12:04 on 2011/12/29 Reply  

• Shawn 12:15 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  A friend of mine is condo-hunting and tells me the real estate folks, at the very least, have a name for it: Mile Ex.

• Shawn 12:16 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  In fact there was even a La Presse article:
  http://montoit.cyberpresse.ca/habitation/immobilier/201011/10/01-4341282-les-secrets-du-mile-ex.php

• Kate 12:20 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  I have to admit Mile Ex has an inevitable sound to it, and makes a reasonable parallel to Park Ex. (It doesn’t subtly irk me like HoMa.) Thanks for the data point!

  People have tried to convince me that area is part of Little Italy, but I never thought it had a similar enough vibe.

• Shawn 12:30 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  I do think it deserves to be distinct. It’s a wonderful little annex. I’d hoped to find a place there, myself.

• Patrick 13:10 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  I agree with Shawn, but it’s used to be called Alexandra-Marconi before architects took advantage of the industrial zoning of that part of the city to experiment with their own houses : http://www.imtl.org/montreal/montreal.php?vsearch=1&expo=Mile_Ex&m=Alexandra-Marconi%20district

• Shawn 13:33 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  Oh is that it? Thanks Patrick. I wondered why there were so many interesting homes in that district. (A former colleague, married to an architect, lives there, in one of those great houses, I believe)

• Arjun Basu 13:36 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  If it was Alexandra Marconi, it should become AlMa. Catchy. Mile Ex sounds kind of wrong to me. Neither here nor there. Though anyone could situate it.

• Fon 15:59 on 2011/12/29 Permalink

  The area on both sides of the St-Laurent directly south of Jean Talon is called Little Italy or Petite Italie or Piccola Italia.

• Guillaume St-Jean 12:06 on 2011/12/30 Permalink

  Le numéro de novembre 2011 de la revue ARQ est justement sur ce quartier : Marconi Alexandra. Plusieurs nouveaux édifices y sont présentés.

• Kate 07:42 on 2012/01/01 Permalink

  Alexandra Marconi vs Marconi Alexandra? That’s a long name for a small area, even compacted down to AlMa, which I feel should be deprecated: there’s already a rue Alma not far away, a few blocks east of the Main, so it could be confusing.

  I simply don’t buy that those streets between Saint-Urbain and the tracks count as Little Italy. They have none of the features that mark that neighbourhood. In a flash you go from gelato bars, little sports cafés with soccer memorabilia, pizza and pasta and risotto, to small industrial installations (some now converted into condos), repair garages and undistinguished little houses. Even the rather depressed part of Jean-Talon that borders it on the north has no Italian vibe – at most, a couple of espresso machine repair places (both admittedly pull a nice shot, but they don’t offer places to sit while you drink it).

  I used to work near the area just before it was discovered by developers. It wasn’t surprising then that it hadn’t been given a name of its own. But I admit to liking Mile Ex, even though it transparently tries to co-opt Mile End’s popularity.

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