W here have

WHERE ARE some of your

favorite residential areas of

the North Shore? If you are like most of us, you probably
consider areas such as Ambleside, Altamont, the water-

front from Dundarave

to West

Bay, Upper Lonsdale,

Pemberton Heighis, and Grand Boulevard.

And, God forbid, where would
you go if you had to move across
the water? We might have to
resort to neighborhoods such as
the West End, kitsilano, Mount
Pleasant, Fairview, Shaughnessy,
Kerrisdale, Dunbar, Point Grey or
similar ‘second best” locations.

Iwas thinking what it is about
those areas of Vancouver that
make them so appealing. The easy
response is to say that they are
more centrally located than, say,
Burnaby or Surrey, but f think
there is more to it than that.

The one characteristic common
to all of these North Shore, and
to an increased degree, Vancouver
regions is history. Each of them
contains varying proportions of
older, heritage homes. These are
the ones the agents list as ‘‘char-
acter homes’’ or ‘charming
oldies,” if we are lucky, and
**knock downs’* if we are not.

It was Michael Kluckner’s re-
cent publication, ‘Vanishing
Vancouver’” that first started my
mind wandering in this direction.
In this beautiful book he com-
bines his water colors of the
heritage buildings and classic
homes of Vancouver with sensitive
anecdotes about each of their his-
tories. | agree with his concerns
and admire his efforts to

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1 gal. size

Flowering
Pium Trees

29°

Over 8 ft. tall

e HCPPWORCRS Some Lb
pa
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West Vancouver
2558 Haywood
922-2615

Rhociodencirons

GARDEN CENTRE

Geoff
Tobiasson

OVER THE GARDEN GATE

raise our general awareness of the
destruction of our past.

You may have noticed (or par-
ticipated in) some of the recent
controversy concerning the demo-
lition of some of the works of the
best of Vancouver’s craftsmen of
days gone by. More’s the pity
when we find they are being
replaced by some cubist’s angular
nightmare; bexes within boxes,
devoid of character, over-sized for
the lot, and all made of ticky

forth ¥Yancouver
1343 Lynn Valley
985-1765

“Y.

tacky, and they all look just the
same.

And whar of the gardens? This
is the other major difference be-
tween the neighbor to which we
aspire and those that we will live
in until we can move on up. They
are green, well populated with
canopies of large, old trees, and
full of gardens that display the
love and care of generations.

{ have witnessed the destruction
of @ beautiful old Copper beech
tree. ft had given its many owners
decades of beauty and shade only
to be rewarded with the business
end of a sap-thirsty chainsaw; all
for a few extra square feet. It
sickened me.

How can we forget the very
reasons why we chose our place of
residence? If we continue on the
course we have taken, there will
be little left of our green, outdoor
spaces. We may as well be (and
indeed may become) the pale,
pasty-faced ground dwellers envi-
sioned in H.G. Wells’ The Time
Machine.

I encourage you to acquire @
copy of ‘‘Vanishing Vancouver’’
and get inspired to protect the
character of your neighborhood or
the neighborhood of your dreams.
Motivate your municipal council
members to adopt creative
methods of recycling our homes
and gardens of the past.

Friday, April 12, 1991 - North Shore News - 43

RS cE TS SIE NS POY RST SE ER

weet

ae

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

RICHLY DECORATED garden on East 13th in North Vancouver.

If you have recently purchased
or are about to purchase one of
our few remaining ireasures of
tradition, consider yourself a
custodian and keep it safe. Prac-
tice restoration instead of demoli-
tion and use the pruning shears
rather than the chainsaw.

I took on the hill above me and
am saddened by the craters which

A VARIETY OF
CHOICES IN
GARDEN
RETAINING WALLS

ZS,
SERVI

have been scraped out of the
green slopes of West Vancouver.
Indeed, nature will eventually
prevail and heal these scars, but
by then the poorly built homes of
today will be in crumbling ruins.

I can hear the agent of the
future saying, ‘‘Buy it as a
knock-down and build the Casa
Del Jumbo of your dreams.’’

PAVINGSTONE FOR
DRIVEWAYS AND PATIO

HOLLAND ne

* SAND * GRAVEL

“@ TOP SOIL © BARK MULCH

AVAILABLE FOR ©
DELIVERY.

RE SINCE 1959