The slide continues in the east of downtown Montreal, a neighborhood afflicted by all ills: homelessness, addiction, violence and incivility. Just not being able to take it anymore, the restaurant Le Passé compound, rue de Maisonneuve, has decided to relocate its activities outside the Gay Village. It’s another tile in a neighborhood lacking good news, despite Friday’s announcement of the redevelopment of the Voyageur block.
Like many merchants and citizens who have expressed their despair in recent years, the owners of the restaurant sent a nuanced message, saying they were “conscious and willing to help in a neighborhood where poverty is in full swing.” “. The citizens of Milton-Parc, who had denounced to the Ombudsman of the City of Montreal the deplorable living conditions of indigenous people experiencing homelessness, were of the same line of thought.
We are far from the “not in my backyard” caricature that certain community organizations wrongly portray to sweep any questioning under the rug.
But now Le Passé Composé has had enough of the addition of problems: fire, theft, vandalism, presence of syringes and excrement on its terrace, use of its installations as a makeshift camp, harassment of its employees and its customers . The decision to cut ties with the neighborhood is a mixed issue of security and business continuity. The observation is clear for the restaurateur appreciated by citizens. The Ville-Marie district is in the grip of “unprecedented decadence”.
The lack of resources and the “denial from the City authorities” prevent merchants from projecting themselves into the future of the neighborhood with confidence. The soaring prices and the obsolescence of the facilities also played a role in the decision, but the theme of the “decadence” of the neighborhood – visible and felt by all – played a large part in the move, as was the case for the closure of the The emblematic branch of Archambault at the corner of Berri and Sainte-Catherine.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante unveiled a plan last June to bring peace to the Village. The increase in police surveillance, the addition of cleanliness brigades, the increased availability of the Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention Team, urban redevelopment and animation are part of the range of measures put in place. Tensions are still high, and progress is not significant.
We reiterate that it is time to declare a state of health emergency in this neighborhood and decriminalize drug use, one measure among others to slow the inexorable slide of the east side of the city center. We are dealing with a public health crisis. In a fairly circumscribed quadrilateral, worrying phenomena are concentrated: homelessness, psychological distress, open drug consumption, petty crime and insecurity. The addition of these risk factors exposes the neighborhood to irremediable impoverishment.
There is still hope, development initiatives to come and a community that believes in the revival of the downtown east side. The problem is that none of the actors present, among the business, political and institutional circles, has all the powers and resources at their disposal to accomplish this miracle. And none has the ascendancy, in terms of leadership, to unite all the stakeholders around a sustainable recovery. This role should naturally fall to the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, but she did not give the impression of having this ability to come together on this issue. Defeatism and isolation are the terms that come to mind.
On Friday, the Plante administration took a long-awaited step toward the revitalization of the Voyageur Sud island (Berri and de Maisonneuve), which has been in disrepair for 10 years. The City is launching a call for tenders for a project of 700 housing units, with 20% social and affordable housing, a commercial and community offer. This will be a test of the speed of the Plante administration and the effectiveness of its Regulations for a mixed metropolis, which raises questions even among developers driven by a sense of social responsibility.
The selection of the bidder will take place in the fall, and the work should begin in the summer of 2025. Between the mess surrounding the initial project (led at the time by UQAM) and the first shovelful of earth, it will have been necessary wait 20 long years. To its credit, the City only took possession of the site in 2019.
Overall, it is a powerful reminder of the slowness of public administrations in general in delivering major projects. Reserved lane on Pie-IX, extension of the metro, tramway in Quebec, expansion of the Museum of Contemporary Art, redevelopment of the Institut des Sourdes-Muettes: so many examples of heaviness and laborious achievements. Except downtown east doesn’t have the luxury of time to slow the slide.