whats it like any good?
housing ?
activities is it a nice place to live work etc

also vancouver weather can someone tell me about summer,was it a good one ,better than uk is it a long season ,like how summers used to be here

many thanks chris

Summers in Van are very nice. They get very low rainfall apart from June which can be dodgy. Temps seem to be around 25c. The further inland you go the warmer it is.

After a lot of internet research we decided Maple Ridge was the place for us hands down. We went there for a good look round in the summer - and decided we didn't want to live there.

Lots of people on here like Maple Ridge, there have also been some negative comments. Do a search and you should find loads of info.

I think its main draw was it was affordable, well it used to be anyway. Only ever noticed it when passing to Hope and on to Penticton.

Property definitely well priced.

Lot of road works going on there, assume part of this proposed new bridge to make travel times to Van quicker?

There have been quite a few threads on this, try doing a search and you`ll get all the pros and cons. I live in Maple Ridge, love it, raised my kids here and now have grandchildren going to high school here. 2 bridges under construction which will open up travel enormously next year, both east/west and north/south, and which will likely attract more people to live here, so property prices will go up. But it may just change things for the worse with major traffic issues. Time will tell.

Hi Startwin,

Were planning on a reccy trip next summer and Maple Ridge is near the top of our list. Since you have local knowledge hope you don't mind if I ask you a few quick questions.... What streets / neighbourhoods would you suggest with a view to decent high schools, etc my budget for property is between $500-$600 for a 4/5 bed detached. I've read on other posts that there is an issue with oversubscribed schools - is this true? are they planning on building some more?

Many thanks,
Hammy

Oops, almost missed your posting.

Maple Ridge has grown very fast, so the schools are too small by the time they finish building them. Even the newest had portables installed right from the start to deal with the overload. Bad planning, unfortunately. However, on the whole the schools are good, and the areas around them fine. Not sure if you want elementary or high schools. The newer ones are in east/central Maple Ridge, and new subdivisions have sprung up around them. Nice areas. Your budget will got you lots of house now that our prices are stabilizing.

Contact me via PM before you head out for your reccie and I will do what I can to help. There are lots of other expats living in the area, too.

Have lived in Maple Ridge for the past 6 months. Chose this area for the private school which is one of the best schools around. As a place to live, has some positive & some negatives, but which place doesn't.

Maple Ridge has not developed as much as other parts of Metro Vancouver, partly because the transport infrastructure is poor. No main highway running through it, and although there is a train service, it is a commuter services that runs in the morning & the evening.

There is also been a political agenda which has tried to suppress development as they don't want the place to become just like any other urban sprawl like the most of Vancouver. I was told by someone who was involved in the last Mayoral elections that there is also an agenda to limit immigration. The Green Party agenda is not to save the environment, but to limit the influx of everyone other than white Canadians. In the last census 2006- Metro Vancouver immigrant population was 40%- Maple Ridge was 17%.

The upside is that the place is not a continuous shopping mall, but the downside is there is a lack of investment from quality businesses. I like living in Maple Ridge as it does retain a bit of the "Canadian Dream", great acreage and reasonably close to the city.

Ha ha ha. If you are paying Meadowridge fees, I suggest you take a look at which way the ethnic mix of the kids in that school is going. Maple Ridge City Hall has neither the political clout or the ability to keep anyone non-white out. Those who would spout such nonsense are just racist bigots.

My Green Party candidate is Swedish. He's married to an Indian. I wonder if he knows this.

What is your Green Party candidate's stance on gay emissions?

<see today's Daily Mash>

I don't care about that but I wish he had a position on controlling dog emissions, they've gone away over Christmas leaving us a Lab with unstable guts.

Sounds delightful. Your own personalised yule log.

If only she could manage a log.