City closes park accesses
The city has closed the parking lot on Mount Royal and has completely closed Île Notre‑Dame. The bridge below Atwater Market is also closed to limit easy access to the Lachine Canal path.
The city has closed the parking lot on Mount Royal and has completely closed Île Notre‑Dame. The bridge below Atwater Market is also closed to limit easy access to the Lachine Canal path.
Thomas H 11:28 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
Yesterday while sitting on my balcony and enjoying the good weather, a neighbour returned to our street with her car and started conversing with the neighbours about how she and her dog just returned from a 10 km walk on the mountain. She then added “there were too many people on the mountain… what are these people thinking?”
Now I know this is a difficult time for all, and we all need our excercise, but I could not believe the blatant hypocrisy coming from an older and otherwise seemingly reasonable person. This is a global freaking pandemic people, you may not have your first choice of park or time of recreation. And it’s not the first time I’ve heard others bemoaning crowded public spaces they too are using. If the park is crowded, go at a different time! Jeanne Mance Park has been fairly empty each day except between 1 and 4 PM, when many seem to give others the stink eye for doing exactly what they’re doing. (In fairness though, most people in Jeanne Mance have been keeping a respectful distance, even at busier times).
As for the pedestrian bridge near Atwater Market, I can’t imagine what good that will do besides crowd the very tight sidewalk on the Charlevoix St. bridge. Couldn’t other measures have been considered? (E.g., demarcating the flow of traffic, banning jogging and bicycles so that people can better manage their distances?).
Tim S. 13:15 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
It’s interesting how this is causing me to look at urban space in new ways. We try to avoid parks with playgrounds, because our three-year old won’t see the yellow danger tape as anything but a fun new decoration. Turns out that there are only a few open green spaces that don’t have playgrounds, but many of those are frequented by off-leash dogs. I wonder if there’s any way to make all the empty parking lots temporarily more attractive.
Kevin 15:03 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
I saw the comment on twitter and it’s a good one: we need crossing guards to manage distancing, not a ban on places we can go.
Let’s get real people: we are going to spend months (4? 8? 18?) staying away from each other to make sure our ICUs are working at 90% capacity.
GC 17:13 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
Using the parking lots is a good idea, Tim. I have seen a lot of families in them, with kids practicing their bike riding or impromptu parent-child games of various sports. One family per parking lot–to be clear–and I assume everyone involved lived in the same home, so it’s not a violation of anything. And very few of us have yards here in the Plateau.
Blork 17:26 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
I find it interesting that the rhetoric typically applied to motor vehicles can now be applied to pedestrians. Re: Thomas H’s neighbour: “you’re not in (pedestrian) traffic; you ARE (pedestrian) traffic.”
qatzelok 23:02 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
Kind of sad that some people have to drive to get to a park of any size. Laval is virtually large-park-free for most of its subdivision residents.
Michael Black 23:24 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
I saw a police car this afternoon with two bikes on a rack at the back.
So apparently the cops don’t ride their bikes everywhere.
steph 23:26 on 2020-04-05 Permalink
I can’t wait for stores to start implementing 1 way aisles. Those dollerama ailes are far too narrow for two way traffic.
jeather 20:45 on 2020-04-06 Permalink
I think IGA is implementing them. I expect all stores will have them within a week.