4 - Friday, August 30, 1991 - North Shore News Where is West Vancowuver’s welcome mat? THERE ARE many mysteries in life. Many, many mysteries. But there are few as puzzling as this: Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES Why doesn’t Canada’s Top Municipality have a first-class hotel? Why, indeed, is it so unwelcom- ing of tourists? Now, by Canada’s Top Municipality, I mean of course my own humble abode, West Van- couver —— that necklace of pearls of villages ajong the western part of the North Shore. And by a first-class hotel, I mean a real knockout of a holiday resort, a four-star hotel with grand views and a splendid dining room asd an excellent pool and exercise room. {ndeed, why is West Vancouver so impassive, even cool, toward visitors generally? I should say at once: West Van does have a little gem of a hotel, the Park Royal — though it’s so discreetly tucked away that no ca- sual passer-by, white-knuckled from driving over the truly preposterous Lions Gate Bridge, could find it without a sharp nav- igator. And the Park Royal is small — only 30 units. After that, you can drive right through the place — the highest- income, best-heeled community in Canada — to the other side without finding a place to Jay your head. Nothing. Zilch. Zero. And even then the only ac- commodation, at Horseshoe Bay, is a few small, unimposing but doubtless friendly motels. Look through the Yellow Pages for the North Shore and you will find several columns of hotels and motels — almost all of them not on the North Shore. Anyone from afar who checks the lists for a place nearby to rest his tired body will be amazed to find that some of the motels/ hotels are hundreds of miles away — in Kamloops, Quesnel, even Prince George. I’ve seen cars bearing Massachusetts and Illinois licence plates proceeding uncertainly along Marine Drive toward sunset, their occupants engaged in a task that, unknown to them, is hope- less — finding accommodation anywhere along Marine Drive, or for that matter along the Upper Levels Highway. What gives? fs it zoning? fs West Van hor- rified at the thought of allowing a really good — or, indeed, any — hotel or motel between its book- ends, Park Royal and Horseshoe Bay? You'd think that the area around the Salmon House on the Hill, with its magnificent view — in good weather — would be a natural. And that entrepreneurs would fall over themselves lining up to take advantage of the site. And how many extra tourist dollars would be left behind in West Van's restaurants and shops if there were even small motels in Ambleside, Dundarave, West Bay, Cypress Park, or the Caulfeild Plateau? It's dumbfounding. The whole North Shore has some of the most striking vistas in the civilized world, But | don’t know of a single hote!/motel that’s vuilt to take advantage of that. Thousands of tourists must enter Vancouver fiom the south and drive, mesmerized, over the bridges to the North Shore moun- tains, dappled in the evening sun. And, when they get there, find they're in an accommodation des- ert. The North Shorz seems to me to be badly undersold in tourist literature and its own self-promo- tion as a place to visit and to stay. With, what, a population of 140,000, it offers surprisingly few and mostiy mundane and older motels. Where are the mayors, where are the chambers of commerce, where are the entrepreneurs? This strikes me as absolutcly typical of bloody old Canada: backward, dumb, dull, uninspired, unimaginative, and — as every tourist notices at once — badly overpriced for what you get. No wonder Canadians themselves can't stand visiting their own country, and flee to the United States for holidays — in- cluding to areas that have a hell of a lot less to offer than our own North Shore. And boy, do we know how to turn visitors off in small, stupid ways. Example: At the liquor store at the Caulfeild Shopping Centre, I saw a man, whom | quickly sized up as an American, bringing in a dozen or two empty beer cans for the litter deposit return. Aha, thought J, this should be fascinating. Because J could spy that some of them bore strange, foreign labels — doubtless Ameri- can. Out of the corner of my eye, while cruising the aisles for my own overpriced brews, I could see the clerk was doing his dumb, LCB, bureaucratic routine: he wouldn’t take the U.S. cans. Hor- rors, that would contravene LCB Regulation #A-3479, or some- thing. When the visitor, exasperated, marched toward the counter, I cornered him and sympathetically asked what the problem was. Sure enough, the LCB wouldn't take the alien cans. ‘*They don’t seem to realize,"’ said the man in an unmistakable American accent, ‘‘that the point is to stop litter. What does it mat- ter where the cans come from?’’ Absolutely right, of course. But this is the government, this is bu- reaucracy-think. What a nice memory to take back to the U.S. This summer I’ve also seen a European couple stride angrily away from a Whistler grocery checkout, apparently annoyed over not being given a bag for their purchase, or some such. The checkout girl and another employee exchanged looks as if to say: Shrug, ha, who cares? God, we're a dumb, fusty, stupid people in a lot of ways. Bom nme nate! iss “99 by Regular 239% Made in Vancouver! You'll be amazed at the quality and functional features of these stylish Mustang pullovers. The value is extraordinary! Other Mustang Gore-Tex jackets to $140. Hurry for best selection! , Youth's & Kid's sizes too! Theres no better value r back-to-school! 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