The ‘view from above

AS NEAR as I could remember, it had been a de-
cade since I’d gone up Grouse Mountain. There is
much truth in Pierre Trudeau’s famous taunt that
people who live at the foot of great mountains
seldom climb them. So on the Labour Day
weekend we packed the kids and headed for the

Skyride.

The weather was of course
a benediction. By the time
we climbed off the top of the
lift that starts at the beer
garden, my _ six-year-old
looked around in awe and
proclaimed: ‘‘I can see the
whole world!’’

It seemed like that. It was
as clear a day as you could
pray for. There it all was,

laid out at our feet: Van-.

P&T
decision
deferred

From Pago 1
‘affect the market for the

Park and Tilford develop-—

ment.”’

Said Clark: ‘‘(Daon’s) :

market report is a joke. It’s
a slanted. presentation to
make us believe — some-
what fuisely — that there is a
market for it. And they are
predicting (an economic) re-
covery, when there is none.

“The job creation is just a
myth,’’ Clark continued.
“Surely it’s only a job
transfer. It will be counter-
balanced by a job loss
elsewhere in the city.’’

‘Clark said the city is seek-
ing to preserve light in-
‘dustrial zones, and he is not
willing to spend taxpayers
doilars on any further
studies.

STUDIES

Dean agreed, saying the
city didn’t: need’ any more
studies, because she said,
“Consultants tell you what
you want to hear — whether
it’s on the side of the city or
the developer.”

But she added: ‘‘Light in-
dustrial has not flocked into
North Vancouver. We have
char.ged. We have to change
‘our zoning bylaws. The
community was different in
1980 than it is in 1985.”

But Braithwaite disagreed:
“If we don’t look at the
whole community plan,
we're going to be in awful
trouble years down the road
on what the community can
bear,

“> object,” Braithwaite
continued, ‘‘but I’m
prepared to go to a public
hearing to hear input,
especially from the business
community,.”’

For approva!, the 330,000
square foot project, propos-
ed for the 30 acres of
Schenley-owned land, would
require a zoning amendment
from industrial to commer-
cial, and a change in the of-
ficial community plan.

Council agreed 5-2 to refer
the Park and T° “ord shopp-
ing proposal ic the city’s
Advisory Planning Commis-
sion, and a public hearing
may follow as a result.

couver, the Fraser delta,
Georgia Strait, Vancouver
Island, Point Roberts, the
mountains of the Olympic
Peninsula.

BLOWN OUT

I must-admit I was no less
blown oui than my kid. In
fact, if anything, I was more
impressed than I have ever
been by the spectacle.

In the decade since I last
bothered to venture up the
mountain in our backyard, I
have visited some 20 coun-

tries. For the record, they

were: Britain, France, West
Germany, Switzerland,
Hong Kong, Japan,
Singapore, India, Australia,
Cuba, St. Lucia, Trinidad &
Tobago, The Bahamas,
Belgium, Holland, Thailand,
Denmark, Sweden, Norway,

‘as well as. various parts of

the U.S. and Canada.

In the modern world,
that’s no big deal. There are
people in the airline and
travel industries, to say
nothing of the media who
routinely hit that many
countries in a year. I have a
friend who will be visiting
his 200th country this fall.

But standing at the
4,100-foot level on Grouse,
looking out over the pale
blue vista that my son took
to be the whole world, it
dawned on me that this was,
without a shadow of a
doubt, the most beautiful
sight I had seen since the last
time I was here.

MAGNIFICENT

By ‘‘beautiful’? I mean
just plain raw, magnificent,
awe-inspiring spectacle. On a
scale of one to ten, ten. And
I mean, factoring in
everything—distance viewed,
variety of sights to be seen
within the panorama (city,
ocean, mountains, islands,
forest, delta), plus the par-
ticular angle and proximity
from which all this can be
contemplated.

I am net about to say that
the view from Grouse is ab-

solutely the best in the
world, because 1! haven't
seen the whole world. I hope
to, but I haven't yet.

I have seen views that
came close. There is a cable
car you can take to the top
of Victoria Peak in Hong
Kong. From there you can
stand in a pagoda and look
down at the bone-white
towers surrounding bruise-
colored Fragrant Harbour,
ships everywhere, and
beyond the haze-softened
outline of Kowloon, the low
mountains rolling away
across the Territories to the
distant mainland of China.

HEAVEN

The thing about Grouse is
that it is very much as
though you had died and
gone to heaven and were
looki..g back down at the
place where you suffered
and struggled and loved. For
a moment, at any rate, you
can enjoy an olympian

, detachment.

There are greater cities
that Vancouver, of course.
But most of them are built at
the mouths of great rivers,
with the result that they are
more often than not located
on Jowlands, with no nearby
eagle’s nest to serve as a
vantage point.

I think} can say I’m being
objective, not chauvinistic,
when I say the view from
home is about the most fab-
ulous view you are liable to
find on Planet Earth. Try it
some time.

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eee |
North Shore Peopie
Happy Wednesday moming to one of Vancouver's most *
honest, colorful, stubborn and doggedly determined in-

dividuals, the long-serving Czar of the Pacific Na- ‘fi

tional Exhibition, Erwin Swangard. Several
weeks before this year's fair ‘opened, Erwin,
unbeknownst to most people, spent some time in St.
Paul’s Hospital for an undisclosed ‘ailment. ‘The
story I'm told is, that after various tests, the medicos
concluded that Erwin would require further hospitaliza-
tion followed by a couple of weeks of feet-up recupera-
tion. For Erwin
rather die :han see his beloved exhibition open without

him. So he rade a deal with the doctors that, as soon

as his 1985 Solash Bash was over, he'd return. Pro-

ving that you can't keep a good man down, ‘Swanie’, :
with his crusty exterior and generous soul, bounced

around the fair grounds and midway every day with.
Miss PNE and other visiting dignitaries with nay a ff
groan. Tuesday he checked into St. Paul's satisfied that - jf
this year’s fair was better than ever. Send some medi-
cheer to a guy who really deserves it, Mr. PNE, Erwin
Swangard. According to my sources, almost all

sales were up this year with program sales, for the first. §

time, over the one million mark.......It was at the annual
media fashion show luncheon that fashion guru,
Roberta Kelly, obviously with the fairs water theme
in mind, presented female media members with pan-
tyhose tn a most appropriate shade - oyster! The hard-
working lady, who was delightfully si by per:

sonal visits to her PNE fashion. show by designers 5

Simon Chang and Lisa Clark and Style
Magazine’s Vivian Wlicox, Canada’s foremost
fashion authority, has had an even bigger surprise. She ff
has just been appointed, Order-in-Council, to the
Board of Directors of Capilano College. Con-
Alive and- well and living ‘on
Radcliffe is former booking agent and manager of the
International Plaza’s Plazazz showroom, Sam §
Yehia. The fellow that brought the talents of Natalie
Cole, Petula Clark, Mel Torme and Tony Ben-
nett to North Vancouver has formed his own booking
agency called The Performers and plans to bring
various groups into town and then tour them across the

(Did you know that in
the Sept. issue of Golf Magazine Capilano is rated
65th - the top Canadian club - in the world’s best 100
golf courses?).....The remarkable Danny Kaye will
star in Hallmark’s Hall of Fame production of In I
This Sign, a period film about the hearing daughter of ' §

a deaf couple, to be shot in the Yale and Gastown

areas for a month beginning Sept. 16. Director is Joe
Sargeant while production manager is West Van's
Justis Green ....,.While he's still patient-ing at Lions
Gate Hospital, friends and associates of Ivan’
Ackery have banded together to organize a benefit in
his honour. It'll be a Tribute to Ivan Ackery, featur-
ing the last Rudolph Valentino film, October 12 at
the Orpheum......That highly imaginati e new video,
You Better Dancing, by Rick Scoi. of “Bar-
num”’ fame premiered at the Savay Monday night was
directed by CBC-TV news wizard, Fred Cawsey of
North Van.....Hest throb Kevin Bernhardt, who
plays Kevin O'Connor in the soaper, General
Hospital, will be appearing at the Lynn Valley
Centre Sept. 15th at 1 p.m. for about 45 minutes. The
top-rated series is due to be shot here for a few days in
mid-October......And finally, spotted a poignant sign
nailed up on an old green garage in the Hamiiton-Fell
area of North Van reading, “So long old 808 W.
17th and to all our good neighbors - Thanks
for the memories!’’ Cheers!

Need the latest on the
North Shore Real Estate
_ Market?

Call your Community
Specialists...Sussex

Realty 984-9711

this was an impossibility. He'd almost -.f &