4 - Sunday, November. 2,

1986 - North Shore News

Bob Hunter

© strictly personal @

7 vy

WHENEVER I go down
to a dock, it is always some
sort of transcendent expe-
rience.

Even after, yeh, these many
years, living on the Coast, 7 still
can’t take a dock — any dock —
for granted.

There is something about a
dock that stirs feclings I don’t get
from a bus terminal or a train
station or an airport, even
though these places, too, are
docking facilities of one kind or
another, and all of ther tremble
with the excitement of going
places, which | love doing.

But from a dock, you don’t
just go somewhere. You pass
over into another dimension.
When the fines are released, you
are gone!

The first time I ever laid eyes
on the Vancouver waterfront — |
was 18 — it was such a heart-
wrenching experience I hung
around for a whole day, pacing
from pier to pier, staring in awe
at the freighters and liners and
tugs.

Much as I was impressed by
the mountains, it was the fact of

| being next to the ocean that was
really exciting.

Back then I could not imagine
myself in any more thrilling a
setting, just being on that water-
front. The feeling was so intense
it was painful.

When it rained, the dockside
became even more exciting.
There were puddles now, and
reflections. Grey clouds flowing
turbulently over flowing grey
water ... beads of water poised
on tarred wood, rainwater runn-
ing out through scuppers and
down from the clogged eaves of
warehouses, a dank that reached

{ like a ghost’s hand through my
clothes.

The ships themselves were
somehow larger than life because
the elements had become menac-

{| ing. In the gloom of a storm-
tossed afternoon, the rust on a

| hull was charged with a mica-like
glitter. Sooted smokestacks took
on ebony beauty.

The flap of a loose canvas
became the sound of one hand
clapping. Very :nystezious, right?
A guy line twanging against rigg-

} ing was a tune half-emerged from
the wild sky itself.

Nothing about the ships or the
docks or the harbor was ordi-
nary. Nothing could possibly be
ugly.

In a word, I was filled with

a

wonder. It was an actual exalted
state of mind.

The wind tugging at my hair,
sea lapping jerkily at the pilings,
the skreek of rubber tires against
hulls ...

I was so overwhelmed | had to
reach out and touch the lines
(which I thought of as big ropes
attached to what I didn’t know
then were cleats) just to make
sure this whole vision was real.

Although | take it almost for
granted now, back then I sniffed

and sniffed and sniffed the salt }

air, Each deep breath brought
with it a wisp of ecstasy.

The sound of a foghorn still |

gets inside my head in a way that
no other vibration does. The fitst
time I heard one bronking
through morning mist on Burrard
Inlet, I thought I would never
stop shivering from pleasure.

Oh yes, and the cry of gulls—
so common if you have had them
around all your life, but as
magnificent as flamingos looping
around like boomerangs if you
are just hearing and seeing them
for the first time.

Likewise, the razor clams, the
barnacles, jellyfish, starfish and
the tresses of seawood were
amazing and beautiful in
themselves. I was so iunocent the
first oil slick I saw struck me the

same way — Look, a rainbow in }

the water! Wow!

This first infatuation — even
obsession — with the industrial
waterfront was followed not long

afterwards by my first glimpse |

and smell of a genuine fisherm-
an’s dock, in this case Steveston.

I couldn't attach labels to the
boats then, such as trollers or
seiners or gillnetters or
longliners.
ALL the most fantastic objects I
had ever seen!

There was something carnival-
like about fishbcats tied up,
shoulder to shoulder, bobbing so
lightly in the current. Maybe it
was the glossy white paint jobs
on the hulls, like the vodies of

wooden horses on a Merry-Go- j

Round.

Most of their decks looked like §
they were covered with grey nail |
polish from years of fish scales }

being crushed under gumboots.
Almost every wheelhouse was

whitewashed, but the trim was |
in bright{
enamels. Radar dishes perched

inevitably done

like conches on the roofs.

I really though that I’d died §
Heck,

and gone to heaven.
maybe I did!

Candidates meet

THREE ALL-candidates meeting
will be held on the North Shore
next week.

On Wednesday,
Ambleside and Dundarave

Nov. 5 the
Ratepayers’ Associations are
holding a meeting at 7:30 p.m. at
Ridgeway School. West Vancouver
civic candidates have been invited
to attend.

HE

BaTEES

METROP.

Also.on Wednesday, Nov. 5 an
all-candidates meeting for North
Vancouver civic candidates will be
held at Ross Road School at 8
p.m,

And on Thursday, Nov. 6 at
Lynn Valley Hall at 8 p.m. a
meeting will be held for North
Vancouver civic candidates.

OLITAN

CLINICAL LABORATORIES

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE
CHANGES IN HOURS OF OPERATION

They were simply |

E APPLICANT:

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20% Off
All repairs until
Dec. 31, 1986.

FREE ESTIMATES

PARTS & ACCESSORIES
PICK UP AND DELIVERY
AT NO EXTRA CHARGE

987-7320

1825 Lonsdale Ave.
North Vancouver

On Nov. 15th

ELECT
BILi
RODGERS

North Vancouver
District Council
~ lawyer
~ resident of North Van for 9 years
~ married with a 2 yr. old daughter
- member of the Canadion Bar Assoc. and the West Coast
Environmental Law Assoc.
~ director of Mountain Equipment Co-op (1978-1982) and
Bridge Society for Behaviorally Handicapped Persons.

BILL RODGERS WILL WORK FOR NORTH VAN by:

- encouraging business development through consistent
zoning and planning policies

- preserving the integrity and character of existing
neighbourhoods.

- improving youth programs ond recreational facilities.

BILL RODGERS CAMPAIGN OFFICE
#202 1217 Lonsdale Ave.,
North Vancouver 984-3646

“serving you in North Vancouver District’’

THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER
ZONING BY-LAW AMENDMENTS
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

NOTICE is hereby given by the City of North Vancouver, pursuant to Section 957 of the Municipal
Act of British Columbia, that a Public Hearing will be held on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1986, at
7:00 P.M., in the Council Chamber of the City Hall, 141 West 14th Street, North Vancouver, B.C.,
to receive representations in connection with the following proposed amendments to the ‘‘Zoning
By-law, 1967", and the ‘Zoning Map of the City of North Vancouver", which is an integral part thereof:

BY-LAW NO. 5752

To rezone Lot A, Block 31/37, D.L. 549, Plan 17433, located at 148-166-East 15th Street, North Van-
couver, B.C., at the northwest corner of 15th Street and St. Georges Avenue, (Lions Gate Plaza), as
indicated in crosshatched pattern on Schedule A" below, from C-1 Central Commercial Zone to CD-111

Comprehensive Development 111 Zone.

The amending by-law will permit the alteration of the second floor of the building on the site so as

: * to accommoaate five additional residential dwelling units and eliminate the commercial office space
“a which currently occupies the second floor area.

In addition, the amending by-law will regulate the principal and accessory uses permitted on the site,
off-street parking requirements, the location and screening of refuse containers, and the maintenance

of landscaping.

APPLICANT: LIONS GATE PLAZA LTD./L. MENKIS —

BY-LAW NO. 5764

To rezone Lot D, Subdivisions 1 and 2, Block 62, D.L. 548, Plan 2074, located at 1332 Chesterfield
Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C., as indicated in heavy outline on Schedule ‘'B"' below, from RM-1
Medium Density Apartment Residential 1 Zone to P-1 Public Use and Assembly 1 Zone.

The purpose of the amending by-law is to permit the City-owned Lot D to be utilized as an extension
to the presently inadequate parking facilities available to serve staff and visitors to City Hall and the

City Library.

AFPLICANT: CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER

SCHEDULE "A"

wREEEEEEL =

LIONS GATE PLAZA LTD./L.

SCHEDULE "B"
FOURTEENTH STREET _

CITY HALL
and
LIBRARY, |

man ede

LONSDALE AVENUE

THIRTEENTH STREET
CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER

CHESTERFIELD AVENUE

MENKIS APPLICANT:

ALL PERSONS who deem their property to be affected by the proposed amending by-laws have
the opportunity to be heard, in person, by attorney, or by petition.

COPIES of the proposed by-laws and pertinent staff reports may be inspected at the office of the

City Clerk between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, up to and including November
10, 1986.

LONSDALE BRANCH
1940 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver
Mon.-Fri. 7:30am-6:30pm
Saturday 8:00am- 1:00pm

EFFECTIVE NOV. 3, 1986

Ete,

BRUCE HAWKSHAW, CITY CLERK

Dear