We parked on Fulton Avenue, at the top of the functioning Ambleside village, and  walked down towards the high street. We met a man carrying two small bags of groceries; he said he had lived in a nearby condo apartment for more than 20 years and loved the village, the services, the scenic waterfront, all of them close together. “Living here is like being on vacation,” he said. With slight drawbacks:  it’s rainier than the big city, and it’s hard to plan for shows or meetings in Vancouver because of the unreliability of the three-lane Lions Gate Bridge.

Ambleside is located in the City of West Vancouver, the most affluent municipality in Canada measured by income and probably by municipal revenues per resident. For example, spending on public library operations (as reported here) is three times as high as in much of the rest of the Lower Mainland. The public services available in the village (rec centre, seniors activity centre, public space for artists) are perhaps the best in the region; commercial services such as the garden centre and the storefront hardware are rarely seen elsewhere; even the quality of the commercial architecture is a step or two above the norm. Continue reading →