We used to load and unload stock in the back lane, through a garage door. Working in the shop, we’d freeze our butts in the winter during a delivery. The lanes were a mess in the snow. With the speed bumps added later, it became even harder to negotiate the lane.

I got my share of parking tickets leaving my car there and dashing into the shop to pick up or drop off something.

There was a parking lot beside the shop on the north side, but since filled with condos.

This past summer I noticed a vestige of the lot: a right-turn arrow sign on the opposite (west) side of the street aimed at traffic leaving the lot, that the city forgot to remove.

New York really could have used them, though. The rotting piles of garbage bags that line the streets every evening aren’t exactly the most pleasant aspect of living there. I suspect deliverymen would prefer them over the sidewalk hatches and steep steps they have to use to get to stores’ and restaurants’ storage cellars, too.

I always found it interesting that in “pop culture” mediums such as tv and movies portrayed Big cities like New York to have alleys. And they were always dangerous places to be filled with pimps, thieves and random mayhem. However, I have yet to find one alley in the big apple. Most of the city blocks in the city are lined brick to brick with buildings.
However i’m glad MTL has such an iconic feature to its landscape!