“A Vancouver cinema which has shown movies in the Kitsilano neighbourhood for decades looks set to be torn down after housing developers purchased the land it stands on.
The Ridge Theatre has screened movies at Arbutus Street and 16th Avenue since 1950, but the Cressey Development Group plan to level the landmark and the Varsity Bowling Alley next door.
The group intends to build a mixed use development on the property with ground floor retail and concrete condominiums above.
President of Festival Cinemas Leonard Schein has leased the Ridge Theatre for 34 years but believes the fate of the single screen theatre seems sealed.
“That will be the end of the Ridge when they do it. I’m not sure if they’ll do it in 2012 or 2013. It’s been a long time and I’m sad to see it ,” he said.”
- CBC News, 12 Mar 2012
Found on ‘flickr’:
Ridge Theatre – 1949
3131 Arbutus Street, Vancouver, BC.
When it opened its doors in April 1950, the Ridge Theatre was hailed as “A miracle of modern architecture and construction” boasting the latest in projection equipment and creature comforts. In the late 1970s the Ridge became a repertory or “second run” theatre, a role that continues to this day.
Let’s just cut to the chase and ‘condo’ everything from UBC to Boundary Road (Endowment Lands included); interspersed with oases of coffee shops and high end fashion stores, of course.
– vreaa
—
Postscript:
It seems the Ridge does have a history with real estate:
- image from ‘Macdonald Realty Asia Typhoons Charity Event’, Macdonald Realty Blog, 26 Jan 2012
Vancouver’s west side has very little commercial land; now it will have even less. Almost all of the commercial land on and surrounding Arbutus has now been converted to “mixed use” condo developments.
So much for building communities where people can live and work. These new mixed use developments that have chain stores and coffee shops as tenants will never provide the employment opportunities needed for the small business owners on the west side, so now we will have to build “rapid transit” across town to move people to where the jobs and services are – on the east side. Some “planning” we have in this City!
Developer profitability is the only issue this City ever considers when planning “land use”.
now we will have to build “rapid transit” across town to move people to where the jobs and services are
sounds like a suburb
Brr. ‘Tis a cold wind that blows thru the BPOE. And I’m not talking about today’s never-ending windstorm.
Yeah, we’ve noted those taking a cold hard look at our town have stepped up the intensity a notch or two.
Understandable given the perceived less and less for more and more.
Another icon bites the dust. Too bad.
This is terrible, the bowling alley itself is almost like a seniors community center during the day with some of their older leagues. On nights and weekends it’s a great affordable spot to go with friends and it seems to be very family friendly as well. I suppose the current users of the facilities should be expected to buy said condos and sit inside them idly unable to afford any extra-mortgage activities?
I guess that’s it Aldus. You have pointed out the obvious. The place was a social gathering spot where anyone could go and feel at home.The Ridge theatre was great too. They used to host the film fest and the Rocky Horror Picture show was there for years. Guess you could say the neighborhood had a bit of fun in it once.
Really looking forward to more Condos and sterile shopping experiences though. You know, places that give you the shove-off when you don’t produce money and actually buy something overpriced.
But just sitting around socializing, playing games and enjoying a cup of coffee with friends? What the hell were we thinking? That is so 1950′s.
riding a bus without looking at an lcd screen??? IMPOSSIBLE!
LUDDITES, ALL OF YOU – you should be buried alive with steve jobs for your heresy
Reminds me of the Condo Gun skit from Rick Mercer. It really is a shame when local landmarks are demolished so they can be replaced with cheap artificial symbols of a city’s greed and speculative mania.
what a lousy end to that neighbourhood…. I guess people can still go get memberships at the arbutus club if they need something to do…
http://www.arbutusclub.com/Membership.aspx 50,000 dollars to have access to tennis courts and curling, seems reasonable enough
just hop in your son’s orange lambo and throw some rocks at the button
Well perhaps all is not lost…if this bubble pops within the next year or so maybe the developer will have second thoughts…
Probably after they have demolished the place and placed a gaping hole in the ground that threatens to eat the surrounding streets and buildings.
It happened in Calgary a couple of years ago and some are still either fenced-off gravel lots or holes waiting for the next mania….. We had closed roads throughout the downtown for weeks on end due to the failure of the retaining walls for the pits.
“Well perhaps all is not lost…if this bubble pops within the next year or so maybe the developer will have second thoughts…”
Usually though the building has been torn down and a huge hole sits there till the “economic tides” turn.
This tide may take some time to wash away all our troubles unfortunately, KC. If you want to have a glimpse into the future then take a look at the following chart from the Federal Reserve of St Loius.
St Louis Fed – 60 years of M2 Velocity (courtesy The Telegraph)
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02164/stlouisfed_2164739c.jpg
For those who are interested, here is the Wiki on “The Velocity of Money”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity_of_money
What this chart tells you is how much “velocity” exists within the US economy for the (M2) money supply. Velocity of money, that is. The term references how many times a dollar changes hands in a year and thus suggests how much economic activity is at play. Take note that in order for inflation to break out in any significant way that the velocity of money must increase.
It is falling hard right now. Real time.
From the chart you will note that velocity drops during periods of recession which are shown by the vertical grey bars. The plunges in 2001 and 2009 are quite stark. Next look at the current sharp drop that appears at the end of the chart in 2011/2012 and ask yourself why this is happening when no recession has been called.
Of course, a recession was called. The Economic Research Council (ECRI) said one was coming and has been roundly criticized for those efforts. Despite many warning signals, the economy is actually slowing while the stock markets put their best face forward and rise towards an ugly correction.
Guaranteed.
So what you are seeing in that St Louis Fed chart is a snapshot of the future. And that future is recessionary. If not worse. The velocity of money has officially dropped to its lowest point since records began in 1950. So this is a huge wake up call.
It means that the people who keep screaming gold is going through the roof, that a hyperinflation is coming or even that serious inflation will soon destroy our lives with escalating fuel costs or expensive snow peas from China……. are all wrong.
All wrong. We are deflating and we are doing so in record time. M2 is not falling. It is crashing. Too many people are saving money. There is no velocity to sustain a consumption economy at these rates and basically, we are up the creek with a paddle. The great credit excess of our time that was meant to save our economy is instead going to eat most homeowners alive as delevering begins in earnest this fall.
If I can offer you one single piece of good advice tonight it will be this. Get out of debt ASAP, put some bucks aside or get invested to take advantage of what is coming and DO NOT under any circumstance buy a house. That will be the biggest mistake you ever make.
It is now official. The economy is out of ammo. Save yourself.
And just a follow up note for F1 who is going to say “Hey Dork, those charts are for the US….did you forget we live in Canada”? I just want to add this.
The US housing bubble burst back in 06. They are far ahead of us on the deleveraging curve. First in –first out. Our sorry bubble has not yet burst and the US does in fact look like it is going back into recession. That means more housing price declines lay ahead for them and many years before a true recovery will materialize.
And you wonder if we will fare better? Only in fairytale dreams.
We are not special here. Our export economy is intimately tied to the success of America and so our economic outcome could actually be worse in the long run.
If we had a housing bubble on the verge of bursting yesterday then that fact has only been confirmed by this recent bad news. America does not retrench without Canada feeling the outcomes. Sadly, we cannot rely upon Asian commodity purchases to float our boats. That too is a mirage as the Chinese bubble itself is decelerating at about the same rate a car hits a brick wall.
Nor will Europe save our sorry skins. We do little trade with them anyway. But the way they do impact on us is in their interaction with China. As you may have heard already, Europe is heading into recession. That is a big deal for the Chinese who count them as their largest trading partner (not the US).
So a little perspective is in line here.
If Europe slows, then China slows. If the China property bubble is bursting then commodity prices will fall. If fewer goods are manufactured to ship from Asia abroad then their economy will fall further. The commodity thingy is what concerns us wee Canucks by the way.
Big picture….The US, China, Europe and even Japan are all slumping together and it pretty much means our bubble is about to pop, not fizzle. No wonder Sherry Cooper bailed on her house last month. Smart gal. She got out just in the nick of time.
If you noticed the error in my writing above, then congrats. The sentence where I wrote “M2 is not falling, it is crashing”, should have said “velocity is not falling, it is crashing”. The discussion was about the velocity of money, not the money supply. There are a great many people these days who swear we are heading into an inflationary nightmare. They are buying Gold for protection. What most of them fail to understand though is that even if the Bank of Canada and the Fed and the ECB et al infuse our system with trillions in liquidity it makes almost no difference to inflation expectations until that capital is utilized and velocity itself increases as consumption rises and reinvestment takes place. Sadly, that is not what is happening. Instead we see hundreds of billions of dollars sitting on bank balance sheets or held aside by the Central Banks themselves and going absolutely nowhere while consumers suck in their guts and withdraw. We do not have the confidence required for reinvestment to take place except in speculative assets like real estate. In the US, all that liquidity has not manifest in a burst of economic rejuvenation, small business building, fresh investment or even the services or ideas economy. Not at all. The liquidity is more like an open cheque book waiting to be used (one day) while credit is being withdrawn by most financial institutions due to past damaged ratings of consumers. This is the trap that Japan fell in to and it now looks as though the US is also heading for a similar period of despair. Anyone who thinks Canada will be spared the coming correction is a Lunatic, a Realtor or a Bank Economist. But I won’t belabour that issue.
You all got the picture anyway.
Sharply falling velocity could very well signal a new recession, but as long as that velocity is greater than one, money is circulating in the economy and the system is functioning. Americans are voting with their wallets for higher savings, less leverage, and an emphasis on higher quality growth. You have bargains down there because the population is insisting on it. You have rip offs in Vancouver because the population accepts it.
Thanks for responding RP1. I was beginning to think I was just talking to myself. Here is an article from one terrific thinker and writer who I have been a fan of for quite some time. His name is John Mauldin. He addresses your idea of velocity being above “one” in his usual interesting way.
The Velocity of Money and Economic Deflation:
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7645.html
More from John Mauldin: The Velocity of Money
http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2010/03/mauldin_the_vel.html
Keep in mind that even during the Great Depression in Canada that the economy kept functioning and money kept circulating. It just did so at ever falling rates until the past excess was wrung out of the system. Few seem to know their history on the topic but in the years leading up to that wild time prior to 1929 there was also a large housing bubble in Vancouver and a period of credit excess that rivals that of today. The stock market and leverage were the real sins of the day though.
Has anything really changed? Credit is still credit.
Shaughnessy itself was turned into acres of boarding homes as an outcome. The city of Vancouver seized properties of speculators, stock market gamblers and even Coal Barron’s for non-payment of taxes. It was a near disaster in the Dirty Thirties as forlorn prairie farmers streamed into the city while a devastating drought blew their precious prairie soils as far afield as the skies over England where folks commented on the bright red sunsets.
As a side note. We are drying out on the prairies. Fast. Winter has gone and temps are hitting double digits. The same phenomenon is happening in much of Eastern Europe and the old Soviet Bloc countries. What I am saying is that it looks as though we could be heading for a dry year, potentially a drought and that is very bad news for the globe.
I will keep you posted. Dry is not good this early in the season though.
got a blog?
Nope. Just had something to say. What have you got?
+1 to all of this Farmer – on the money as always. May I add that people might find Australian professor Steve Keen’s “debtwatch” blog instructive – he is presaging 40% drops in RE values over the next 20 years in Australia, Canada and elsewhere. He sees the M2 issue mentioned by Farmer below as being pivotal – as Farmer says.
I believe Farmer is a professor of Economics… come clean, sir!
+1 Farmer. Refreshing to hear serious, adult talk in clear terms — as opposed to marketing fuzzy double-speak with no meaning everywhere else.
Thanks you guys. I find it helps to look at the hard numbers firsthand rather than just relying on others to do my analysis for me. There are just too many agendas at play anymore and that especially includes work you will see posted on the internet where journalistic integrity is low and editors non-existent. Not that the papers are any better but at least the slant I get from them is biased in a direction I expect. When online you just never know what writers are trying to convince you of an much of what is written is just hogwash without proofs. And as we know from listening to realtors, any damn fool can make bland assertions based on nothing more than confidence and faith. I am a fan of Steve Keen by the way. Have not read him in awhile but now that you brought him up I will go back for another look. He is one of those who is quite bearish on our market. I appreciate his work because he makes a genuine effort to provide evidence and backing data to support his views.
Wow, some here are now saying,”if the bubble pops”. Yes folks, bidding wars continuing as listings rise.
how many of you have been to the Ridge theatre in the past, say, 3 years? Anyone? Anyone?
No but I have been to the bowling alley 3 times and the Chinese restaurant above it once in the last three years.
Been there within the last calendar year along with Fifth Ave and The Rio. Small indie theaters bring in interesting films, usually ones that are a lot more challenging than the popcorn fluff airing at the CorporateSponsoshipMegaBox where more money was spent on fountains rather than adding to their sound systems.
Does that mean McD’s is going too? Damn. BK on main st is getting taken over by Onni. I love fast food!!!
I rent a place 4 blocks away and have lived in the area for 15 years. Not only do I frequent most of the businesses located in The Ridge complex on a regular basis, but from my observations, so do a lot of the seniors from the O’keefe, students from the various schools, groups of friends looking to do something casual, and families LOTS of families.
I grew up in the Valley, and I witnessed Langley township grow from approx. 30K people in the late 70′s to over 200k when I left in the mid 90′s. I saw first hand the effect of a community that is transformed by rapid and aggressive residential development coupled with a completely inadequate urban development ‘plan’. Adults and seniors who are disenfranchised by a the loss of the community in which they raised their families, teenagers with nothing to do, and in the end a soulless sprawl of hastily built cooky cutter domiciles. And all we lost out there was a little ALR land!!!
Does anyone know what, if any, recourse there is for concerned citizens who feel that their community’s are being gutted of any semblance of character?
Rotten eggs and heaps of manure. Be prepared to get ticketed though.
@Nom Nom Nom – I’ve posted before to this blog about phoning and writing public officials and perhaps ultimately it’s of little use, but it does make me feel I’m doing whatever I can. Also, I have gotten phonecalls and emails back from members of City Council, so I know something of what I’m saying is getting through to somebody somewhere, sometimes.
You can phone any member of City Council, including the Mayor, and leave a message on his or her voicemail. You can also email anyone on City Council. I would email them at their individual addresses, not the group address.
I have also been in touch with Heritage Vancouver, but my impression is they are understaffed and overwhelmed. However, you might express your feelings to them as well.
Good luck.
Anyone here going to go visit the eventual Starbucks, Yoga Studio, Pet clothing store that replaces the Ridge Theater?
Anyone? Anyone?
Yes, within the past 12 months. And to the Dunbar Theater too. Good lord, that was like stepping into the twilight zone. If you ever wondered where all the old white people are on Vancouver’s west side, look no further.
I last bowled and drank a few beers at the Varsity Ridge in January. 5 pin – that’s how I roll.
Bowled there within the last month (usually do a couple times a year for the last few years). Saw a couple movies per year there as well on the same timeline.
Nice clip Nem. Hey, did you notice all the smoke in the projector lights? Yup. Craziest damn thing ever. You were allowed to smoke in theaters once. I can remember doing it myself.
And nobody even complained!
Yep, Farmer… Too right. How I miss cinema in Berlin… And Gauloises! TheWall was still ‘ground truth’ then. Oddly, our host knows a thing or two about CheckPointCharlie… but I think he was just dating “Natasha”, or doing the A&R thing for VirginAtlantic?…
You’ve been to Berlin? I would love to go there one day. Just too much to see and do. I have a list already planned. I tell you where I was once though and this might surprise you. I was probably one of the people in that line-up around the Hollywood in 75 waiting to see “Tommy”. Spent plenty of time there and saw my share of movies over the years. I knew a sweet gal who was a candy-girl serving popcorn to the guests. She would let me in on the sly once the rush was over so I could catch a flick for free. Right around that time our landlady (who was a huge landholder all over Point Grey and Kits) offered my mother our house for 85,000. You never heard so much indignation in your entire life. The bloody nerve of that woman, she ranted! Trying to take advantage of us like that with such a high price!…….nobody had any idea that same house would eventually sell for over 2 million. And only 37 years later. Cripes! What a crazy city.
It’s always sad when a small local business can no longer continue. In this city, our sky high real esate market means that the most profitable use of any land is condominium developement. Two trends to be concerned about over time – the loss of commercial and industrial land in the city, and the unimaginative condominium architecture which prevails in this city. Interesting and quirky neighbourhoods like Main and Commercial drive will be replaced by condos and chain stores, a grim future for most. A fortune is made on rezoning.
in china, they are about a zillion empty housing projects that none of the locals can afford. why not a taste of the mainland experience here?
It may not be curtains for the Ridge.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Ridge+Theatre+demolished+part+million+proposal/6291074/story.html
Nothing is approved and nobody is evicted. If enough opposition builds, Cressey could be delayed until after the bubble burst. If something along the lines of a new theatre is a requirement for redevelopment, I bet Cressey loses interest fast.
From the story:
“[The Ridge] makes money and we serve a lot of local schools, daycare centres and non-profit groups,” he said.
“And it’s part of the [Vancouver International] Film Festival. This [new proposal] gives less choice for people and less opportunity for jobs for young people.”
Vancouver Coun. George Affleck said Monday that council may ask Cressey to consider a new theatre as part of a community amenity package.
“I don’t know the details, but I’m open to listening to the public and seeing what they feel,” Affleck said. “I think there’s endless opportunities as to what you can do.
“If the community wants a theatre as a priority, then it should be something that the city and staff should consider. I’d hate to see this coming to a public hearing where the public isn’t happy.”
Now is the time to kick up a stink then, Zebsded. Now or never. I mean, saying nothing assures the vacant sterile ideas of bland property developers will carry the day.
And their empty HAM Condos will squash our local culture.
Farmer, I actually spoke to one of the staff at the ridge recently about this issue, and it seems that they are planning on spearheading opposition to the redevelopment of the site. I will post more detail on this when I hear more.
Excellent news Nom. I am looking forward to it. Do keep me posted as I no longer live anywhere near the city I was born. I do recall a lot of the old familiar places with affection though and the Ridge was one of them.
I’m running out of things to do. Good thing I have wifi at Starbucks!
It’s very much a “motherhood” issue to moan about places like the Ridge closing but the fact is, seeing a movie there was awful. I grew up within walking distance of the place and still do and I haven’t (and I see almost all the new movies) been there in years. Their switch to showing first-run films a couple of years ago was really the death knell for me – horrible seats, terrible screen and nothing much to make it a destination when the same movies were being shown in a decent place. The bowling alley, on the other hand, is a place everyone goes to sometime or another.
And, on a related note, why no breast-beating about the Hollywood Theatre being torn down?
Thank you, Observer [I think]. I didn’t know.
[Vancouver Sun] – 2011.05.26 Vancouver’s landmark Hollywood Theatre shuts down after 75 years: Kitsilano movie house has been showing double bills since 1935
…”The theatre was built at 3123 West Broadway in the middle of the Great Depression by Reginald Fairleigh, whose wife Margaret was worried that their children wouldn’t be able to find work.
It was designed by architect Harold Cullerene, and enticed moviegoers with a neon sign promising the “pick o’ the best plays.” It opened on Thanksgiving Day, Oct. 24, 1935, with tickets at 10 and 15 cents. The opening night marquee featured a double bill, Will Rogers in Life Begins at 40 and Thelma Todd in Lightning Strikes Twice.
When it opened, the papers carried ads for 26 movie theatres in Vancouver, three in Kitsilano alone. Most have been knocked down.”
http://tinyurl.com/3q9wmtt
PS – 1975, ‘Nem’ and a friend were looking for something to do… We ‘cruised’ the HollyWood, but the box office line-up wrapped TheBlock [Ken Russell's "Tommy"]. It was raining. Monsoon rain… So, looking at each other… the marquee, the lineup, reflections of the Hollywood’s neon signage in the puddles… we both [simultaneously] exclaimed, “F**k it!”… slammed the doors on the Dodge… and drove to California. That night.
I do believe I bleated on about the Pantages Theatre being torn down on Hastings. Despite the building being in bad shape, it was the oldest remaining vaudeville theatre in Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantages_Theatre_%28Vancouver%29
Seems there was a sister theatre just blocks away which was demolished to make way for a parking lot decades ago.
@Nom Nom Nom – looks like you have already made progress.
I recommend phoning journalists as well and/or emailing them as well to see if they’d be interested in doing a story. I’d try Vancouver’s newspapers of record, plus The Tyee, and the TV and radio stations.