La Presse again on downtown
La Presse keeps up its theme on how downtown is doing OK except for office space. Once again, the tone veers perilously close to the idea that workers have a duty to go back to the office, giving their employers reasons to rent more square footage, and of course fritter their money in downtown restaurants and boutiques.
The report being cited is L’état du centre-ville.
Edited to add another La Presse piece on how public transit use is still only at 60% of pre‑pandemic levels. It seems likely that a lot of habits have changed and it will take time to coax people back onto buses and metro.
Edited again to add this QMI piece on an alliance to “save” downtown.
Blork 09:30 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
FWIW, I sort of miss the office. More specifically, I miss the social contact (this coming from an introvert) and I miss frittering my money in downtown restaurants. And after-work bars.
I do not miss the commute.
Frustrating: in early 2020 (just before the pando) you couldn’t find a decent slice of pizza anywhere near my office (near Concordia). A good slice is one of my favorite lunches. Now that I don’t work there anymore, there are TWO very good NY style slice joints within a couple of blocks. WTF?
Also: I loved getting the veggie thalie plate or channa samosa at Bhandari on de Maisonneuve. I miss that.
DeWolf 11:02 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
Transit ridership will not recover until the STM restores bus services to pre-pandemic levels – and that’s the bare minimum. Some major routes like the 45 have been cut to half hourly service which is a good way to push away any potential rider who has other options.
Em 11:06 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
I agree with DeWolf.
Buses that come less than every 20 minutes will be a last resort for people. I usually walk the 3.5 kilometres to work because the bus that would take me there in 12 minutes comes so infrequently that I can’t count on it.
jeather 12:02 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
Channa samosa is the absolute best. Thank you for showing me a new place to get it.
Kevin 14:26 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
I don’t understand why environmental groups are not lobbying just as hard to let downtown change to be more of a live-in neighbourhood, instead of a place you go to work. Lack of vision? Lack of organization? Pandemic fatigue?
Kate 14:59 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
DeWolf, I went out to take a bus the other day for an appointment, not too far away but I wanted to save time.
As it turned out, no bus was due for half an hour, so I walked, and got to my destination before the bus did.
It’s obvious that busy people have lost patience with the bus.
Kate 15:00 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
Kevin, it’s going to change regardless. Downtown is there to serve society as it is, not society as it was 20 or 40 years ago, no matter how much talk there is.
DeWolf 22:22 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
Kevin, I’m not really sure what you mean. There’s nobody stopping downtown from changing. Property developers will inevitably transform obsolete office towers into apartments and there’s nothing standing in their way. It’s just a matter of time.
Kevin 09:30 on 2022-06-07 Permalink
Kate, DeWolf
There have been ‘make workers commute to the office’ announcements ad nauseum for the past 18 months.
There have been many ‘build new social/affordable housing’ announcements.
I have not heard groups lobbying to keep people working remotely in order to fight climate change, nor have I heard groups lobbying to alter zoning to transform office space to housing.
I just find it odd that there’s a huge push for the status quo ante, but no voice calling for a radical, urgent change to how we use downtown. It’s as if the groups advocating for a 15-minute city are missing a giant opportunity.
Eg. The REM de l’Est. There was a lot of opposition, but I didn’t hear anyone saying that it was a pointless project because by the time it would be finished, housing and facilities would be altered so the Ville Marie borough’s population could double or triple.
Cadichon 11:36 on 2022-06-07 Permalink
@Kevin, housing can already be built as of right anywhere downtown.
Meezly 12:28 on 2022-06-07 Permalink
Probably because the WFH trend has produced a negligible effect in the improvement of carbon emissions (from googling a Harvard Business Review article) as there are many factors at play. I’m sure there are local community groups advocating for more sustainable urban planning, but with finite resources, environmental organizations do their research and target issues that have a direct cause and effect on climate change. There are probably bigger fish to fry than making downtown more livable.
DeWolf 11:51 on 2022-06-08 Permalink
Kevin, I think the reason for that is that everything you describe is already underway. There is a huge amount of residential construction downtown (25% increase in population over the past 5 years, with a similar increase to come), there is work underway to revamp and improve public spaces (Ste-Catherine, Peel, St-Antoine/Viger REV, new plazas like the Esplanade Tranquille and rebuilt Phillips and Viger squares, all the streetscape work and new parks under construction in Griffintown), and some very ambitious projects in the works (Molson Brewery, Radio-Canada, Esplanade Cartier). A 14-storey co-op just opened next to the Tours des Canadiens and it’s far from the only social housing being built. Maybe there should be a big PR campaign, but it’s not really needed to get the ball rolling.