(Mile-End singer that died in 2010)
Yesterday, I was taking the bus to go meet up with a friend. As I was gazing out the window watching all the same old buildings run before my eyes, I noticed one that had disappeared, or at least partly disappeared. It was this old warehouse that had probably been abandoned for several decades and it had just been destroyed by big construction machinery. People always went there and painted graffiti all over the place. Not particularly interesting ones, but enough to make the place look cool.
I climbed up to the roof once with two of my friends. It was the only time I had dared to go, because I had been intimidated by all the fences around the place. Anyways, it was a nice winter evening and we climbed up the icy stairs and walked around as if we were looking for something unknown. The light was shining through the building in such a way that all the graffiti looked way better then they were, and the sunlight reflected on the puddles and ice on the concrete floors which gave the place this dream like feeling. We ended up going to the roof to watch the sunset and that was it. It was a pleasant experience. Now, it will only be a source of nostalgia.
The only reason I'm making a big deal about this building is because it seemed to me like one of the only old authentic place left in that area. It was in the Mile End. The neighborhood I was raised in. It's a nice area of Montreal, but it sure has changed since my childhood. Sure, I probably don't remember everything because I was about 3 or 4 years old when we moved there, but I can recall enough to say that I can hardly recognize the place now.
My dad always loved to go to cafes with me as a kid. So we'd walk around the neighborhood going from one cafe to the next. A lot of the store fronts at that time we're kind of grungy. Most people living around there were pretty poor and moved there because of the low rent. Just to show the level of grunginess, the ground floor to the house next door was totally abandoned and in ruins, but someone was still living upstairs. It was a very bizarre setting. Most of the neighborhood was bizarre but I liked it like that. All the artists were there and it was kind of cool.
With time, people started being interested in this "bohemian" life style. They bought all the shitty apartments for cheap and kicked out the artists. It has now become a gentrified trendy hot spot in Montreal. The Place to go! I mean, yes it's fun, but the authenticity was lost along the way. I guess it left right when the creative people left. Not that there aren't any there anymore, but it's definitely not the same. To me, that old building was part of the essence of that old Mile End I had none many years ago. It is truly weird to see how much certain things change with time.
Sources: The Link , Spacing Montreal
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