Montreal: not dead yet

Ramshackle old semi-wrecked parking lot building on Dorchester now rents commercial space.

Weird old sculpture that used to have a sign on it has lost some of its lustre, now that the business is gone.




Is anybody home? Mountain Street.




Unidentified work going on at St. James and Mountain.




They're building a mosquito factory.




The Griffintown Rock, near William on Eleanor, so dubbed as of this moment.




It's Montreal's Blarney Stone. Go ahead and kiss it.




Looks like another garage.




Till you stick your camera through the window.




Whatever happened to the zip-and-lock, red canvas no-parking bags?




The glimmering Dow Planetarium.




One of the nicest downtown tree stretches.




A landscaped collection of weeds.




A baby Transformer.




Concrete at 50.




Groovers Bixing in Wasteland.




Born to be wild!










It's already crabapple season on Murray Street.






The Ghost of Griffintown passes this tree every seven years, or so the legend goes.




Jewish General Hospital's new lobby is almost open. Stuff on display includes this nursing-school jacket.




You are entering a no-fun zone.




Abandon all fun, ye who enter here.




Do you see it yet, there on the right?




Photo radar tax-grab -- Southbound Cote des Neiges, just below The Boulevard.

Everybody's just creeping at this point.




The human kickstand.




The Linton's still being fixed.




Building on left burned about 25 years ago. It used to have a huge red inverted cone on the corner of the roof.
New and swank. The Unitarian Church used to stand here.




Bixie parking full -- what does that mean? That the service is not taking off? Or that the popular parking spots are all taken? On Mackay.




Downtown used to be the cool place to be. Looks like the spirit is coming back.
Deathwatch for the old Desjardins seafood house on Mackay.




Locking a toaster on Mackay.

Even teen tourism is down, judging by the smoker's zone of the Overdale Youth Hostel.




But the loiterers are still the creme de la creme.




Overdale, or what's left of it.




This tree is having a particularly messy summer. They say it's a cottonwood. You're about to learn why.




Looks like a nearby Q-Tip factory exploded.




The stuff's everywhere.






It's a beautiful tree. Just try not to park under it.