Comments on: The Resurrection of Mile End http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/ Exploring urban life through word and photography Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:47:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Noira R. http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/comment-page-1/#comment-367388 Noira R. Mon, 29 Nov 2010 22:17:23 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=5935#comment-367388 The neighbourhood is overrun by hipsters (or whatever you want to call those creatures with skinny jeans) and whatever charm this place had just doesn't exist anymore. Scratch the surface and you'll see a homogeneity rivaling that of any suburb. My feeling is that the Mile End is just another casualty of globalism. There is very little that is truly "underground" or different here. Everything is very safe in its own little way. The only saving grace is the bus #80 that comes every few minutes during rush hour. The neighbourhood is overrun by hipsters (or whatever you want to call those creatures with skinny jeans) and whatever charm this place had just doesn’t exist anymore. Scratch the surface and you’ll see a homogeneity rivaling that of any suburb. My feeling is that the Mile End is just another casualty of globalism. There is very little that is truly “underground” or different here. Everything is very safe in its own little way. The only saving grace is the bus #80 that comes every few minutes during rush hour.

]]> By: Shoukry A http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/comment-page-1/#comment-367387 Shoukry A Mon, 29 Nov 2010 22:04:12 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=5935#comment-367387 Just a generation ago the Mile End was a lower class neighborhood that you aspired to move out of when you got older - now the 'in' crowd is flocking back paying ten times the rent to live in the same rundown apartments - ridiculous. Just a generation ago the Mile End was a lower class neighborhood that you aspired to move out of when you got older – now the ‘in’ crowd is flocking back paying ten times the rent to live in the same rundown apartments – ridiculous.

]]> By: Alain http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/comment-page-1/#comment-317803 Alain Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:25:43 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=5935#comment-317803 In the 60's I went to primary school on the corner of St-Dominique and St-Joseph, adjacent to the 'mile-end church' refered to in the article. Its official name was 'Jardin de l'enfance St-Enfant-Jesus' but I've always heard it called the mile-end school or something with mile-end in it. I remembered we were sent by the nuns to give baskets of food in the weeks before christmas. The poverty of those lugubrious and dark interiors left a durable impression on a young mind used to the bright bungalows of the 60's. In the 60′s I went to primary school on the corner of St-Dominique and St-Joseph, adjacent to the ‘mile-end church’ refered to in the article. Its official name was ‘Jardin de l’enfance St-Enfant-Jesus’ but I’ve always heard it called the mile-end school or something with mile-end in it. I remembered we were sent by the nuns to give baskets of food in the weeks before christmas. The poverty of those lugubrious and dark interiors left a durable impression on a young mind used to the bright bungalows of the 60′s.

]]> By: Christopher DeWolf http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/comment-page-1/#comment-317708 Christopher DeWolf Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:23:03 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=5935#comment-317708 From what I can tell, it didn't have much of a neighbourhood identity. The streets were more important: you lived on Park Avenue, or Waverly, or Fairmount. My dad lived in Montreal in the 60s and 70s and never heard of Mile End, and the same is true for my other relatives and family friends who grew up in Montreal and left in the 70s or 80s. Even in the 1990s it doesn't seem to have been as widely-used as it is today. Back at the height of the Plateau's trendiness, it seemed to include just about everything below Fairmount; the rest of Mile End was known by real estate agents as "Outremont-adjacent." Until the late 1990s, most news stories about Mile End focused on poverty; the narrative changed around 2002 or 2003, after the Plateau had become saturated with media attention and the taste-makers broadened their gaze. Now the neighbourhood seems to occupy as much cultural and psychological space as it does geographic. From what I can tell, it didn’t have much of a neighbourhood identity. The streets were more important: you lived on Park Avenue, or Waverly, or Fairmount. My dad lived in Montreal in the 60s and 70s and never heard of Mile End, and the same is true for my other relatives and family friends who grew up in Montreal and left in the 70s or 80s.

Even in the 1990s it doesn’t seem to have been as widely-used as it is today. Back at the height of the Plateau’s trendiness, it seemed to include just about everything below Fairmount; the rest of Mile End was known by real estate agents as “Outremont-adjacent.”

Until the late 1990s, most news stories about Mile End focused on poverty; the narrative changed around 2002 or 2003, after the Plateau had become saturated with media attention and the taste-makers broadened their gaze. Now the neighbourhood seems to occupy as much cultural and psychological space as it does geographic.

]]> By: Kate M. http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/comment-page-1/#comment-317707 Kate M. Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:18:18 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=5935#comment-317707 For a long time it wasn't called anything special. My dad lived there in the 1940s and never referred to living in Mile End, just to "when we lived on Waverly" and so on. I don't think it was felt to be anything definable - it was central Montreal, you lived near Park Avenue, and that was that. For a long time it wasn’t called anything special. My dad lived there in the 1940s and never referred to living in Mile End, just to “when we lived on Waverly” and so on. I don’t think it was felt to be anything definable – it was central Montreal, you lived near Park Avenue, and that was that.

]]> By: Christopher Szabla http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/comment-page-1/#comment-317703 Christopher Szabla Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:12:18 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=5935#comment-317703 So what was the area known as before 1978? So what was the area known as before 1978?

]]> By: slutsky http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/12/27/the-ressurection-of-mile-end/comment-page-1/#comment-317675 slutsky Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:02:26 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=5935#comment-317675 Haha I found that same column. Mile End was one of the first things I looked up (after my own name, of course...) Haha I found that same column. Mile End was one of the first things I looked up (after my own name, of course…)

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