Just found your blog last week - completely randomly - and you write really great stuff. I gather from the photos you live just about across Clark St. from where I was about 15 years ago. I can't imagine how this year's moving day must be going on that block. Happy Canada Day to you!
Hey thanks a lot, Scott! I am always happy to hear about someone reading the blog and it's especially nice if they like it! I'd love to know how Clark street has changed in the last 15 years. And yes, I can look out my window to the dirt road that is Clark street right now and see the foreman cutting up blue plastic pipe for the aqueduct at the same time as a student and his family load up their Ontario-licensed Ram 2500 with all his worldly possessions (it's funny how many Ontarions have these new mega-pickup trucks).
So much has changed - especially on du Mont Royal. Where the Provigo is now used to be a few businesses, including Luso pool bar and Salon Michel (now just up from Dusty's - which I guess Peter just shut down recently too). That building had once been the home of the Habs, pre-Forum. There was a Consumers Distributing where the Tim Hortons and other businesses are now. On the west side, there was a TV rental store where the SAQ and other businesses are now.
The imports shop on the southeast corner used to be the Jailhouse Rock Café, before the Castelli brothers packed it in there and bought Bar St-Laurent, jazzed it up and renamed it the Jupiter Room. The huge building with the underground parking garage used to be full of artists' lofts and had a great indie vibe, until the owners had them all evicted to make it into yuppy-friendly condos. The Jehovah's Witnesses place hasn't changed one iota, and we used to see plenty of Sunday Portuguese parades in summer.
And many of us who used to live there as young hipsters escaped the encroaching gentrification by moving a couple of neighbourhoods north. Villeray is a great place for young kids. With that, I must corral them all and get ourselves down to Philips Square for the parade. I will drop by another time. Keep writing - you bring a fresh and clear-eyed perspective on living in this area.
3 comments:
Just found your blog last week - completely randomly - and you write really great stuff. I gather from the photos you live just about across Clark St. from where I was about 15 years ago. I can't imagine how this year's moving day must be going on that block. Happy Canada Day to you!
Hey thanks a lot, Scott! I am always happy to hear about someone reading the blog and it's especially nice if they like it! I'd love to know how Clark street has changed in the last 15 years. And yes, I can look out my window to the dirt road that is Clark street right now and see the foreman cutting up blue plastic pipe for the aqueduct at the same time as a student and his family load up their Ontario-licensed Ram 2500 with all his worldly possessions (it's funny how many Ontarions have these new mega-pickup trucks).
So much has changed - especially on du Mont Royal. Where the Provigo is now used to be a few businesses, including Luso pool bar and Salon Michel (now just up from Dusty's - which I guess Peter just shut down recently too). That building had once been the home of the Habs, pre-Forum. There was a Consumers Distributing where the Tim Hortons and other businesses are now. On the west side, there was a TV rental store where the SAQ and other businesses are now.
The imports shop on the southeast corner used to be the Jailhouse Rock Café, before the Castelli brothers packed it in there and bought Bar St-Laurent, jazzed it up and renamed it the Jupiter Room. The huge building with the underground parking garage used to be full of artists' lofts and had a great indie vibe, until the owners had them all evicted to make it into yuppy-friendly condos. The Jehovah's Witnesses place hasn't changed one iota, and we used to see plenty of Sunday Portuguese parades in summer.
And many of us who used to live there as young hipsters escaped the encroaching gentrification by moving a couple of neighbourhoods north. Villeray is a great place for young kids. With that, I must corral them all and get ourselves down to Philips Square for the parade. I will drop by another time. Keep writing - you bring a fresh and clear-eyed perspective on living in this area.
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