The pandemic and its restrictions have led us to take over streets, parks and other common spaces within cities, through ephemeral and transitional developments (pedestrianization of certain arteries, installation of street furniture, wastelands and alleys). However, these initiatives of appropriation of the urban environment for a common use have shown that a deep need to link public spaces to the ways of living the city on a daily basis is essential.
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Urban environments as they are currently structured have been designed largely with productivity in mind. They allow citizens to move quickly and have easy access to a wide range of goods and services. What the pandemic has shown us is that humans also need to invest in spaces to “create” community there without there necessarily being any link with any capacity for productivity. Citizens want to experience public space and rebuild it slowly.
From this perspective, the urban fabric is mainly articulated around the development of neighborhoods and a gentrification of post-industrial spaces in the east of downtown Montreal, in particular. The shores, which have recently been reinvested and explored by citizens, represent a key space for this development. We must learn to revalue them and rebuild them slowly.
Giving water a new central role
Formerly a central element around which cities were built and the economy developed, water seems to have lost its letters of nobility in terms of socialization and daily space, in favor of the transport of goods and the evacuation of industrial production. Rendered inaccessible, diverted, polluted, dried up or denatured for the benefit of industrialization, Quebec’s bodies of water have lost their luster in the collective imagination. However, because of their multiplicity in the territory and the shared desire to access them, they offer numerous opportunities for the creation of joint projects.
In addition, while environmental protection is a major issue for the entire planet, developing the shores and making them accessible to citizens helps to recreate a strong link between humans and water, highlighting the need and the urgency of taking concrete measures to protect this vital resource.
The conditions for success
How do we ensure that shoreline development will benefit both society and the environment? Decision-makers and promoters must think about projects collectively, by mobilizing the different sections of the community upstream: citizens, NPOs, local authorities, universities, schools, cultural, artistic and even industrial environments.
The logic should not be to do at all costs, but to rebuild slowly, in a sustainable and thoughtful way, by committing to an ecological and social transition.
The entertainment industry could see it as an avenue for development. However, a hegemony of this sector should not ensue, as is the case in certain sectors and certain public places in the city of Montreal, in particular. The development of these spaces should not be thought out solely in such a way as to host events, but also taking into account the needs of citizens. Water must remain a public space and accessible to the population.
Urban development and design practices must now be integrated into a post-growth context. The flaws of urbanity must be highlighted and proposed as challenges and projects to communities for the collective good.
* Co-signatories: Emilie Gagnon and Pierre Moro-Lin, founding members of the urban design and events cooperative Le Comité; Anouk Bélanger, professor in the department of social and public communication at UQAM