Shangri-La we’re not, Ernie hears roar
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Spent last weekend at a fastball tournament in Langley with the Trudeaucats.
This was my first trip over to Langley since the opening of the super span.
I took the ferry.
There were no waits and I was over to the park in less time than you can say “transponderrific”.
Those of us who live out east and feel a certain loyalty to the fleet will continue to ply the Fraser until they take the ferries out of the water.
On the way home Sunday night I was behind a car from Calgary, Canada’s No. 1 Smart City. I was tempted to get out of the Bone Ranger and ask the driver, who was having a cigarette on the dock, if Calgary had any scenery like this: the sun going down over the river, fishing boats moored along the shore, mountains ringing the entire scene. It ain’t the tar sands, but for a newcomer, really quite breath taking, making the sinking of the fleet all the more tragic.
Before I could ask, he flicked his butt into the river and got back in his car, muttering something about the “damn silly boat”.
But time marches on, especially if you’re using the new bridge, which many of our number did. The cars flying across the Fraser are, according to Translink, greater than anticipated, which is no surprise in light of their predictions for the inaugural melee. It’s still a bit of a novelty at this point, I suppose, and free – hey kids, nevermind the PNE, we’re driving over the new bridge. Look at that farmer waving his fist at us.
I’m telling you, though, based on my weekend experience and through a jaundiced eye, that Langley is every bit the shopping mecca they make it out to be. And clean, migod, thought I was in that movie, what was it, Pleasantville?
One of my customers tells me she and her husband like to ride their bikes over the GEB, cycle down to the ferry and head back to Langley. She says Maple Ridge is a different world, a different, dirtier world full of nasty drivers and roadside debris. Now, I’m sure if she was to come out to Ruskin or visit some of our recreational hotspots, she might change her mind, but when you’re driving down the Lougheed and all you see are car lots and Adult Movie stores and strip joints, well, you might get the wrong impression.
Then again, what if she’s right? What if we are that far removed from civilized society? Could this bridge to Shangri-La be the final nail in the coffin for our town, is this the beginning of the end of Maple Ridge, soon to be a lawless ghost town full of nothing but convenience stores and drug houses and homeless people.
Not if Mayor Daykin has anything to do about it! He has heard the shopping roar and come fall will put plans into high gear for “gittin’ one of them Wal-Marts over here.” Or something in a box to fulfill the needs of our commerce-starved population.
Ernie is no doubt feeling the pressure at home from his lovely wife and first lady, who not only works at a local real estate office and has to meet and greet clients, but also has to be well turned-out for local functions. Ernie assures me that he does all his shopping locally.
I thought that perhaps my cycling friend drove by Northumberland Court and witnessed some unsavoury goings-on: lawyers and local politicians duking it out over the latter’s decision to have the controversial condo project demolished. A no brainer if you ask me. You got rats, you send in the exterminator.
Again Ernie assures the public that this council is taking a more aggressive approach than ever to remove this boil from the town’s butt.
Heads up, it’s an eagle: tell me it’s not true that the eagles gracing the new bridge were created by an American artist: couldn’t we have come up with someone to throw together a couple birds or is this just the global economy at work, again?
I have had an eagle painted on my head as part of teacher Nina Fowell’s excellent charity fundraiser featured in this paper some months ago: a calendar of baldies of all ages and backgrounds and ethnicities to be sold to raise money for cancer. I chose a bald eagle grasping a crab in its talon and a very talented local artist and cancer survivor Lorraine Purvingood rendered it on my Size 8 dome. Pictures were taken and Lorraine and I along with 11 other couples will be featured in the calendar, tentatively scheduled for release in August or September, all proceeds to go to the cause.
We’ll probably even make them available in Langleyville.
Tim Tyler is a local postal worker and freelance writer who lives in Ruskin.
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