Rogers Communications has a plan to put a 30-storey tower on the Îlot Balmoral. It's supposed to have a concert hall (although how people can talk blithely about "replacing the Spectrum" as if venues like that have no resonance or history), and absolutely nothing is said about the fate of the Blumenthal Building, whose beautiful façade is rotting away on Ste-Catherine.

Incidentally, with all the talk about the Quartier des Spectacles, does anyone believe that the ambiance of the area will be improved by the appearance of a giant Best Buy where the Spectrum is now? Can we possibly get the city to appreciate that Ste-Catherine doesn't have the scale of a suburban mall, and that wedging giant stores onto it is absolutely at odds with creating the sort of vivid, exciting, lively atmosphere they purportedly want? All the small businesses shown above will be erased when the Spectrum is razed. Instead we'll have a featureless glass wall. Is this meant to be beneficial and to attract people to the area?

Toronto's mayor has backed off a little on his earlier statement that he wants his city to seize Canada's festivals crown from Montreal. A tempest in a teapot, says Mayor Tremblay. Still, it's a fact that Toronto can basically do this if it wants to. Montreal has to use all its cultural savvy to distinguish itself and make itself more interesting – and it won't do this by importing clone big box stores onto its quirky downtown streets.

It's ridiculous that government puts money into projects like uncovering the façade of St. James United, money wasted when at the same time it countenances the closure of the Parisien and the Spectrum, and the addition of things like Future Shop, a giant Pharmaprix, and now this Best Buy, along the same part of Ste-Catherine. posted at 10:47