Woman tries to save Park Ex footbridge
A graphic designer on a mission is trying to save the old footbridge that used to connect Jarry Park to Park Extension over the tracks. It was a pretty cool feature when it was still usable (I hung out up there a few times, taking photos and looking at birds and so forth – and people definitely did use it to get over the tracks) but the city removed the stairs a few years ago.
I don’t quite buy the argument that because a foot overpass has stairs, that makes it inaccessible and therefore a Bad Thing – there are lots of foot overpasses here and there in this city, are we going to condemn them all because not everyone can use them?
But it’s fair to point out the pedestrian level crossing a block north, used by a lot of folks (and admittedly more useful to cyclists, people pushing strollers and so forth) means at least the loss of the footbridge didn’t put up a barrier to Park Ex folks wanting to visit the park.
I have a theory that the footbridge was condemned not because it was in bad shape but because it brought people over too close to the precious tennis facility, and you don’t want to subject your elite tennis people to the sight of an endless procession of women in hijab and black schoolkids and Indian grannies with cardigans over their saris and other people from a non-elite world. But maybe not.
(By the way – “Montreal Dairy”?)
jf 03:17 on 2012/10/06 Permalink
To be fair, I was lead to believe that concrete chunks have been falling from the structure as it presently exists (mind you, this is second-hand information). I’ll be sad to see it go, but if it’s become a safety hazard, then surely that’s the last straw. It was never going to be anything useful again, in the state it’s in at present.
Chris 11:24 on 2012/10/06 Permalink
jf, it’s a tiny little foot bridge. The Turcot has concrete chunks falling off of it, but they manage to do repairs to make it acceptably safe for thousands of multi-tonne vehicles to travel on top of it. What kind of engineering miracle would it take it make a foot bridge safe? and at what cost? It’s a matter of political will.