Friday, Nov. 3, 2023 edition - Songs of a Fraser Valley Fall

🌦️ High 13C

Good morning!

Well, it’s official: Taylor Swift is coming to Vancouver next year. Will I try to get tickets? Probably. Will I survive the digital gauntlet of bots and superfans? Unlikely. It does make me wonder, though, what it was like to get popular concert tickets in ye olden days, when people had to line up overnight at box offices (they even did this for certain movies in Chilliwack). I could do that. I own a tent.

– Grace

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 You can check DriveBC’s highway cameras (and city traffic cameras) here.

NEWS

Songs of a Fraser Valley fall

This week, The Current interviewed local radio host Stephen Munga about the local music scene and then talked to Stephen K David, from the local band Summer Eyes, about making music in the Fraser Valley.

We’re also introducing a new running feature.

The Current is teaming up with Munga, the music director of CIVL Radio, to regularly showcase new locally produced music. Munga will use his expert ear and huge database of music to highlight new local music that you can put on at work, at home, or in the car.

He sent us the first batch of new songs last month, and another batch this week.

• Here are a dozen new tracks from Fraser Valley artists this fall.

• In the future, you will find new selections in The Agenda section of The Current’s daily newsletter.

• Want to attend a rock n’ roll show for free by a local band this weekend? We’re giving away two tickets to Summer Eyes’ album release show in Abbotsford. Just fill out your name and email address here to enter.

Related

Need to Know

🌱 Concerns about insufficient environmental protections in an Abbotsford wetland have halted work on the Trans-Mountain pipeline [Global News]

🌁 Hope is celebrating its first inaugural Fog Fest [Hope Standard]

👮 Langley RCMP is looking for public help finding a missing woman [Langley RCMP]

🚂 Someone attempted to derail a train in Spuzzum [Hope Standard]

👉️ Repairs to broken water pumps are underway in Harrison [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

➡️ Mission RCMP found a fentanyl lab in the Hatzic Valley; no charges have been laid [Mission Record]

🚗 Most cars at popular Chilliwack fishing spots were found to be vulnerable to break-ins [Chilliwack Progress]

💵 Two Chilliwack seniors were targeted with a scam that requests bail money for fictional relatives [Chilliwack Progress]

🌳 The Silverdale Creek Wetlands will reopen after months of salmon habitat restoration [Mission Record]

😸 More than 20 cats found new homes during an ‘adopt-a-thon’ in Langley [Langley Advance Times]

👉️ The City of Mission created an economic development corporation that will focus on renovating the town’s waterfront [Mission Record]

➡️ A Canadian parade of classic British cars is planned for Sunday in Langley [Langley Advance Times]

🎄 The Aldergrove Christmas parade is in search of volunteers [Langley Advance Times]

📷️ CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Julie, who was the first person to identify Wednesday’s Current Cam photo as the Mighty Moose Ice Cream in Yarrow.

The Agenda

Abbotsford OKs bike lanes 

Abbotsford is set to finally create a cycling route that will be (nearly) able to funnel bikers from its southeastern neighbourhoods across to its downtown. 

The Sumas Way/Highway 11 commercial area in the eastern portion of the city has long been a cycling nightmare, with up to eight lanes of traffic in some areas, no bike lanes, and some of the most crash-prone intersections in the city.

On Monday, Council approved the construction of a new “bikeway” that includes cycling lanes along Delair Road along with a new cycling and pedestrian path on Sumas Way. 

The route includes a long stretch of bike-only lane along Delair Road, connecting the Sumas Way area to Delair Park. But the most consequential changes are likely to come along Sumas Way, where a sidewalk on the northeast portion of the road between Delair and South Fraser Way will be converted into a “multi-use path” on which cyclists will be allowed to travel.

That short path will allow cyclists—both from the Delair area and Marshall Road—to stay off the highway. Cyclists will be able to take the path to and from the junction of Sumas Way and South Fraser Way. From there, they can take a short path to Gladys Road, which provides a relatively low-traffic route to downtown.

There is no cyclist-specific way to cross the Sumas/South Fraser Way intersection at the moment. But the city does plan to rebuild the junction if and when the former Abbotsford News site is developed. Money from the developer would fund changes to infrastructure in the area. (The parcel was purchased by a developer more than five years ago; council approved plans to build a large condo complex, but no building has taken place yet.)

The bikeway project will cost about $2.1 million. The city is seeking a $500,000 grant from the province, and will pay for the rest through gas tax revenue.

💾 Flashback Friday

This soccer team played in Fort Langley in 1900. The players in the picture would have called the sport football, and may have been part of the British Columbia Football Association. The provincial organization was formed in 1891 and was the first of its kind. The Manitoba Association of Football would soon follow.

Canadians would only start calling the sport soccer officially around the 1950s. The name came from the sport’s first formalized rules, crafted by the Football Association in England in 1867. The rules distinguished it from rugby and created “Association Football.” Creative Oxford students shortened the name to soccer.

🗓 Things to do

From prison to poetry: Local author Bradley Peters will speak at UFV’s Fraser Valley Writers Festival on Saturday, Nov. 4 about his debut poetry collection and his journey from incarceration to publishing. Find the details of the event here and read more about Peters’ work here.

Hockey: The Vancouver Giants will play the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday, Nov. 4 at the Langley Events Centre. Details and tickets online.

Anonymous art: The Abbotsford Arts Council's Anonymous Art Show opens this Saturday, Nov. 4 at the Kariton Gallery. Find details online.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

That’s it!

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