Hey, I'd like to see more youth in the core too, I'm just not sure those numbers are that bad, I bet the stats for that age group are probably similar in Vancouver - people from that age group residing in the Vancouver's core.
As the inner city's market moves more back in the direction of rental, we should see the number of young people increase slightly. Most of the towers built in recent years were condos, and they tend to attract a higher age group. Also, I'm not sure if the 25-34 year old population matters. 35-50 year olds are just as important. I would like to see more children, but it is what it is. You don't see large amounts of children in any dense urban neighborhoods.
As far as diverse cuisine, I would say the NE offer more options for Asian food, but it's not as diverse as the core if you look at diversity from a global perspective (Greek, Hungarian, Brazilian, Ethiopian, Russian, etc... The core offers food from pretty much everywhere around the globe, whereas the NE is strong on Asian, and not even in the same areas. The NE is a large area, and some parts are very strong for Indian food.....no place between Toronto and Vancouver beats the far northeast for Indian, 36th street is great for Chinese/Vietnamese. but they are very spread out. The core offers everything everything and it's all within walking distance.
As for shopping, I would also argue that Chinook isn't the best shopping experience. It's the best from a mall perspective, and has about 50 or so stores not found in the core, but the core has about 300 stores not found in Chinook. There are a number of other businesses in the Chinook area, but an extremely unfriendly pedestrian environment, and a general lack of resto/retail mixed together.
I'm not trying to be pedantic, or difficult. I just don't know that the core is as bad off as it seems. There is definitely room for improvement...which I think will comes as time goes along, but I think we are on a good path.