It has been a very glorious couple of weeks celebrating the opening of the new Vancouver Waterfront development. Almost 15 years in the making. Years of planning and partnering by the City of Vancouver and the developers come to fruition with the three acre park, extension of the existing trail along the Columbia , a pier that will become an iconic landmark as the years go by. Vision and perseverance are two key adjectives that describe the character of the people who made this happen. Excellent planning on the weather helped.
We should all be celebrating and trying the “new restaurants”. I am excited as a member of the Greater Clark County Rotary club we donated $110,000 to help create a family playground, so we feel very connected.
Having said that, I am reminded that this is actually the “Second Waterfront “development here in Vancouver. While we are all enthusiastic with the shiny new additions, remember back to 1994, the CE John family and their project a couple miles to the east. North Wynds condominiums, Beaches, and McMennamins restaurants, along with new office space, were certainly a dramatic and welcome change from dilapidated industrial sites that dominated our shore front for over fifty years.
These new additions to our community have a high bar to shoot for. Mark Mathias, not only established a high bar for dining and as a community gathering place, Mark set a standard for being engaged in supporting our local community. Green Eggs and Ham , the Summer Cruise In, his numerous MC gigs for local events, all which lead to him being recognized as First Citizen. His willingness to breath life back in to the old Red Lion space as Warehouse 23 , has made a significant impact on the vitality of the entire core and waterfront area. So yes I’ll be checking out the new places, and I’ll be continuing to include Beaches and WH 23 as regular places in my dining plans
