[sofixa]

From the other side of the pond, your list makes me sad. It appears we take a lot of urban design elements for granted here. I grew up in commie blocks, am now in Haussmannian urbanism, and most of those ( i mean there isn't grass and trees on every street, but it's pretty frequent) are just.. basic common sense here.

Like the fact that there's a term, "transit oriented development" used in North America. Here it's just common sense, nobody calls it anything.

[sefrost]

Where exactly do you mean by "the other side of the pond"?

I moved to Vancouver from the UK last year and it is significantly nicer/more liveable than most UK cities I've seen.

[sofixa]

Commie blocks in Eastern Europe and Haussmannian buildings in France.

And i didn't say those are better than Vancouver, just that OP's list about why Vancouver is better than most NA cities is common sense which can be said about most cities in Europe.