, however (you know the one--"Socialist Canada", the one with mass transit and national health care for all?) has 3 cities in the "top ten."
More ouch.
Between this and health care (we rank 37th in mortality rates, internationally, folks), we just keep getting put in our place, so to speak, don't we? So much for that "we're number one!" crap, huh?
The good news?
We didn't have any cities in the "bottom 10", either.
Thank goodness for that silver lining.
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