More Now Than EVER, Remember What They Did

Wellington St ........Year Round Promenade???

Montreal Gazette Story today : A proposal to make the pedestrian zone on Wellington St. in Verdun car-free year-round has divided residents, according to a new report from Montreal’s public consultation office. The Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) said on Thursday the borough should not move ahead with the idea for now. It pointed to a lack of clear data on how the change would affect the community. The idea to extend the current seasonal pedestrian zone year-round was launched by a local resident and backed by thousands of signatures, triggering a formal consultation held between November 2024 and February 2025. Wellington St. is already closed to cars each summer. This year’s pedestrian zone, which runs between 6th Ave. and Regina St., will operate from June 2 to Sept. 19. The seasonal initiative began in 2020. The OCPM said more than 3,500 people took part in the consultation process, with 1,770 formal contributions submitted, including written statements, surveys, and public presentations. Business owners divided The report found no clear agreement. Some people supported the idea of a permanent pedestrian zone, while others raised concerns. Francis D’Anjou manages Comptant.com, a Wellington shop that sells an array of products like electronics. He told The Gazette the pedestrian zone has helped smaller businesses like his gain exposure. “When people take a leisurely walk on Wellington, I leave my door open and play music. More people come in,” he said. “Even if they don’t buy right away, they see what I have. I get more visitors, more eyeballs on my stock.” D’Anjou said he supports the plan overall, but called for better communication from the city. “One issue is how they announce changes — bus routes, street events — there’s not always good information. If this becomes year-round, that’ll need to improve.” But others say the closure has done more harm than good. Eddie, who would not disclose his last name, runs a local grocery store on Wellington St. He said his sales drop 30 per cent when the summer closures begin. “No one wants to walk home with a 10-pound bag of onions,” he said. “Daycares used to come in, now they don’t. It’s not worth the hassle.” He explained that pedestrianization makes it harder for customers to access his store. During the summer months, he said: “Before, people could drive up, park, pick up what they needed. Now it’s just people walking by. You can’t sell fresh produce on the sidewalk in the summer heat. It doesn’t work for everyone.” Eddie said the city’s approach mainly benefits restaurants with patios, while grocers and other retail shops lose foot traffic they can’t recover. “The city looks at a few packed terrasses and thinks it’s working. But beyond that, it’s killing small businesses.” Read more at: https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/article960371.html#storylink=cpy

This is just agreat Aerial

Ahh! The Autostade this was a cool looking stadium for it's time. I got to experience events here several times, I just like this shot.

But Verdun looked pretty good too,when we got some newish type stands replacing those old wooden bleachers. It always felt professional when the lights were on for a game in Verdun

Verdun random shots

Just posting to show a few random shots from Verdun, If I get energetic one day I may try to re-post a lot of stuff that many of us have seen either here on our VC site or that have popped up everywhere over the years. I still believe that many of us have old boxes hanging around somewhere with photos from our collective past. Well if you dig up the enrgy to send them to me I will certainly love to post them here to share. As always I will definetly mention who sent them (or Not if you prefer it that way) Today is just some real quick pics from the net mostly to just let you know we are still around

Random Montreal and Verdun B&W pics

Thanks for sending me these shots,most we have seen before and over 20+ years on this site and of course the evolving internet, Inevitably we get to share old photos from time to time. and so here we can share some internet pics with all of us.

First Bank Account in this City & District

I imagine a lot of us had our first bank account in this branch at Galt & Wellington. Even as a kid this was a special building with the rounded front ,the huge clock, and if you remember it had a brass and wood with big brass handles to open the revolving door. Once inside you were met with clean marble floors ( I think it was) and what seemed like an eexceptionally long counter with tellers waiting to greet you. Then you also got one of those old Banks they gave away when opening your new acount.(wish I still had mine,just for nostalgia purposes) It was always fun to watch your bank book get updated (by hand mind you) and then a stamp. As a kid it made you feel grown up and a sense of pride ...........lol Oh for it to be that simple . Anyway I saw the old photo and decided to share it here. Cheers ! Les F

This is a 'Cool' shot of the old Orange Julep

In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due,and not just simply posting a photo. This shot was sent to me and they said they saw it on a Montreal Golden Oldies site,who credited someone named Cliff So Thank you guys for sharing this old Montreal Landmark Bldg. covered with a Frosty looking layer of fresh snow. I don't think or at least recall ever having seen such a photo before,but having worked up the Decarie Blvd and drove past here every day during the week I must have seen the Orange Julep many times like this. We just never thought of taking a photo of it, I suppose having a camera in our pocket these days does allow for capturing different shots much easier than in the 1960's and 70's. I suppose we also just took many things for granted. In any case Thank you all for drawing our attention to it.Well done.

Cheers !