[Rusty Gull]

More residents -might- help. But many retailers have been pointing out that the new residents in the Pier developments, for example, haven't made any kind of noticeable impact on neighbourhood retail traffic.

Unfortunately, many of the newer residents have no vested interested in the neighbourhood - they see the area as a holding station until they flip their pad for a house in the North Shore or an upgraded condo in Coal Harbour. The booming real estate market has sapped the soul out of the community.

Plus, the City has given residents almost zero reason to leave their apartments and walk around the area. The parks situation in Lower Lonsdale is abysmal - dare I say laughable. It's the single biggest disgrace, especially when you compare to similarly dense neighbourhoods in the City of Vancouver.

The people infrastructure is awful - deteriorating sidewalks, dangerous bike lanes and bike routes, crappy landscaping. The City still hasn't replaced the Lonsdale medium flags from the great windstorm of 2008. How sad.

Access to the Pier is brutal. That development is destined to fail for the main reason that nobody knows it's there.

The architecture in the hood is consistently sub-par. It's a perfect mishmash of gruesome high-rises and leaky stucco low-rises - plus 1970s social housing.

The area still has no public outdoor swimming pool, nor an indoor pool for that matter. The community centre is a joke.

I have spoken with some other retailers/ businesses on Lonsdale and more are set to leave. Property taxes are going up along with rents - it's unsustainable to have a small business in the area.

Unfortunately, most residents in North Vancouver (outside of Lower Lonsdale) drive gas-guzzling SUVs, shops at malls like Park Royal, and would vote Republican if they could. They don't have time or patience for walkable neighbourhoods anchored by multi-unit dwellings and family owned businesses.

So the long-term prospects for a neighbourhood like Lower Lonsdale are very grim indeed.