Showing posts with label shaughnessy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shaughnessy. Show all posts
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Regional Recycling is on Evans at the east end and north side of Terminal -- Google Maps.[/caption]
The Regional Recycling Vancouver bottle depot is now open at 7 a.m. every day. The Encorp Return-It depot still hasn't changed the hours on their Web site but word of the change is spreading among their customers. It was confirmed to me by an email from Regional Vancouver's manager Arlene Watson.
Regional's decision to begin opening one hour earlier comes ahead of another bottle depot's move into the area. United We Can is scheduled to move from the Downtown Eastside to Industrial Avenue any day now.
The United We Can bottle depot at 39 East Hastings Street is apparently still at 39 East Hastings Street even though yesterday ( January 15) was widely reported as the date it was to move to its new location on 455 Industrial Avenue.
Regional Recycling is on Evans at the east end and north side of Terminal -- Google Maps.[/caption]The Regional Recycling Vancouver bottle depot is now open at 7 a.m. every day. The Encorp Return-It depot still hasn't changed the hours on their Web site but word of the change is spreading among their customers. It was confirmed to me by an email from Regional Vancouver's manager Arlene Watson.
Regional's decision to begin opening one hour earlier comes ahead of another bottle depot's move into the area. United We Can is scheduled to move from the Downtown Eastside to Industrial Avenue any day now.
United We Can bottle depot hasn't moved yet
The United We Can bottle depot at 39 East Hastings Street is apparently still at 39 East Hastings Street even though yesterday ( January 15) was widely reported as the date it was to move to its new location on 455 Industrial Avenue.
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Evidence of trench warfare? Looking south into the ditch of the Arbutus Ridge development.[/caption]
By the looks of things today the battle for the Arbutus Ridge is finally over. Who lost is open to discussion but the developer, Cressey, definitely won. I can only hope it was a bloodless victory.
The decisions leading up to the redevelopment and demolition of the 63-year-old landmark Ridge shopping and recreational complex. located on Arbutus Street at 16th Avenue. were certainly cold-blooded, but it was just business after all, right?
The existing businesses tenants such as McDonald's and Ridge Garden which were all pointedly not given a opportunity to be involved in the new development might disagree.
Construction on the the 49- to 52-unit "Arbutus Ridge" condo is scheduled to be completed some time in 2015, with the single retail tenant opening soon afterwards.
Evidence of trench warfare? Looking south into the ditch of the Arbutus Ridge development.[/caption]By the looks of things today the battle for the Arbutus Ridge is finally over. Who lost is open to discussion but the developer, Cressey, definitely won. I can only hope it was a bloodless victory.
The decisions leading up to the redevelopment and demolition of the 63-year-old landmark Ridge shopping and recreational complex. located on Arbutus Street at 16th Avenue. were certainly cold-blooded, but it was just business after all, right?
The existing businesses tenants such as McDonald's and Ridge Garden which were all pointedly not given a opportunity to be involved in the new development might disagree.
Construction on the the 49- to 52-unit "Arbutus Ridge" condo is scheduled to be completed some time in 2015, with the single retail tenant opening soon afterwards.
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Spared from the wrecking ball![/caption]
A worker involved in the demolition of the Ridge Centre complex at 16th Avenue, and Arbutus Street, told me, for a September 26 post, that someone had taken away the iconic bowling pin. I didn't find out who had saved it from the wrecking ball until last night, when I was laying down a "bed" of newspaper pages for my wet bike, and trailer. According to this Vancouver Sun article, two well-to-do Vancouverites, Eric Cohen, and Yosef Wosk teamed up to preserve the landmark neighbourhood fixture which sat atop the North-East corner of the centre, advertising the 15-lane bowling alley, for 63 years.
Spared from the wrecking ball![/caption]A worker involved in the demolition of the Ridge Centre complex at 16th Avenue, and Arbutus Street, told me, for a September 26 post, that someone had taken away the iconic bowling pin. I didn't find out who had saved it from the wrecking ball until last night, when I was laying down a "bed" of newspaper pages for my wet bike, and trailer. According to this Vancouver Sun article, two well-to-do Vancouverites, Eric Cohen, and Yosef Wosk teamed up to preserve the landmark neighbourhood fixture which sat atop the North-East corner of the centre, advertising the 15-lane bowling alley, for 63 years.
By slides I mean digital photos. By trip, I mean a business trip -- going up there to collect bottles, and cans. By "going up there" I mean that to get to the Oakridge/Kerrisdale area from West Broadway Avenue, at Granville Street, you go 32 blocks South, and 150 to 160 metres up. It's some of the highest ground in Vancouver. Getting there means passing through some of the richest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, and when you finally get there, you are in another, ever-so-slightly-less, rich neighbourhood. I started in the late afternoon on Sunday. I didn't make a direct bee-line for Kerrisdale; first I needed to travel due West some, through part of the Arbutus Ridge area, before turning South. The travelogue picks up as I swing back up to Arbutus Street, and King Edward Avenue, to begin my ascent. Click the images to see larger versions. All except the garage GIF.
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Looking West along King Edward Avenue. It finally ends way, way in the distance, at a wall of green marking University Endowment lands, at a cross street called Crown.[/caption]
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Looking West along King Edward Avenue. It finally ends way, way in the distance, at a wall of green marking University Endowment lands, at a cross street called Crown.[/caption]
The rich didn't get that way by picking up other people's dog crap, but they will go to the ludicrous trouble of tapping angry notes to the bags -- you can't make this stuff up!
The pictured bag of pooch poo was found In the lane on the North side of 16th, just in the first block East of Arbutus -- looking West you are looking at the doomed Ridge theatre -- this is on the North edge of Shaughnessy, a walled, and hedged reservation for the wealthy. But the rich can't colour inside the lines any better than three-year-old children, so the money seriously bleeds into the surrounding neighbourhoods, like this one. A good number of the homes in the immediate vicinity of this "doggy bag" are officially marked as heritage homes. Normally such a designation seriously limits what a homeowner can do in the way of renovations, but it hasn't stopped these rich residents from radically remodeling to pack in as much desirable skyighting and glass as possible. Seems an idyllic lifestyle, but apparently it has it's crappy moments. Click the image to enlarge it.
The Vancouver Lawn Bowling Club sits on Fir Street between 14th, and 15th Avenue. Well it doesn't so much sit as stand -- as a reminder of the South Granville area's genteel, and monied roots. Both the Lawn Bowling Club, started in 1912, and it's neighbour, the even tonier Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club, situated between 15th, and 16th Avenue since 1914, were built to serve the needs of rich residents of the original Shaughnessy neighbourhood, which starts on the South side of 16th Avenue. Where the lawn tennis folk maintain a busy, year-round schedule of well-to-do doings, the Lawn Bowling Club's schedule seems to consist of about 360 days of slow, and steady lawn care, punctuated by about four summer days where groups of people actually bowl on the meticulously manicured lawn. I'm surely exaggerating -- the groundskeepers must get more than four days off a year.
Just to prove me wrong, here's a club member tossing the little black balls (and one white ball) on a fine fall day. It looks even more sedate in person. I think genteel is the distant ancestor of our modern laid back. Click the images to enlarge them.
Just to prove me wrong, here's a club member tossing the little black balls (and one white ball) on a fine fall day. It looks even more sedate in person. I think genteel is the distant ancestor of our modern laid back. Click the images to enlarge them.
[caption id="attachment_631" align="alignnone" width="497"] Demolition of the Ridge Shopping Centre begins -- artist's impression.[/caption]
The Ridge shopping Centre, situated on Arbutus Street, between 15th and 16th Avenue, is coming down soon, to make way for a condo. The Centre is particularly known for two original tenants: The Ridge movie theatre, and the Varsity Ridge bowling alley. The Ridge's neon, and bulb-lit sign, and the bowling alley's giant bowling pin, have both been area landmarks for some 63-years.
The Ridge theatre screened its last film a few months ago, and the supermarket space, has stood empty since speciality grocer Meinhardt Fine Foods left over a year ago (leaving them with their original South Granville store. Otherwise it's business-as-usual for the bowling alley, A McDonalds, a Chinese restaurant, a laundromat, yoga studio, and book store.
The Centre, which opened in 1950 (there's still original sidewalk embossed with that date) crowns a block of prime real estate which commands a stunning view North, South, and West. On those sides it is surrounded by residential neighbourhoods. Standing on the corner of Arbutus and 16th, looking South-West, you are looking out over a sea of new wealth -- well-to-do homes, cresting in a ridge, a few kilometres away, studded with mansions and gated estates of the truly wealthy. I've binned up there and it's really spiff; incredible sunrises and sunsets. Looking East -- just across Arbutus Street, in fact, you can almost see the unused Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) tracks, and the Western edge of old wealth -- Shaughnessy Heights, developed by the CPR in the first two decades of the 20th Century, and stuffed with mansions, imposing stone walls, 16-foot-high hedges, and nary 100-metres of straight road. The Ridge Centre sits in the middle of all this like a sun-dial.
Cressey Development Group bought the block-long property in June 2011, and is pre-selling condo units in its "Arbutus Ridge" development, which will include ground-level retail. As is the fashion in Vancouver real estate, when a developer eats the very old, it leaves one of the indigestible bits on display, ostensibly to pay respects to history, but it's really good marketing. In this case a facsimile of the movie theatre's sign will be a signature element of the building -- no word on the bowling pin though.
The Ridge Centre didn't have much chance of dodging the wrecking ball. It's old, but not that old, and most people in the area couldn't really care less.
The entire area, sedate as it looks, is undergoing dramatic demographic change, so there's less, to no, interest in the area's historic past. The newcomers, just like the old money, see the area as a place to live, not a place to go shopping -- they don't need local services. They will pile into their Lexi and Escalades, and shop where they please, thank you very much. They'd rather not have local shops, as they just attract people who do need that sort of thing (it's the same rationale Shaughnessy residents have used when explaining to me why they don't authorize their city tax dollars towards paving their lanes). Bad enough they have to have a gas station in the area!
Like most of Vancouver, I'll miss the Ridge theatre and the giant bowling pin. Everything else is available less than a kilometre away.
Demolition of the Ridge Shopping Centre begins -- artist's impression.[/caption]The Ridge shopping Centre, situated on Arbutus Street, between 15th and 16th Avenue, is coming down soon, to make way for a condo. The Centre is particularly known for two original tenants: The Ridge movie theatre, and the Varsity Ridge bowling alley. The Ridge's neon, and bulb-lit sign, and the bowling alley's giant bowling pin, have both been area landmarks for some 63-years.
The Ridge theatre screened its last film a few months ago, and the supermarket space, has stood empty since speciality grocer Meinhardt Fine Foods left over a year ago (leaving them with their original South Granville store. Otherwise it's business-as-usual for the bowling alley, A McDonalds, a Chinese restaurant, a laundromat, yoga studio, and book store.
The Centre, which opened in 1950 (there's still original sidewalk embossed with that date) crowns a block of prime real estate which commands a stunning view North, South, and West. On those sides it is surrounded by residential neighbourhoods. Standing on the corner of Arbutus and 16th, looking South-West, you are looking out over a sea of new wealth -- well-to-do homes, cresting in a ridge, a few kilometres away, studded with mansions and gated estates of the truly wealthy. I've binned up there and it's really spiff; incredible sunrises and sunsets. Looking East -- just across Arbutus Street, in fact, you can almost see the unused Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) tracks, and the Western edge of old wealth -- Shaughnessy Heights, developed by the CPR in the first two decades of the 20th Century, and stuffed with mansions, imposing stone walls, 16-foot-high hedges, and nary 100-metres of straight road. The Ridge Centre sits in the middle of all this like a sun-dial.
Cressey Development Group bought the block-long property in June 2011, and is pre-selling condo units in its "Arbutus Ridge" development, which will include ground-level retail. As is the fashion in Vancouver real estate, when a developer eats the very old, it leaves one of the indigestible bits on display, ostensibly to pay respects to history, but it's really good marketing. In this case a facsimile of the movie theatre's sign will be a signature element of the building -- no word on the bowling pin though.
The Ridge Centre didn't have much chance of dodging the wrecking ball. It's old, but not that old, and most people in the area couldn't really care less.
The entire area, sedate as it looks, is undergoing dramatic demographic change, so there's less, to no, interest in the area's historic past. The newcomers, just like the old money, see the area as a place to live, not a place to go shopping -- they don't need local services. They will pile into their Lexi and Escalades, and shop where they please, thank you very much. They'd rather not have local shops, as they just attract people who do need that sort of thing (it's the same rationale Shaughnessy residents have used when explaining to me why they don't authorize their city tax dollars towards paving their lanes). Bad enough they have to have a gas station in the area!
Like most of Vancouver, I'll miss the Ridge theatre and the giant bowling pin. Everything else is available less than a kilometre away.
Update, September 1, 2013, demolition begins ►
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