Part 3
All the photos posted here are hosted on Flickr, and you can view them here.
Here are some photos of my neighbourhood, the central part of Fort William. One of the densest and oldest neighbourhoods in Northern Ontario, this is about as urban as this region can get.
This is a warehouse for a shipping company
This warehouse used to house fruits. After that it house a perogy company and other businesses. Now it houses a contractor's office.
This warehouse is the headquarters of a small mining company.
This is one of three streets in Thunder Bay that's paved with concrete, btw.
A cat.
This spot is where rednecks in lifted pickups throw their garbage because they can't afford the $10 tipping fee at the local landfill. At the time it was just a dresser but it eventually blossommed into a pile of mattresses, sofas, and exercise equipment before the city removed it. This year, it's a bunch of mattresses, sofas and white tarpaulin from a construction site. The neighbourhood is vibrant and ever changing.
The warehouse on the left used to store alcohol (that's why it looks like a prison) but today it stores car parts for Asian cars, which is apparently big enough business that they need that much space.
The building on the right is the welfare office and the local mall always advertises clothing stores on that billboard. The microwave towers in the distance are cell phone towers now.
Skyscrapers!!!!!!
The city got infested with emerald ash borers last year so all these trees are dying!
I took this photo and the others like it on the way home from a barbeque. The camera is on an angle because I was holding a hot sausage in my other hand.
These are called "hydro towers". Some people call them "electricity pylons". They're wrong.
Our skyline fits under a causeway. It's not even a bridge, it's an integral abutment causeway.
This is near the mouth of the Kaministiquia River, the largest river in the city. It's a very flat place.
The coal dock, where coal from Western Canada is sent to... I'm not really sure, the last few places on earth stupid enough to burn coal? Ontario phased it out several years ago. The green conveyor belt in the background lights up at night and looks pretty as it fills boats with coal. The coal washes up on beaches and you can gather it up and use it to heat your house if you want.
This is where the city's sewage treatment plant's effluent is dumped out. You can't swim here because it's where the city's sewage treatment plant's effluent is dumped out. You can, however, fish here! Bon apetit!
This is from the mouth of the McIntyre River, the city's second biggest river. It's very different over here.
Boats!
Poetry!
And thus concludes the photos I took over the summer. Here are autumnal photos:
A weird Christian group from Toronto bought this church and their goal is to deliver programming to the area that they claim doesn't exist here (it does). They have yet to actually do that.
I favourite around 1,000 photos that look like this every month on Flickr, so I decided to give back by taking one of my own.
These cherry/prune trees are infected with a fungus called "black knot". In the spring, they turn orange and release spores. You can breathe in their spores!!!
This is our new courthouse. The park is going to be redesigned at some point. It will feature all the things no one asked for and none of the things we want.
These anti-terrorism bollards keep the building safe.
This area is pretty.
LIES. This door hasn't been used in decades.
Branches are just tree skeletons.
I am pretty sure that this means you can get pizza and alcohol here, but I'm not sure what the "101", "12" and "WBD" mean.
The Community Health Centre expanded last year. The syllabics say "waacihitokamik" but I don't know what that means.
This used to be a Hells Angels clubhouse, and now its a youth centre.
Greasy spoon
Legion
Autobus
Homicide victim
Murderers.
Such a pretty building!!!!
(After the sign started falling off, the owner removed it and did a couple repairs to the building but its still largely vacant.)
If I had a dollar for every time I was approached by a junky trying to sell me a lawnmower so he could buy drugs, I'd have 3 or 4 dollars.
OK, so remember in the Toronto/Hamilton photo thread, I posted some photos of Hamilton's downtown dead mall?? Well, here is Thunder Bay's:
Synergy!
We painted some bike lanes green on this street last year and boy, did car owners freak out!!
Toronto isn't the only city with granite sidewalks.
(This isn't a sidewalk, it's the entrance to the courthouse.)
This is the alleyway where some friends of mine saw the longest penis they've ever seen. A homeless man was using the alley as a urinal and as they tell the story, "he had no shame". #NowYouKnow
I know the name of the person who wrote these but can't recall it at the current time.
I just thought this was adorable.
An abandoned junk store.
St. Peter's Slovak Catholic Church
A Cat.
Someone lives here!!!!!!
A thrift store.
Here are some photos of painted walls:
Homeless people drink in the parking lot down the street here, and sell things they find or steal to buy alcohol. The trees are covered in black lumps, that's the black knot I mentioned earlier.
Shithawks preparing to migrate south. Only the pigeons and ravens stick around for winter.
See the highrise in the top left corner?
We're a real city now!!!!!!
This tickled me.
Street furniture.
In case you ever feel like buying a car with a missing/incorrect VIN number.
The blue siding really completes the scene.
GOODBYE.