2009-2010

L’endroit tel qu’il apparaît désormais suite à la démolition partielle de l’ensemble conventuel.

2009-2010

La chapelle le 8 juin 2009

La chapelle le 6 février 2010

Construite entre 1893 et 1901, la chapelle du couvent des franciscains située sur le boulevard René-Lévesque et qui était fermée depuis 1997 fut détruite lors d’un violent incendie s’étant déclaré vers 5 heures du matin en date du samedi 6 février 2010.

Bien que sa perte soit tout de même déplorable, notez que l’intérieur était désormais passablement dégarni et qu’aucun objet ou oeuvre d’art n’a ainsi été réduit en cendres…

L’intérieur de la chapelle en 2010

Voyez plus de photos des lieux ici.

Best. Reality TV Show. Ever.

Not that it’s a very high bar. But since the masses have proven we’re ready to get riled up by any possible televised competition, from dancing to worm-eating, why not inject a little home-town pride into the contest?

La Série Montréal Québec pits Montrealers against our most despised rivals, Quebec city, in our proudest battle-ring: the hockey rink. Guy Carbonneau coaches the Montreal team, which consists of guys and gals, young and old, all with solid hockey-playing credentials.

To fuel the fire, each team composed a battle-song, a local artists’ hymn to their city.

Unfortunately, Eric Lapointe’s ode to Montreal sounds like someone reading aloud from the tour guide to a kinda generic rock-and-roll track. I guess I still got a little flutter of home-town pride when I saw the ad for La Série that played in Montreal (above).

There’s just one problem: Loco Locass’ hymn for Québec City beats our song hands down. The hip hop trio has composed a poetic tribute to their city’s long history and long winters; from First Nations to Carnival, from the riverbank to the plaine through the topographic ups and downs that are better traveled by stairs than by cars. (The lyrics are available on the youtube page).

Its so good I had to embed the full-length version below – I even head a rumor that mayor Régis Lebaume wants to adopt it as the city’s official anthem.

Sigh. At least we can take comfort in their other hockey song.

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

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• A big transit news week as the Obama administration announced the benefactors of the $8 billion investment in high-speed rail.  Time Magazine ran an in-depth piece on what high-speed rail could mean for the future of America. The St. Louise Tribune however, questioned the merits of the investment; arguing that high-speed rail only serves a small (and relatively affluent) segment of the population and that investment in public transit is a far fairer and far wiser use of stimulus money. The Chicago Tribune, arguing that aesthetics matter as much as function, offers suggestions on how the future stations should be designed.

• Within the month the eyes of the world will be on Vancouver, and local activists are determined to make the city’s homeless population visible. In preparation for the media blitz sure to accompany the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, local organization Pivot Legal Society is launching the “Red Tent Campaign”.

• The campaign to empty out Moscow’s Rechnik neighbourhood, deemed by the city’s mayor to be illegally occupied, has the country in an uproar. Bulldozers teared through the neighborhood last week leveling  homes and leaving families homeless in minus 20-degree temperatures. According to the New York Times, the neighbourhood’s struggle has become a rallying cry for the country as ordinary citizens, “politicians, human rights activists, media organizations and even nationalist and anarchist groups have come to the defense of the neighborhood”.

• And lastly, in a list that includes “both buildings and things built by architects” the Mammoth Blog compiles the best architecture of the decade.

photo by Joe Lewis

Vers 1899-2009

Source : Le diocèse de Montréal à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle.

Qu’est-ce qu’un boulevard urbain ?

Notre-Dame. Bonaventure. Côte-de-Liesse. Décarie. Du Souvenir.

Tout le monde est fou des boulevards urbains.

Nous rêvons de les inviter au resto.
Nous souhaitons leur offrir un verre
Nous voulons qu’ils nous disent des obscénités pendant l’amour.

Mais est-ce que nous les connaissons vraiment ?

Connaissez-vous leurs histoires ? Leurs comportements ? Leurs relations précédentes ?

Pourriez-vous décrire leurs visages ? Leurs parfums ? Leurs styles de vie ?

Aujourd’hui, il faut poser une simple question :

Qu’est-ce qu’un boulevard urbain ?

Est-il une route verte ?
MacArthur Boulevard de Washington, D.C. serpente le long du fleuve Potomac, parmi les arbres, en passant devant une université réputée, des demeures modestes, et un parc national.

Est-il une route express ?
Le boulevard périphérique, grand diviseur entre Paris, ville cossue, et Paris, banlieue démunie, voit circuler quotidiennement 270 000 véhicules, le long de ses 35 km. Gris et utilitaire, toujours congestionné, le périf n’est pas le meilleur endroit où l’on promène son chien les dimanches.

Est-il un royaume pour les voitures ?
Avide de circulation, Queens Boulevard atteint un maximum de 16 voies durant son passage à travers le paysage urbain new-yorkais. Avec le sobriquet poétique de « Boulevard of Death », on connait déjà à qui ces voies appartiennent : que nous plaignions ceux qui osaient, osent, et oseront traverser cette route ! Piétons — il serait mieux de se cacher dans le souterrain ! Prenez une de 6 lignes de métro qui parcourent leurs trajets au long de ce boulevard.

Est-il un refuge pour les promeneurs ?
Pour certains urbanistes, le boulevard fait référence à la large bande qui sépare les deux chaussées d’une voie de circulation. Dans ce cas, un boulevard urbain, suit-il l’exemple de Paseo de Recoletos à Madrid ? Le terre-plein central et l’accotement de cet axe sont mieux aménagés que la plupart de nos parcs et nos places publiques.

Est-il majestueux ?
Même Paris ne s’entend pas sur la définition d’un boulevard. La cité de l’amour se contredit : le boulevard périphérique n’a rien à voir avec le boulevard Haussmann. Ce dernier, un des grands boulevards parisiens, exemplifie le fameux charme de la ville. On se sent dans un lieu important, dans une capitale, dans une métropole.

Est-il modeste ?
Avec un nom comme The Boulevard, on s’attend à quelque chose d’imposant. Or, cette petite rue à Westmount ne fait pas de chichis ; à l’exception de son odeur du cash et ses accents british, on pourrait croire que l’on est à Senneville, à Sorel, ou à St-Jérôme.

Avant de continuer avec la réalisation de nouveaux projets routiers, il importe que nous recevions une réponse à cette question fondamentale :

Qu’est-ce qu’un boulevard urbain ?

On Saturday I wrote about Café Cleopatra’s last stand on the lower Main. After refusing to sell his property to the Société de Développement Angus, the owner, John Zoumboulakis, is being threatened with expropriation to make way for the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent.

I was finally able to reach the showbusiness-man past midnight on Sunday in order to get his perspective of the story.

For Zoumboulakis, Café Cleopatra is the last vestige of a long tradition of wild nights on the Main. ”This is a historic part of our city. It should be restored, revitalized, not just bulldozed. History, once you break it down, you don’t bring it back with an office tower. What we have now is the real thing. Its our heritage, it’s part of our history,” he says. “I hope there is a way to preserve it.”

Over the phone, he spoke nostalgically of  a time when the lower Main was lively and diverse. “It was the first entertainment centre of our city. It was the nightlife and the downtown of Montreal,” he says “…every building, it was owned by a different people with different ideas. And each operator or owner, they used to have their own types.”

“The objective is to continue to offer what I’ve been offering and what this location has been offering to Montreal for a hundred or so years,” Zoumboulakis says.

When I mentioned the possibility of relocating, he only said that he hadn’t put any energy into thinking about that but he did quote that old adage, the show must go on.

Zoumboulakis says that he never got involved in negotiations with the SDA. “No offer was put on the table. The reality is that they never put anything on paper. Maybe because they are of the opinion that if the city can throw you out, why make you an offer,” he says.

In this case, is legal for the city to expropriate because the property is within the Quartier des Spectacles, defined by a Plan Particulier d’Urbanisme.

Yet Zoumboulakis is skeptical of the QDS, an entertainment district, putting office towers and retail space – all owned by a single developer – where independent venues once stood.

“What the city’s doing, what they’re trying to do, it’s not the right thing for the Main,” he says.

Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.

• As Ottawa gets closer to breaking ground on a subway system, Spacing’s Alain Miguelez discovers that plans for underground transit have been on the table, in some form or other, since 1915.  Miguelez takes us through over 100 years of  Ottawa’s subway planning.

•  An ongoing series entitled “Where in Ottawa?” asks residents to guess an Ottawa street, building, or landmark based on provided clues. While tricky for those of us who aren’t from Ottawa (and, it seems, for Ottawans too) , it’s an interesting series to follow if only to discover some of the city’s hidden gems.

• A redevelopment plan for downtown St. John’s calls for the destruction of three buildings to make way for a new 15-story office tower. According to Spacing’s Andrew Harvey, the destruction of the low-rise buildings (currently occupied by small businesses) would transform both the character and aesthetic of St John’s downtown.

•Last week Spacing Atlantic launched a fascinating new series which looks to historical maps and diagrams to deepen our understanding of Halifax and the surrounding region. The series begins with a look at Halifax’s beginnings as colonial port town through an examination of 1878 city plan.

•  A new series on Spacing Toronto portrays the landscape’s historical progression by combining historic and present-day photographs. Entitled “Before and After”, the stunning images are the work of “local artist and Toronto history enthusiast” Alden Cudanin.

•  The rash of pedestrian deaths in Toronto has been a catalyst for some much needed discussion on pedestrian safety.  However, as Spacing Editor and co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee, Dylan Reid discovered, the tragedies have also led to false assumptions and lazy journalism. Dylan Reid sets the record straight on what the law says pedestrians can and cannot do. And what really makes walking safer.

• A Montreal project, dubbed Quartier 21, hopes to showcase what sustainable urbanism can look like by transforming one city block into a green utopia.  As it hits the two-year mark, Devin Alfaro looks at the project’s progress so far.

• Alanah Heffez laments the “block [that] is about to become unrecognizable”. As part of he city’s $167 million “revitalization” effort, small businesses are being expropriated in Montreal’s Lower-Main neighbourhood; changing the city’s landscape irreversibly.

photo of St. John’s buildings by Jessica Butler

This January, the Société de Développement Angus acquired two properties on Saint-Laurent and Ste-Catherine: Main Importing Grocery and building that housed Club Opera. (According to Radio Canada, it was the Montreal Pool Room rather than Club Opera that was sold. However if so it is not yet public and the city told me that this sale is supposed to be finalized in February.)

And so the only lights left on the block are from Café Cleopatra’s signs, advertising danseuses, stip-teaseuses, disco and spectacles continuels. After the owner refused the SDA’s offer, the city handed Café Cleopatra an expropriation order. The owner is contesting expropriation, a matter that could stall this project for months while waiting to be seen in court.

According to Eric Paradis, president of Save the Main, Café Cleo’s owner has accepted that he won’t stop the SDA’s $167 million Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent development. But he does wants his business to be relocated to a venue with similar conditions in a timely way (For more info, see Adam Bemma’s interview with Paradis last December).

A Complete neighbourhood.

Quebec law allows the city to expropriate a private business on behalf on another private developer when the site falls under a “projet programme particulier d’urbanisme” (PPU), in this case the Quartier des Spectacles.

Christian Lalonde, a City of Montreal Urbanist and Architect who is responsible for the Quadrilatère Saint-Laurent  says that the Quartier des Spectacles was developed after public consultations held in 2002 led to a consensus that the neighbourhood needed revitalization.

“On se désolait du fait que les gens, quand ils sortait des sales de spectacles, se filait direct dans leurs voitures… Ils ne se sentaient pas en sécurité,” he said.

But the Quadrilatère plan actually eliminates 4 live shows venues and replaces them with office and retail space, hardly consistent with a purported entertainment district. Lalonde replies that the QDS aims to integrate multiple uses into the same neighbourhood: an influx of office workers will animate the street and support the local businesses. The retail space – which will specialize in “green” and local businesses – will consolidate Saint-Laurent as a commercial street. Meanwhile, the SDA has two other projects on the go which both have a more artistic vocation.

“Ce n’est pas un quartier uni-fonctionnel, c’est un quartier complet,” he says.

The Money

In the case of an expropriation, the city has offered $875,000 in compensation for the building and lot. Lalonde said that an additional amount could be negotiated for the value of the business.

This month, SDA paid $1.1 million for the grocery store. The building on the Corner of Sainte-Catherine, which recently housed Club Opera, Les Saints, Romance and ALCO sold for $10.5 million.

In December 2008, the SDA also spent $6 million purchasing 6 other buildings from Socrates Goulakis. For those who may be curious, that amount breaks down as follows:

1202-1204,Saint-Laurent (vacant) 759 000 $ CAN
1206, Saint-Laurent (Souvlaki George) 646 200 $ CAN
1210-1212, Saint-Laurent (Frites dorés)- 610 800 $ CAN
1214-1220, Saint-Laurent et 1233, rue Clark (Panhelion, Las Vegas) 1 602 000 $ CAN
1222-1228, Saint-Laurent et 1237, rue Clark (Katacombs etc) – 1 279 800 $ CAN
1190-1196, Saint-Laurent (facade/lot next to main grocery) – 1 102 200 $ CAN

Source: registre foncier Quebec.

What now?

Like many people, I have been critical of the Quadrilatère project from the start, and its purported aim to revitalize the Main while expropriating existing businesses. The development has been undemocratic from the start: there was no competition for projects, then the Executive Committee okay-ed the Quadrilatère against recommendations from their own public consultation office.

After doing business for over 30 years on this site, why shouldn’t Café Cleo be included in a revitalization plan for the area? After all, replacing gritty night life with chic boutiques and office workers dosen’t lead to “completeness”, it just imposes a new kind of uniformality. If Café Cleo can’t be accommodated within this particular development, they should be relocated at the developer’s cost. Two cabaret-style stages and a massive dressing room won’t come cheap in the downtown area but if the project refuses to be inclusive, that’s the price they should to have to pay.

I’m sympathetic to Café Cleo’s case but the worst thing we can do now is empty out this strip just to let it rot while fighting lengthy court battles.

This block is about to become unrecognizable. No matter what new life is imposed on the Lower Main, I’ll probably resent this process for the rest of my days. But new life is still better than a sorry graveyard of unremembered glory-days.

—

FEB 1st Addendum: interview with Cefé Cleo’s owner, John Zoumboulakis.

“I don’t know” I said aloud as I perused the fast food menu. “Orange drink is usually gross, and it’s kind of expensive too…”

“Oh its worth it,” the counter-girl piped up immediately. “Our Julep is made from fresh-squeezed oranges and our secret ingredient. It’s a family recipe that goes back to 1932.”

As much as “secret ingredient” fails to inspire confidence, the counter girl’s enthusiasm was itself refreshing. There was no doubt that she had complete faith in her product, and so I consented to a glass of Gibeau Orange Julep.

She filled a waxed paper cup from a pipe that hung down from the ceiling, and I couldn’t help thinking, as I did when I was a kid, that the 40-foot sphere above us was a massive julep reservoir.

And it was worth it. The fresh-squeezedness of the oranges was unmistakable, the “secret ingredient” reminiscent of creamsicle (although apparently it’s fat-free), the texture foamy down to the last drop. It was really, truly good.

Turns out I had a lot of misconceptions about Orange Julep. Not only does it taste good, its legacy goes back almost 80 years.

I’d always assumed that the massive roadside Orange was a pure 1960s kitch. Indeed, the 40-foot orange was constructed in 1966. Its shell was made with fiberglass segments ordered specially from a local pool manufacturer.

But my counter girl – and the paper julep cup – had claimed that Orange Julep has been kicking since 1932. Turns out that our massive orange monument is in it’s second incarnation. The original building, which was was in nearly the same location, dates back to 1945.  It was a smaller, concrete orange with windows on the second story. (I can only assume that it took the first 13 years of julep sales to raise the money for this jewel).

The original Orange Julep building, in the 1950s. Photo taken by M. Connolly, Hydro-Québec. From the BANQ, Cote: E6,S7,SS1,D58727

But Montreal’s most iconic (well, perhaps only) road-side attraction was hoppin’ long before the metro and the Décarie expressway opened up this neighbourhood to residential and commercial development. In fact, the original Orange was a victim of the widening of Décarie for the autoroute.

There was a tramway along Décarie in the 1940s, linking NDG to Ville-Saint-Laurent, but the area around Namur was largely undeveloped. Picturing the quirky casse-croûte on the open road somehow captures my imagination in a way that its current position on the edge of the Décarie expressway, kitty corner to outlet malls, has never managed to do.

It also helps explain why the big Orange has retained a tradition of summer-time car shows, à la 1950s Hot-Rod nights. For those of our readers who don’t have a car to pimp on site, it’s also right across the street from Namur metro.

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

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• Long-emblematic of urban decline, Detroit continues to suffer from poverty, racial segregation, insufficient infrastructure and municipal corruption. An in-depth piece on the New Republic explores Detroit’s grim past and finds hope in its future.

• A fascinating post on Mental Floss looks at the mysterious rail and subway systems hidden “beneath the bustling streets of some of America’s biggest cities”.

• Come tomorrow America’s transit future could change dramatically as President Obama is scheduled to announce the benefactors of the $8 billion the administration has set aside for high-speed rail transit. The Infrastructurist provides a detailed overview of the transit projects most likely to benefit from the funding.

• Urban News looks at the tremendous success of food carts in Portland, Oregon. 400 food carts have sprung up in the city in the last few years; adding diversity to the city’s culinary scene and vitality to its urban landscape.

• The havoc wrecked on Haiti’s Port-au-Prince–its capital city and urban heartland--has sparked a worldwide conversation on the country’s future. In addition to the scores of homes and commercial buildings lost the city’s port, airfield, electric gird and road system have been all but wiped-out. A return to anything like normality demands onimmediate investment in the city’s infrastrucutre. While I looked at Haiti’s in last week’s World Wide Wednesday, the scale of urban destruction and recent discussions on the city’s future warrant another mention this week. The aftermath of the quake has changed the urban landscape of the country irreversibly; thousands of Haitians are returning to the country side (a historical reversal after a decade of rapid urbanization) and Port-au-Prince (whatever form the rebuilding takes) will a emerge wholly transformed city. As reported by The New York Times, a meeting among western world leaders in Montreal this past Monday led to a $3 billion commitment for a coordinated 10-year rebuilding effort. And, as the L.A Times reports, 50 of  Haiti’s most prominent architects, engineers and urban planners have been meeting daily since the January 12th earthquake to discuss and plan the city’s future.

photo of Haiti from United Nations Development Programme’s photostream

Ces édifices furent ravagés par un incendie le 13 février 2003.

Source : © Denis Chabot, Le monde en images, CCDMD, 26515

]]> http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/01/27/montage-du-jour-intersection-des-rues-berger-et-charlotte/feed/ 1 http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/01/27/city-hall-update-budget-adopted/ http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/01/27/city-hall-update-budget-adopted/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:00:09 +0000 Devin Alfaro http://spacingmontreal.ca/?p=5716

This Monday the Montreal City Council met for its annual marathon budget meeting. Concillors were convened at 9:30 on Monday morning and it wasn’t until midnight that the Budget was finally put to the vote. As predicted, the committee process resulted in no changes to the proposed budget. Throughout the course of the meeting opposition councillors presented various amendments which were all rejected by the majority pro-Tremblay council. In the end, it was approved with 38 votes for and 22 against.

All of this occured more or less as expected. Tremblay attempted to convince the opposition that it was a good budget, and they attempted to amend it, but it was all more or less for show since the outcome had already been decided. Given that Tremblay’s Union Montreal controls a majority of seats on the Council, the support of the opposition parties was not needed.

The one major surprise of the night were the votes (or lack thereof) of the oppositions members of the executive committe, Lyn Thériault of Vision Montréal and Richard Bergeron of Projet Montréal. Thériault took the expected course of action and simply didn’t show up for the Council meeting, thus avoiding having to vote (it is impossible for a councillor to abstain if they’re present).

However, Bergeron decided to vote for the budget, contradicting Projet Montréal’s party line. In doing so he became the only non-Union councillor to vote in favour, with the 9 other Projet Montréal councillors voting against. This was an unexpected decision that has garnered both praise and sharp criticism. Bergeron defended this position by stressing the need to maintain cabinet solidarity. He went on to say that while he disagrees with certain parts of the budget he believes that it is a step the right direction with greater investments in public transit, in-house technical expertise in the civil service, and extra transfers to the boroughs. The decisions of Bergeron and Thériault mean that for the time being the multi-party Executive Committee will continue.

Also of note, slowly but surely social medias are starting to make their way into municipal politics. Certain city councillors have taken to using twitter to give real time updates of Council debates. Rosemont-Petite-Patrie mayor François Croteau went so far as to live-blog the proceedings of today’s Agglomeration Council meeting (even for political junkies it’s about as entertaining as watching paint dry), complete with grainy blackberry photos of suburban mayors ranting in the Council Chambers.

• Image credits ― Mamonello

« Laissons Toronto devenir Milan, Montréal sera toujours Rome. »
- Jean Drapeau

Tonight, l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, under the direction of Kent Nagano, will be performing at Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall in what is a standard art share between the two cities. However, a recent conversation I had at a vernissage had me exploring the deeper meaning of this cultural exchange. Both a classical arts fanatic and native Montrealer, my interlocutor gushed unapologetically about how cool it would be to play in Toronto ― a shocking bit of flattery that would have been unheard of 5 years ago. I was taken aback. In the past, one had to feign the obligatory scowl at the mere mention of our brothers upstream. Now here I was, standing in front of someone openly praising them.

This got me thinking: has Toronto changed? Is it no longer the city that we have been led to believe? Or had my newfound friend imbibed a bit too much red wine?

The cultural scene in Toronto has exploded over the past 10 years. Because of the political aversion to giving subsidies to any Toronto-based projects, this has mainly been accomplished by a financial push from the city’s business elite. Citizens have become engaged in the arts; sold out shows at the opera and the symphony have become all too common. Festivals have risen to prominence. The municipal summer black book is jam-packed, yet the city still tries to shoehorn more celebrations. Attendance at Luminato – Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, already reaches over 1 million despite only being established 3 years ago. Likewise, Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, established in 2006 already rivals the Parisian original.

Architectural stimulation has finally arrived in the Queen City. While it has long been suffering from the same condo virus ravaging the Canadian urban landscape with its little boxes made of ticky-tacky, recent municipal developments are proving to be a lot more interesting. Spaces, such as Yonge-Dundas Square and the collection of Victorian industrial architecture called the Distillery District, are being reinvented and revalorised. Cultural institutions are taking off their cloaks to expose their creativity out in the open: The Ontario College of Art & Design, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario have people debating the art of architecture. However, the new Toronto understands not all buildings need to be garish. In an act of subtlety, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (designed by Jack Diamond), with its granite-coloured walls, blends effortlessly into its surroundings, camouflaging with the famous Toronto Thank God It’s Monday businessmen in their dark grey suits.

I never used to believe in that alleged rivalry between Montréal and Toronto. With its joie de vivre and laissez les bon temps rouler, Montréal was always the undisputable winner in such a competition. Yet, it is becoming increasingly clear that we can no longer rest on our laurels. Besides, not only do we have Toronto breathing down our backs, clamouring for glory and distinction, but we now must also worry about Québec. And lest we forget that New York is always ready for a fight. Even cities like Calgary, once considered too far removed in order to do us harm, have been secretly stalking their kill.

Montréal’s position has never been more precarious: in this sink or swim post-industrial world, what can be done to make sure we stay afloat?

What would a green neighbourhood look like on the ground? For the past two years Éco-quartier Peter-McGill has been hard at work building a showcase project for what sustainable development on a small scale should look like. The idea behind the project, dubbed Quartier 21, is to concentrate as many small scale green projects in one spot to serve as a showcase for how we can make our cities greener.

This initiative has its origins in the Agenda 21, which was adopted at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. This is a global action plan on sustainable development, and one of its key ideas is that environmental change has to come at all levels. It has to come at the international level, with agreements such as the Kyoto Accord; but also at the local level with small-scale, everyday projects. It’s in this persective that the concept of a Quartier 21 was born.

The Éco-quartier chose to work in a specific downtown block, bordered by Sainte-Catherine, de Maisonneuve, Saint-Marc, and Saint-Mathieu. This block is notable because it contains all of the three main land uses of the downtown area: residential, commercial, and institutional. In just this one block there is a 200 unit apartment tower, low-rise heritage housing, a commercial parking lot, retail stores, restaurants, as well as the former Victoria School (slated for redevelopment as a tourism school), and the Montreal Curling Club. Since the spring of 2009 the Éco-quartier has been putting in place sustainablity measures within the block.

The most visible parts of the project are greening initiatives, on both public and private land. Splitting costs, the Éco-quartier has worked with local businesses to green the areas in front of their properties, spaces which previously had been paved over. Patches of plants have also been planted in the laneways and around trees in the sidewalks.

Urban agriculture is also being promoted to beautify the neighbourhood and give residents a way to have easy access to fresh produce; especially important in this neighbourhood where there are no community gardens. Residents in apartment buildings as well as business have been provided with recuperated plastic barrels and plants (tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc.) for urban agriculture on balconies.

Another aspect is facilitating the sustainable disposable of waste. Last spring, the Éco-quartier installed wooden community composting bins in the laneway behind Sainte-Catherine. Eventually they hope to install large format composters (like those just south of Parc Jeanne-Mance) on the Victoria School’s grounds.

Regarding conventional recycling, many local businesses have had difficulty recycling their waste as a result of the collection schedule and a lack of space in their buildings. To help correct this problem, a recycling drop-off box was installed in the laneway behind Saint-Mathieu. Merchants can now deposit recyclable materials at their convenience.

Finally, promoting active and public transit is another important facet of sustainability. In the commercial parking lot, Éco-quartier got Communauto and the lot owner together to arrange the installation of two parking spots for Communauto cars. A bixi station has also been installed at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Saint-Marc.

The project has not been fully implemented and there are many future features coming down the line. One key aspect is encorporating environmental measures such as green roofs in the Victora School’s upcoming renovations. Other possibilities include creating indoor bike storage spots and enlarging the sidewalks near the intersections (as has been done on Bernard in Mile End).

Even though the project has yet to be finished the effects are starting to show. In an area so starved for green and so heavily asphalted it was a pleasant change to see lush foliage last summer.  Many of the projects have been innovative, yet simple, and have helped bring people together to improve the neighbourhood. That said, these sorts of initiatives are not going to solve the major environmental problems of our era. No amounts of extra greenery in Montreal will undo the damage of the Tar Sands oil production,  the car-dependant urban spawl of the 450, or the general crisis of overconsumption in the developed world. The biggest and most threatening issues are on the macro-level, and our governments have been wowefully laking in political leadership.

Nevertheless, projects like Quartier 21 need to be part of the solution. Rebuilding the links between city people and the environment is an important task, and one key for improving the quality of life in urban areas. They are positive additions to the urban landscape, as long as we aren’t fooled into thinking that if we recycle, compost, and plant a tree we’ve done our part. The changes will need to be profound and structural. Without a concerted effort at the regional, national, and international level, local actions will be a moot point. But even if you’re not single-handedly saving the world, it’s still nice to have a lush, inviting laneway behind your apartment and fresh tomatoes on your balcony.

Photo credit: Karine Gagné

Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.

• Sidewalk sandwich boards–a creative tactic for small businesses to attract customers? A way to add vitality to city streets? Or commercial intrusion on public space?  These are some of the questions being asked as Halifax’s 2006 Temporary Sign By-law–a measure which essentially bans all commercial sandwich boards–comes up for review. Spacing’s Emma Felts examines the issues at stake and finds that the diversity of neighbourhoods, businesses and sign types calls for  more nuanced signage regulations.

• A proposal, by developers PlazaCrop, to turn a large area of Charlottetown farmland into “yet another cookie-cutter Big Box asphalt lagoon” has Spacing’s Joshua Biggley concerned about the future of the city. Biggley explores the environmental, social,  economic and cultural detriments this type of bland big-box development could bring to Charlottetown .

• Spacing’s Abad Khan dissects Halifax’s new 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. winter parking ban. Khan argues that while the spirit of the ban is commendable, its rigid wording and sweeping applicability fails to fully consider the needs of Halifax residents.

• Toronto architect George Dark, recently tasked with overseeing the design one of Ottawa’s “biggest city building projects in decades”,  went on an afternoon stroll with Spacing Ottawa where he revealed what he loves most about the city he’s now part of creating.

• A photo series of Ottawa monuments, courtesy of Ottawa website apartment16 and photographer Meaghan Walton-Perreault , pays homage the city’s rich historical landscape and its “responsibl[ility] for the nation’s collective memory”.

• In light of the ongoing debate about the future of Toronto’s World War II era Downsview Hangers, Marcus Bowman argues that their destruction would be a tremendous loss to the city. The post also features Spacing Radio’s David Michael Lamb’s amazing photographs of the hangers in their current state .

• Spacing’s Dylan Read tries to find an explanation for the tragic pedestrians fatalities that have been occurring in “freakishly” high numbers over the past two weeks.

• With councillor Shelley Carroll now out of the mayoral race, it looks like Torontonians will be choosing from a roster of all-white all-male candidates. John Lorinc muses about the lack of diversity in the race for Toronto’s next mayor.

• According to Spacing’s Devin Alfaro, Montreal’s “long overdue” tax on parking spaces in downtown is an important step in reducing the city’s over-abundance of surface parking and in creating better uses of public space.

• A video on Spacing Montreal looks at the struggle of the Tannery Village community. Situated alongside Montreal’s Turcot interchange, the neighborhood is at risk of extinction if the province goes through with its controversial plan to rebuild the elevated highway.

photo by Emma Feltes

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

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• Since July of last year Petaluma California has been known as “the city without planners”. The decision to dissolve the official planning department in favour of private consulting firm Metropolitan Planning Group (M-Group), put the city of 60, 000 in the headlines. The Architect’s Newspaper looks at the private planning experiment in Petaluma, and its consequences for a city.

• The devastating and tragic earthquake in Haiti has left as many as 200,000 dead and Port-au-Prince in ruins. Mark MacKinnon, of the Globe & Mail, looks at what can be done to rebuild the city’s destroyed urban infrastructure.

• For background on Haiti and Port-au-Prince check out Hector Fernando’s recent post on the Polis Blog. Fernando reminds us of the global social and political factors that have shaped Haiti and have effected the lives of its residents over the past 50 years. Looking into the future Fernando predicts “this crisis, playing out across national boundaries but felt on the ground in the US, will reshape the face of this transnational metropolis for years to come.”

• In preparation for the upcoming Olympics, Vancouver has officially opened North America’s first sewage energy centre. According to the Vancouver Sun, the $30 million False Creek Energy Centre, will “create enough heat and hot water for the Olympic Village” as well as for “thousands of new homes and businesses in southeast False Creek”.

• The number of stray dogs in Moscow is so abundant that they have seamlessly integrated into urban life. Susanne Sternthal of the Financial Times observed Moscow’s urban strays on a recent trip to the Russian capital, recounting “you would see [a dog] waiting on a metro platform. When the train pulled up, the dog would step in, scramble up to lie on a seat or sit on the floor if the carriage was crowded, and then exit a few stops later.”

• Cities around the world have begun to see the internet as key piece of public infrastructure. An article from Government Technology examines the challenge a city faces when implementing a public wireless network.

• A feature on BBC this week looks at Hong Kong’s innovative integration of escalators and moving sidewalks into the city’s transit infrastructure. Installed in 1993, the system connects neighborhoods and districts and has become a popular method of navigating the steep city streets.

photo of Hong Kong by alexkost

A glimpse of the unfinished tunnel from Guy-Concordia metro to Concordia University’s Hall and Library buildings, under Boulevard De Maisonneuve.