Hope on Dundas Street

What may yet be
London, ON
May 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I look at this photo often, because it represents a better tomorrow on a stretch of downtown #LdnONT - Dundas Street - that even before the pandemic hit had already been reeling for decades.

They rebuilt a few blocks of it over the past couple of years, with fancy uni-stone and movable bollards that turn it into what they call a "flex street", a public space that can easily switch between regular traffic and community programming. It's an inspired investment in city-building, but COVID-19 went on its rampage just as the newfangled infrastructure was finally unveiled.

What's that they say about timing?

I don't know whether the "streetlife" branding on the plant boxes is deliberately or accidentally ironic, but it speaks to me all the same. This place was great once, and it could be again, assuming we believe that the light in the distance is a harbinger of brighter days ahead.

For what it's worth, I choose to believe. Because we all need hope.

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Related:

Dundas Street comes to life (hopefully), December 2019

Walking home downtown at night, December 2018

Abandoned buildings and unwritten futures, October 2018

Man shot on Dundas, January 2017