François Cardinal looks at the development of Griffintown and finds the city has pretty much washed its hands of trying to impose any particular vision on the area. With a brief sidebar on the area’s history.
Updates from February, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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McGill is under pressure from a group of profs and doctors demanding it reveal possible skulduggery over asbestos research.
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Marie-Claude Lortie writes about the Pointe-à-Callière museum‘s quest to find fundamental symbols of Montreal.
(When this came around for the Monopoly world edition game, we ended up represented by St. Joseph’s Oratory…)
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Projet Montréal held a party conference on the weekend with the upcoming byelection in Rosemont in many minds. Jean-Paul L’Allier, ex mayor of Quebec City, addressed the conference, talking about how the failed merger weakened the city.
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Robert J
Yeah I guess the fusions worked well in Quebec… Maybe if we kicked out everyone who wasn’t white and francophone in Montreal we could have successful mergers and monolithic government too! Thanks for the input, M. L’Allier…
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qatzelok
Robert, it’s the defusions that L’allier laments. And these ‘special’ cities are virtually all white, all rich, and all Anglo.
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Poutine Pundit
Mergers in Quebec City were not a success because they have disempowered the few progressive-minded people living in the central urban core. L’Allier got elected because people living in the dense central neighbourhoods were a majority in the old city. His sustainable development agenda would get him nowhere now. The new merged city is 80% suburbs: a conservative car-dependent xenophobic lot that votes for populist candidates. L’Allier’s pioneering plan to revitalize Saint Roch has almost ground to a halt since the mergers; the city still lacks a proper bike infrastructure; and public transportation is going nowhere. Progressive initiatives won’t get you elected in this new city, but promising people a hockey team will.
The mergers have killed my faith in this sprawling city. Montreal has its problems, but the decentralized system allows for Projet Montreal candidates to get elected and do things in the denser neighbourhoods.
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Ian
Sounds like Toronto’s 905-region dominated megacity, electing right-wing idiots like Rob Ford who are openly disdainful of the 416 core.
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William
You can’t talk about the mergers in a meaningful way without talking about language. It’s just a fact of life.
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Robert J
My point is that Montreal is too diverse to benefit from a merger. Its diversity is more divisive in some ways than Toronto’s, because of the language issue. There’s a lack of communication between Montreal’s anglophone enclaves and the francophone majority that is added with the classic city conflicts of wealthy vs poor, minority vs. majority (which operates on several levels in Montreal: the OQLF-style anti-immigration mentality or the wall that separates TMR and Mile-End), suburban vs. urban…
The fact that there is so much history around these conflicts (more than in Quebec City, and more than pretty much all other Canadian cities) makes mergers and centralized government pretty difficult.
I would like to see enclaves merged, but I think that if we force the issue, they will use all their considerable power and influence to put their interests first, which won’t be good for the city. Outremont and St-Léonard’s mergers worked relatively well, because the populations were a fairly good balance of anglophone and francophone elements. Maybe this will eventually be the case for other linguistic enclaves.
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Antonio 19:38 on 2012/02/13 Permalink
Oh, please! They killed Griffintown when they carved the Bonaventure Expressway through it. What’s left is a moribund wasteland. I say let the developers get in there and create all the high-end condos that the market can afford to buy. At least that’ll generate some tax revenue for the City and densify the area.
Ian 20:06 on 2012/02/13 Permalink
Ah yes, the old “city management has ignored this region for so long we should turn it over to the tender mercies of commercial interests” gambit. It worked for Soho, but then again this is Montreal – look what happened to Saint-Laurent between Sherbrooke and Chinatown. A few more missing teeth in downtown Montreal’s smile are the last thing we need.
joeyjoe 22:06 on 2012/02/13 Permalink
@Ian
“What happened to St-Laurent between Sherbrooke and Chinatown”: I assume you’re referring to the vacant buildings below Ste-Catherine. The commercial interests trying to develop the area had nothing to do with that, the strip club is holding everyone up in court. Besides, that area wasn’t anything to write home about before they expatriated everyone. Even above Ste-Catherine where the area hasn’t been gentrified (save for the Lofts-des-Arts condos, which blend in quite well), the area is a pawnshop/secondhand junk-store mess.
The same goes for Griffintown. Walk through the area and you’ll quickly notice that it’s a dump (and I suspect it was a dump in its heyday, too). It’s in bad need of redevelopment and if the investments go away, the neighbourhood will only get worse.
The city is badly mismanaged as it is, it’s falling apart. Driving away capital will not help anyone, the rich or the poor.
William 07:49 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
Cette obsession pour les grands projets…
Kate 09:41 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
I don’t think Griffintown needs a big project and I don’t think redevelopment should be halted, but I do think the city needs to mobilize powers it already has, by way of zoning, to make sure it ends up as a living neighbourhood and not just a bedroom suburb next to downtown.
Steve Quilliam 10:11 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
@ William: ”Cette obsession pour les grands projets…”
Il est vrai que certaines personnes sont obsédé par les grands projets, moi le premier. Une ville qui bouge, qui se développe, qui construit, qui anime et qui innove constamment peut-etre une source d’énergie et de motivation pour les urbains qui aiment vivre dans un milieu dense, dynamique et excitant. Un gros projet ça contribue défivitivement à tout cela. Par contre Griffintown n’est pas un gros projet, c’est plutot plusieurs projets dans le meme quartier et ce n’est pas à tous les jours qu’on peut assister à ce genre de développement urbain de cet envergure.
Chris E 10:40 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
@ joeyjoe: What’s wrong with second hand stuff and army surplus? I love that stretch.
qatzelok 13:47 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
Joey knows better than to bite the hand of his master: Capital.
joey joe 15:49 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
@qatzelok:
“Joey knows better than to bite the hand of his master: Capital.”, he wrote on his Macbook Air while listening to iTunes-bought songs from a major music publisher on his iPhone.
Not capital, qatzelok, not evil capital!!! I’m sure you’ve taken a vow of poverty…
Kate 16:11 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
Okay guys, that’s enough ad hominem.