Van Horne warehouse: a false choice
A good Le Devoir piece considers the Van Horne warehouse and the non‑choice being put before the public: “On nous offre deux options mises en fausse opposition : soit ce « complexe à multi-usage », comme nommé dans le sondage, soit la tombée en ruine du bâtiment… Le parc d’attractions ou l’apocalypse.”
The writer also makes points against the utility of a luxury hotel in that place while the city faces a housing crisis.
Spi 21:07 on 2023-02-10 Permalink
I get that it’s an OpEd and you can pretty much get away with saying anything without needing it to be factually true but who exactly would be displaced by this project as the author claims? Is there an underground community of mole people living underneath this building that I’m unaware of?
To say that the project is incompatible with the current social situation given the housing crisis is so disingenuous, have we forgotten the changes that have been enacted since the Lac-Mégantic tragedy? Notably that the city will not permit the construction of any residential projects within 30 meters of a main line. Guess how much of the site this covers? The entirety of it.
https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/ac52dde4-c04e-4e8c-91ba-223159079b69%7C_0.html
Kate 21:22 on 2023-02-10 Permalink
She points out that people stay in a hotel – they may not live there permanently, but if it becomes a hotel, people will be sleeping within 30 meters of that line.
The displacement will come from the gentrification that will follow from the creation of a project like that.
Spi 21:47 on 2023-02-10 Permalink
It may be a lapsus in the way the municipal rules were written but it is what it is. The argument she’s advancing is that equivalent of saying “well if I can’t get what I want, I don’t want anyone to get anything”
The whole mile end gentrification sob story has been going on for years. It’s been gentrified and gentrifying for over a decade now. Oh we love all the small boutiques and cafés and restaurants that are heavily frequented by tourist and helping said business meet their bottom line but we only want the benefits none of the inconvenience.
A point I saw brought up on reddit when this topic came up is that Mile-End and Petite-Patrie are the most popular neighbourhoods on Airbnb so a hotel would help fight the scourge of airbnb.
I’d like Ian our mile end resident to come in with a local perspective.
DeWolf 12:21 on 2023-02-11 Permalink
I agree with the writer that the building would be best suited as some kind of cultural hub. But that would require the city to spend millions of dollars purchasing it, and then tens of millions more converting it for public use. That’s a big ask when the city doesn’t even have money to make up for the STM’s deficit.
The reality is that if the city rejects the hotel proposal, the building will sit empty for years or decades to come, like the old sugar refinery in St-Henri or Silo No. 5. Would that be better than a hotel? Maybe, maybe not.
Joey 13:10 on 2023-02-11 Permalink
Is there a square inch of Mile-End that isn’t gentrified yet? Wouldn’t a nice Mile-End hotel alleviate some of the airbnb-induced pressure on the local housing market?
Kate 13:33 on 2023-02-11 Permalink
The streets over toward the warehouse in Mile End, and also nearby and north of it up the Main, are still not overly gentriified.