The pic at left of pedestrians navigating cheek-to-jowl on a downtown Montreal street in the six-Ts (can anybody recognize where?) proves that even the most banal moment is rendered exciting on a crowded sidewalk (see actual video footage here).In a misguided attempt to make life easier for pedestrians, the city widened sidewalks all over town in recent decades, notably on St. Catherine.
As a result, people are more distant from each other than we once were and that has led us to disconnect in a tragic way, alienation is sprouting unabated among foot-marchers in this city.
So to compensate for the lost urban intimacy, we have loaded up with festivals that give people the excuse to stand near to strangers, alas you have to sit and watch some aging dolt blow into a saxophone or some sorta thing just to get that promixity-rush.
Nowadays sidewalks are so wide that you could ride a couple of bikes down 'em and pedestrians would barely notice.
Montreal pedestrians are plagued with a sick feeling of loneliness as they put shoe leather to pavement, as if they're being gobbled up by the void of the universe as you sense your distance from others around you already tied into their alienated little earbud-world.
Mayor Coderre, you need to break the urban alienation and narrow the sidewalks again.
Montreal needs to return to a sense of busy-ness and vitality that comes with a good-ol' fashioned crowded urban sidewalk.
You're joking, of course.
ReplyDeleteA cursory check through the previous decades will reveal that many of our downtown streets had already been widened by having their sidewalks trimmed in order to increase vehicular traffic flow--exactly what many of today's cities are attempting to discourage.
Ever walk in downtown Toronto during rush hour? Try moving against the sidewalk hordes and you'll quickly find yourself elbowed onto the street.
Personally, I find it easier to walk downtown here along the edge of the sidewalk between the curb and the intermittent trees and trash barrels than next to the buildings where too often there is some homeless panhandler, busker, or chattering group of people blocking movement.
Then there are those couples who insist on walking side-by-side on narrow sidewalks oblivious to others who cannot pass around them.
Who remembers years back when mayor-hopeful Jerome Choquette ran on a platform which included the promise of more street-widenings? He lost.
More wide sidewalks please!
Makes no sense. This reads like something you'd find in a Montreal version of The Onion.
ReplyDeleteI'm with UrbanLegend. I walked for years back and forth along St. Catherine and the best sidewalk path was always near the curb. I found the biggest problem was people launching themselves out of shops without checking
ReplyDeleteif anyone was already on the sidewalk. And walking near the doorways today you smoke the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes between Atwater and Peel.
If you look at old pictures of downtown Montreal it's amazing how crowded the sidewalks were. In the roaring 20s cars were getting common but people mostly took the streetcar and walked. Things got quiet after 1929 and didn't pick up to the same level of traffic till after the war.
The location is Ste-C., between Drummond and Mountain. The long building on the left with all the windows is the building that now houses Urban Outfitters at its west end, as seen here in Street View:
ReplyDeletehttp://goo.gl/maps/lUEJJ
I for one vote for a society where I never need to be closer than 1 meter to people I do not know.
ReplyDeleteI avoid walking on St Catherine because the sidewalks are so congested. If I am going from Atwater to Universtiy, I will usually switch up to Maisonneuve.
I agree with ed hawco.
ReplyDeleteWant to know about crowded sidewalks? My experience: Dublin, Ireland, O'Connell street, 5:00 pm , any day.
Equals = Tsunami.
(but a Guinness later makes you forget).
Guinness is good for you.
Thoughts for another day, in no particular order.
ReplyDeleteAs I approach my eighth decade I am more and more inclined to agree with poster BdgBill with the three-metre rule when out in public.
Streetcar bells made Ste. Catherine Street, a garnish of sound.
There was an 'Organ Grinder' btwn Eaton's and Morgan's with a stump for an arm, the amputation scaring a kid just after the War.
When at the wheel, the distance should be increased slighty to three 3 MILES to the next vehicle, similar as to driving the highway to Yellowknife before the bridge over the Mackenzie, the ferry travelling aslant to buck the current exiting GSL, the islands eroded by ice.
Maybe the insects were eating the islands? Hmmmm.
( Had to drive again yesterday, to take Angel to McDonald's for soft ice cream. Nice to drive an 8, but have lost the touch, worried all the way, ABOUT THE OTHER GUY! )
Vehicles bend when they hit, or roll, and blood does flow. Been there, and done that too many times.
Aeons ago I lived and worked in a remote location two 2 miles from the community with the post office, population 64.
At the time the solitude altered my life, I talked to the trees and counted the stars, oftentimes seeing more black bears than people in a week.
32 cents for a gallon of gas, and 350 for the engine ahead under the hood. Hi Test DID stop the 'Pinging', and when you pulled out to pass, you DID!
Drugs were never a part of the picture, for me, thankfully, Dr. Hook the Now, as was Vietnam, far away, Trudeau in Ottawa, changing it all.
8 tracks sucked in retrospect.
Gosh, we drank! and wrecked trucks, too, firing shotguns at the stars and Northern Lights..
The way of the West, and youth.
Imbibed too much and drove my truck on the wrong side of the road for entertainment coming home from the bar @ 70+ before Metric, sometimes with the lights off, following the moon and my frustrations.
I would see one of my co-workers approaching in the distance in his truck when I was drivng to town for supplies, to cash the cheque and get more booze. We would flash our lights, crossover into the wrong lane and pass right-door to right-door at high speed laughing manaically.
Sure glad I 'missed' drugs, ruined the lives of so many others.
Now it might be Texting???? ruining the lives?? Still a Virgin, that way, my Dad's cell in the cupboard, unactivated, and probably worth something on eBay as a collectible? It flips open, so cool at the time, and clicks shut, annoying to hear when a whole bus full of teens and tweens were OMGing.
Maybe Texting and it's silence is not so bad after all.
Admire the NE 293 G even tho' totally impractible with no # or * keys and have to stand to talk.
Look at it and think, and think and think.
Things did seem better when telephones came with a dial ( Fingerwheel in BSP-Speak. ) and came from The Northern on Shearer.
There were locomotives at our disposal, and they factored into the equations, if there were any?
" When in doubt, any course may be taken " somewhat like Calvin Ball. Hobbes might not approve, but would comprehend.
Have another beer and ponder a bit, maybe, and reach for the Air.
Shameful, but far in the past, if that means anything?
Now I live in town, and have aches and pains, many cerebral, a sedentry old man, with a Mountain Bike.
Getting up in the morning means feet on the floor, after the operation, nothing else.
Await my Final Call, as do all of us, eventually.
Wonder if it will come on the 293?
Would go back if I could.
Three metres is still too close, now that I think of it.
Is it thought, or senility catching up.
Damn Metric anyway.
Where IS that 'Plane??
Thank You.