Crescent Street slumbers on Grand Prix weekend
This would have been Grand Prix weekend. TVA visits a somnolent Crescent Street and talks to a couple of hotel and resto reps who say yup, things sure are quiet.
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Kate
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MarcG 21:46 on 2020-06-14 Permalink
I can’t be the only one who thinks the Grand Prix is the worst thing about this city – good riddance.
Douglas 01:07 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
I never understood Montrealers that would prefer the city and its businesses be less well off financially.
dwgs 07:50 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
There are those who love it, those who hate it, and those like me. I don’t really like it and think it’s a pain in the ass douchebag gathering but I know people who like it who aren’t douchebags and I know that a lot of local people profit from it so I just ignore it as best I can and avoid that part of town for a few days.
Kate 08:23 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
I’m in agreement with dwgs about it, pretty much.
Douglas, do you simply feel the weekend should be regarded with amoral satisfaction as making a lot of money, and we should ignore the pimping of underage girls and the drugs trafficked to supply that weekend normally?
Kevin 10:13 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
You’ve never heard people squeal with delight so much as when I brought some out of towners to the beach and they realized they were driving on the racetrack in a minivan.
We ended up doing 3 or 4 laps.
DeWolf 10:28 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
Grand Prix is certainly not my scene but I like the way it transforms Montreal into something almost unrecognizable. I can Bixi downtown, walk around for the afternoon and feel like I’ve been transported to Miami Beach. And then it’s over and the city goes back to normal.
CE 12:35 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
What I dislike most about the Grand Prix is how much more dangerous the city gets for cyclists and pedestrians (and probably drivers as well). A few times over those weekends and the days leading up to them, I’ve been nearly sideswiped or hit by luxury vehicles driving incredibly fast and dangerously. Considering many of these people don’t know how to drive a high end car, may not be familiar with the city, and feel a need to drive fast and recklessly on streets not designed for it, you’re bound to have conflict and collisions with the other road users.
Ian 16:11 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
@Douglas as Christmas is to retailers, Grand Prix is to coke dealers and pimps.
Not all business is of equal benefit to the greater good.
david882 18:01 on 2020-06-15 Permalink
I used to hate the Grand Prix (I don’t drive, mostly out of animus), but now I love it. The atmosphere is really great, and it folds Montreal into a cool international tradition.
The huge boon to the city’s businesses is worth the cost and disruption, and I can’t help but think that it’s tied in some ineffable/unprovable way except by anecdotal evidence to the resurgence in the city. When the ten projects hit back in 2011 or whatever to kick off this cycle, and the first real construction boom since the 1980s, I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that all ten projects were within a few minutes walk Grand Prix ground zero.
It’s also really neat that over the past decade every year that folks return for Grand Prix, the city has improved and evolved, so that if you’re an even half-observant tourist visiting once per year for GP, it’s impossible not to get the impression of a city on the move in interesting ways.