clark drive

this was the first time that I have actually walked all the way down Clark Drive from East Broadway to Venables Street...

[Clark is a main eastside artery and busy truck route as it merges into Knight Street going south and the traffic is unrelenting and thunderous - not so conducive to a leisurely stroll or bike ride, even on a sunny day!]

just before the non-wintery O-LIMP-ics, this large LED-lit cruciform sign [ironically? yet grandiosely titled "Monument for East Vancouver"] by "world-renowned" Vancouver artist KEN LUM was erected on the corner of Clark and East 6th Avenue/Great Northern Way as a non-denomi-national warning that you have now entered the randy republic of EAST VAN... [and the snow-draped LIONS in the background surely add a touch of the majestic to the view from this rough and ready neighbourhood!]

leftover industrial structures still punctuate most blocks, some in use, some just waiting for the right offer to come along to rescue or replace...

this tall brick chimney has always intrigued me, partly because it has been left standing even though it is not attached to any function [that I can see!] anymore...

there are many low-end car repair garages along this stretch, and I ducked into a slightly questionable one to snap this cool old weathered sign...

the sharply defined shadow of the looping barb wire above this wall casts a mildly sinister yet graceful pattern above the abstractly torn posters...

a no-nonsense sign for those super-hungry truckers gunning it through don't-mind-the-exhaust working-class East Van...

at the north-west corner of Clark and Venables, the gently curving façade of this mid-20th century manufacturing building lends a gracious [almost] end-note to an otherwise uncaptivating street that most shoot through and never really slow down to take in the odd sightings...