Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
Elms were everywhere. Until Dutch Elm Disease struck, they were the tough, hardy, adaptable tree suitable for street planting. They could take pretty well everything. They were the street tree that was used in pretty well every Canadian city. In Ottawa, it was heartbreaking to see them dying and that really hit between 1965 and 1975. I remember one particularly outstanding specimen on my grandparent's farm just outside the city. Perhaps 100 feet tall with a massive canopy that was so typical. It was a survivor too until the 1998 ice storm. That finally exposed it to Dutch Elm Disease and it was gone a few years later.
From everything I have ever known or seen, Wellington Street has always been sterile. This is not a new development that has happened in recent years. In fact, it appears to have been by design. The federal government would not even allow streetcars on Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill.
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That does sound like quite a sad thing to see... And we might be seeing it again with the Ash Borer, right?
What about Wellington Street when it had commerce on it (pre-40s)? It must have been bustling then. It's just the government and NCC that have made it sterile and austere in the past several decades.