The transformation of these few blocks is just insane.
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"Then each time Fleetwood would be not so much overcome by remorse as bedazzled at having been shown the secret backlands of wealth, and how sooner or later it depended on some act of murder, seldom limited to once."
that area is going to be a trillion fold better than the years when I walked to/from it daily (to the [former] Windsor station (or terminus Windsor as the train terminus was once known until ATM changed the name), now known as Lucien L'Allier). back then it was a wretched wasteland of windswept parking lots and broad boulevards. Terrible for pedestrians.
Anybody remember that crappy skinny yellow hotel on Rene Levesque, demolished about 14 years ago? below on the right. I couldn't find a more recent picture. this one dates from 1962.
taylornoakes
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell). Sweet Loretta fart thought she was a cleaner, but she was a frying pan. (John Lennon)
Anybody remember that crappy skinny yellow hotel on Rene Levesque, demolished about 14 years ago? below on the right. I couldn't find a more recent picture. this one dates from 1962.
I know I don't, too young regardless of the grey in my beard.
But René-Lévesques sure has changed a lot since that picture!
Anybody remember that crappy skinny yellow hotel on Rene Levesque, demolished about 14 years ago? below on the right. I couldn't find a more recent picture. this one dates from 1962.
Funny you should mention that building, I was looking for it at one point. I used to walk near it and wondered why they would build such a place, so slim, how many rooms could they possibly have in such a thin hotel. Then, I realized they tore it down for one of the old projects. I go to that area every Sunday morning, I cannot believe MAJOR buildings are actually going up again in downtown Montreal.
Thanks for that link, incredible to see those old areas after so many decades, does anyone else remember the Laurentian hotel? And there was a drugstore on Dorchester back then?
Not once has Dorchester/Rene-Levesque ever look good in its history. It has suffered perhaps the most from Montreal's downsizing. It seems hard to believe that the stretch between Guy street to Stanley street had been mostly "windswept" parking lots and seedy garages for most of its history. I can still remember Rene-Levesque before the CCE was built, it looked ghastly, nobody went there. I don't want to remember how the boulevard looked before the 1250 was built.
By the time the towers reach guy street, it would have taken 60 years + for it to happen. Unreal.
And I still can't believe that there remains a huge empty lot on the Corner of Rene-Levesque and St-Laurent. Last year I saw a homeless guy taking a shit, in daylight and in plain view. I have nothing against homeless people, quite the contrary. But when you are at the crossroads of what is supposed to be Montreal's two most important boulevards, you shouldn't see a shit-show.
Before the empty lots fill up from east to west (give it another generation), the city ought to fix the boulevard's lacklustre pedestrian life by widening the sidewalks, adding new street furniture, fixing the central island of the boulevard with flowers or trees, and changing the zoning as to add more restaurants, retail and bars. Why should everything be on Ste-catherine street? And why should Rene-Levesque be so damn cold? let's change shit up a bit.
^agreed. I am old enough to remember Rene Levesque (Dorchester back then) way before 1250 RN. Back in the mid seventies-eighties. Olco gas station, shitty buildings, and mostly, parking lots...often surrounded by huge concrete blocks. The very symbol of Montreal's decline. The city is back again. And it still has many great bones, unlike several booming cities out west. cough cough.
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell). Sweet Loretta fart thought she was a cleaner, but she was a frying pan. (John Lennon)
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And it still has many great bones, unlike several booming cities out west. cough cough.
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