Phillips Square kiosks to fall
It was initially reported as long ago as November 2017, but now the kiosks on Phillips Square face imminent removal and won’t be back after the square is renovated. The owners, offered spaces in Jean-Talon or Atwater markets, have said no: their clientele is downtown and they want to stay there.
Steve Q 23:41 on 2018-12-23 Permalink
Bad decision by the Plante administration, These two small kiosk are very charming and a definite plus to that square. If they are to enlarge the square, there should be room for these two kiosk.
I don’t want to see bixi rack or toilet in that square.
Kate 10:52 on 2018-12-24 Permalink
There’s already a long Bixi rack along the east side of Phillips Square in season, Steve. And there were toilets there years ago, underground, as there were in Place d’Armes at the time, which isn’t to say I’d welcome the sight of those big auto-pissoirs the city bought into last year.
The city tends to de-commercialize spaces when it redoes them. There was at least one commercial kiosk around the northern edge of Place d’Armes once, selling flowers, but when they redid the square a couple of years ago it vanished. You can still see it in the 2009 shot from Streetview.
Mind you, there’s seemingly still a flower kiosk at the southern edge of Victoria Square, not far from the metro entrance on St-Jacques. At least, it’s still there on Streetview in August 2016 and I’m pretty sure I saw it there earlier this year. But that square is bigger and more varied than Place d’Armes or Phillips Square.
I think maybe the philosophy is: if you can see the whole square at a glance, don’t clutter it up with random commercial offerings. It’s rough on those kiosk owners, but the decision will visually declutter the square.