Rodeo Paintings on Shop Windows around Cloverdale

When I was growing up in Cloverdale just about every shopkeeper had a rodeo themed painting down on their window to celebrate the Cloverdale Rodeo weekend. A man from Vancouver Island used to come over and spend about a month hiring his artistry services to the local businesses.

These days you have to really search around Cloverdale to find a shopkeeper painting a rodeo theme on their windows. I've found a few.

This one is in front of the Destination Cloverdale office on 176th Street.

 

This sign is obviously an old one. It's in the window of the old Clover Inn liquor store that closed/moved many months ago.

The next two are from the same windows in the office Stephanie Cadieux has set up on 176th Street.

Ron's barber shop on 176th Street.

Starbucks in the new Cloverdale Brick Yard Station.

Clancy's meats in the Brick Yard Station.

 

The new produce store in the Brick Yard Station.

 

 

 

Cloverdale Intersection Cloverdale Bypass and 57th Avenue

Those who live in the vicinity of Cloverdale's new mall the Brick Yard Station on the corner of Highway 10 and the Cloverdale Bypass know that its best accessible off 57th Avenue.

During the construction the crew resurfaced a section of 57th Avenue west of the Cloverdale Bypass. In doing so they resurfaced over the motion sensor that activates the traffic lights for westbound 57th Avenue traffic. Those of us who have been in Cloverdale a long time know the sensor is near the centre line at the stop line. If we stop there at a red light, and it is a long red light because of the primary highway traffic, we know where the sensor is located even though we can no longer see it, stop over it, and the lights will change in a minute or so. There is hardly any traffic travelling in either direction on 57th Avenue at the Cloverdale Bypass which is why the sensors were put in years ago meaning a car has to stop on top of it and wait for the light to change.

Oddly enough some drivers who are not familiar with the area of the covered sensor park in the centre of the road or close to the curb and have no chance of getting the traffic lights to change. All they can do is hope a driver will come along the opposite direction westbound on 57th and activate the lights from that side. The sensor on that side of the road is visible, not resurfaced after the construction.

On Sunday night, October 28, 2012, a line painting crew showed up at the intersection. On Monday I saw the results. There is a line down the middle of the eastbound lane on 57th Avenue at the Cloverdale Bypass intersection. On the left side of the line is a left hand turn arrow.

I did not know the lines had been painted on the road. I was walking my dogs and as I was walking past the Cloverdale Legion I noticed way up there that a car had stopped against the curb at the intersection. I thought that was a weird place to stop because there is no hope of setting off the traffic lights that far off the sensor. A couple of minutes later I reached the intersection. The car is still there but now four other cars are behind it waiting to either go straight through the lights or turn right. I push the pedestrian light and immediately the lights change.

When I reached the other side I noticed the line painting had been done. Very odd. If someone is in the curb lane waiting to go straight across the Bypass and continue eastbound along 57th Avenue that puts them in a collision course to run up on the sidewalk when they reach the other side of the intersection. Or at the very least run into some of the cars parked next to GWG Tool Rentals. Cars have to change lanes in the intersection to get back on track.

Today I was walking in the area and watched a car stopped in the curb lane hoping to go straight across the road. Not going to happen unless a car turning left shows up in the newly painted left hand turn lane or oncoming traffic shows up on the other side of 57th to activate the sensor and lights. No such luck. Its just not that busy an intersection, though I would say a car usually shows up at least once every ten minutes. I stayed in front of Starbucks wondering how long its going to take before the driver figures out the lights aren't going to change. Eventually two other cars get in line behind the car stopped at the curb. I took the above picture at the 3 minute mark. At 5 minutes the first car finally gets tired of waiting and turns right toward Highway 10. The other two cars turn right too.

It appears that someone at Surrey City Hall needs to either have a sensor put in the curb lane so through traffic can get the lights to change or repaint the lines so there is no left hand turn lane. This street hardly has any traffic so a left hand turn lane is not needed. That lane could do just fine for both through and left hand turn traffic. The line painting option would be the least expensive way to go rather than tearing up the road to install a sensor.

I think its just a matter of time before someone gets impatient because the lights won't change and proceeds anyway and causes an accident.

More stores opening at Cloverdale Brick Yard Station

Just to update for people wanting to know what stores have been opening at Cloverdale's Brick Yard Station on the corner of the Cloverdale Bypass, 57th Avenue, and Highway 10.

CIBC and Original Joe's restaurant both opened a week ago.

Clancy's Meat shop opened this past Thursday, same building block as Staples, but closer to 57th Avenue.

The Source will be coming soon, in the same block of building nex to 57th Avenue where only Into Chocolate is currently open.

Fido will be coming soon, next to Original Joe's.

A day spa will be coming soon, in the same block of building where Into Chocolate is.

Vera's Burgers still says its opening soon, in the same building as Into Chocolate. They'll have the corner unit kitty corner to Starbuck's.

Cloverdale Starbucks Brick Yard Station Official Opening Thursday May 31 2012

I stopped by Starbucks at the new Brick Yard Station tonight after being informed it was families and friends between 4pm and 7pm. For a donation to a local school - and here I apologize because I forgot which one - drinks and food were on the house.

Rob, one of the co-owners of Newmac's was on hand to provide music.

We found out that Janet, a former co-worker of Kerry's, is the manager of this location and we chatted with her for a few minutes.

So after a couple of days of soft openings Starbucks will open at 5am on Thursday May 31 and will be open during regular operating hours from now forward.

Starbucks in Brick Yard Station Open

On Tuesday morning we drove by Cloverdale's Brickyard Station and the Starbucks on the corner of the Cloverdale Bypass and 57th Avenue had the papers off the windows and people were inside.

I saw people inside earlier this evening and walked my dogs over around 9pm for a look.

The sign on the Starbucks window says their hours are 5am to 10pm Monday to Friday but they were already closed.

My first thought was I hope this isn't being run by the people who ran Rico Burrito and rarely open for business!

I'm sure it might have just been a test day today or soft opening and that's why they closed early. Or at least I hope that's why!

Saturday hours are 6am to 10pm. Sunday Starbucks closes at 9pm but I forgot what time it said it opens. Doesn't matter. By the time I roll out of bed they'll probably already be open!

Photos of Cloverdale Brick Yard Station

There is a bit of interest in the new strip mall going up in Cloverdale - Brick Yard Station - so I took some photos. Brick Yard Station is on the corners of Highway 10 and Highway 15, across the street from the Husky (Mohawk) gas station and about a block west of 176th Street. There are a couple of entrances to the parking lot from 57th Avenue and there is also an entrance/exit on Highway 10. The thing is if you exit onto Highway 10 you will be heading westbound.

Starbucks and Clancy's Meat Co both have coming soon signs on them but no date indicated when they'll be opening.

Staples is opening on Saturday May 5 2012. There will be 10% off everything on the store on opening day. They will hold their official grand opening a week or 2 later. Sorry don't recall which date. Will post when I know for sure.

Click on the photo to see a larger view.

This is the street view from Highway 15, also known as the Cloverdale Bypass, looking south. Sign shows the businesses that are opening in the Brick Yard Station. That's an electric box with the old photo etched on it.

Some of the buildings have old photos of Cloverdale incorporated into the design as murals. Also old train ties worked into the landscaping.

Those are train ties worked in with the brick patio walkway in front of Starbucks.

Starbucks opening soon! Just how soon is unknown!

Photos on the building beside Starbucks showing railroad workers and the other is a photograph taken in downtown Cloverdale, appears to be from the 60's.

More old Cloverdale photos turned into murals.

Staples is at the far end of the strip mall, closer to Highway 10. Unknown yet what stores are going in beside it.

Clancy's Meat Co. is on the same row of stores as Staples but its closer to the 57th Avenue entrance/exit.

Stores still under construction in the Brick Yard Station.

Cloverdale's Brick Yard Station

For the past year or so construction has been underway on a new shopping mall in Cloverdale on the northwest corner of Highway 10 and Highway 15. Across the street from the Husky/Mohawk station and about a block west of 176th Street.

Banner shows several stores will be opening there: Staples, Starbucks, CIBC, Vera's Burgers, Clancy's Meats, etc.

About a week ago they paved the parking lot. Today it looks like they're putting in some big paver stones on the side next to 57th Avenue, near where Starbucks will be. The whole area is still surrounded by a blue temporary fence, though they had a few sections down today to work on the pavers.

The Staples sign is now on the building with an opening soon banner. I checked the website but there is no mention of what date "soon" means.

When Stapes opens for business they usually have some good opening day specials, though the numbers are limited. The Staples in Langley opened up about 12 years ago. We were interested in getting a leather office chair for $99 and my father also wanted the same chair. I think they had 25 available. It was summertime and we went down around 6 or 6:30am to line up. There were about 10 or 15 other people in front of us. Most of whom wanted the laptop computer that was on sale, available for the first 20 people I think. The other opening day special was each person would receive a box of paper. Yup, a whole box. That is 10 reams of paper each holding 500 sheets (8x11).

As the line up grew a woman somewhere further back in line kept showing up to count people ahead of her. I guess she must have been around the cut off for 50. About 20 or 30 minutes before the doors opened a couple of employees came outside. Amazingly enough a few people who had been sitting in their cars doing whatever now suddenly showed up to join their friends/family already in line. The employees had tickets for each of the door crasher specials printed out in the exact amount of how many were available - according to how they'd advertised in their flyer. They came down the line and asked what you wanted. We each got a ticket for the office chair plus one each for the box of paper. Further back in the line I heard arguments break out. There was that woman who had been counting the people in line in front of her. There were no free boxes of paper left and she was arguing that she'd counted the people in line ahead of her and knew that she was inside 50. But nope. Once the employee's tickets were handed out they were gone.

We went inside and each bought a chair and put the box of free paper (kind of heavy) on each chair and rolled it out of there. Fortunately we'd brought the truck! As we were loading out items in the back we could hear people in the line up saying: "Look. They got 2 chairs and 2 boxes of paper."

First come first served!

I've noticed for subsequent openings of Staples around the Lower Mainland that the opening day special now consists of one ream of paper for free.

Out of those 2 free boxes we did give away a few reams but that paper lasted us for many years.