Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

Wow, thanks. Gives me some food for thought. Anyone tell me about Maple Ridge, too?

tHNAKS

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

I mean thanks!

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

I Live just across the river from Mission in a small village of 80 homes called Matsqui Village, surrounded by ALR, (Agricultural Land Reserve) (Farms!). I do all my shopping in Mission. My child is in a top notch daycare centre beside the college. My teenage daughter regularily uses the bus between Mission and Abbotsford.
However, I agree with everything Lousid said. A very apt description of Mission. beautiful, but we are all holding our breathe waiting for it to grow into its potential.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

Not even closely similar.

Mission has changed a lot over the years, but still retains more of a rural atmosphere. It's almost like the poor relation to Abbotsford. Not great for entertainment, other than a good cinema, poor shopping. The start of the WCE, so connected to Vancouver. It is not somewhere I would live.

MR is way more developed and closer to Vancouver and other communities, especially with the Golden Ears bridge. With the new Pitt bridge opening soon, traffic flow along the #7 is going to improve too. ALso not somewhere I would choose to live.

Personally prefer south of the river.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

Then your eyes are tuned in more than mine:p. They both seem like decent enough places to live to me - they have small provincial town feel to them.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

I've never lived in either, but have gone through often over the past 15-20 years and never particularly fancied living in either place. Then I would not live in Vancouver either. Each to their own. Some of the rural parts of Pitt Meadows maybe, Haney, Silverdale, or east of Mission in Miracle Valley.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

Thanks to a PM I'm more in the know and to this thread, too. Cheers people! More questions and annoyingly obvious observations will probably follow.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

I've lived in Maple Ridge for a few years now and have visited Mission on a number of occasions.

Personally I prefer Maple Ridge as it seems to have more in the way of shops and amenities plus the proximity to Golden Ears Provincial park is a bonus. Maple Ridge is also on the West Coast Express line and is a shorter trip by train which is always a consideration if you're working in Vancouver.

One downside to Maple Ridge is that it's quite a long, thin town and as a result there can be a fair bit of traffic during peak times. If you're not going to be working in Vancouver and are looking for a more rural setting than Mission may be the place for you.

At the end of the day I'd recommend visiting both Mission and Maple Ridge for a couple of days as everyone sees things differently on the ground.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

Hi

I've not been on here for so long and then when I log on someone is asking about Maple Ridge!

We've lived in Maple Ridge for 2.5 years and love it. It's growing all the time and a new bridge connecting to Langley opened a couple of months ago. Then main bridge into Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge is due to open next month which will ease congestion considerably for people commuting into Vancouver.

Maple Ridge itself is a wonderful place for families, there is so much to do, I'm amazed by the many activities locally, 2 ice rinks, swimming pools indoor and outdoor. Wonderful parks and splashparks for the kids, plenty of lakes and beautiful scenery.

The only thing lacking is decent shops, but the way the town is growing, there is talk about opening a shopping mall in Albion soon which will be wonderful. At the moment for clothes shopping I need to drive to Coquitlam, Langley or Abbotsford.

Anyway if you need any more info, please free to ask.

I'v driven to Mission a few times and it feels so far away to me as there is a long stretch inbetween Maple Ridge and Mission with nothing but farmland, trees and not much else! It does have better shops though, that's the only plus side :)

Mel

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

Thanks a bunch all of you. I've found tons more since my first post thanks to the kindness of people our there. I'll be asking more soon as this is just the beginning of a long road ahead for us.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

Hey
I live in Maple Ridge.........4 years now!
Its great for families, has fantastic nature (Golden ears) and Kanaka
The new bridge is amazing, I popped over to Surrey today and was there in 15 mins!!!!!
The west coast express is great, but only commuter hours.
If I drive to Vancouver after ruish hour its around 45 mins.:thumbsup:

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

They do. We have a growing lobbying group out here trying to get rail service. But it would be light rail running throughout the day. Most of the line would follow the old inter urban line as much of the track is still there.

Province says no at the moment, claim there are not enough people living in the valley, they just dont want it is all, so any excuse will be brought up against it.

www.railforthevalley.com



I for one would love just bus service to Abbotsford, only way out of Chilliwack is by car or Greyhound but greyhound wont work for the commuters who leave every morning for citys to the west.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

West Coast Express isn't bad if you have a traditional M-F 9-5 type job with holidays off.

For anyone else its a waste and useless. But the ride is nice and not bad, takes about an hour roughly to downtown, not a bad way to commute at all.

But its not cheap at $21/day round trip, 1 week pass is 87 dollars and a 28 day pass is $269.

Other then WCE trains, I am not sure if Mission is connected to Maple Ridge by transit at all.

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

I too agree Maple Ridge is a lovely place to live. We emigrated in May 2008 and have had a great experience. I have a 21 month old daughter and both of us have met so many people out here in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. There is so much for us to do. Any new families moving out here with children will find there is a fantastic community out here. The "Mommy Groups' are definitely a must for you to join. :p

Re: Mission or Maple Ridge?
 

I'm going to bump this thread because I think this might be valuable. Google recently released Street View for Canada and Maple Ridge and Mission are both included. So if you really wanted to get a feel for both areas, you can now do so. It's a lot of fun, pretending as if you were there exploring:

Mission: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...270.99,,0,3.78

Maple Ridge: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...349.17,,0,0.01