Cardinal: Plante has lost touch with what’s needed
Valérie Plante would be wise to read François Cardinal on Wednesday as he asks whether she’s lost touch with what the city needs. He acknowledges that the pedestrianization of streets like Wellington and Mont-Royal has been beneficial and popular, but thinks she’s gone too far in continuing to build the REV active transport system now – and he thinks she’s not paying enough attention to a traumatized city.
Here’s the Chapleau cartoon Cardinal mentions, published Tuesday.
Update: A response to Cardinal’s column defends Valérie Plante.
Tim S, 11:01 on 2020-09-02 Permalink
He talks about “le citadin moyen” and “Montréalais” but one thing about this crisis is it seems many of us have retreated into our neighbourhoods, and if there’s one thing Project has done pretty successfully, I think, is neighbourhood- level stuff, and I suspect many voters won’t punish them for it. A few people here have mentioned that downtown will have to become a neighbourhood like anywhere else (Vancouver’s West end has come up), and that might be a problem for people, like city beat journalists, who identify ‘downtown’ with Montreal, but on an electoral scale I don’t see people across the island being that motivated by the St-Denis bike path or the empty Quartier des Spectacles. Also, the mayor is elected by popular vote, so being popular in dense neighbourhoods that are getting the most benefit out of these measures is quite an advantage. A lot will depend on how good the Project councillors are at getting their local supporters out. We’ll see, I guess.
ross 11:05 on 2020-09-02 Permalink
Totally agree with you Tim.
DeWolf 11:11 on 2020-09-02 Permalink
What kind of mayor would arbitrarily suspend an infrastructure project that was an integral part of her electoral platform, has been in planning for three years, was officially announced more than a year ago, and is already half built – just because some very loud people on social media can’t deal with the emotional trauma of the pandemic?
The REV has undoubtedly become of symbol of certain people’s frustration with Plante. But it’s not Formula E, which was a boondoggle that benefited no one and lasted just a few days with nothing to show for it other than a sense of having been swindled. The REV is a network that will prevent more cyclist deaths and encourage more people to get around in a way that is healthy and ecologically responsible. It’s something that is meant to last years, like a much better version of the bike paths on Rachel and de Maisonneuve, both of which made huge strides in promoting bikes as a means of getting around.
Think of it in a political sense. Let’s say Plante announces that, okay, the REV will remain half-finished and it will stop at Gilford. Maybe she even goes one step further and rips out the already-built REV on de Bellechasse. She will not gain any votes. The angry, irrational “Plante is destroying Montreal! La mairesse c’t’une folle!!” crowd will never vote for her anyway. And the people who did vote for PM because of its 2017 electoral platform, including Plateau and RPP voters who are most affected by the REV and who have voted overwhelmingly for PM for years, will feel betrayed enough that they may never vote for PM again.
Maybe Plante won’t be reelected because people will remain furious about bike lanes for a full year, which I really doubt, because a year is a long time in the best of circumstances and in a pandemic we’re living in dog years. If that’s the case, better she go down swinging and leave a legacy that will long outlive the rage-addled baby boomers who hate cyclists.
Kevin 14:10 on 2020-09-02 Permalink
There are two solitudes in Montreal.
On one hand you’ve got people who hear about the wheelbarrows on Mont Royal Avenue and think “Oh that’s great, we need that.”
And on the other hand you’ve got the less physically able, the people who live more than 10 km from work, and the people who hate clowns.
Ian 20:21 on 2020-09-02 Permalink
I think what we are kind of dancing around in our comments, and the focus of the linked article here, is that Coderre was largely hated for being a ham-fisted autocrat, doing what he felt was right, and everyone else could go fly a kite.
PM was elected on the basis of being responsive and community centric, and that they are now turning out to be inflexible ham-fisted autocrats in their own right is burning through a lot of the political goodwill that they were elected under.
In times of trouble people want familiarity, that’s not rocket science. That Plante is jumping on this as an opportunity to change the city in perpetuity iooks opportunistic. Sure the REV was platform but so were lots of other things PM turned out to not have he political will to do anything about like gentrification or AirBnB etc. It really does look like this bike path business is their hill to die on. As I’ve said on this site before, I think they are so attached to this notion because it is one of the few things they can actually make happen without any real effort – that it is is ineffective and in some parts of town disliked has no bearing on this performative political action. hey need to seem effective to their core voters. If those voters will carry them through the next election remains to be seen, but the dislike felt toward them is not because of gender or even bike lanes, come down to it. It’s that a large proportion of voters feel betrayed by a party that was supposed to change everything but turned out to be just another bunch of jerks that do what they want without listening to the “little guy”.
At least Plante got Norris to finally keep his aggro act under his hat, but let’s get real – one year’s worth of memory is not that long when we are talking about…
Bagelgate
Clarke refection X 2
Constant changes on Remembrance
mismanagement of St Denis
Getting rid softball in the park for tennis yuppies
500 parking spaces eliminated (Rabouin’s election promise) turning into 800 in residetnial neighbourhoods
Ongoing “inability” to slow gentrification while we know property tax is their main revenue
Trying to solve downtown with clowns
Opportunistic and apparently random street closures
Heavily biased “surveys”
Lack of clarity around street changes (no notices to residents, etc.)
etc.
etc.
etc.
curious 14:05 on 2020-09-03 Permalink
And to replace one of Ian’s “etc.” her failure to keep her promise of giving the residents of Ville-Marie borough back their right to elect their own mayor, thereby preventing opposition to her vision for the downtown. i would gladly supply the link to the petition launched to correct this if that is allowed on this blog.