Silver Springs

Three elementary schools in one neighbourhood tells you something about how Silver Springs is lived in — this is a place where people put down roots and stay. Spring Hill Village Shopping Mall handles most daily errands without a long drive, and between Happy Fresh Market and the pharmacies, the weekly routine rarely requires leaving the northwest. The community has the unhurried self-sufficiency of a place that figured itself out a long time ago.

Bowmont Park is what residents disappear into on weekends — the escarpment trails, the off-leash areas, the river valley stretched out below. The community garden has its regulars too. It's the kind of neighbourhood where people walk the same loop for years and know the dogs by name before they know their owners.