Montreal City Weblog

Kate 14:59 on 2020-10-09 Permalink Reply  

• Blork 23:47 on 2020-10-09 Permalink

  Thus ending the appeal of Verdun. People with long memories will remember that in 1997 Utne Reader magazine declare the Plateau one of the “hippest neighborhoods in North America” and look what happened. Within a year, vacancy was less than 1%, rents skyrocketed, tourists invaded, and the neighborhood became unrecognizable to what had made it “hip” in the first place.

• JaneyB 10:18 on 2020-10-10 Permalink

  I’m blaming the Jazz Festival for this. Still, I think vacancy should stay ok here – the borough forbids Airbnb’s and there are public notices indicating this on street lamps. More importantly, Verdun is still about a good third crazy people who grew up here. They’ve inherited their parents’ houses or leases. I still hear ‘missed his trial’ and ‘only manslaughter not murder’ when I’m on the bus or from balconies when I’m going for a walk. Ville Émard has a floaty, transient kind of crazy but with Verdun, it is loud and proud. Great cycling though!

• Kate 10:31 on 2020-10-10 Permalink

  I used to somewhat fudge the fact my folks were living in Verdun when I was born, and I spent my first nine years there. Not any more!

• MarcG 11:10 on 2020-10-10 Permalink

  There’s a tenants rights demo organized tomorrow at 1pm. https://www.facebook.com/VerdunEnsemble/. And can confirm that Verdun is still pretty weird and wild despite the changes, but much less so than 15 years ago when walking down Wellington at any time of day made me feel like a Very Together Person.

• Blork 16:07 on 2020-10-10 Permalink

  I’ve always wondered why Verdun hasn’t gentrified very much. Technically it has everything going for it; a lively shopping street, Metro stations, easy proximity to the river, including a beach (although that’s new) and that long park with bike paths, easy access to autoroutes, etc. Over the past few years I’ve found myself on Wellington in Verdun a number of times, and I always find myself thinking “wow, if I were to move back to the island this is where I’d live.” And yet…

• Ian 18:27 on 2020-10-10 Permalink

  It actually has gentrified quite a bit, but it’s slower in the SW. There were condos in St Henri even back in the late 80s along Ste Antoine but it only really took off as a gentrified neighbourhood some 20 years later.

  I think part of it is the psychology of being below the highway – and Verdun is one step further, below the canal. Also worth noting there are still a lot of poor people especially in the east end of Verdun, with a poverty rate a full 6% higher than the average across Montreal. https://www.centraide-mtl.org/documents/86354/upload/documents/Profile-Verdun-2018-19.pdf

  But yeah, enjoy being the coolest neighbourhood for now. It sure effed up Mile End, there’s a 2 bed on my street renting for 3k a month now. That’s well over double the average only 5 years ago. 4 and a halfs are going for 2k now. Outremont is in fact slightly less expensive than Mile End these days.

• Blork 23:28 on 2020-10-10 Permalink

  True story: in 1999 I moved from the Plateau to Westmount because Westmount was cheaper.

• dhomas 16:41 on 2020-10-11 Permalink

  I’m pretty sure Verdun started to become “cool” when they started to allow bars. I had many friends who lived in Verdun through the “dry” period who would gladly return now.

  https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/verdun-gets-its-first-bar-in-more-than-a-century-1.1282307

• MarcG 17:20 on 2020-10-11 Permalink

  Yeah that was a big turning point for sure Although there are still only a few actual bars where you don’t also need to order food (Benelux, Palco, Trefle, maybe Verdun Beach, maybe that new place on de l’Eglise?), trendy restaurants, cafés and young well-to-do people starting really rolling in after Benelux opened.