Me with my new Westminster Ave. sign
Would you like to be cool like me?
Would you like to be cool like Mike Cohen?
Would you like to be cool like Mutsumi Takahashi?
Of course you would. What a ridiculous question.
Well, it would be difficult to match our level of coolness, but you can have something in common with us.
New Cavendish street sign
Côte St. Luc recently replaced its old, rusty street signs with new white-on-green beauties like this one. Rather than throw the old ones out (though many were in such awful condition that that’s exactly what happened), the city decided to keep the best ones and sell them for $50 each, giving the money to their EMS service.
After the first week last week, the remaining signs are on sale for $25 each now until Nov. 6. The price reduction brought a spike in demand, according to the receptionist at city hall. According to the latest update from this morning, many of the signs are already sold out, including iconic ones like Cavendish and Côte St. Luc, as well as ones like McAlear (all three of which were scooped up by this lady for some reason). But there are still four Fleets, 19 Kildares (they had a lot of those signs to begin with) and, after today, two Westminsters (though I’m told I got the best one).
My Westminster sign near the terminus of the 162 Westminster bus
Though Cavendish was my first choice, I picked Westminster because it’s a major street and one whose name I recognized. And it has a bus line named after it, so you know it’s important.
My sign also has some language heritage to it. One side says simply “Westminster”, while the other is the anglophone “Westminster Ave.” CSL’s new signs are fully bilingual.
I couldn’t fit the sign in my bag, so I carried it around all afternoon exploring Côte St. Luc. Needless to say it generated a few odd looks from passers-by.
My Westminster sign taking the escalator onto the metro
To get your own sign, just go to Côte St. Luc city hall (5801 Cavendish Blvd., across from Cavendish Mall, buses 104, 138, 161 or 162) during opening hours (8:30am to 4:30pm weekdays) before Nov. 6, and go to the information desk. Tell the nice lady which sign you want and she’ll have it brought up. If it meets with your approval, give her the $25 and enjoy your new sign.
You just have to figure out what the heck you’re going to do with it.
UPDATE (Nov. 16): After a two-week sale, 72 signs were sold, leaving 78 and raising $2,500. The rest will go on sale again at the annual spring fair.
I’d buy one, but I know Jean Naimard will snap up all the English ones for his bedroom.
Not for my bedroom, but for my bathroom… :)
What a strange coincidence. In my bathroom I use Jean’s preferred Pequiste Newspaper ‘Le journal de Montreal’ as toilet paper.
I suppose that you do not have much people lining-up to kiss your arse… :)
I confess I’d have loved an avenue Einstein one. (Einsteinweg oder Einsteinallée). When I need to feel sehr intelligent.
Damn. I wish I had one.
Argh! That’s my street! I hope they still have them on Friday. I might try to get the other one for my best friend (and former neighbour – grade 2- University)… assuming he’d want to lug it back to Vancouver.
Boy, do I ever hope no one reads your blog.
I used to live on Westminster Ave and take the 162 everyday. Congrats on your find. If I was in town I might try to buy one too.
Steve, I got your last Cavendish…sorry
May you die a fiery death by the flames of a thousand suns.
Here you go. :)
Nice idea!!! :)
I have a HUGE sign saying “Blanc-Sablon” from when they changed the signs at the beginning of the villages years ago…
I got my Westminster! Memories of 1982-2002!
Thanks Fagstein! My husband even thinks it’s cool, not junk!
More exclamation marks!!!!
We also own a street sign for the former name of the street our is built on the corner of. It was stolen a few weeks before they changed the name signs over. It’s a recurring source of jokes in the family. It bears my mother’s family name, and was almost expanded to bear my grandfather’s full name, but ended up a prolongation of another street.
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