The pic at left of pedestrians navigating cheek-to-jowl on a downtown Montreal street in the six-Ts (can anybody recognize where?) proves that even the most banal moment is rendered exciting on a crowded sidewalk (see actual video footage here).In a misguided attempt to make life easier for pedestrians, the city widened sidewalks all over town in recent decades, notably on St. Catherine.
As a result, people are more distant from each other than we once were and that has led us to disconnect in a tragic way, alienation is sprouting unabated among foot-marchers in this city.
So to compensate for the lost urban intimacy, we have loaded up with festivals that give people the excuse to stand near to strangers, alas you have to sit and watch some aging dolt blow into a saxophone or some sorta thing just to get that promixity-rush.
Nowadays sidewalks are so wide that you could ride a couple of bikes down 'em and pedestrians would barely notice.
Montreal pedestrians are plagued with a sick feeling of loneliness as they put shoe leather to pavement, as if they're being gobbled up by the void of the universe as you sense your distance from others around you already tied into their alienated little earbud-world.
Mayor Coderre, you need to break the urban alienation and narrow the sidewalks again.
Montreal needs to return to a sense of busy-ness and vitality that comes with a good-ol' fashioned crowded urban sidewalk.