MTV：加拿大最差的三个城市
Top CitiesQuebec City
Ottawa-Hull
Halifax
Winnipeg
Calgary
The Runners-Up
St.John's
Saskatoon
Edmonton
Victoria
The Also-Rans
Toronto
Vancouver
Montreal
Bob Glossop, executive director of programs and research for the Vanier Institute of the Family in Ottawa, says it only makes sense: In smaller cities, social problems are more manageable and the cost of living is lower. They also tend to suffer less crime and poverty, and possess a stronger sense of community.
So Glossop wasn't surprised that Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, our three largest cities, ended up with the lowest ratings of all those we examined. "The challenge is bigger for any large city to become family-friendly," he observes. "The preoccupations of those large cities are predominantly commercial. That's why they're big cities. That's what drives them. And those commercial interests are not necessarily what serve families well." The best cities for families, he adds, are big enough to provide needed services, but small enough that residents feel connected and, therefore, inclined to get involved in their neighbourhoods.
That description fits all five of our top-rated cities: Quebec City (population 670,000, according to the 1996 census), Ottawa-Hull (just over a million), Halifax (330,000), Winnipeg (670,000) and Calgary (820,000). Quebec City captured top billing with its vibrant cultural blend, privileged geography and a provincial government committed to nurturing families, in part through a child care system that - if you can get a spot - charges just $5 a day, no matter what the family income.
"Everything you could want to do is within half an hour," says Quebec City resident Jennifer Hobbs-Robert - from near-wilderness areas to the Old World culture and charm of the city's Vieux-Port. Hobbs-Robert has lived in half a dozen Canadian cities, but has settled here with her husband, Jean Robert, and their two kids, Marisa, 15, and Justin, 13. "We go on the bicycle paths," she says, "and visit the arboretums and botanical gardens, the summer festival and the medieval festival." The city has a palpable pride, she says, and little crime compared to Toronto or Montreal.
That description also fits Ottawa, where Patti Murphy now lives with her husband, Jeff Adams, and Sam, seven, Joe, five, and new baby Claire. Native Ontarians, they lived in Ottawa when they first married, but moved to Vancouver to follow a good job for Adams, a high-tech engineer. The couple loved Vancouver, but when baby number two came along, they couldn't afford decent housing closer than a couple of hours' drive from the city. So they returned to Ottawa, settling in a neighbourhood Murphy describes as "70 or 80 years old with the shops at the end of the street, 15 minutes from the Gatineaus."
Moving east, Laurel Rath says she's noticed a certain quality everywhere she's visited in the Maritimes: "People are so friendly," says the Halifax mother of ten-year-old Ariel and eight-year-old Maris. "In a grocery store queue, you find yourself chatting with total strangers." The family "spends a lot of time hanging around the waterfront. One of our missions is to find the best fish and chips in Halifax." Rath and her husband Alain Vezina recently moved here from Rimouski, Quebec. They had done post-doctoral studies here and determined even then, before the kids came along, that they would return one day. "Nature all around, parks everywhere in the city, and we live on 1.9 acres on a natural lake," she marvels.
David Northcott has an expression for what nurtures families. He calls it "that small-town attitude" and says Winnipeg has it. Northcott runs Winnipeg Harvest, the city's biggest food bank. "One of the things statistics don't measure - that we're not very good at measuring - is the spirit of families and the spirit of kids. Last year, we had over 220,000 volunteer hours at the food bank." Of our top five cities, only Calgary racked up more points for community involvement than Winnipeg.
There's something else our top cities share: a stable economy. The experts say this lessens poverty and crime, eases family financial stress with steady jobs that pay decent wages, and makes it easier for a city to provide services. Historically, the top five cities on our list have exhibited relatively slow economic growth, while our least favourable ratings went to cities with explosive economic and population growth.
Apparently, the tortoises can beat the hares - where it matters most.
For a full explanation of our methodology and point system, see How the Numbers Add Up
Quebec City (552 points)
The province of Quebec scores high marks for health care, its active Ministere de la Famille et de l'Enfance, and the most progressive child care system in Canada. Quebec City reflects that family focus, with the highest per capita spending on its countless parks, recreation areas, museums, activities and festivals. But this historic city took the winning slot with family economics: the second-lowest child poverty rate for kids under five, the lowest housing costs (relative to income), and the smallest percentage of families in need of core housing (10 percent).
Ottawa-Hull (515 points)
First, a clarification: We used civic statistics that combined Ottawa and Hull, but provincial numbers for Ontario only, since the vast majority of the population lives south of the river. Ontario outperforms all other provinces on health care, with short waiting lists for treatment and fewer childhood injuries, and records the second-best per-child spending on child care ($238.40 versus Quebec's $255.77). Ottawa-Hull scores well with plenty of civic attractions and parks, not surprising since the National Capital Region is our political, cultural and historical showcase. Ottawa-Hull also boasts low crime numbers, making it one of our four safest cities. Only Victoria, Quebec City and Halifax have lower child poverty rates - Ottawa-Hull tied for fourth spot with Calgary at 25 percent.
Halifax (445 points)
When graffiti ranks among major crime concerns, you know you're living in a safe city. That's one of Halifax's many strong points: the second-lowest crime rate next to St. John's. This city has also made the most of its maritime environment, with a multitude of beaches and fishing and sailing opportunities, and has begun addressing a long-standing harbour pollution problem. On land, it shares with other top cities a wealth of parks, cycling paths and hiking trails, all topped with clean air. Halifax didn't perform quite as strongly in education, chalking up the second-lowest high-school completion rate, or in child care and economic factors, even with one of the lower child poverty rates among our surveyed cities.
Winnipeg (427 points)
This Prairie city tallied the highest positive score of all - 994 out of 1800. While not taking top marks in any category, Winnipeg performs solidly all around on the positive measures, scoring above mid-range in environment and community involvement, third-best in per capita charitable donations, and comfortably above midpoint in education and child care. The city also benefited from Manitoba's third-place rank among the provinces for volunteering. But what would have been a hands-down winning city was downgraded by high poverty and violent youth crime.
Calgary (275 points)
Calgarians are giving souls: The United Way raises more money per person in Calgary than in anywhere else in our survey. The city basks in the glow of Alberta's healthy economy, boasting low child poverty rates and less business for its food banks than any city we examined except Saskatoon. Assaults, property crimes and drug offences are less prevalent in Calgary than in most other cities. But Alberta's health care, despite having the lowest infant mortality rate, was below the middle mark in other respects, as was education. Both shaved points off Calgary's standing, as did little spending on civic attractions.
The Runners-Up
St. John's (229 points)
Economic difficulties plague this small maritime city: the lowest spending on libraries and child care, lowest percentage of elementary school kids with Internet access, and the highest food bank usage (5.9 percent). Yet St. John's didn't appear to suffer the crime levels usually associated with poverty; assault, property crime and drug offence rates are the lowest, and youth crime levels are less than half of Winnipeg's. As well, Newfoundland residents share with Ontario and Quebec the shortest average waits for medical treatment (less than 12 weeks).
Saskatoon (225 points)
The "Paris of the Prairie" scored comfortably in most categories, and had the best record for civic awareness and for spending on libraries. More school kids have Internet access here than anywhere else, and Saskatchewan spent more on education than any other province, has the best high-school completion record, and the lowest rate of food bank use. So why didn't Saskatoon rank higher? The second-poorest ranking on child poverty (31 percent), the fourth-worst crime rate, and the poorest in health care - including the highest rate of hospital admissions.
Edmonton (195 points)
Despite being one of Canada's wealthiest provinces, Alberta spends less on child care ($102.02 per child) than financially challenged Nova Scotia ($103.19) and far less than Quebec. Education and health care numbers fared similarly. Edmonton's showing was also hampered by relatively low spending on libraries, attractions and parks. Not surprisingly, economic numbers were quite solid here, but they tell an ironic tale: The third-strongest overall showing (Quebec City and Calgary had better numbers) was countered by the fourth-worst child poverty rate.
Victoria (116 points)
Victoria tied for the fourth-best score in child care, and has the second-best ratio of parks to people, next to Vancouver. Seaside walking paths and lush public landscaping give Victoria rich natural beauty, and its downtown has developed a cosmopolitan image. But community spirit isn't as strong here, and poverty's a bigger problem than in most cities. Housing costs are high as well; behind Toronto, Victoria and Vancouver rang up the highest shelter-cost-to-income ratio (26 percent).
The Also-Rans
Toronto (75 points)
Crime rates, poor air quality and economics damaged Toronto's standing. The city did well in health care, with the shortest waiting list for treatment and least number of bone-breaking kids' accidents. It also scored high in child care, through Ontario's best-trained caregivers and near-top per-child spending. But dramatic, second-worst Canadian rates in drug offences and Canada's worst assault rate (32,843 per 100,000 population) garnered "Toronto the Good" black marks for crime. Its air quality is (gasp) the worst of any city we studied. Finally, despite being the commerce capital of Canada, Toronto's housing is beyond the reach of far too many families; the city registered Canada's worst level of core housing need for families with kids (20 percent), and the stiffest shelter-cost-to-income ratio (27 percent).
Vancouver (67 points)
Plenty of upsides - including the lowest hospitalization rate for asthma and the most parkland per person - gave Vancouver the top score in the environment category. But the city's underbelly of crime and poverty did it in. Only Montreal and Toronto scored worse on assault rates, and Vancouver has the worst rate of property crimes (Montreal is only slightly better) and drug offences (Toronto is close). Vancouver also suffered the second-worst core housing need (19 percent) and third-highest under-18 child poverty rate (26 percent). BC has the lowest ratio of university graduates in its population, which didn't help Vancouver's below mid-range education showing.
Montreal (-29 points)
The only city whose negative tally outweighed positives, Montreal scored poorly in environment and community. But the city's second-worst property crime rate, third-worst drug offences rate and troubled economic numbers hurt its ranking the most. Vibrant and cultured for economically advantaged adults, Montreal matches Winnipeg's under-six child poverty level (32 percent), and has the worst under-18 child poverty rate in Canada - a whopping 27 percent. And although Montreal and Quebec City spend similarly high amounts per capita on civic attractions, Montreal has the smallest number of attractions and parkland, and spends relatively little on its libraries.
How the Numbers Add Up
We chose 12 cities with the aim of representing all the regions of Canada - two in the Maritimes, four in Ontario and Quebec, four in the Prairies and two on the west coast. (We excluded the North simply because of its small population.) After much deliberation, we settled on St. John's, Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa-Hull, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.
Following the advice of leading social policy experts and researchers, we selected several categories and identified the factors most important to families. For example, in the crime category, we did not use homicide statistics; instead we looked at property crimes, which are more likely to affect ordinary families.
We then ranked each city against the others and assigned a score from zero to 100. For instance, the city with the best air quality scored 100, the worst garnered zero, a city in mid-range scored 50. Where there was occasional missing data for a city, we assigned a mid-range score.
We learned early in our research that consistent, reliable statistics are hard to come by. In some categories, notably child care and health, only provincial data enabled us to make valid comparisons, so the cities were ranked based on these numbers. Similarly, the quality of a city's education and health care largely depends on the weight the province attaches to the service. Finally, there are always inexplicable statistical skews or local differences in overall patterns; a city with an abysmal crime rate will certainly have neighbourhoods with almost no crime.
Cities collected points in these categories: Environment: air quality, asthma hospitalization rates, number of civic attractions and parks per 100,000 people, civic spending on attractions. (500 points)
Community: library materials spending, library circulation per borrower, United Way contributions, participation level in civic awareness activities, participation rate in intensive volunteer commitments. (500 points)
Education (by province): total spending per capita, teacher-pupil ratio, percentage of Internet use in elementary schools, percentage of high-school completion, ratio of university graduates. (500 points)
Child care (by province): spending per child, percentage of daycare centre revenues derived from subsidy, percentage of staff with at least two years' ECE training. (300 points)
Points racked up in negative categories were subtracted from the city's total:
Economy: food bank use, child and overall poverty rates, housing costs and families in need of core shelter. (-500 points)
Crime rates: rate of assaults, property crimes, drug offences, and youths charged with violent crimes. (-400 points)
Poor health care: waits for treatment, neonatal/infant mortality, hospitalization rates, and bicycle accident and fracture rates among kids. (-500 points)
A perfect score would be 1800 positive points and none of 1400 possible negative points. 有点伤心。『大汗』『呵呵』 我要去小温了 我要去小温了
wosummer 发表于 2010-10-3 18:15 http://www.ourdream.ca/forums/static/image/common/back.gif
是哪儿呢？
是哪儿呢？
FCH 发表于 2010-10-4 11:20 http://www.ourdream.ca/forums/static/image/common/back.gif
是温尼伯吧？:-D 收藏了....:icon_shame:哈里法斯,我一直向往的城市 "Nature all around, parks everywhere in the city, and we live on 1.9 acres on a natural lake," she marvels.
哈里法斯还有这玩??
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