Police have nicknamed the northeastern part of Montreal North Bronx (at least since the time of Fredy Villanueva’s death and probably long before), and not everyone involved with that community is thrilled with the association.
Curiously, there’s also a section of Lasalle known as Bronx.
Quebec is giving the Resilience Centre, beside Cabot Square, $600,000 to find a permanent address. La Presse adds that the city is prepared to add another $100,000 for temporary digs. The centre has 4 months to vacate the building that used to be a McDonald’s next to the square.
It’s good that government is looking into funding a space, although the amounts named are not close to the figure that would be necessary to buy a multipurpose building downtown. Why then do I find myself wondering what the developer of the old Children’s Hospital site has used for leverage on the province and the city to spur them to move the indigenous population out of the square?
Maybe it’s the down payment?
Wondering the same thing:
https://globalnews.ca/news/7490267/homeless-advocates-cabot-square-skating-rink/
This article provides more details:
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/province-city-commit-funds-to-help-day-shelter-find-a-permanent-home
TVA looks at the complicated process of taking down the old Champlain bridge while minimizing the environmental impact to the river.
Quebec’s seen nearly 1900 new cases of Covid and tallied 40 additional deaths over the last 24 hours. François Legault has warned us he’ll probably announce stricter pandemic measures next week.
Whatever your politics, you’ve got to feel for the people currently in power – Trudeau, Legault, Plante. Would any of them have chosen to run for office if they’d been shown a preview of 2020? And whatever else history remembers of them, how they handled the pandemic will almost certainly be one of the main things mentioned.
Then again, most government leaders have higher approval ratings than a year ago…
Even though the U.S. border is, in theory, closed (a closure prolonged at least till January 21), vehicles with American plates have been seen around the Mile End and Outremont. The Journal says that people with dual citizenship or local family are visiting from the U.S. to celebrate Hanukkah.
There are supposed to be clear 14 day quarantine rules for people coming into Canada, with spot checks. What went wrong with the follow up?
I’ve been seeing cars with US plates in Cote des Neiges/Queen Mary/Westmount, as well. I was wondering what was going on. And I echo Jeather’s question.
The two buildings that were bought this week are part of a new strategy by the city to nab properties from the jaws of speculators and turn them into social housing.
The 30-month worksite on Plaza St-Hubert is finally over and the street is open again from Bellechasse to Jean-Talon. The project came in on time and on budget.
There are still some trees to be planted I think, and there’s a huge shortage of bicycle racks.
The final result looks nice; wider, more open and much more inviting for pedestrians. Officially the maximum speed is 20km/h and cars have to yield to cyclists and pedestrians but that (surprise!) doesn’t really happen yet. But because there is less parking, and only one driving lane, there are often enough cars waiting for, or backing up, for parking and that keeps the speed and traffic low.
Unfortunately a lot of merchants didn’t survive the long street closure and then the lockdown on top of it. There are some specialty stores that are destinations and probably will survive, but also a lot of outlets and cheap clothing stores with razor-thin margins that have closed or will close soon. The rents are pretty high, aimed at fancy stores and gentrification. I’m curious if, in the current situation, anybody will fill those many empty storefronts. There are large ugly gaps with one ‘for rent” sign next to the other, if would be great if the merchant association would commission some neighbourhood artists to make temporary “murals” on the windowpanes. Or let artists put their art on display for free, until that store is rented. That way the street would look more inviting, both for shoppers and for future shopkeepers.
(If only I was the boss of Montreal…)
The other day I saw a statement by the SDC saying that there has been a net influx of businesses over the past two years (ie more new businesses opened than closed) which I can believe, since I don’t notice many more vacant storefronts than when construction started. The trend mare is describing above has been happening for at least 10 years.
The street really varies from block to block. Bélanger to Jean-Talon is very lively, with almost no vacant storefronts and lots of pedestrian traffic. Saint-Zotique to Bélanger is a weird black hole as it has been for several years now. Below Saint-Zotique is where most of the gentrification is taking place and I expect there will be a lot of new businesses that open in the coming years – specialty shops, bars, restaurants.
Mare, do you have any specific figures for what rents are like on Saint-Hubert right now? I’d be curious to know.
@DeWolf Not exact figures, but one of my clients owns a store on St-Hubert (North of St-Zotique) and when construction was almost done on his block he wanted to rent the empty neighbouring store, but got severe sticker shock. Retrospectively he was glad because the past year he was just capable to pay the salaries of his employees, with the lockdown and construction.
Thomas H 15:58 on 2020-12-12 Permalink
A LaSalle native once told me that the part of LaSalle between the river and the Aqueduct Canal was called the Bronx, and that the larger area with all of the commercial streets (Newman, Shevchenko, etc.) was called Texas. I’ve never found anything to back up the Texas claim, but I’ve seen/heard the Bronx referred to before. Would love to know if it’s an outmoded name or if he was screwing with me (I’m quite gullible)
denpanosekai 17:50 on 2020-12-12 Permalink
We have the Bronx library and the Quincaillerie Bronx.
denpanosekai 17:52 on 2020-12-12 Permalink
*bookstore, not library. Anyway here’s the origins:
“Peu de gens savent qu’avant 1984, ce quartier était communément appelé« Le Bronx» à cause de sa trame orthogonale, de ses avenues numérotées et de sa rue Broadway.”
Marc R 20:52 on 2020-12-12 Permalink
Kate, I live in the (Lasalle) Bronx and it’s very much a thing. There are a group of small business owners who’ve been kicking off some projects recently, one of which is a (pretty good) local newspaper called “Nouvelles d’ici” (https://nouvellesdici.com/montreal/lasalle/bronx/). There are Bronx hats for sale in some of the local businesses, a “Comité catalysateur” and a few other initiatives happening.
Never heard of “Texas” though!
Kate 20:53 on 2020-12-12 Permalink
Marc R, thanks!
Bill Binns 11:49 on 2020-12-13 Permalink
This is hilarious. The Bronx in NY is a rich tapestry of immigrants from every country on Earth. The Bronx is controlled by poor black and brown people who choose their own politicians and have complete control over what they want their borough to be. They even kicked out Amazon! Quite simply, the Bronx is exactly what it’s residents want it to be.
Now why would the folks in Montreal North consider it a slur to be associated with the good people of the Bronx? Sounds pretty racist. Perhaps they would prefer if the cops used “The Hamptons”?
CE 12:45 on 2020-12-13 Permalink
In Bogotá, Colombia, until recently there was an open-air drug market a couple blocks from the presidential palace which was universally known as El Bronx. I think it’s a nickname that has often been applied to places with bad reputations over the years, not just in Montreal.
MarcG 13:05 on 2020-12-13 Permalink
Bill, it’s not what the word means to you that matters – it’s what the cops mean by it and what the community it’s directed at understands it to mean. You sound just like someone saying “the N-word just means black person – what would they prefer to be called?”.
Blork 13:20 on 2020-12-13 Permalink
If nothing else, this is a testament to how long a reputation sticks, even long after it’s no longer valid.
The Bronx of the 1970s was, indeed, a lawless borough rampant with crime. The population was almost entirely composed of non-white people and the police force was almost entirely white. It was a war zone, and not just with drugs and robberies, but with burned out apartment buildings and whatnot. Like a third-world situation right there in New York.
It’s nothing like that at all now, but for people who don’t know how to change their minds — and particularly for people who have never even been to the Bronx but base their ideas on movies from the 70s and 80s — it will always be that version of the Bronx.
Michael Black 14:05 on 2020-12-13 Permalink
In 1982 we walked through the South Bronx. A lot seemed bordered up. It was in bad shape economically (which led to other problems).
Tne current state is probably because it was so bad then. I can think of at least one humanitarian group that set up there at the time.
Dave T 23:12 on 2022-10-07 Permalink
It’s now in Wikipedia, in the 1950s New York businessmen built rowhouses in that area and called in the Bronx. Although the Quebec govt. Has changed the name . THe area’s name is not folklore for there was once an elementary school called Bronxpark that closed in the 70’s
Kate 09:25 on 2022-10-08 Permalink
Thanks, Dave T. But you’ve replied to a thread that’s almost a year old, so I don’t know who’ll see it besides me.