Eight years ago I moved to the best coast and immediately fell in love with Vancouver. Having grown up in suburban Toronto, I was instantly enamoured with the mountains, the ocean and the absence of temperatures below freezing. Working on my masters at the University of B.C., I had a brief stint living on campus, flirted with south Kits, and landed in Fairview Slopes for almost two years.
While I appreciate all of these relationships, it wasnt the real thing.
Five years ago, I moved to the West End and began my second love affair with my adopted home. Growing up, the possibility of living a mere three blocks from the beach seemed to be straight out of a Sweet Valley High novel. In the West End it was a reality (albeit with more rain than the twins ever had to deal with).
My first apartment was on the Denman corridor and afforded incredible access to English Bay, Stanley Park, and the West End Library and Community Centre (yes, I still use the library). I lived in a beautiful heritage building with hardwood floors, French doors, and a full-size kitchen.
It didnt take very long to adopt a West-End persona, boasting of our seawall, comparing favourite breakfast haunts, and pledging to not cross a bridge except under dire circumstances.
Sadly, my beautiful heritage apartment bedroom overlooked the alley across from a popular bar, where I am confident that 62 per cent of troubled relationships in the West End decided to have their final argument at 3 a.m. Eventually I had to move on.
While home ownership lured me temporarily east, I desperately missed my real love, and it wasnt long before I was drawn back to the West End.
My second apartment in the West End was located in the heart of the community, a few blocks west of Nelson Park. Overlooking a private courtyard, the landlords boasted it has whisper quiet ambiance and they werent exaggerating. Despite living in the densest neighbourhood in Canada, the apartment succeeded in making you feel as though you were in rural countryside.
If rural countryside was in the heart of the gaybourhood. Rainbows and dykes and bears, oh my! I discovered an entirely new zone within the community and a fantastically queer one at that. Further from Stanley Park, but closer to a wide range of small grocers, bars, restaurants, and public transportation options (for those rare occasions when one is required to leave the West End), I became just as charmed by the diversity on Davie Street.
However, I recently opted to take the plunge into homeownership again, this time unwilling to compromise my preferred neighbourhood. The result is the tiniest of apartments, a block away from Sunset Beach, thereby an entirely new constellation in the hood. I am now loving the aquabus and the ready access to Granville Island just beyond my door. While Ive been willing to put myself out there, test the waters, and give other neighbourhoods a chance, really it was over when I met the West End. This is a lifelong love affair.
Dara Parker is the executive director of the Qmunity, a resource centre for the lesbian, gay, trans, bi and queer community.
