Being very well taken care of was precisely my problem. At age 60 I longed to shake things up, reinvent myself. Move! In the end it boiled down to a practical career decision—as a writer specializing in housing and lifestyle issues, go where this great cultural shift, this happenin’ green revolution, is occurring with vengeance and with success. Go and report. So, I cashed out my assets and hopped the border to Canada's West Coast, 160 miles north of Seattle yet a world away from that hectic blandification.

Vancouver, British Columbia, is my Emerald City, nestled between the snow-capped Coastal Mountains and the lapping Pacific waters of the Georgia Strait. The city (located in one of the dense temperate rain forests that occur in mid-latitudes) enjoys a moderate climate, rarely heating up to 85 degrees F. in summer, or dipping much below freezing in winter. No matter what time of year, when the sun shines the city sparkles like a gemstone. It’s a breathtaking garden of flowers and herbs, wild salmon and Dungeness crab, artisan cheese and local wines that taste of the sun, the sea, and the sky.

Founded by the Inuit First Nations People (Vancouver in Squamish means "birthplace of the winds") the city is  consistently ranked one of the three most livable cities in the world. With a metro population of 2 ¼ million, it’s a true world city drawing from Asian as well as European, Middle Eastern, African, and Hispanic cultures. More than half the residents have a mother tongue other than English; government culture is bilingual—equal parts French and English.

When the world learned in 2003 that Vancouver won the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Vancouver City Council pledged to become the “greenest” city in North America. Toward that end, Vancouver today:

	Is the only West Coast city in North America that doesn’t have a freeway skirting its coast; instead it has a seawall composed of walking/bike trails.
	Is a walking city.  More people walk to work in Vancouver than in any other North American city besides New York City.  Owning a car is a hindrance.
	Has a public transit system that is efficient, reliable, helpful, and cheap (including a light rail train to the suburbs).  City buses are experimenting with different kinds of energy efficient fuels, including biodiesel, flex fuel, and cellulosic fuels.
	Has a taxicab fleet largely composed of hybrid automobiles.
	Has designated bicycle routes mapped throughout the city, bicycle parking in every retail/service center, and bike racks on city buses.
	Attends to the homeless and indigent with support systems both private and government-funded.
	Has large clothing donation bins located every four blocks in Kitsilano and other near-city neighborhoods.
	Fills local neighborhood markets with organic, locally grown produce.
	Doesn't require heating very often or air conditioning ever, thus reducing two big carbon hogs.
	Has world-renowned boutiques of recycled clothing and household goods (really fun!) sprinkled throughout the neighborhoods.
	Discourages big box stores.  Wal-Mart has been trying for three years to get a Vancouver-based store, even going so far as to make it the first "green" Wal-Mart in the world; the city so far refuses.
	Has open-all-day yoga studios and corner gyms in practically every neighborhood.

The metro area, the University of British Columbia (UBC), and Vancouver Island are home to some shining stars in the green galaxy.  There's the world-renowned David Suzuki (often compared to Carl Sagan and Jacques Cousteau), author of 40 books and a host since 1979 of the popular CBC-radio program "The Nature of Things"; William Rees (professor, author, and founder of the eco-footprint), and Cornelia Oberlander, Canada's foremost landscape architect, who brings a passion for green roofs and sustainable practices to all her projects (which include Vancouver's Robson Square, UBC's Museum of Anthropology, and the National Gallery in Ottawa).

Vancouver has embraced green living like no other city in North America. When it comes to green innovation, what comes to Vancouver today comes to California (and the United States) tomorrow. BC's premier, Gordon Campbell, is leading the way with a pledge to reduce the province's greenhouse gas emissions by at least a third by 2020. His 2007 renewable energy plan (part of which stipulates that consumers cut their electrical usage in half over the next 13 years) would make BC a world leader. In May Campbell and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will announce plans for a hydrogen highway with refueling stations along the entire West Coast of North America.

All this is reason enough for this green journalist to call Van City home.  In March I represented Better Homes and Gardens magazine at EP!C, the continent's first sustainable living expo.  Editors at several national U.S. magazines enjoy picking my brain about avant garde green.  Sometimes I surprise myself.  While being interviewed by Glamour magazine, the reporter (after listening for more than 30 minutes to a rhapsodic soliloquy about my newfound home) inquired, "But what is, in the end, the ultimate reason you like living in Vancouver?"  After pausing to reflect I replied, "It makes me feel more human."

And that's the truth.  Walking to work everyday.  Taking time in the evening to stroll the beach and watch the sunset.  Living within my means, without benefit of a car.  The adventure of bus rides to Chinatown and Broadway.  Hearing seagulls call across the water.  Gathering uniquely shaped rocks and nuts and pods and shells and laying them out on my window sill.  Matching my biorhythms to the gentle lapping of the waves upon the shore.  All this does indeed make me feel more human.