North Bay, ON Autumn Walk -Old West End Houses & Along Main Street Through the Heart Of The Downtown

[@burleybater]

That's my hometown too, you're walking around in. Although for my last 5 years in town on a beautiful day like this, I would have biked. I biked pretty much every inch of the place. Restless wanderings. North Bay was a paradise to a Huck Finn kid. The right size. What is so noticeable to me in contrast, is the lack of numbers of people - and especially kids. I was pure boom generation, and we owned this town, while moving on through. It stayed that way until well into the 1990s, and then the numbers just fell off the table. You walked right by two historic places from way back then (1960s). Just on the corner of Algonquin and Main, northeast side, was the old Delmar Restaurant. A true diner, where lucky high schoolers with dates went to imitate life in an Archie comic book. I would have been almost a Jughead, but not quite. On the south side of that was the St. Regis hotel, where I stayed on Christmas Eve, having left town at 16, and came back to visit all the friends I missed. My hotel room with a bath cost me $3 flat. The return train ticket to Toronto was a little over double that. Cheap times. The value of a dollar was steep. It is true that the "ghost town" feel of the place is due to a couple of things. Most people with kids live in what we used to refer to as the outskirts. West Ferris. Thibeault (sp?) Hill. Pinewood. and then further southwest from that. Those kids don't haunt the inner city anymore, largely because they don't live there, and also because there is no kid mobility culture like there once was. Mom or Dad are now their free chauffeurs. The second reason is that the number of full family households has fallen off the cliff. It's a retirement capital community now. Lots and lots of grandparents. Whose grandchildren do not live in North Bay. Oh and yeah. I forgot the Airport Rd. buildup and Trout Lake community, also as family locations. One thing I've discovered. Anyone who grew up in North Bay between the 1950s and the 1990s is pretty much haunted by their memories of the place. I figure there's a reason for that. What they're actually remembering is the freedom they used to have as a kid, how kid-friendly the town was, and the amazing way it was the center of the universe to a kid, without needing to be any bigger than it was. Kind of like our personal Bedford Falls - the fictional town in It's a Wonderful Life. The fact that it stubbornly held on to this motif and flavor well past when that movie was made. I could write all day about this. The wonder of the Capitol Theatre. The original layout of Chippewa creek (complete with beaver dam). The magic of Main Street. The clusters of schools and churches and sponsored playgrounds, all over town. The Catholic stepping-stone families in tiny houses. The beaches and the fishing. The call of the wild (wilderness was not so very far away, and accessible by not much more than a bike ride). What was always a grade-A public library. And so on. But once I left? As Thomas Wolfe once wrote about: You can't go home again.

[@TheKenContinuum]

Wow, thanks for the thoughtful, eloquent words describing the best days for young people growing up in the Gateway City! I was a kid during that sweet spot of a time period from the 70s-80s to take in all the best aspects of what the city had to offer at its peak.

[@burleybater]

@@TheKenContinuum When I think about it and reflect on it over the past 5 or 6 decades, I realize more and more what has happened to North Bay. Although not as drastic as some places. If you ever read some of the non-fiction writings of people like James Howard Kunstler, the malaise that has hit so many localities across North America that he writes about. It's a socio-economic thing. Dying communities. A reduced local economy. This is especially the case when a lot of local business converts to franchised corporate outlets, whose revenues do not stay in town, but instead collect and disappear off to head offices, far distant. The hollowing out of original urban structures (described as the missing front teeth, otherwise seen as a plethora of open spaces and giant parking lots in places that once presented a continuum of architecture along both sides of an extended commercial avenue, walkable and accessible). The other thing that long-ago residents always point out: where are the people? And especially the young people. The new demographic especially reflects on a couple of things. The baby boom and its subsequent echoes are long, long gone. A shrinking birthrate. And as mentioned before, most of the kids who still grow up in the North Bay area do so out in suburban-designed locations. Added to this is the fact that they are not remotely as free-range as once was the case. North Bay hummed to the tune of bicycle wheels every summer, and winter hardly made a difference, except that it was just crunchy snow footsteps. The other obvious factor is all that technology at home that now keeps so many kids indoors. This just isn't that same restless energy that hauled us outside in all seasons. A lot of the changes aren't so subtle. The two main hospitals that used to be up at the top of the hill on Algonquin (St. Joseph's and Civic). So many closed schools. Although I've always been astonished at how well-preserved is the original schoolyard at JW Trussler, where I attended for grades 4 and 5. A beautiful old CN train station that isn't one anymore, and from whose platform you might still hear the distant ghost of a train whistle, though the trains themselves have long since departed. The run from North Bay to Toronto used to be practically an iconic rite of passage. I spent most of my time in North Bay living in a house on upper McPhail, across from a Bell yard. Just up from what we called the "Rocks", which was a glorious expansion of bedrock that really was a little slice of semi-wilderness right in town. That house was decidedly suburban design, and even the neighborhood felt moderately so. But the difference was accessibility. Literally everywhere was walkable. 8 minutes to school (Dr. Carruthers). 15 minutes to Main Street. 5 minutes to the closest corner store (very important). 14 minutes to Memorial Gardens. And all these travel times were drastically reduced when biked. Which all means that North Bay was a place that captured a time. Or a time that captured a town. The combination of the two was kid-heaven. I had a "troubled" childhood (mild by today's extended standards). And my confidante,, my therapist, my trusted friend, my soothing distraction, my constant companion - was the town itself. Known and understood as only a kid can. Every back alleyway. Every shortcut. The rhythm of the streets. The scent of the weather. This northern thing, that never felt remote, but instead central to existence. As I said in the comment up above, I could write all day about this, and maybe I should (but not necessarily here and now). One of my burning little ambitions is to write a love letter to this hometown and then convince the good old publishers at the Nugget to publish it. That would truly chuff me up. But North Bay deserves only the very best, and should not be blessed with less.

[@SteveMikre44]

One day Ken will be immortalized on the North Bay Walk of Fame...🇨🇦

[@TheKenContinuum]

haha We'll see...

[@AmbientWalking]

So interesting! I just want to be on the move, always, with you. There's always something to see and feel and think about.

[@brigittegesierich7666]

Really sad to see so many closed stores. Thx for a great walk. Enjoyed it very much. TC

[@TheKenContinuum]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@princemiah]

Wow what a beautiful neighborhood ! As like as dream .if I have a home in the neighbourhood than I will be very grateful

[@bernadette_marie]

Enjoyed your video Ken. Thanks for showing us North Bay, looks like a nice place!

[@TheKenContinuum]

You bet, Bernadette!

[@uluwalker2345]

A wonderful and beautiful walking tour. Liked5. Cheers!

[@TheKenContinuum]

Thank you!

[@uluwalker2345]

You're most welcome, my friend.

[@ostbagar3]

Very nice my friend but so little people out! Wonderful autumday! TC! 🖐

[@TheKenContinuum]

Yes it was a beautiful day!

[@AllanK1]

A great walk with your commentary on the history of the downtown core of your hometown. Its too bad some businesses are closed down and all those vacant lots are sitting empty.

[@TheKenContinuum]

Thanks, Allan, Yeah I really hope things can take a turn for the better in downtown North Bay.

[@wrd4442]

Thanks for posting ... my uncle is on that walk of fame but I've not got back to NB to ever see it.

[@TheKenContinuum]

Glad to help!

[@michellebruce5092]

Nice walk ken I enjoyed it. Can't wait to see more tomorrow have a great day ❤😀

[@TheKenContinuum]

Thanks, Michelle!

[@whitbydude]

Hopefully new businesses will move into the empty stores. It looks like the City has made an effort to upgrade the street with the fancy street lights, brick pavement, etc. Thanks for the informative walk!

[@TheKenContinuum]

I hope so too, they actually redid the street to look that way back in the 80's! haha

[@X-HyperlapseTravelChanne-jq7le]

super good video quality!! watching from 12 pro max! new follower here!!

[@TheKenContinuum]

Awesome thank you!

[@markmaloney3140]

Good work Ken. Got my house drawings today. Can't wait to build it. Way more affordable than down here. Wanna meet some new folk too. Thanks eh?

[@TheKenContinuum]

Good stuff, Mark!

[@vivianjohnson5323]

Loved the video but so sad to see so many closed stores and no people. Its almost a ghost town. Maybe all are at the mall. The malls do take all the downtown business away. A real shame. Sad really. Stay safe. Till next time.

[@TheKenContinuum]

They are all at the mall and the power centre! hah

[@mohamedlemrani1601]

🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦❤❤❤❤

[@betatuberaggy]

26:52 Lol someone wrote F..ck Trudeau.

[@TheKenContinuum]

haha I noticed that.