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!

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