When you say North Vancouver, what do you mean?
That’s not a trick question. But it is a tricky one. Of course, there are two North Vancouvers, but whenever you think of your home turf, nestled between the mountains and the sea, do you think of the fine distinctions between the city and the district, or do you just think: North Vancouver period?
Hold that thought.
A valuable clue to the North Vancouver mindset is making the rounds of social agencies thanks to the reliably civic-minded Guy Heywood, former North Van city councillor, parks commissioner and school trustee.
Banking consultant by day, Guy nevertheless can’t stay away from the public fray. He recently unearthed Vital Signs, a 2016 provincewide survey by the Vancouver Foundation that “tells the story of how Canadian communities are faring in key quality of life areas.” Communities such as North Vancouver.
What’s interesting is that respondents identified themselves as citizens of North Vancouver without the qualifiers. Maybe they’re like me and can’t tell half the time whether they’re in the district or city. And maybe they don’t care.
Enough context. Cut to the data:
Top five reasons we love our community: No. 1 Natural Beauty: 36 per cent province-wide, 28 per cent Metro; 49 per cent North Van.
If that’s not the most meaningful single line of advice to all those who would lead us into the third decade of the 21st century, I don’t know what is.
Top issues in North Vancouver: No. 1 Housing: 19 per cent provincewide, 24 per cent North Shore/Sea to Sky, 26 per cent North Van. The next two were Transportation – nine per cent provincewide, 15 per cent North Shore, 22 per cent North Van, and Safety – 18 per cent provincewide versus only 11 per cent in North Van.
Also interesting: only one per cent of North Van respondents think employment is an issue.
From the numbers, a community called North Vancouver arises: It feels safer than anywhere else; its inhabitants value natural beauty more than anyone else, but they’re worried about housing and transportation.
And they have some definite ideas about transportation: 53 per cent see “regional co-ordination of infrastructure” as the top priority – almost twice as much as those provincewide. Could that mean there’s not enough regional co-ordination of infrastructure? Uh, really?
Once all that infrastructure is regionally co-ordinated, 47 per cent in North Van want to expand the public transit system and 39 per cent want to see increased use. So we seem willing to leave the car at home, if we can.
Turns out we’re deeply rooted in our community: 22 per cent have lived in North Van more than 30 years, compared to 14 per cent in Metro Vancouver.
We’re civic-minded: 48 per cent of North Vancouverites have signed a petition, compared to 39 per cent in Metro.
And, no doubt thanks to the North Shore News (can’t help myself), 36 per cent receive community information from the newspaper compared to the province-wide 29 per cent, while only 16 per cent get it from social media, compared to 26 per cent provincewide.
A word of caution. The sample size is small – 209 out of 7,100, but it is a sample size that represents the larger population.
In case you’ve been living in a cave along the upper reaches of Mosquito Creek, you’re probably aware a provincial election campaign is underway. If I were running to capture a North Vancouver seat on May 9 – there are three of them: North Vancouver’s Seymour and Lonsdale and the Capilano part of West Vancouver-Capilano – I would be poring all over this data.
It tells me voters love the natural beauty of the community; their top issues are housing and transportation, and that I should turn up in the North Shore News as often as humanly possible until May 9.
While West Vancouver is all over its Vital Signs data, oddly, no one is clamouring for the North Van numbers. At least that’s what Guy Heywood says in his memo offering Vital Signs to North Van social agencies – “because there was no community foundation or other interested organization in North Vancouver there was no request for North Vancouver data.”
He goes on to say that the report was presented to both city and district councils, but since the data wasn’t separated into city and district, “the results were not relevant to them.”
Well, it’s relevant if you care about the most deeply held convictions in the community of North Vancouver.
Wherever you draw the boundary.
Journalist and communications consultant Paul Sullivan has been a North Vancouver resident since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Madonna. p.sullivan@
breakthroughpr.com
