Thursday - Nov. 30, 2023 - Change is coming for Aldergrove

🌧 High 5C

Good morning!

Spotify Wrapped came out yesterday morning. The music-streaming app packages up all your listening habits and puts them together in a fun little graphic for all your social-media-sharing desires. I get excited about them every year because I love seeing (and judging) what the people I know are listening to. These days, it’s one of the last things I find properly fun about social media. It’s always entertaining to learn which of your friends listens to scream-y scary death metal and which ones listen to showtunes. My most listened artist this year, like seemingly half the people on the planet, was Taylor Swift.

– Grace

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

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

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Change is coming for Aldergrove. Is it ready?

Sky-high above Aldergrove’s many small mom-and-pop shops, three gigantic metal cranes signal that big change is happening in the core of the quaint community.

But a lack of commercial space and high business rents may be limiting growth and forcing local businesses to move out of the community. There are also concerns that development will affect Aldergrove’s small-town feeling and character.

• Today, Current intern Kris Eckland writes about Aldergrove’s future—and whether it will be able to maintain what makes it special.

Related

Need to Know

🤝 Ottawa and Google have reached a tentative deal to keep Canadian news on the search engine [Global]

✒️ A former Abbotsford student is the youngest-ever winner of the CBC Poetry Prize [Abbotsford News]

🌊 A Langley school re-opened Wednesday after a water main break had prompted its closure the previous day [Langley School District/Facebook]

🎅 Thousands attended Langley’s Children’s Wish breakfast [Langley Advance Times]

🦅 Bald eagles have been flocking to Agassiz to feed on fish in the Harrison River [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🏡 Langley’s old Alder Inn Hotel site could become non-market housing [Langley Advance Times]

➡️ A public meeting to share information about SOGI 123 curriculum in Mission was interrupted by protesters [Abbotsford News]

🎇 Mission is planning to find some ways to address illegal fireworks [Mission Record]

🚔️ A 17-year-old who was reported missing this week was found safely [Chilliwack Progress]

🧸 Mastermind Toys in Langley is closing [Langley Advance Times]

🔥 Abbotsford firefighters were called to two structure fires on Wednesday [Fraser Valley Today]

🚨 Mission RCMP are trying to identify a man who pulled a knife in a grocery store [Mission Record]

📷️ CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Christine Dahl, who was the first to recognize yesterday’s Current Cam as the Khalsa Diwan Society on South Fraser Way in Abbotsford.

🎓 Need help applying to the University of the Fraser Valley? We're here to help! Join us for a “How to Apply” online workshop on Wednesday, December 6 and 20, from 3:30-4 pm. Register here.*

*Sponsored Listing

Enjoying our newsletter? Help us make it even better!

Become an Insider member and help keep local journalism and storytelling alive in the Fraser Valley.

The Agenda

Shuttle service trial in Langley attracts few riders

A public shuttle service test run aimed at emulating ride share services attracted little interest in Langley this summer. 

Translink runs the service—an on-demand, flexible transit alternative that works like a cross between a regular bus and a ride-share or taxi and can be called via app—between King George Station in Surrey, Gloucester Business Centre in Langley, and the Abbotsford airport.

While a similar project on Bowen Island fared well, its Langley variation didn’t see very high ridership. The service offers six daily round-trips between its three primary destinations at a one-way cost of $10. (Regular translink buses are $3.75 per trip). However, the bus driver informed Langley city staff that only one bus is requested from King George station to Gloucester every few weeks.

The on-demand buses are aimed at serving areas not frequented by regular bus routes—both a recent complaint of businesses in the Gloucester industrial area and a regular frustration of passengers flying out of Abbotsford. 

Despite the low current ridership of the on-demand transit bus, Translink told Langley Township staff that it is examining the possibility of adding a similar route on Highway 13 between Gloucester, the Greater Vancouver Zoo, and a connection point with Abbotsford’s BC Transit system at 272 Street.

Community journalism needs the entire community for it to succeed.

Become a Current member today and join 1,200+ other local supporters who help keep our lights on.

As part of a membership, you get our special weekend roundup of all the things you might’ve missed each week!

🗓 Things to do this week/end

🍻 Competitive brewing: KPU Brewing students will go head to head in the second annual Battle of the Casks hosted at Smuggler’s Trail in Langley on Thursday, Nov. 30. Details online. We wrote about the KPU brewing school in 2021.

🎄 Free Christmas lights: Williams Park in Langley is hosting its free family-friendly Christmas light show starting Friday, Dec. 1. Details online.

🥁 Holiday show: Resident companies and feature ensembles at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre will come together for a holiday show, Winter Fantasia, on Monday, Dec. 4. Details online. 

Want even more? Insider members get a comprehensive events listing every Thursday, plus a weekly Saturday round-up edition with behind-the-scenes content. Becoming a member costs less than $2 a week and helps support the ongoing production of The Current’s newsletters and in-depth journalism. Become a member here.

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

Catch up

That’s it!

Thanks for reading Fraser Valley Current today ♥️ 

If you found something useful, consider forwarding this newsletter to another local.

And before you go, please let us know:

Help share The Current

Wouldn’t the Fraser Valley be better if more people had access to local, quality news – and didn’t have to rely on social media? Share The Current with your friends and help us build better communities.