Village merchants consider closing
Owners of bar-terrasses in the Village say they’re considering closing: their clientele has dried up because the area doesn’t feel safe after many violent incidents nearby.
Update: Police claim they’re doing what they can to make the area safer.
Ephraim 11:41 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
Are they hoping that the city will throw money at them? That police can actually do something? I mean, the village has always been a tough place to operate…. so much drugs, alcoholics and homelessness. But the only thing the police can do is patrol
DeWolf 11:59 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
The Village has always been a bit edgy, but the edge has gotten really sharp – there are a lot of really high and really drunk people who are constantly doing unpredictable and anti-social things like randomly screaming at passersby or smashing bottles everywhere. It’s not a good scene. At the same time, a ton of businesses closed during the pandemic, which created a vicious circle: there’s less to do in the neighbourhood, so fewer people go, and as fewer people go, there’s even less reason for them to visit.
I’m optimistic about the Latin Quarter because the foot traffic it lost during the pandemic is finally coming back. And other parts of Centre-Sud like Ontario Street are doing pretty well. But Ste-Catherine between Beaudry and Papineau metros is quickly becoming a black hole.
Daniel 13:33 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
For sure it’s a vicious cycle, DeWolf.
And I don’t want to be “old man screams at cloud” here, but for sure young people have other places to meet people and other ways to do it. The raison d’être for a gaybourhood is disappearing. Not to say with the right mix of businesses, social services, etc it couldn’t come back. But it’s up against economic, social and technological (i.e., phones/apps) headwinds.
Blork 13:43 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
My prediction: the village will whither and die as a gayborhood within a few years. But it will unofficially re-launch elsewhere; not through any sort of planning, but by natural causes and gravitational effects. The new “village” will not even be so-named for a long time, it will just be known among people as something of a gaybourhood. Eventually (15 or so years from now) it will start to organize and wear the label of “village,” which will almost immediately make it more commercial and less appealing to those who will have come to like it by then. FFW another decade or two and it too will whither and die, but not for the same reasons why the current village is dying. It will die from lack of interest by its core demographic.
MW 13:57 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
The village’s current state is a direct result of the increased concentration of services in this area. A viable solution would be to evenly distribute these services throughout the city. The city likely hasn’t done this as they prefer the path of least resistance, presumably to avoid potential backlash from the local residents.
Ephraim 15:25 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
@Blork – You mean like how HoMa is sometimes called HoMo instead? The “village” changes every few decades. It used to be near Guy and Mackay many many years ago. But bars themselves aren’t doing that well anymore
DeWofl 15:58 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
There’s a few different areas with a large number of queer/gay/lesbian people. But the Village still has a role to play, the same way historic Chinatowns have a deep-rooted significance that none of the newer Chinese enclaves do.
DeWolf 15:58 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
(Above comment posted by DeWofl, my alter-ego.)
Ephraim 18:19 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
@DeWolf – You do realize that Montreal’s Chinatown was a Jewish neighbourhood before it’s current incarnation, right? See http://spacing.ca/montreal/2008/01/28/when-chinatown-was-a-jewish-neighbourhood/
Michael 18:35 on 2023-06-18 Permalink
This is what happens when you set up places where they can go and shoot up heroin into their veins.
Who knew having people shoot up heroin isn’t good for a neighbourhood. Encouraging this behaviour is what will lead us down the path of San Francisco.
DeWolf 00:50 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Yes Ephraim, I wrote that article you’re linking to…
Kate 01:12 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Oof.
walkerp 07:29 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Michael, have you been to San Francisco or are you just parroting right-wing talking points you got on social media?
Joey 09:02 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Bill Binns would’ve loved this.
MarcG 09:25 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
I got whiffs of Bill off of Michael’s bike path comment the other day, but this one really stinks of him.
walkerp 10:22 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Ah yes, I had forgotten about his stupid ass. We got ourselves a sock puppet here?
Kate 13:37 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
walkerp, I don’t think so, but it isn’t impossible.
“Michael” has made nearly 50 comments from the same email address starting in February 2022. Bill Binns’ final comment, from an unrelated address, was made in May 2021. There’s also no similarity in their IP numbers. None of this is conclusive, admittedly.
CE 14:04 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Michael is consistently using Canadian spelling which Bill never did.
walkerp 14:58 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Ah good to know. Well I’ll give Michael the benefit of the doubt and hope that somebody better versed than me can explain the reality of addiction and the generally accepted (by health care professionals and addiction specialists) superior approach of harm reduction.
Basically law & order has not worked to curb addiction and all the social ills that follow it, has actually made it worse. Safe injection sites have very little to do with the big increase in homelessness and opioid addiction in North American cities.
carswell 15:34 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
Whoever he is and wherever he’s from, if he’s going to regurgitate rightwing talking points (points for San Francisco bashing!), Michael needs to back up his assertions with some actual facts and trustworthy research. None of what he’s claimed is self-evident despite his appearing to think it is.
Kate 15:55 on 2023-06-19 Permalink
CE, very perspicacious of you!