Every city has a strip. At least one. Some cities have several. Peterborough has a couple. But Lansdowne Street is our main drag into town, or past town if you’re headed out to easterly cottages.
I thought that three days before Christmas might be a good time to catch the mayhem that the traffic can be on the strip.
I certainly wasn’t wrong. It was extremely busy, so I put on my safety vest and stood in the median to snap a few shots.
I’m still not sure what it is I find so alluring about these sections of towns. I did grow up in the suburbs, but we were on the very edge of town when I was young. The “strip” near mom’s house wasn’t built until I was almost moved away. I never really spent any time there.
But there is something, certainly, about this transitional zone that compels me. I think this is why I love these areas most at night. It’s the time that they’re really asleep. Empty. Not in service.
But even during the day, with all this transient traffic and apparent hustle and bustle, this long stretch of commercial property has a simultaneously immutable and shifting quality. The individual stores will come and go and renovate and expand, but the strip itself will always be.