Enjoying Vancouver

Having spent the last few days relaxing and recovering from the double-whammy of recent courses, I must admit the city of Vancouver and it's immediate surrounding areas are starting to grow on me again.  There is much to be enjoyed here, now that I can get into summer break mode, and I think I'll backpeddle on my earlier stance of wanting to abandon the city altogether.

 

Given any set of circumstances that would force me to 'repatriate' for whatever reason, I could certainly move back to the Vancouver area as opposed to somewhere else in Canada.  But the condition is that it would have to be in one of the following areas, in order of preference:

 

-- Downtown
-- East side of the city, i.e. the Commercial Drive area
-- Central part of Richmond

 

Other areas could be managable, but they would have to be in either the city of Vancouver itself, or Burnaby, New West, or Richmond.  Areas that are definitely out of the question would involve, in order of bad to worse:

 

-- North & West Vancouver
-- Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, etc.
-- Delta, Surrey, Langely, etc.
-- Abbotsford, etc.

 

Vancouver and Richmond are well connected with the transit, and as recently discovered, they have done a great job with the bicycle lanes.  Much to my surprise, a lot has changed for the better in recent years and it's incredibly easy to get around the city on a bike now.  There is also a good mix of diversity, lots of social life, people to meet, restaurants, etc. in the city with an ease of getting around.

 

The last set of areas is definitely a problem in the sense that they are the classic 'suburbs', meaning poor transit, low-density houses, and not a lot of ethnic diversity.  North & West Van are separated by the bridges which makes for inconvenience.  While it's possible to manage them with transit and bikes, it wouldn't be my first choice. 

 

Areas further south such as Delta and Surrey are even worse given that they are separated by the tunnel and the Port Mann Bridge which are no-goes for bikes.  This effectively renders those areas useless for people who prefer transit, with a few exceptions such as in North Surrey.

 

I don't hope to have to repatriate any time soon, but in the event of it being necessary, it does help to have some sort of a plan in place of where I'd like to live and where not to.

While visiting friends and family who live in the areas that may not be so convenient, a motorcycle is the way to solve the problem.