By Brent Toderian, Planning Director for Vancouver, Canada:

For the complete post, click here.

It’s likely that we just know there’s a lot more to livability than the rankings include. To elaborate, an anecdote. Last year during some holidays, I was invited by my friend Kees Christiaanse (a European urbanist and professor I greatly respect), to lecture in Zürich on managing livability and density. One of the reasons I jumped at the chance, was my curiosity about Zürich, a city often competing for top global spot in livability (currently ranked #2 in the Mercer rankings, while sharing Vancouver’s big challenge, cost-of-living). As part of the trip, several of Kees’ urbanist colleagues gave me a wonderful tour of some very impressive redevelopment projects across the city.

During the tour, one of my guides gave me a copy of a great book that he had collaborated on, called “The World’s Fairest City.” The book was written to specifically take-to-task livability ranking systems. It contained a critique of Zürich (including the suggestion that it is “far too controlled”, a comment I occasionally also hear about Vancouver). It critiqued the ranking approach, questioning whether it truly captured “what makes a city worth living in”? It preferred the goal of “fairest city”, including livability for everyone, and proposed an alternative (and exhaustive) list of criteria, involving many provocative concepts. This is small sample from the really long list:

Are you proud of your city?

What charms you about your city? What inspires you?

How important are local heroes in your city?

Is your city beautiful? Is the city silhouette suitable for a postcard?

Are your senses overwhelmed by what the city offers?

How often do you meet someone you don’t know in your city?

How do people greet each other?

Does the city give you a rush?

Does your city have a 24/7 culture?

Are there happy demonstrations?

Can you find your way without a map?

Do children go to school by themselves?

Does the city sometimes surprise you?

Can you improvise in your city?

Can you be what you really are?

How often do you feel on vacation when you are home?

Do you get homesick for your city?

Does your city make you dream?

With these less-traditional criteria, the authors invite readers to establish their own rankings of best or most fair city, for them. The writers acknowledged that many of these are tough or impossible to quantify, but that’s ok – the purpose is for people to think about living in their city, not for HR experts to rank it. And as the saying goes, not everything that counts, can be counted.

In Vancouver, I think we can be proud of our great reputation for livability, while actively striving to broaden what livability means, ensuring our livability is resilient, and struggling to be so much more than just livable – seeking what might be called “the complete city”. This recognizes that the most interesting, dare I say “best”, cities are complex and complicated, not single-minded. They are so many things – livable yes, but also vital and vibrant; smart, cultural and creative; socially just, tolerant and inclusive; sustainable and resilient; economically strong and diverse; healthy; sociable and friendly; and surprising and fun!

Vancouver has made it a very high-profile goal to become the greenest city in the world by 2020. In truth though, our very diverse work program as a city illustrates that we want to be much more than just livable and green. Of particular note, is our work around changing for good our past “no-fun city” stigma (something the hugely successful 2010 Winter Olympics did much to assist with). , and enlivening our soul and character as a city for people. Of course, there’s only so much a city hall can do in many of these areas – often the best thing is for cities to encourage the creativity and passions of its citizens, and then try to stay out of the way. Whether it comes from outside or inside of city hall, such energy promotes a depth and breadth of urban success, a complexity and maturity that goes well beyond simple HR definitions of livability.

If we were just in a race for rankings, we’d note that Melbourne is coming on strong, and could unseat us from the number one spot if we take things for granted in our planning and city-building choices. But its not about being competitive – its about being a better city every day, a great city for people in every way.

In other words, a complete city.