It’s wonderful so many West Vancouverites are part of a close-knit, walkable community close to shops, transit, and entertainment. It’s just too bad they had to leave West Vancouver to find it.
The diaspora of Ambleside, Dundarave and Caulfeild have been assembling in the new, unofficial West Vancouver colony: Lower Lonsdale.
There was a time when settlers fled inhospitable countries to chase liberty. Today, seniors drive moving vans from $3-million homes for a place to downsize.
According to the latest Vital Signs report, West Vancouver is suffering from an impacted population and enlarged suburbs.
Approximately one in three residents plan to move in the next five years – perhaps half of those will leave the municipality.
Let’s stop to consider the natural beauty of West Vancouver. Now consider how sparse the options must be for neighbourhoods to hollow out, leaving increasingly isolated seniors staring at For Sale signs where neighbours used to be.
However, there is a way forward. To start, we propose bidding an unsentimental farewell to the environmentally disastrous and logistically preposterous single-family neighbourhood. Perhaps West Vancouver could follow the City of North Vancouver’s lead in allowing secondary suites, laneway houses, and innovative options to lure the North Shore’s missing generation back. Maybe low-cost rentals could be scattered among condos so more cops, teachers and firefighters could work where they live.
A community seems abstract unless it’s yours. Let’s revitalize West Vancouver.
Don’t settle for less.
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