New Yorkers when abroad will say they're from New York, not Coney Island, or The Bronx.
Just like folks from here, who when abroad will say they're from Vancouver, when they might live in Port Moody.
But someday will people instead say, "I'm from Surrey"?
Don't laugh.
Surrey is projected to be a larger city than Vancouver in the not too distant future, and the latter doesn't appear to be doing a whole lot about it.
Surrey, on the other hand, is gearing up to become a denser, more urban place.
Note Mayor Dianne Watts' design competition launched this week.
Surrey is prepared to pony up $75,000 to winning proposals in their Townshift Ideas Competition (details at www.townshift.ca).
Can the ideas of designers shift suburbia into true urbanity, asks Surrey city council?
I'm not shilling for Surrey here. I'm a proud, born and raised Vancouverite from the East side, but you've got to be blind to not see what's happening.
Metro Vancouver is on track to be known someday as Metro Surrey.
Our institutions would need to be renamed, too. How does Surrey International Airport sound to you? Maybe the home team will be known as the Surrey Canucks?
Just about any other big cultural event with "Vancouver" in the title would have to be updated.
How about the Surrey International Film Festival?
One day, the cultural heart of Canada's West may rise out of a place once known for jalopies being parked on the front lawn.
To her credit, Mayor Watts is working overtime to rebrand her city as a place with a real future. No more jokes about Surrey girls please, because Watts is having the last laugh.
So what about Vancouver?
B,C.'s biggest city does seem to be throwing up its hands and surrendering the No. 1 city spot to Surrey.
With over 40,000 people migrating into Metro Vancouver annually, you'd think that the City of Vancouver would be reaching out to newcomers. Smart jurisdictions work hard to attract the best and the brightest, but Vancouver has no strategy for this.
Vancouver can and should resolve to increase its density in outlying communities, and to commit to targeted increases in population to keep a step ahead of Surrey.
Unfortunately, Vancouver's own "town centre" initiative has gone cold thanks to local politics. The city's dialogue about increasing density around Canada Line stations is a welcome start, but critics argue this should have happened while the shovels were going in the ground.
Vancouver should think about the real implications of dropping to the No. 2 spot.
Trust me, if someday when I'm an old timer traveling abroad and I have to say, "I'm from Surrey," it will be a very bitter pill for this Vancouverite to swallow.
YOU CAN READ MIKE KLASSEN'S BLOG AT WWW.CITYCAUCUS.COM, OR EMAIL HIM AT KLASSEN@CITYCAUCUS.COM.
