North America's First Slow City

The village of Cowichan Bay, British Colombia, has been named the first "Slow City" in North America. This report from Living on Earth tours the town.

1 minute read

November 30, 2009, 6:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


The small village meets the prerequisites of the slow city movement: pedestrian walkways, no big box or chain stores, a population of less than 50 thousand.

"A village in British Columbia has scored a North American first by becoming something called a Cittaslow, or Slow City. A Slow City is an offshoot of the Slow Food movement; it's a sort of quiet resistance to fast lane, drive-thru homogenization. The seaside town of Cowichan Bay, north of Victoria on Vancouver Island, doesn't have a single fast food restaurant in sight. As Don Genova reports, the villagers want to keep it that way."

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