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...