Population: 611 689 Metro: 2 524 113 Size: 114 km² Province: British Columbia•Vancouver is located in the south west corner of British Columbia•Vancouver has a very temperate climate and has relatively warm winters with roughly 11 days of snow per year (1). Vancouver experiences a substantial amount of rain given its geographic location.• Vancouver is listed as the 10th cleanest city in the world by Forbes Magazine and has the fourth highest quality of living of any major city (2).• Some popular attraction within Vancouver are Stanley Park, Canada Place, Granville Island, Whistler and the city’s annual Festival of Lights attraction.•The Olympics will be held in Vancouver in 2010•Vancouver has some of the most expensive real estate, with Forbes Magazine listing it as having the 6th most overpriced housing market, behind Los Angeles (3).•Vancouver is culturally diverse with over 53% of the residents having a first language other than English (4).•Vancouver has Canada’s second busiest airport named the Vancouver International Airport.•Vancouver has a mass transit system known as the Sky Rail that has 33 stations.

Population: 764 976 Metro: 7 264 887 Size: 600.7 km² State: California• San Francisco is the fourth most popular city in the US for tourists due to it’s portrayal in the media (5).• San Francisco is located in northern California on the west coast.• With roughly 16 000 people per square mile, San Francisco is the second most densely populated city (6).• Famous landmarks of San Francisco include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and the Transamerica Pyramid.• San Francisco is known for it’s rolling hill and has roughly 50 hills within city limits (7).• San Francisco has wet winters and dry summers. Temperature rarely goes below 10° C in the winter and rarely goes above 25° C.• San Francisco is known for its “liberal” and accepting attitude.• The cost of living in San Francisco is exceptionally high in comparison to other US cities.• San Francisco has an excellent public transportation system.• Like many other cities in California, San Francisco experiences occasional earthquakes due to its position on the fault line.

Population: 3 849 378 Metro: 12,875,587 Size: 1 290.6 km² State: California• Los Angeles is located near the mid region of Southern California. The city is within Los Angeles County, the biggest county in all the United States (8).• Los Angeles is a very spread out city and is largely suburban although it does have a relatively large downtown district.• Los Angeles is home to Hollywood and the US entertainment industry, having all major studios located within city limits.• Los Angeles is a car-dependent city due to the geography of the city. Because the city is very large and spread out, a car is often needed to get from one location to another. In addition, public transportation in Los Angeles is often seen as ineffective and the city does not contain a subway due to the city experiencing frequent earthquakes.• Los Angeles has notorious traffic congestion due to the substantial amount of commuters.• Because of heavy reliance on cars, and the geographic landscape of the city, Los Angeles has some of the worst smog in the nation. • Los Angeles has a large divide between the lower class and the upper class. Certain neighbourhoods such as Beverly Hills and Westwood are more affluent while most of South Central L.A. Is plagued with crime and corruption.• Los Angeles has one of the third busiest airport in the United States often called LAX (9).• Los Angeles has a very large Hispanic community due to its proximity to the Mexican border. Roughly 44.56% of the Los Angeles population are Hispanic or Latino (10).

Population: 8 274 527 Metro: 19,750,000 Size: 1 214.4 km² State: New York•New York City is one of the three Primary global cities along with London and Tokyo. The U.N. Headquarters are situated in Manhattan.• New York City is broken down into 5 boroughs; Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.• New York City has the highest cost of living of any US city and is the 22nd most expensive city in the world (11).•New York City has a very effective transportation system with a comprehensive subway system that runs 24 hours and has hundreds of stations located across the city. As a result of this, many people within the city do not own a car.• New York City has quite a low crime rate considering the size of the population. • Tourist attractions in New York City include the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the Metropolitan Museum and the Empire State Building.• New York City is the most densely populated US city with roughly 26 403 people per square mile (12).

Facts: (1) http://vancouver.ca/aboutvan.htm#history(2) http://www.mercer.com/referencecontent.htm?idContent=1307990(3) http://www.forbes.com/realestate/2007/08/24/housing-overpriced-world-forbeslife-cx_mw_0824realestate.html(4)http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/Language/Table401.cfm?Lang=E&T=401&GH=7&GF=59&G5=0&SC=1&RPP=100&SR=401&S=0 &O=A&D1=1(5) http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/outreachpages/download_data_table/2007_States_and_Cities.pdf(6) http://www.demographia.com/db-2000city50kdens.htm(7) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/07/PKGJ99K7KD1.DTL(8)http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=&geo_id=05000US06037&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US06%7C05000US06037&_street

=&_county=los+angeles+county&_cityTown=los+angeles+county&_state=04000US06&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=050&_submenuId=factsheet_2&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null&reg=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=

(9) http://www.lawa.org/lax/volTraffic.cfm(10)http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=ChangeGeoContext&geo_id=16000US0644000&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US06&_street=&_county=Los+Angeles&_cityTown=Los+Angeles&_state=04000US06&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_nam=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null&reg=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=(11) http://www.mercer.com/summary.htm?idContent=1095320&originUrl=/home.jhtml(12) http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-_lang=en&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_GCTPH1R_US13S&-format=US-13

Images: Slide 2 = http://liammitchell.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/vancouver_ib1.jpgSlide 4 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SF_From_Marin_Highlands3.jpgSlide 5 = http://thecontentwrangler.com/images/uploads/SanFranciscoRussianHill.jpgSlide 6 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:New_LA_Infobox_Pic_Montage_5.jpgSlide 8 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NYC_Montage_8.jpg

Charts: Slide 3 = http://www.mercer.com/referencecontent.htm?idContent=1307990Slide 9 = http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTGeoSearchByListServlet?ds_name=ACS_2004_EST_G00_&_lang=en&_ts=170243153266