What’s happening in Griffintown
Spacing looks at the various developments in Griffintown and how they don’t fit very well together.
It still sounds like there’s no oversight by the city on making sure zoning there makes sense. You can’t just have rows and rows of dormitories – you need shops and services, schools and daycares and the other things you’ll find in lively existing neighbourhoods.
aj 14:17 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
I can’t help but be reminded of what we were agitating for with the original Save Griffintown group. We weren’t at all opposed to development and density – but we pointed out those exact problems with their planning in 2008. We proposed a proper commercial street with shops at street level, residences and offices above, and more residential density in between on side streets.
Original proposal in place of Devimco’s plans:
http://savegriffintown.wordpress.com/2007/11/22/our-vision/
Response to Les Bassins design:
http://savegriffintown.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/les-bassins-nice-idea-but-not-a-neighborhood/
Jack 14:27 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
Here’s another suggestion, why not move “The Black Rock” as a memory marker, to a place where it can be seen, appreciated and respected.I have never seen a more forlorn placement of a cities most tragic event in my life. Montreal’s most important Irish memory marker is invisible. I mean seriously on highway off ramp shadowed by COSTCO, no one if knows what is when they flash by. A memorial for six thousand lives deserves better. The original people of Griffintown were the people who helped care for these folks as they lay dying in the fever sheds, why not as a new anchor to speak to the past, suggestion, the former St.Anne’s Church square.
Clément 14:30 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
Promoters are mostly building 1 and 2 bedroom condos and pricing them fairly high. This way, they can say “Why build schools and daycares, there are no families here!”. As far as shops and services, it’s pretty scary. Some buildings will have commercial space for rent, but the only tenants are Couche-Tard and Subway and the odd Sushi shop. True local shops are not able to afford the rents in these new buildings and current landlords of existing buildings are doing everything they can to drive out the local shops.
Kate 14:45 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
Jack, the thing is that the rock, as it says, is there to mark the burial place of a lot of Irish people who died of “ship fever” in that area. It’s like a big grave marker. I don’t see how it could be moved.
aj, I remember! It’s like you could see them deliberately planning a neighbourhood that essentially has to be driven from for everything, which is exactly what we don’t need on the island, especially in a central area which could so easily be laid out so the car wouldn’t be a requirement.
Couldn’t the city waive business taxes for a few years or cut other special deals to entice a mix of shops into the area?
Jack 15:04 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
@Kate it is a marker but people were actually buried all over the place.The workers building the bridge saw bones coming up in multiple trenches hastily dug. The Rock has actually been moved before and was away from its current site for 14 years.On December 20, 1900, the Grand Trunk Railway Company moved the rock roughly two kilometers to St. Patrick’s Square where it stayed until the outbreak of WW 1 with Irish loyalty a question,the Grand Trunk was pressured to put it back.However an Irish community lived there then, now the site is an embarrassment to one of the communities that built the city. I know its really parochial but Griffintown would be served by a sense of the past, especially to balance what looks like a glass corridor.
Kate 15:16 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
Jack, OK, I could see putting it on the square where St. Ann’s was, you’re right. So long as they didn’t have to destroy any of the trees to do it.
Doobious 17:19 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
Jack: Where is this St. Patrick’s Square of which you speak? I hadn’t heard that moving story before.
Jack 20:16 on 2012/07/17 Permalink
@ Doobious its on the corner of St. Columbain and Route 112 just before you get to COSTCO
Colin McMahon and Matthew Barlow both of Concordia’s History Department have written extensively on “The Rock” fascinating stuff.
qatzelok 11:10 on 2012/07/18 Permalink
What Jane Jacobs called “cataclysmic money” is what may ruin Griffintown’s redevelopment. Even though it had nice marketing in the beginning, it’s looking more and more like standard urban renewal – too much new, too much of the same, and too expensive for mixed use.
cheese 13:21 on 2012/07/18 Permalink
The city seems to really want to ruin Griffintown for a quick buck, what a waste of potential and long term money for the city. I know people that live in the Griff and it could really go somewhere if modern urban planning techniques were used. Toronto and Vancouver have seen some successes (and also some failures, like walls of glass towers) why are the same old mistakes being done here?
Can somebody mail a french translation of “The Life and Death of Great American Cities” to the mayor and his council?
Kate 14:27 on 2012/07/18 Permalink
I find that Déclin et survie des grandes villes américaines is between printings. You can’t get a new one yet from amazon.ca but the old ones are out of print.
It’s probably in the city hall library anyway – with dust on it.
Doobious 15:46 on 2012/07/18 Permalink
Thank you, Jack. I take it you mean the lot between St. Patrick and the canal? I saw it being torn up a few months back, supposedly for the installation of some sewage/drainage works. I should swing by for a closer look some time.
The Black Rock reminds me of another monument, the one dedicated to the fallen of Goose Village in World War II. It looked pretty sad the last time I saw it, sitting in a parking lot across from the Costco, behind a chain link fence.
Doobious 17:39 on 2012/07/23 Permalink
Not that anybody bothers with page 2, but: 1) The WWII monument has been moved down Bridge St. It’s now across from the Black Rock, and 2) The park Jack mentioned is no more than a couple of old trees in a vacant lot. The fencing around the parking lot to the west is the same as that surrounding the “park”, leading me to suspect that the city is either selling or leasing out the land.
Kate 18:26 on 2012/07/23 Permalink
I read page 2. But then I have particular access to the comments page.