A snapshot of the commercial street situation
CBC has a good piece on how things stand on the commercial street situation: both taxes and rents are too high to return to an era of smaller businesses in an eclectic mix.
Update: The problem is not afflicting this city only. Here’s a piece from the New York Daily News on exactly the same issue there.
Ian 11:26 on 2020-01-20 Permalink
This is what I’ve been saying all along – PM talks and talks about fighting gentrification but in the end it’s not in their best interests to do anything about it, as the city’s main source of revenue is the exact same commercial taxes that drive gentrification.
Look at Mile End – free terrases with rainbow benches for the artisanal ice cream shoppe, that they can handle. Hand-carved sculpture benches for the walking tours to rest at, sure. Planters in the extended sidewalks full of non-local annuals that need to be replanted every single year, of course… but gentrification? “Our hands are tied by other forces”. Always a convenient excuse, it worked with AirBnB, why not gentrification?
This is why we have dying business serving the locals like the two deps that closed within the last 3 months on St. Viateur, yet dozens of tiny overpriced restaurants that are technically small enough to squeak in under the restaurant ban proliferating like fungus in a damp basement. Nobody in charge really cares about the neighbourhood per se, it’s all optics to maintain the vote. If that means keeping taxes high so they can afford civic beautification projects that appeal to their core demographic of white, middle class, francophone university educated, urban planning wonk yuppies, then so be it.
As far as Projet Montreal are concerned, Lululemon, David’s Tea, QDC Burger, etc. are the new face of Mile End and if you don’t like it, move to Ville-Emard.
Mark Côté 11:30 on 2020-01-20 Permalink
Projet got voted into a lot more places than just Mile End. The different boroughs may have different priorities but I don’t see the same demographics as having carried Projet to victory here in NDG, for example.
Ian 12:24 on 2020-01-20 Permalink
I guess I must have got them confused with some other party that rose to power in the Plateau, specifically Jeanne-Mance, Milton Parc & Mile End, and while they did win the civic election, they have (for instance) the (white, male, etc.) mayor of the Plateau in charge of the city’s economic plan. It’s pretty clear whose sensibilities they cater to, I think.
Ephraim 13:54 on 2020-01-20 Permalink
Ian, there is lots of blindness.
The Jeanne-Mance neighbourhood (especially the South) is mostly a pedestrian neighbourhood. Heck, on my street, we only see two cyclists who live on the block… and yet bike paths… because people from the de Lormier neighbourhood need to cycle through… but we have a Centre de readaptation and we can’t even get benches for them to rest on when they go out for a well needed walk. For all the lovely planters in Mile End, what we need in this part of the Plateau is more paths to walk on. And in the area of the Centre de readaptation, places where they can walk that are safe and protected cross-walks… they are struggling with canes and walkers and yet to get back to normal… they need to walk around the neighbourhood. There are at least two more old age homes in Jeanne-Mance, right off of Sherbrooke… all pedestrian. And the larger buildings tend to have more older folks as well.
Milton Park, to the west isn’t the same either. Much more students, who are less interested in a bench on the street, they want a path that they can bike and rollerblade and drive an overpriced scooter on.
And all the while, people have to drive through, clogging the streets with cars. But then the cars need some place to stop for 15 minutes to pick up something in the neighbourhood and we either laden the streets with parking meters that let people sit too long, or removed them and left no place to stop. Not to mention we don’t have enough delivery zones to keep deliveries from double parking and clogging the same streets.
It’s a tough set of solutions that we need. Some thinking out of the box. Some bringing in European trained city planners… because bringing in the North American ones bring back car thinking, rather than neighbourhood thinking.
Mark Côté 15:53 on 2020-01-20 Permalink
I’m not arguing against what their priorities may or may not be in the Plateau/Mile End. I just don’t know that it’s a PM-wide thing. But I guess that doesn’t help anyone who doesn’t like what they’re doing in Plateau/Mile End.
qatzelok 19:06 on 2020-01-20 Permalink
Ian: “PM talks and talks about fighting gentrification but in the end it’s not in their best interests to do anything about it, as the city’s main source of revenue is the exact same commercial taxes that drive gentrification.”
Yes, but before going full out and blaming the current government, rememember, property in Montreal is mostly private, and there are some very powerful landlords out there that could do serious damage to any politician who tries to regulate their profit-making. Neither PM or any other political party can simply ‘take over’ all the leases and start changing things overnight. Even building massive amounts of subsidized housing affects private landlords, so it’s in THEIR interest to make sure no one does.
As long as we remain a capitalistic society, the market will do as it pleases, and our governments will continue to ‘inspire and motivate’ because there’s not a lot more that they can do short of abolishing most capitalism and replacing it with some kind of collective or state ownership.
This would require a revolution, and not a by-law.
Raymond Lutz 20:58 on 2020-01-20 Permalink
@qatzelok… hmm we need Alternative Models Of Ownership. OK, I know… Brexit killed the Labour Party.