The Project for Public Spaces has just released their list of best neighborhoods in North America.

Granville Island in Vancouver pipped NYCs' East Village for the top spot. However it is a fairly disputable top 20 as I'm not sure I would have included Venice Beach. More intriguing to WorldChanging readers are their selections for the rest of the world listed at the bottom of the page.

I wonder what a top World Changing cities list would look like? I would place Curitiba, Brazil amongst the top five. your thoughts?

As a Vancouver resident, I find the choice of Granville Island somewhat puzzling. Cars are allowed on Granville Island and on summer weekends it is just one giant parking lot - with a major difference, the cars all have their engines on as they slowly circle about in search of scarce parking spaces. The stress this places on the environment and pedestrians is major. Ban cars from Granville Island and I would maybe agree with the Project for Public Spaces.

Posted by: Terry Lavender on November 25, 2004 2:09 PM

I'd step up in defense of Venice Beach. It's definitely the nicest neighborhood in LA, and remember, several million people love LA. (It has things Vancouver and Portland don't, like, for instance, the sun.)

As for top Worldchanging cities, I think there's a big overlap with the cities they already have listed. All greenniks in North America fall all over themselves to praise Vancouver, Portland, and the clever ones get New York too.

Posted by: Jer on November 30, 2004 1:35 PM