Montreal draws fewer suburbanites daily
A study by the CMM says suburbanites are coming into town less often as a decline in work commuting and trips into town for shopping or entertainment was noted between 1998 and 2008.
This has its downside for Montreal business and employment, but shorter commutes for everybody – and fewer users of the bridges at rush hour – can also be seen as a net plus for the entire urban area.
walkerp 23:19 on 2012/05/29 Permalink
This is the factor that is hurting business in the Plateau and it is much broader and longer term than simple parking issues.
steph 00:18 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
While I’d blame the crumbling bridges, closed highway lanes, turcot interchange construction and orange cones everywhere causing a ridiculous amount of traffic, I’m sure the new might find a way to blame the students. World economy is down, tourism is down – but that’s the students fault that people are not booking up the hotels.
Hamza 07:30 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
The reason is that the Lavals and Brossards of the day have far more facilities, malls, parking lots and big box stores than they did ten or twenty years ago. Hence, little reason for carfaring suburbanites to haul their kids into the family Dodge and head down to the Main. That is, if they want to endure the traffic on our collapsing bridges.
Did someone say something about ‘culture’?
They have TVs. That *is* their culture.
C_Erb 07:51 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Our inner-city commercial streets shouldn’t be relying on suburbanites for their survival. They’re not regional malls, they exist to service the people who live near them (with some options that are unique to the neighbourhood that outsiders can use of course). This is why my brother, who lives in the Plateau on St-Denis near Roy needs to walk about 4 blocks to the nearest grocery store while I have about 10 grocery stores within 4 blocks of my apartment in Parc-Ex.
It’s good for commercial streets to have things that draw outsiders, my streets have Greek bakeries and Indian restaurants and clothing stores that bring people from all over but these also serve the locals as well. My brother, on the other hand, has never or rarely stepped inside most of the stores that surround him on St-Denis because they’re geared towards outsiders and don’t cater to his day-to-day needs.
Bill Binns 08:12 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
@Hamza – The lack of a proper cultural life in Canada (or the western hemisphere?) is a common theme in your comments. It’s true that TV is a part of the culture here but just about everything else you can think of is available as well. People who want to watch TV can do that but people whoare interested in art or religion or music have all that here as well. What is it you think we are missing out on? Which countries in the world do you think have a satisfying cultural life?
Kate 08:16 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Actually, if anything it’s qatzelok who bemoans the lack of a Canadian culture of any kind.
Bill Binns 08:20 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
I thought Qatzelok’s major theme was The Evil Automobile.
Jack 08:32 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
@walkerp do you know what the Plateau looked like in the 70′s,80′s,90′s? The businesses that you see now are pretty recent phenomena and are not fed by Greenfield Park and St Hubert.The stats used by this group are trumped by demographic changes and government( developers) encouragement of sprawl.
Hamza 08:32 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
What art Bill
Lee 09:07 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
Anyone else read this as submarines?
qatzelok 09:08 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
People who have allowed themselves to be lulled into the suburban mallscape have inadvertently killed any hope of culture. See, to create a culture, you need two things: regular, spontaneous contact with other people AND free time and proximity to socializing venues. The cultureless suburbanite commutes in an enclosed box (car) and drives to hermetically sealed “activity centers” that frequently have only one use. This has lead to a very dismal existence of freeze-dried commercial slogans and worship of status symbols (in lieu of any real status which is a product of having an actual culture).
Kate 10:49 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
qatzelok, that’s well put.
anyone who wonders why he’s here, this kind of analysis is why.
Josh 16:08 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
You seem to know a lot about this suburbanite lifestyle, qatzelok. Have you lived it? In multiple communities? Or you just think you know other people better than they do?
MB 18:05 on 2012/05/30 Permalink
@qatzelok, I call them “pod people.” You live in a pod, get in a pod to go to various purpose-built pods, eat food that is contained in pods, and consume culture from the screen of a pod.
@Josh, I grew up mainly in the American suburbs, which are frankly not really any different than they are here save slightly better access to transit. Those few chances to wander around the city were so looked forward to because it felt like freedom, compared to being shuffled back and forth in the back seat of a van.