kingsway long lived...[vancouver stretch]

On a recent Saturday evening when the sun was less intense, I biked a length of Kingsway from Victoria Drive all the way to Boundary - going south east along the north sidewalk and back north west on the south sidewalk [it was dinner hour and the sidewalks were mostly deserted] - and found a long street more than a little lost in time despite being a fairly busy thoroughfare connecting Vancouver center [at Main Street] diagonally to the Burnaby- New Westminster border... [It was known as Westminster Road when it was first constructed and renamed Kingsway in 1913]
The blocks are comprised of mostly low rise modestly nondescript commercial buildings, some with apartments above, and the businesses are still small family run shops and simple restaurants of various asian flavours...

a disco flashy torso in a closed for the night beauty parlour draws the eye...

while next door, an empty restaurant waits serenely for customers...

an upholstery shop so left over from another era...

and a signage post from the 1960's for a fast food restaurant remains standing...

the meticulously kept cluster of bungalows that constitutes the 2400 Court Motel exudes a mid-century wholesomeness that has somehow defied the marks of time and evolving tastes...

unlike the corner grocery store that has succumbed to the changes in buying habits and the neglect of neighbourhood support...

the Dream has died with this ex-wedding shop...

and Kimmy's desperately needs a face-lift!

marking my clark park:: part V

We could hear the eaglet's shrill cries from our house and we had spotted his parents soaring high above the park - our modest little park!  This is the first time Clark Park has hosted a bald eagle family and a few days ago our older son found the tree that they had set up home in...

The nest is quite hidden amongst the branches but daddy eagle keeps watch nearby, and every once in a while, an obnoxious crow would dare to taunt him and he would have to chase it away...

Around the base of the tree [mysteriously labelled WPC], there was scattered a small offering of flowers for the birth of a majestic but now sadly urbanized bird of prey...

industrial grace

"You want a picture of that ugly building?!" asked the old guy dismissively as he climbed into his car parked near to where I was standing to take my shot.
Without lowering my camera, I smiled at him and nodded yes. He didn't wait for an explanation.
If he had been really interested, I would have told him that I frequently sought out old industrial buildings particularly for their disheveled and dilapidated state - that I find a certain solemn aesthetic quality in their decrepitude and the worn integrity of the utilitarian materials used, and that often the cubistic massing of structural forms resulted in an overall unexpected architectural grace...blah, blah, blah...
And he would have laughed in my face and gone away wondering about my sanity - but without a second thought to that monumentally humble temple of industry again...

GRACE Canada, Inc.
460 Industrial Avenue