North America's Most Vegie-Friendly Cities (Oregon Rules!)

[Bodybuilder]

Check it out:

http://www.goveg.com/f-vegcities.asp

PETA/GoVeg.com traveled around the US and Canada to find the most vegetarian/vegan-friendly cities in North America.

#1 (Large City) = Portland, Oregon
#2 (Small City) = Eugene, Oregon

I was just in Eugene last night and I go to Portland frequently. I'm in Corvallis, between Portand and Eugene.

Check out the top 10 lists, you'll get some great info and great ideas of where to go when you travel! The link will give you all the info about these places, or just visit www.goveg.com


America's Best Vegetarian-Friendly Large Cities

1. Portland, Oregon
2. Seattle, Washington
3. San Francisco, California
4. New York, New York
5. Atlanta, Georgia
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Minneapolis, Minnesota
8. Austin, Texas
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
10. Chicago, Illinois


America's Best Vegetarian-Friendly Small Cities

1. Asheville, North Carolina
2. Eugene, Oregon
3. Salt Lake City, Utah
4. Norfolk, Virginia
5. Santa Monica, California
6. Santa Cruz, California
7. Boulder, Colorado
8. Madison, Wisconsin
9. Athens, Georgia
10. Ann Arbor, Michigan


Canada's Best Vegetarian-Friendly Cities

1. Vancouver, British Columbia
2. Victoria, British Columbia
3. Toronto, Ontario
4. Montréal, Québec
5. Calgary, Alberta
6. Ottawa, Ontario

www.goveg.com

Be sure to check out the site for hyperlinks for specific places in each featured city.

[Jane M]

Yaaaayyyyy my small town is on the list....go Ann Arbor!!!!!! Yaaaayyyyy!!!.....ok..I'll behave now....

[Roxy]

My Canadian city is on the list too.

[Yoggy]

YEAH, Victoria's there too!

[Bodybuilder]

Cool! Great to see some of you are from some of the veggie hot spots!

The West Coast is pretty amazing! Look at the List. Interstate 5 runs all the way from Canada to Mexico and the places along the way or very nearby are:
From North to South:

Vancouver and Victoria B.C. Canada
Seattle
Portland
Eugene
San Francisco
Santa Monica
Santa Cruz

I don't actually know which of Santa's is further South..but anyway.

L.A. is also vegan Friendly and a bunch of Northern California cities as well.

I lived in Salt Lake City for a while and that made the list too....although I thought it would be classified as a "large" city. I think Portland barely made it into the "Large" city category.

It really well detailed so be sure to check it out on www.goveg.com

[Seaside]

3. San Francisco, California
4. New York, New York

Ha, I knew San Francisco was better than New York!

[Bodybuilder]

Is anyone else from a very-veggie friendly city that did not make the list?

Someone e-mailed me to point out Los Angeles is not on the list, But Atlanta is!

I know there must be other great veggie towns, anyone else have one to report?

[Wishin986]

Ha, I knew San Francisco was better than New York!

I'm going there in April! I'm so excited!!

[Bodybuilder]

You'll be in San Fran in April?

Interesting....San Francisco and Boston are the cities I always listed as my two favorite cites in the US...and I've been to 31 states. Of course, now I lean more towards Portland because I am very close to it, spend lots of time there and it is ranked as the #1 vegan-friendly city in the US

Have fun in Cali.....you know San Fran is just a 9-hour drive or a quick fligth from where I am

[Romac]

one thing about the list i don't like is how heavily based it is on restaurants per capita.

I live in atlanta which is number 5 on the list but i'd never have guessed this was a vegetarian-friendly city at all. Which may very well be due to that fact that we hardly ever eat out. Availability of organic foods and vegetarian products at grocery stores is not that great imo.

It would be cool if they would do a list like this that was based more heavily on other data...like maybe the availability of organic and vegetarian products in regular grocery stores, and the population ratios of vegitarians to non-vegetarians, but that would be a hell of an undertaking to try and collect that data.

The way they ranked the cities all they really had to do was look in the yellowpages at how many restaurants there were and compare that to city populations.

[grail]

Who-hoo! Go Madison, WI!

[Tigerlily]

Haha, I'm no where near the hot spots in Canada. :P

[Bodybuilder]

one thing about the list i don't like is how heavily based it is on restaurants per capita.

I live in atlanta which is number 5 on the list but i'd never have guessed this was a vegetarian-friendly city at all. Which may very well be due to that fact that we hardly ever eat out. Availability of organic foods and vegetarian products at grocery stores is not that great imo.

It would be cool if they would do a list like this that was based more heavily on other data...like maybe the availability of organic and vegetarian products in regular grocery stores, and the population ratios of vegitarians to non-vegetarians, but that would be a hell of an undertaking to try and collect that data.

The way they ranked the cities all they really had to do was look in the yellowpages at how many restaurants there were and compare that to city populations.

Good point. I'm sure they did the best they could with what resources they have. I think it is still a fairly accurate representation of the vegan places around the US. They do focus a bit on on-restaurants too, such as stores, businesses and community events too, I believe.

I'll be in Portland for the VegFest this Saturday. It should be a good time.

[moochbabe]

sweeet, not that i didn't know this already but i live near some of the greatest veg friendly places (LA and Santa Monica)
I may being going to uni in Moraga soon, just outside of San Fran and am looking forward to that...although I am REALLY sad that I may not be going to a uni in San Diego like i'd hoped

[Tigerlily]

I can't wait until I move to Toronto!

[Yst]

After some years in Toronto's downtown and two in the heart of Chinatown, as far as I'm concerned, being a vegan friendly city for me, is at this point 90% about having ascetic Buddhist cuisine available in grocery and restaurant settings and, consequently, in practice, about having Chinese and Vietnamese grocery stores and restaurants and, ideally, one or two exclusively Buddhist grocery stores and restaurants (i.e., completely vegan, but in theory for reason of Buddhism rather than merely pursuit of a vegetarian audience).

The western grocery store shopping exercise of poking through label after label in order to eventually find products which are vegan, then going to the "fake meat" section to buy products pretending to be animal flesh is practically intolerable to me now, and I virtually never do it. The Buddhist swastika has long been there on Chinese vegan products. Much larger and better organised western grocery stores still have no equivalent. And the Chinese selection of vegan products is far more diverse (unless you count ten kinds of Yves fake meat as culinary diversity) and much, much cheaper.