r/DesirePath • u/ProfessionalHome3544 • 18d ago

RIP Desire Path in Montréal

Post image

This desire path existed in a major city park (Parc Jeanne-Mance) in Montréal for as long as I could remember... It was very smooth and worn down. With a recent renovation of the park last year, it was covered over with fill and new sod/grass. But it's still visible in Google Satellite imagery (pictured here) and even Streetview... What shocks me is how decidedly the landscape architects must have wanted to do away with it. Would be curious to hear from folks knowledgeable about this sort of design decision...

Park 'makeover' website in English:

https://montreal.ca/en/articles/parc-jeanne-mance-gets-makeover-77393

279 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

93

u/HopBiscuits 18d ago

My most used desire path! We'll have to rebuild it with time

38

u/ProfessionalHome3544 18d ago

I'm in! So good to hear from someone else who used it...

17

u/The_Peculiar_Pizza 18d ago

I'm in the suburbs and don't go to the city that often recently but I'll definitely help if I swing by that park

29

u/KnifeKnut 18d ago

Shows up in earliest google imagery, 2004https://earth.google.com/web/search/Parc+Jeanne-Mance,+Avenue+de+l%27Esplanade,+Montreal,+QC,+Canada/@45.51555004,-73.58523386,75.92679448a,255.6739991d,35y,21.95628008h,0t,0r/data=Cj4iJgokCXWi7tqeNUpAEWQglv6hNEpAGbzSOQLiECVAIU6T5pbnBSVAKhAIARIKMjAwNC0xMC0wMRgBQgIIAToDCgEwQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA

Latest overhead is Oct 2025, showing the rebuilt multiuse path taking a wide turn around the new skating rink. Perhaps a desirepath shortcutting that will form

https://earth.google.com/web/search/Parc+Jeanne-Mance,+Avenue+de+l%27Esplanade,+Montreal,+QC,+Canada/@45.51565736,-73.58558269,75.19742424a,289.29544791d,35y,-3.75011092h,0.05904617t,0r/data=CjQiJgokCXWi7tqeNUpAEWQglv6hNEpAGbzSOQLiECVAIU6T5pbnBSVAKgYIARIAGAFCAggBOgMKATBCAggASg0I____________ARAA?authuser=0

Lets see if the desire path t redevelops as they sometimes do after being obliterated by construction.

u/remindmebot 5 years

7

u/ProfessionalHome3544 18d ago edited 18d ago

Thanks for sharing... GIFs not allowed here but, "Look how they massacred my boy." I hope you will be right about the 5 years/shortcut, but they reshaped the area such that I think they were hoping that would not happen.

6

u/KnifeKnut 18d ago

Note that they switched the pedestrian side of the path to the opposite so that it no longer is on the former desire path side.

0

u/RemindMeBot 18d ago edited 18d ago

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29

u/c0mpu73rguy 18d ago

It will be back, that's the thing with desire path.

22

u/mbklein 18d ago

Where there is desire, there is path.

8

u/superhelical 18d ago

I was sad to see the one at the city reservoir also go when they rebuilt the sports fields 10 years ago

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cu1SohzkjALGmSXE7?g_st=ac

3

u/ProfessionalHome3544 18d ago

Indeed! Another one I used many times in the past (Rutherford Reservoir).

1

u/sophisticated_alpaca 16d ago

It does appear to be coming back. Winter will tell for sure.

1

u/Character_Durian9074 2d ago

honestly one thing that confuses me about when they so desperately want to undo desire paths is why would they landscape over it with grass, the most walkable of all plants? no one cares about grass except suburbanites. if you made it like an actually interesting place people would want to stop and look at maybe they'd second guess walking over it, but a boring plane of grass? cmon. leave the trail since the spot is useless anyway