No Fun City?

First of all love Vancouver, and I enjoy living here. Everyday I'm still completely awed by the skyline, the mountains, and the ocean. The shopping and dining are wonderful, and if I had a car and more free time, I'm sure I'd take better advantage of the nature aspect as well.

However, after living here over a year I'm starting to understand more why the place is sometimes dubbed "No Fun City." For a good-time seeker looking for something to do in the downtown area that doesn't involve purchasing high-end clothing, eating, or drinking in a bar--there's not much. We have the Art Gallery, the Aquarium, and Science World; in addition to being overpriced, those are all things that most cities have a version of. Nothing especially unique. Granville Island is one good option, since the market is fun to browse whether you're buying or not, and the ferry rides across false creek are lovely. Of course Stanley Park and English Bay are great destinations, but I'm thinking more man-made, indoorish things.

To try to be more specific: I want fun, strange, wacky, interesting things to do. If Playland was located in the downtown core, that would be about ten times more awesome. Many larger cities have a giant ferris wheel for urban viewing, but not us. Tokyo has many crazy-fun oddities and Dubai is full of the same (including a giant water park and an indoor ski resort). Okay, granted, those are two huge and wealthy cities, but when I visited St. Louis, a smaller town than us, I found a lot more of this sort of thing. Their zoo, for instance, doesn't take an hour to drive out to, and the City Museum is delightfully oddball fun--by donation to boot. Or a much closer comparison: Seattle's Experience Music Project.

If space planning is the issue for Vancouver, why not utilize all of the now-irrelevant Olympics buildings we've built? Those huge, modern structures would be perfect for public attractions, and do we really need yet more condos instead? Building a floating site and parking it in one of our many waterspaces is always an option, too. I'm not in favor or demolishing things for the sake of silly fun, but there are other ways to make it happen. Even something as simple as allowing people to rent rowboats out on Lost Lagoon would add many entertainment points. C'mon, city officials, think about it.

Well, rant over! Opinions welcome, or if you thought of something good to do in Vancouver that I didn't mention, let me have it!