Why aren't back alleys a thing anymore?
We're lucky to have a back alley, and 90% of the houses here have a garage and/or parking off the alley. The houses aren't ugly things with a giant garage door dominating the facade, and the street isn't cluttered with cars.
They take up space.. I grew up in a community where many houses had triple front garages and back alleys. Since the lots were quite large the cool dads built detached garages in the rear (shop/project cars/lounge) and the triple handled daily drivers, kids bikes and street hockey.
Now we have a City saying this type of housing density is irresponsible and people would rather live vertically stacked on one another in an inner city infill. Where does the street hockey happen?
The Victorian bits of TO have back alleys. Very recently I read that the city might, just might allow residential to face the alleys...I don't believe it, When we were there it was nigh on impossible to have permission to have a garage there but you could have a big tall locked gate with backyard parking.
A friend of mine in high school used to live in Cabbagetown. He had a tiny backyard, and if memory serves me correctly, his dad used to park his Saab 900 (the proper one) back there. Pretty sure there was a tiny garage, but it took up about half the yard.
I hear laneway houses are the big thing in Vancouver now. There's one going up in my neighborhood here, too. Basically a two-car garage off the back alley, but with an apartment/living space above. Seems like a smart way to have renters without having strangers sharing your house, but they did give up 90% of their back yard.
Still, they're on the north side of the street, so all the sun is in their front yard anyway. I notice that a lot here: houses on the north side of the street have their patios/decks in the front yard, to take advantage of the sun. Personally, I'm happy to be on the south side of the street so we can have our hang-out area in back, where it's private.
