{"id":14191,"date":"2012-04-21T09:56:31","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T13:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=14191"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:46:02","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:46:02","slug":"build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/","title":{"rendered":"“Build it and they will come” : Alleyway Hockey Rink"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Agreements with the city and \u00c9co-quartier ensure vehicle traffic does not interfere with after-school hockey games.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Guest contribution by Michael O’Shea, reprinted from Parks and Excavation<\/a> blog. Version fran\u00e7aise ici<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marcel L. of Montr\u00e9al’s Plateau-Mont Royal neighborhood has created something very cool in his backyard alley. Something so cool that only works when it’s below freezing. It involves a lot of ice, two hockey posts, and a pile of free equipment.<\/p>\n

What is it? One of the neighborhood’s most popular “white alleys.” They’re part of homegrown movement to create backyard spaces for hockey and other recreational activities in the winter. Why trek blocks to the park when miles of underused alleys cry out for human activity? Instead of enduring months of Montr\u00e9al winter alone, staring out your back window, you could turn the asphalt just past your back fence into a place where you would want to hang out, talk to the old lady down the block, and play hockey with the kid next door.<\/p>\n

That’s why Marcel decided to create a hockey rink in the alley behind his Plateau-Mont Royal home. After checking with the city and contacting a local environmental organization, \u00c9co-quartier, he did what his alley had done on its own, naturally, many times before: flooded it with water and watched it freeze. Add two hockey goals, two ribbons of yellow caution tape to keep cars out, and voil\u00e0, instant hockey rink and community gathering space. The alley that was green with plants along its margins in the summer, was now white with snow and ice, but just as active.<\/p>\n

“Build it and they will come,” he told me. Originally he created the alley just that his kids would have a place to play hockey closer to home than the local park, but soon he received letters of support from his neighbors, other fathers with kids. Now the hockey rink is packed after students after school each Wednesday, who borrow from the pile of hockey equipment Marcel leaves at the side of rink. Does stuff ever get stolen? “Never,” he swore to me. “Jamais un vol.” That’s a pretty good record and shows that a community space that is used and supported by its residents is unlikely to be violated.<\/p>\n

Marcel had done on his own, with limited resources, what cities have done for centuries: building community spaces for people to recreate, exercise, and blow off steam. He built the white alley and they came. In droves.\u00a0That’s what a community activist can do with some water, the Montr\u00e9al winter, and supportive neighbors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Several times a week, Marcel runs a garden hose from his kitchen sink to the alley, and adds a fresh layer of ice to the homegrown hockey rink.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Guest contribution by Michael O’Shea, reprinted from Parks and Excavation blog. Version fran\u00e7aise ici. Marcel L. of Montr\u00e9al’s Plateau-Mont Royal neighborhood has created something very cool in his backyard alley. Something so cool that only works when it’s below freezing. It involves a lot of ice, two hockey posts, and a pile of freeContinue reading ““Build it and they will come” : Alleyway Hockey Rink”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7831,7839],"tags":[224,7233,7234,1281,7235,7236,21,56,230,69],"class_list":["post-14191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-neighbourhoods","tag-alleyway","tag-alleyway-hockey-rink","tag-eco-quartier","tag-effect","tag-hockey-equipment","tag-michael-oshea","tag-people","tag-plateau-mont-royal","tag-ruelle","tag-social-trends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n"Build it and they will come" : Alleyway Hockey Rink - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Build it and they will come" : Alleyway Hockey Rink - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Guest contribution by Michael O’Shea, reprinted from Parks and Excavation blog. Version fran\u00e7aise ici. Marcel L. of Montr\u00e9al’s Plateau-Mont Royal neighborhood has created something very cool in his backyard alley. Something so cool that only works when it’s below freezing. It involves a lot of ice, two hockey posts, and a pile of freeContinue reading "“Build it and they will come” : Alleyway Hockey Rink"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-21T13:56:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T16:46:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Spacing\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"Build it and they will come\\\" : Alleyway Hockey Rink - Spacing Montreal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-21T13:56:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T16:46:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Build it and they will come” : Alleyway Hockey Rink\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Montreal\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492\",\"name\":\"Spacing\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Spacing\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/spacing\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Build it and they will come\" : Alleyway Hockey Rink - Spacing Montreal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Build it and they will come\" : Alleyway Hockey Rink - Spacing Montreal","og_description":"  Guest contribution by Michael O’Shea, reprinted from Parks and Excavation blog. Version fran\u00e7aise ici. Marcel L. of Montr\u00e9al’s Plateau-Mont Royal neighborhood has created something very cool in his backyard alley. Something so cool that only works when it’s below freezing. It involves a lot of ice, two hockey posts, and a pile of freeContinue reading \"“Build it and they will come” : Alleyway Hockey Rink\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Montreal","article_published_time":"2012-04-21T13:56:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T16:46:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Spacing","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Spacing","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/","name":"\"Build it and they will come\" : Alleyway Hockey Rink - Spacing Montreal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg","datePublished":"2012-04-21T13:56:31+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T16:46:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-oNT5cUy5mCU\/T0an9V-s3nI\/AAAAAAAAAVo\/61QMuJcDfNk\/s1600\/alley1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/04\/21\/build-it-and-they-will-come-white-alleys\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Build it and they will come” : Alleyway Hockey Rink"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/","name":"Spacing Montreal","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Montreal Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492","name":"Spacing","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Spacing"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/author\/spacing\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14191"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21058,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14191\/revisions\/21058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}