I was surprised at how similar they were. I was expecting Vancouver to be a lot different than it was. Vancouver was even more high-rise, glass-everything, gated-community than Seattle. I spoke with the locals who informed me that was Vancouver's MO, and if I wanted a culturally interesting Canadian city, I should head over to Toronto.
I compare this to my experience in Vancouver where, even though I may be a visible minority myself who only speaks English, I was treated as a foreigner. In New York, people were shouting racial slurs at me as I walked down the street. Seattle/Bay Area however, I was treated like your typical tech worker.
I love aspects of Vancouver, especially the Indian food, but damn it gets boring fast. (Not the Indian food, the place).
Visit Toronto sometime. Tons of ethnic enclaves that are legitimately interesting, and not in the "look at how the poor people live!" way - solidly middle class and not at all run-down.
In my experience in the US "ethnic enclave", "culturally interesting", "racially vibrant" more often than not really is code for dirty and run down.
Vietnamese and Indian neighborhoods in the US don't tend to be run down. For that matter, there are middle-class black enclaves. They're just not as noticeable as the huge poor black neighborhoods.