No post body was provided.
Montreal is what North America could be
21–30 of 119 posts
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#22And he didn't even mention Habitat 67!
https://www.habitat67.com/en/
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#23I live in Montreal. One thing that is remarkable here is that even with 2M people, there are no ghettoes. Rich neighborhoods are generally mixed in with poorer ones. It's a great city to live in and to raise a family.
crime is on the rise, there's shootings and stabbing every week ... some neighbourhood are not save during night time. I'm not sure we're talking about the same Montreal here
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#24Rent is cheap because people are leaving the xenophobic environment. There's always some referendum talk on a 20 year cycle to keep the rates low, 70s, 90, 10s. So yeah there's a huge Brain Drain from Anglo/English speaking Immigrant populations, as well as people fed up with the corruption.
Wow, what a take. I seriously doubt that people in Montreal/Quebec are more or less xenophobic than the average North American; if you have data supporting this I'd be happy to change my mind.
Also please be more skeptical of thoughts of the form "X is Y because of hot take Z". Reality is complex and things have many causes. Montreal has a long history of doing city planning differently than other cities in Canada.
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#25I wonder what historical forces led to this different type of development. Already by the time of the American Revolution, the Quebecois were ambivalent at best towards their erstwhile mother country, so I don't think it's a matter of continued French influence over the centuries.
I think much of it has to do with how old the city is. It’s about as old as New York City but didn’t have the same level of explosive growth, which I suspect gave it time to settle in and grow more like a European city. The somewhat limited island space would have also contributed to denser growth.
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#26something the author doesn't point out is new development in Montreal. you can see the patch of green to the east of the Montreal housing map where Griffontown and North Verdun (the more recently developed areas of the city) are moving towards condo style housing. rent prices have been trending higher too, but I suppose you could say that about the rest of the country too. not criticizing the post, and it's one of my…
So the problem is the new development or what? Aren't more people people require more hosing? Or you have something different in mind by ' the problems are coming here too'?
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#27Corrupt and slowly dying city without any strong industry to keep it grounded including some pretty intense language laws. I think Montreal was amazing in the 60s and has been slowly dying since. Great to visit in the summer though!
For Americans: the description above summarizes most of the prejudices Canadians feel about Montreal. Like most prejudices they might start from a grain of truth but take it too far.
Montreal has lots of corruption[1]. Most of it is related to public construction and activities of traditional organized crime (Mafia and Camorra). But these are "lots" by the civilized Canadian standards, Montreal is still better than the overwhelming majority of the world. Besides, when it comes to Mafia/Camorra activities, Toronto is not much better. Also, when it comes to government relations with party donors, I think Alberta just does a better work of hiding corruption, it is rotten all the same.
"Without strong industry" means that Montreal lost its manufacturing sector to China and Mexico, like so many North American cities. However I'd argue that the city has managed to develop a good technology sector (particularly in software) and an active cultural industry.
"Including some pretty intense language laws" is probably the most correct sentence above. The language laws in Quebec are, IMO, very stupid. But, because Montreal is the place with most Anglophones in Quebec, the city is were the anachronism of these laws becomes more obvious.
[1] https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-most-corrupt-provinc...
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#28Montreal housing remains affordable because the economy is crap but the social net (which the rest of the country pays for) is strong.
A tourist’s view (spending one whole week) is not representative of living there and should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#29The author is using Toronto as a stand-in for a typical North American city, when in fact it's actually pretty bizarre and unique with respect to density-- I can't think of any American city structured similarly.
Re: Montreal is what North America could be
#30Although I agree with the spirit of the post, the critique of what 'feels' nice and livable is highly debatable, and I believe intensely culture-specific.
I was born and grew up in a very dense, urban city in Europe, and I love big, dense cities. They feel fun and lively, while suburbs feel empty and eerie. On the other hand my wife grew up in the countryside, so for her suburbs are quite and peaceful while cities are dirty and noisy.
Also one can cherry pick beautiful/horrible examples of any kind to make their point.