Drake in St. Paul's Coat district is disconnected into three parts at its eastern tip. This is nothing that a little clever road re-rerouting and a bit of demolition couldn't fix. Let's get a roundabout down there!
Historic de la Gauchetiere was also split in a similar way by the creation of the craptastic CBC complex in the 60s. Me thinks it could be built back thru the parking lot skirting around that shtoopid building.
For a really dumb street sign error, check out this one that says "rue Fremont" located on Berri north of de Louvain and just south of the CNR railway overpass. See:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.ca/maps/@45.550297,-73.653933,3a,28.2y,89.35h,89.64t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sllAFLgPAr0ZEzroprfrGrw!2e0
Fremont does indeed exist, but only east of Lajeunesse--the next street over.
The piece of land behind the fence seems to be a private parking lot with its own vegetable garden complete with port-o-potty.
I haven't stopped to investigate further. Any takers?
Older maps do not show Fremont connecting directly to Berri either, so perhaps the sign is only there to tell people that if they look hard enough, they just might find it!
There are in fact many streets on the island of Montreal which are broken up into disconnected sections due to former and currently-existing boundary lines between city districts and previously self-administered towns, not to mention intersecting railway lines and intervening industrial parks.
ReplyDeleteThe long list includes familiar streets such Jeanne Mance, Clark, Esplanade, St. Urbain, Waverly, Pierre de Coubertin, de Louvain, de Liege and others less well-known such as Forsyth, Port Royal, Everett, etc., etc.
Furthermore, in Pointe aux Trembles there are "continuations" of major Montreal streets like Ste. Catherine, Ontario, Lagauchetiere, and even Dorchester!
It must be hell for newbie drivers of delivery services and taxis.
Spent almost an HOUR looking for Drake off of Church one day when I was in the Bell.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm.
Thank You.
Hutchison is another one, split by the train tracks that run just north of Van Horne.
ReplyDeleteHow about the recent re-namaing of a stretch of University, between Notre-Dame and Sherbrooke, to honour an elected official named Bourassa? ...and calling it a "Boulevard", even though it is one of the narrowest streets downtown? Ridiculous.
Urban Legend:
ReplyDeleteI find that you are a wonder. You explain things so well and so accurately that you certainly deserve, (at least), my compliments for your comments here on Kristian’s wonderful site.
I am a Berri Street kid, lived for many grow up years. Gounod, Jarry, Liége, Villeray, Failion, Drolet , Henri Julien, Holy Family School, Holy Family Church, Lajeunesse, Jean Talon, Parc Jarry, Guizot, St. Alphonse de Youville, MTC #68 or #24, etc. etc.
I was always confused, as a very young boy walking with my mother to St. Hubert Street, (Bric-a-Brac), on Friday nights, that Berri street, suddenly became de Chateaubriand. Somewhere near Bélanger or Jean Talon?
Is it still that way?
I wonder if I might ever see that wonderful district again.
Montreal: La Cité Unique.
Thanks to Kristian Gravenor and Coolopolis, and you, for reviving and restoring wonderful memories.
Regarding street signs: a recent "improvement" implemented by the city are those "corridor scholaire" attachments which are supposed to warn motorists about school children in the area.
ReplyDeleteThese signs may be well-intentioned, but how truly effective can they be when so many of our streets now have them, thus reducing their impact.
Eventually one tends to look THROUGH and not AT such signage and, in any event, the safety-concerned driver should be focussing mainly on the street and who is on the sidewalk ready to cross.
I've also noticed that, over time, the lettering on many of these signs (including the street name signs themselves) has become severely faded due to the relentless sunlight, often rendering them virtually illegible.
This signage clutter--in addition to the law which requires every vehicle to keep their headlights ON for the sake of "improved visibility"--is, in my opinion, unnecessary overkill.
It should be obvious by now that--except during foggy conditions--if everyone has their headlights ON in broad daylight, no vehicle is any more noticeable than another if everyone has them OFF.
Witness our endless, crawling lines of traffic during the day and I wonder if those headlights really help. I imagine that the automobile lightbulb manufacturers must be raking in the cash.
I have not researched to see how many provinces, states, and countries even have such daytime headlight laws, if they are strictly enforced, nor if they have reduced the number of accidents.
A relevant scientific survey would be in order.
Thank You, Sir.
ReplyDeleteA Master at your craft!
Now, another Bell story regarding streets.
Back in the sixties we were assigned to a crew of six and a Foreman and left 5757 UL ( NOT Urban Legend, tho' Hmm the concept of there being 5757 Urban Legends is another concept indeed! ) in a early-sixties large boxy snub nosed International 'bread wagon' style truck with front sliding doors.
The first 1/3 of truck was a crew space for six behind the driver on a pedestal seat similar to a DIVCO milk truck, the rear 2/3 a cargo space where all the tools, supplies and our body belts and climbers, etc. were kept, accessed thru two folding doors at rear.
There was a wall and no connection inside between front and back.
A SIMILAR, but older version for illustrative purposes.
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CC-165-141-950.jpg
Anyway, we would pile in, the privileged one got the right front seat next to the boss, a Mr. Clark, separated by the motor hump, and also got the right side window and could watch Montreal slide by, on pay.
We were charged with installing 6-pair drop wire from pole cable terminals, PIC, to the rear of just-built multiunit dwellings in the-then-new Godbout/Matane/Cabano area off of 90th and 76th and Airlie in LaSalle.
Everything was new, cable, poles, shared with Hydro, houses, streets and MUD.
The six-pair was thicker than a garden hose and had sisal fibres inside the sheath for strength over long aerial runs. The pair were coloured BL/WH, etc standard, thru BL/RD.
A fused terminal 104 B?? was installed on the wall of the house and a ground run.
The whole idea was to remove overhead clutter when six separate installers showed up and put up six separate drops.
The garden hoses drooping down along the rears looked awful, and were later replaced with a slimmer profile version with a metal strand for support.
We got to go for coffee in a strip mall on Airlie @ 76th and the proprietor FREAKED as we tromped in covered with mud, making for a big clean up. He told Mr. Clark we could not come in anymore for coffee and to send one guy.
This was a chore to AVOID coffee duty carrying 6 coffees and Jos Louis back thru mud, snow and rain to the truck.
Guys would smoke in the crew space, and it reeked. Some would fart if Mr. C. was not there.
We took lunch in the basement of the DOminic exchange, it too almost-new.
Once we were assigned our own installation truck, we were sent back to the area to install telephone service.
As I now had my OWN truck, I would explore and found all sorts of neat things.
A green Bell truck with red wheels allowed you to go almost anywhere!!!!
The Aqueduct at LaSalle still had a castle-like concrete structure which housed big gates which could close off the channel at the St. Lawrence end in high water. This included a small bridge for LaSalle to cross over, the ornamental structure demolished in 1967.
I also discovered the just-built Harvey's burger place ( I do not remember now if it had a apostrophe?? ) on the NW corner of Airlie and 76th. an apartment complex just built there now, and devoured their lovely make-it-yourself burgers.
Delicious.
Anyway, the street.
Most short, narrow streets I always equated with the 1800s or earlier, down in the Old Port area east of the M&SC Station, which, later, also serve great burgers as 'Il Etat Une Fois'.
While looking for a new street to put in a phone, I saw this alley, I thought, one block long between Matane and Cabano, but it had sidewalks! and was new, and had a street sign telling one and all it was 77th Ave.
I later discovered Rue de Perce, further along, it being TWO blocks long extending over to 75th.
A novelty to me at the time, when my heart had not changed to stone, and finding a narrow NEW street would make my day!
Youth. Something to be missed, lost in the aches and pains of the body, and of the mind.
I'd LOVE a Harvey's Burger rite about now, SVP.,
Thank You Mr. U.L. for your info!
More Bell from the 6-pair drop wire installation in DOminic inLaSalle.
ReplyDeleteThis was the first time some of the 'Men' had worked together as a 'Crew'. All sorts of guys from Anglo and Francaise sides of the Montreal Melange.
There was friction, to be sure, and bullying and Fuck Youing and practical jokes which often hurt and were really not funny.
The Bell plan was to accustom new-hires with Bell Practices, Plant, working together, and most of all, Safety, on the ground, and aloft. Also, in this job, working on poles shared with Hydro Quebec re electrocution.
Anyway. The 6-pair cable came on a spool about 3-feet in diameter, made of wood, with the outer sides painted dark blue with Northern Electric stencilled thereupon in white, with the NE logo.
Example wood spools.
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v61/493714208/Cheap_pine_wood_cable_reel_wooden_cabe.jpg
There was a hole in the centre for mounting spool on an axle for easy feeding.
After retirement, wood spools became picnic tables, cables to tables, a fashion statement of the era. Tacky.
The spools EMPTY were fairly HEAVY. With several hundred feet of cable wound on, they were much worse, and a hand full.
They were a learning experience in themselves. If left on edge in the truck, and not secured, they would roll forward at stop lights, and crash into the front wall of rear of truck, sounding as if one had just been hit by a MTC Brill.
If you did not right it right away, on starting, it would roll the other way, and possibly jump out the back, a thing nightmares are made of on, say Cote de Neiges up to Cedar by the Hospital.
Never happened more than once with same crew, usually.
When unloading it was wise to lower the spool gently to the ground, or it would get away and sink in mud if nearby.
They were a BITCH in snow.
You QUICKLY learned a common-as-dirt spool could still play tricks.
If you did not check and manually rolled it away in the WRONG direction, it would miraculously unwind all the cable onto the ground like a NE tail, making one look really stupid.
Poor Mr. Clark.
If you let it go to take a rest, it would take off downhill at the speed of sound and land in water, or soar out across a busy street..
We put up one cable with a long span between several poles. By manpower alone we could not pull the sag out on long spans. We used the truck, a No No, and Mr. Clark commented on the nice tight job. He could SEE the tire marks in the mud, but said nothing.
Maybe thats why he left the keys in, this time??
We used ladders, as cable not too high, and the Bell did NOT want a flock of climbing spur holes in a brand new pole from a bunch of new fools.
ReplyDeleteOne guy was using a ladder to affix a span clamp, as climbers did not work in air, to go around a property line. I said it was quite a reach, and the top end of the ladder might miss the cable and strand, so be careful.
He knew everything, and up it went, then over, missing the cable by inches, hitting a fence on the way down, the ground end came up and the lowest rung hit his chin at the apex of it's flight, or it would have smashed his jaw and broke teeth.
I climbed another icy pole with climbers, and fell off, disappearing from sight below the grade. I had just unhooked my body belt or would have got a face full of creosoted splinters from the climber holes on the way down.
I landed in snow, and was unhurt.
Mr. Clark shook all the way in to 5757. So did I.
Mr. Clark, David, then lived in Benny Farm in the east complex towards Benny on the Monkland Ave. side, and we would walk over and ride with him. As I once walked to/from Monklands High four times a day, it was no big deal.
We waited in the basement where it was warm, facing the BF Steam Plant.
His son, Eric and I were in the same grade 5 ?? @ Rosedale School on Mariette.
Part of our training was in the east end of the HUnter exchange, the old part, upstairs, and we would wander around looking at all the equipment on our breaks.
We were learning how to put up wire for The Bell, learning a craft, skills, safety, and at the same time, how to be 'MEN'.
Didn't always work.
One of us got fired before completing training for stealing a SLR camera from a Subscriber's house.
Another 'Man' to be was installing Princess Phones for pretty young Subs for 'Favours' on the bed next to the new phone, Pink, and, later, her whiny sister wanted one, too, and was jealous.
( Another application of the word 'Service' in the Bell logo??? )
http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/ObjView/BELL/Logo_1947_fr.jpg
SHE called the Bell. They put the phone on the next bill, never missing a beat on revenue, and fired the Installer.
Thank You.
MPandI introduces a new take on how Bell has screwed its customers for years. $40/month at Bell vs $30/year on MagicJack. Then, all of a sudden, Bell says "oh, we can lower your rate". You MIGHT have a chance IF you give me back the local number I had for years...but you took away in the 80s by re-aligning switching centres...oh, we can't do that...so, then, buzz off and I won't deal with you again.
ReplyDelete