Urban Myths

When we decided to move downtown we were often met with a wide-eyed "Why-in-the-world-would-you-ever-do-that-especially-with-your-kids" kind of reaction. In talking with people, it seems that that their reaction was often based on some assumptions that after living down here for 14 months just aren’t true.

Some urban myths:

It’s noisy. Actually, it’s much quieter than our home in Richmond. Of course, we used to live underneath the approach for the international airport and could count the rivets on the aircraft as they took off, so it’s going to be quieter than that! Yeah, we hear the odd siren, and some of our neighbors have parties on weekends. But when you’re at the party, you don’t hear the noise!

It’s not safe. Well, you do see drug deals on the street if you head one block in the wrong direction, and yes, there was a murder in the park across the street. But over all, we feel very secure. You just have to be street smart. After all, it’s not like there is no crime in the suburbs.

The Traffic is terrible. Not true. Getting to and from the downtown can be a hassle, but once you are here, just park the car and walk, or bike, or roller blade, or skate board, or take transit. In Vancouver it’s the bridges into the city that are the bottleneck.

It’s expensive. Okay, so maybe that’s not a myth. But we’re not going broke living down here. God has provided for us big time!

It’s cold and impersonal. People keep telling me that the city is a lonely place to live – especially Vancouver! I read an article in Kitsilanoview that was all about how difficult it is to make new friends in this city and how lonely people are. Maybe that's the way it is in Kitsilano, but that’s not our experience. We actually have found more "community" downtown than we did in the ‘burbs. We know our neighbors, chat with them, and last night had a great meal at Bonnie and Jason’s who live just down the row from us. It was a great night!

I think one of the big differences in lifestyle down here, it that you end up having to spend more time with people. In the movie Crash, the automobile is a metaphor for a lifestyle that dissociates us from everyone and everything until we just want to crash into them so we can feel something. Downtown you park your car in communal parking garage, share an elevator, get your mail in the lobby, rub shoulders with your neighbors who live 3 feet from you, and take your garbage and recycling to the same bin as everyone in the building.

Community begins with me. It’s about being inclusive and inviting and getting out of my own little world and making the first step toward somebody. Maybe the high-density lifestyle just gives you more opportunity.

Dream City

I've fallen in love - with a city...

Vancouver BC is often ranked as the best place in the world to live. Small wonder. Ocean, mountains, rivers, lakes, skyline, this town has it all.

I think the skyline is especially magnificent. The only thing close on this continent in my mind is Manhattan, but then it doesn't have The Lion's for a backdrop. Oh well, too bad for them!

It's been said that Vancouver has a unique love affair with high-rise condo. Emporis.com, a website that ought to know something about high-rises says that per capita, no city in North America has as many residential high-rises as Vancouver. People want views of the water or mountains. And because of the mountains and water, there is no where to go but up. The population density is the highest on the continent following New York City and San Francisco. Elite company. Hard to believe, but true.

Most of Vancouver's tall buildings are apartment towers. We live in the shadow of several, and there are eight more currently being built within two blocks of us. Population explosion - straight up! That's 2,500 new condo's coming on the market in the next two years.

Actually, as much as I love buildings, it's the people that will live in the buildings that really fascinate me. There are a lot of hopes and dreams being fashioned from tonnes of cement and steel rebar right now. Lifestyle has been the marketer's pitch, and thousands have bought the line. People are looking at the concrete skeletons slowly crawling skyward and are dreaming of a new life that will soon begin.

I hope to God they find it...

Welcome to My Neighborhood

This begins a new adventure for me. I don't expect much from this blog, except an interesting way to help me put some prespective on life.

My life could, at times, use a bit more perspective. It has been a bit of an adventure the past couple of years. I've stepped into a whole new way of living, and I have to admit that at times it's been a little confusing, overwhelming, and more than a bit scary.

I used to pay the rent by being a Pastor at a church. Now I work at a woodworking shop. We used to live in the suburbs. Now we live downtown. Life used to seem pretty logical and linear. Now the word 'abstract' has a whole new meaning. I used to get cranked up about saving the world... Okay, I still get cranked up about saving the world.

So join us on our adventure and maybe I'll tell you why we packed up ourselves and 2 girls and squeezed into a townhouse on the roof of a shopping mall in downtown Vancouver. It really doesn't make much sense to me, but maybe it doesn't have to.