North Vancouver: where did it go?

               To really get a good perspective on a place you must abstain from visiting it for a very long time. After a ten year hiatus from North Vancouver, I wandered over today in the sun to revisit old memories long forgotten. The seabus smelled like it always had and the children in the seats behind me reminded me of the”transitness” of the crossing experience, with their shuffling, screaming and general rowdiness. Stepping foot into Lonsdale Quay, I realized the North Vancouver I remembered was gone.What was once a unique, quirky little gaggle of shops, restaurants and local artisanry had become another block of downtown anywhere. North Vancouver is Seattle, Bakersfield, Toronto, Winnipeg, Los Angeles or Parksville, except on a slant. The only reminder of days gone by was the smell of the shipyard next door.
             En masse, people like me crawl out of their houses on sunny days off work in search of the unique; places with character. As fast as we find them, money pours in to ensure they conform to the generic mould of a tourist destination; maximum efficiency for extracting the tourist’s yen, mark, peso or dollar. Would you like some sushi? Bubble tea? Seattle’s best coffee? No thanks. I came for the view. I can buy that shit four blocks in any direction from where I live. Now, when I pause for my moment of zen in North Vancouver’s Quay, I better be ready to dole out $6 for a latte. Even $2 for an ordinary coffee will get me a dirty look from the barista.
             Hiding out here in the lobby of the Lonsdale Quay hotel, pretending to be a patron who has paused to send out an email to friends and family, I look out at the dock next door, admiring the ghost of the Seven Seas restaurant that has long since left the dock. This Quay used to be much busier than I see it today. I bet the business owners that have held on over the years are wondering why that is. It used to be lovely to stroll down through here and the surrounding streets. All I saw today were cars racing from half-built building to half-built building with quasi-thrift stores filling the spaces between (at $15 a t-shirt, these fake charities no longer qualify for the title “thrift”). The reason that fewer people come to see this place is because it is no longer any different from where they live. Lonsdale Quay is Kitsilano’s Granville Island is Victoria’s Market Square is Toronto’s Beaches District is Seattle’s Public Market –I can buy a whole lot of shit I don’t need, pay $10-$30 to sit and stare at the ocean and then I can leave. I think it will be at least another ten years before I come to see what North Vancouver looks like again.