sqwabb

Overlooking Arbutus Ridge and beyond from King Edward Ave. and Arbutus St.

Homes, home, homes and more homes, That's one strong impression you get looking over the Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood. The other impression is that it all appears to be comfortably well off if not flat-out wealthy.

This impression of comfortable hominess continues for several kilometres in three directions beyond the Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood, south into Kerrisdale, west into Dunbar-Southlands and north into Kitsilano.

Goldilocks and the four neihbourhoods

 Kitsilano's homes seem a tad funkier and on smaller lots. Dunbar-Southlands has big, ranch-style homes with such a rural flavour you expect to see horses. Kerrisdale has a lot of weird juxtaposed street arrangements and whole blocks of newish two-storey homes with fake brick facades (you're not fooling anyone!).

Kits looks like it could be housing all manner of rich wacko comunes, and Dunbar looks like a community that wants to live on the farm but still have a Starbucks within walking distance. Whole chunks of Kerrisdale look like they're trying way too hard to impress someone.

Arbutus Ridge just seems like an honest city neighbourhood full of well-off families enjoying the dream of home ownership in one of the most liveable places on earth.

On the east side of Arbutus street the old money neighbourhood of Shaughnessy appears to be dying on the vine -- literally but on the west side, the Arbutus Ridge seems like a going concern. Not growing exactly -- I don't think any of Vancouver's neighbourhoods are doing that -- but the neighbourhood has plenty of families with young children who have put down roots in the area and aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

And every few months another one of the homes trade in their back yard for the rental income of a laneway home, basically a detached rental suite. So that's growth of a sort.

If I had the choice of living in a condo downtown or a rental lane home in Arbutus Ridge, I think the lane home, aside from being much cheaper, would give me a greater feeling of home ownership even though I would only be a renter.

I don't think of Arbutus Ridge residents as being big specialty coffee drinkers but in case someone's thinking of choosing a rental lane home over condo ownership, I think the nearest Starbucks is only about 10 blocks away. Click the images to enlarge them.

Old school cedar fencing on the left and the stone wall of a new home on the right.