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Mr. Lauster counts himself as a fan of civic engagement, and the Engaged City initiative in particular, although he questions whether Vancouver has it worse than any other urban centre.

To start, almost no other city has ever compiled numbers on loneliness. And if B.C.’s recent election is any indication, the region has a problem with accurate polls – particularly when lonely, isolated people looking for a connection are the most likely to answer them.

It is why, while he would encourage any city to get involved, he cautions Vancouver from doing something rash, like “looking to stop building large apartment buildings because they’re seen as decreasing people’s ability to feel included.”

A cold, grey city is not always a recipe for isolation. There is an entire catalogue of songs and poetry about the cold-heartedness of New York City – a city in which an incredible 50% of households are single person – yet sociologists praise the metropolis for its rich network of “weak ties.”

“People have the capacity to make all kinds of transient connections. New York has an infinite number of them,” John Cacioppo, a University of Chicago neuroscientist whose data consistently shows city dwellers being less lonely than their rural counterparts, told New York Magazine in 2008.

“There’s a new sense of community in cities, an increase in social capital, an increase in trust … it all leads to less alienation.”

The article adds that while suicide rates may be a horrible metric by which to measure civic engagement, it is worth noting that New York City’s suicide rates are among the lowest in the United States.

Similarly, slightly more than .006% of Vancouverites took their own life in 2011. Province-wide, the figure was nearly doubled at .01%.

And while hordes of Vancouver Canucks fans saw fit to rip apart their downtown in the wake of a 2011 Stanley Cup loss. The next morning, over a thousand people, in wheelchairs, turbans, hijabs and hockey jerseys, turned up with trash bags and brooms to clean up the debris.

National Post

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