It’s the weekend, and it’s not raining. That means it’s time to explore! I set out on a walk and eventually found myself on another island.
This walk took me through new neighborhoods and lots and lots of parks. I started on a familiar route, up through Parc la Fontaine, but then continued north.
This took me through the heart of Plateau-Mont-Royal and beyond, through bits of the neighborhoods of Laurier-Est, La Petit-Patrie, Villeray, André-Grasset, Saint-Sulpice, Ahuntsic, and, eventually, Laval-des-Rapides. Place names are always a little confusing. There are offical boroughs of Montréal with clearly defined borders, but the exact boundaries of the neighborhoods within them seem to depend on who you’re talking to or which map you’re using. Take the list above with a grain of sel de mer.
It was interesting seeing the changes from place to place. The Plateau feels old, established, and very put together. The architecture is ornate, the gardens well-tended or unkempt with sophisticated wildness. In one area of Laurier-Est, I went through a small new development where the architecture was very functional with very little in the way of embellishment. It made for a stark contrast.
There are big residential buildings in places, planned housing developments, and even areas of single-family-residences. There are lots of parks in every area I went through, some with sports fields, others with sledding hills, all with benches and trees (which was welcome, as the temperature was over 30C/86ºF).
In many cities in the US, you can judge median income just by observing tree cover. I don’t know if that’s true in Montréal as well, but I’m primed to perceive neighborhoods that way (although the presence of safe, clean, and shade-filled parks disrupts those perceptions). While I walked, I wondered about wealth inequality in these neighborhoods in contrast to neighborhoods in Los Angeles. After my walk, this frustrating map showed me that I’d walked through a band of solidly upper-middle-class neighborhoods.
Anyway, it was a good adventure for a hot Saturday in June.
