I remember my first day as a resident of the City of North Vancouver. It was kind of weird.
Before coming here, my wife and I lived in a bustling neighbourhood in Vancouver, just two blocks away from Broadway and Granville. Within a six-block radius of our old apartment there were dozens of restaurants, a library, several bookstores, one regular video store and one naughty video store, and even a car dealership. The street we lived on was full of people night and day, and even in the quietest moments you could always go around to our back alley and have a chat with the homeless man who lived in our parking spot.
Newly married, we moved to North Vancouver in the late aughts, and that first day is one I won’t soon forget. Exhausted from a long day of moving and unpacking, we decided to hit the town for a bite and a beer that first evening. Our place was about six blocks away from Lower Lonsdale so we decided to walk over there to see what this new city of ours was all about.
We walked one block, and didn’t see a single other person. We walked two blocks – still a ghost town. Three blocks – still no other human movement. It was about this time that we started to wonder what we’d gotten ourselves into. Where was everybody? Was there an 8 o’clock curfew we hadn’t heard about? Was this a city full of reverse vampires?
Surely when we got to Lonsdale we’d find at least a bit of action, we thought. Welllll, not really. Stores were closed, restaurants too. As we walked down Lonsdale towards the waterfront we were expecting things to finally heat up. This, after all, was the heart of the city. The SeaBus terminal and Lonsdale Quay. Tall towers and an ocean full of ships and orcas and probably mermaids. There had to be a party going on down there, right?
Nope. Still dead.
Finally, a glimmer of hope. A half-filled lounge was open and offering expensive Belgian beers, as was the custom at the time, and a young fellow tucked away in a corner playing live jazz music.
All right, we said. Maybe this place isn’t so dull after all.
Revisiting that, I am once again struck by how weird it was. We were so desperate for some sign of life, we were actually happy to hear someone playing jazz.
Fast forward to last week, and there I was with a group of friends sitting on a massive ocean-front patio, all of us drinking delicious B.C. craft beers. The place was so packed that we needed to sit inside the restaurant for more than two hours before a patio space opened up.
My friends, who are not from the North Shore, marvelled at all the action down there. The silvery Polygon Gallery sparkled in the setting sun. Kids splashed in the spongy water feature beside the gallery, and half a block away a packed audience danced and rocked at some random, free outdoor concert. It was at this point that it dawned on me that none of those things existed when I moved here 10 years ago.
The Pinnacle hotel wasn’t there. Pier 7 restaurant wasn’t there. The Friday Night Market wasn’t there. MEGABENCH wasn’t there.
What was there? The historic front part (or was it the back part?) of a ship that you couldn’t climb on or go near or really look at too closely because it was surrounded by industrial waste and/or shrinkwrapped. Also, industrial waste – a real crowd pleaser.
On Saturday the latest piece of the area’s transformation was revealed: a new indoor/outdoor space full of cool shops as well as a public plaza that is a splash park in the summer and will be a skating rink in the winter. On Sunday my younger son and I retraced that six-block walk that left me feeling so uneasy 10 years ago. This time was so much different, starting with the revamped Spirit Trail, a great path to Lonsdale that is helpfully stocked with fresh blackberries for sustenance. As we got to Lower Lonsdale we stopped in for a quick drink at a vegan café. OK, it wasn’t vegan. OK, it was a brewery. OK it was two breweries. Get off my back, all right – my kid got a blood orange soda and loved it.
Anyway, add a grand total of four breweries to the list of things that are in the neighbourhood now that weren’t there 10 years ago.
Hopped up on soda, radler and blackberries, we spent the afternoon in the brand new splash park with hundreds of other happy kids.
All this is to say that the area is virtually unrecognizable compared to what it was just a decade ago. It is now, I’d say, one of the coolest urban spaces in the Lower Mainland. All those who contributed to it – City of North Vancouver elected officials and staff, developers, businesses, residents, Megabench – they all should feel immense pride at what they’ve built down there. They could easily have just sold all the land for condos and pocketed the cash, but they didn’t, and we all have a great legacy of that decision to enjoy for decades.
I know I’m proud showing off my neighbourhood now. They’ve really jazzed up the place.
Andy Prest is the sports editor for the North Shore News and writes a biweekly humour/lifestyle column. aprest@nsnews.com
