The value of the alley
Nice Le Devoir piece on the value of Montreal’s 490 km of alleys, not just as green spaces (not all of them are) but as the place where kids can play safely and social behaviour becomes more informal.
The writer’s observation that strangers who would never engage in conversation on the street will often greet each other and chat in the alley is exact. For example, I had a nice chat with a couple of older women just yesterday about the thicket of burdocks growing outside my back gate (discussion about the name of the plant, how I let it grow for the bees and butterflies, what they call it in Gaspésie…). I’d never seen them before.
But I’m not sure the writer is exactly correct that the alleys originally only existed for garbage pickup. They also allowed for coal and ice deliveries – supplies we don’t need now, but which were crucial through the 19th and early 20th centuries. I don’t know whether milk was delivered to the back door or the front, though.
Hamza 15:30 on 2022-07-31 Permalink
Now imagine if we went all the way and banned cars . Just the occasional bus on main thoroughfares, that’s it.
Kate 15:51 on 2022-07-31 Permalink
There’s some noise Sunday on Twitter about the idea of banning cars in Old Montreal, or at least along de la Commune. I’ve always thought they should be banned from Notre‑Dame south to the river, if not from St‑Antoine.
DeWolf 18:08 on 2022-07-31 Permalink
I think the best solution would be to get rid of all street parking below Notre-Dame. Keep local access for pick ups and drop offs, but that’s it. Install deviators to prevent through traffic and bollards to prevent illegal parking.
Beyond the small pedestrianized area around Place Jacques-Cartier the presence of cars in Old Montreal is overwhelming. It makes it really unpleasant to walk around.
Kate 19:12 on 2022-07-31 Permalink
Maybe allow motorized deliveries in the morning for restaurants and boutiques, but ban them after noon.
Car-free streets would also allow for much better photo ops in that part of town.
mare 22:10 on 2022-07-31 Permalink
A large percentage of car traffic in Old Montreal are drivers looking for parking.
It looks and feels like Europe, let’s turn it into Europe. Do as they did in many old European city centres and remove all street parking (except for short term parking for the disabled here and there) and close it off with retractable bollards. Have a fleet of small, low speed busses (or those self-driving people movers they’re testing out on St-Hubert) cross the arteries for people who can’t walk that far. The bollards allow residents with private parking in their basements a maximum of x entrances per day. Access for delivery trucks between 06h00 and 9h00.
Build public underground parking garages under every construction site and empty lot.
Etc etc. (One can dream…)
Kate 12:16 on 2022-08-01 Permalink
mare, a large piece of old Quebec City has a huge parking lot under it. I don’t know when it was excavated and built, but it does make it easier for people to arrive, stash their vehicle, walk around at will, and then reclaim their wheels and leave.
I realize it would be a lot more complex to build something like this in Old Montreal, and the geology of the area might not even allow for it, but it’s striking how well it works in Quebec.