These photos come courtesy of regular reader Urbanrat, who in his travels stumbled across unearthed streetcar tracks in Ouelllette Aveune.
As you know the next round of streetscaping is underway along Ouellette, and apparently some old rail infrastructure reappeared after being hidden since the the streetcars went away in 1938.
So after 70 years, a brief resurfacing for what was our primary mode of public transit.
Sometimes, for all our “progress” it’s nice to see how far we’ve actually regressed.
Thanks for the photos Urbanrat.
Yeah, and yet another round of horrible streetscaping. Too bad the city didn’t incorporate some colour into their downtown scheme. I guess the blandness attracts people because it has worked so well in the past.
I mean not even red cobblestones (but I guess the colour of blood adds a certain “charm” or if they were red it could hide the blood? What do I know?)! They too had to be a brownish colour.
And what is with the crosswalks? We had stamped and coloured crosswalks for the summit of Americas in 2000 and we just tear them out now for concrete and asphalt.
Say anything you wish about former mayor Hurst but at least he was smart enough tomake something look attractive (barring the Canderal building of course).
Too bad the city didn’t implement but a few recommendations from the DWBIA either. I guess once again they know best. Now we know why the cost escalated and then they went on the cheap. Who got paid is what I want to know? Because after one year the cobblestones are already sinking (the pavers were installed incorrectly) and some of the concrete is already chipping away.
Who needs streetcars anyway? The smoke belching, oil dripping, exceedingly loud buses are great!
There is a few locations you can still see rails underneath the Ashpalt. Wyandotte Street is pretty bad for it in a few locations, and also so is University Street is as well.