Maps

So much depends on perception.  And where you happen to be at the time.  Especially if it's your first visit.  I have travelled a bit in my life.  Not one single country or city that I have visited has lived up to its legendary hype.  I have always had to give myself a chance to recover from the disappointment, then go exploring the new city on my own, alone, often without a map.  I have found myself in the middle of extreme squalor and obscene opulence, wealth and poverty, beauty and ugliness.   Exploring Mexico City, barrio by barrio I have thus encountered that city's soul: which would appear to be all of the above, yet more, and also nothing.  Thus I came also to know Puebla, San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico; London; Edinburgh; Amsterdam; San Jose, Costa Rica, among others.

My own Vancouver is also such a city.  We have our legendary Stanley Park, our beaches, Gastown.  We have the Downtown Eastside, aka Canada's poorest postal code.  We have Kingsway, the vast wasteland of South Vancouver, the industrial desert between Clark and Main Street.  The beautiful funky squalor of Commercial Drive and the creeping but oh so sexy and seductive gentrification of Main Street and Hastings Street.

Vancouver is a beautiful city and is rightly billed as one of the world's most beautiful.  But it has its underbelly and it ain't pretty.  I often wonder what it would be like to visit this city for the first time but to never leave South Vancouver, which I have already warned is worse than dismal and ugly for the most part, unless you go shopping on South Fraser or South Main where there is an enchanting ethnic diversity.  But from much of the south side you see absolutely nothing of our legendary mountains and instead of an ocean view you can gaze upon the muddy grey brown waters of the Fraser River.  There is a scarcity of parks and in many neighbourhoods just a scattering of trees though some of the gardens are lovely.  The architecture is less than inspiring or inspired: mostly small scale monster homes that have replaced bland post-war bungalows.

I mentioned to one of my coworkers (I happen to work in South Van, among other areas) that is it any wonder that many of our clients who are stuck living in these dreary neighbourhoods aren't even more depressed or despondent.  They have been stranded so long in such a drab, bland, beige and grey wasteland that it is no surprise that they are often so hard to motivate towards enjoying a better quality of life.   My mother lived for a while in this area, on Marine Drive, and when I asked her why she didn't pick a better neighbourhood, replied that it was close to where she worked.

If I were to land anywhere on Marine Drive east of Marpole I would think that Vancouver is quite a bland, verging on ugly and depressing city.  If I didn't know that our vibrant downtown, Gastown, Kitsilano, Commercial Drive, Main Street, and our natural wonders, Stanley Park, Pacific Spirit Park, the Jericho Lands, beaches and other gorgeous hubs were but a half hour bus ride away I would be bordering on suicidal but for just one little chance to escape from that grey hell.  I would return to my city or country and tell everyone what an absolute desolation is Vancouver and you would do better hanging out in Prince George or Regina.

I am preparing to spend a month in March in Bogota, Colombia.  With the little yellow man of Google Maps I have been walking the streets and barrios of Bogota, taking in the street views.  A lot of this huge city is ugly, boring, uninteresting.  Some places look interesting and beautiful but the single redeeming feature of Bogota, from what I can see, is the easy access to nature with the mountains nearby and the many parks throughout the city.  When I get there I am going to explore Bogota.  I will be at times horrified, other times pleasantly surprised.

Getting to know a new city is much like getting to know a new friend.  You never know exactly what your are going to get and sometimes the uglier features will eclipse the lovely ones.  When you meet the new city as the new friend with love, acceptance and respect, the whole city and the whole person will be transformed into someone beautiful and wonderful to behold.  You won't necessarily like the bad parts, but with a little love and imagination you might come to accept and appreciate them as being necessary for the existence of the good and lovely.