BBC
Montreal needs to start cleaning up its act or risk losing the cachet that lures travellers to the city, the head of Tourisme Montreal warned yesterday.
Speaking before the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal to an audience that included an unamused Mayor Gerald Tremblay, Charles Lapointe called on politicians and business leaders to start making cleanliness and quality of service a priority.
In a slide-show presentation, Lapointe detailed a litany of urban decay, including cigarette butts littering city streets, overflowing garbage cans, public benches with peeling paint and graffiti everywhere.
"I am calling on the business community and the political community to pay more attention to the quality of the services we render to the city," he said.
"I want the downtown core to be the most beautiful in North America, and right now, we are far from it."
Montrealers, Lapointe said, have become so used to the city looking "ugly," they no longer see the burned-out street lights, the tiles missing from highway tunnels, the holes on downtown streets where trees are supposed to go or the graffiti-stained overpasses.
But tourists do, he said, evidenced by numerous comments on international websites.
"We don't have any major investments in new big tourism projects, so we have to make sure that what we have - an inhabited downtown, a very lively downtown core - we have to make sure we keep that beautiful," Lapointe said.
"And I think that over time, if we don't pay attention to quality, we may pay dearly for it."
Numerous examples exist of private corporations doing their part for urban beautification, Lapointe said. He cited private and public gardens created by companies like Alcan,
Domtar and SNC-Lavalin around their head offices downtown, or Power Corp.'s funding of the Beaver Lake Pavilion restoration project on Mount Royal.
As an incentive to others, Lapointe said, his private, non-profit agency was donating $100,000 to Destination Centre Ville, an association of merchants and properties committed to beautifying the downtown core, to clean up Peel St., where his offices are located.
Reaction to his slide show was mixed - audience members liked it, Lapointe said, but Board of Trade president Isabelle Hudon criticized the "demoralizing tone."
Tremblay was cold, saying he was doing what he could.
Darren Becker, a city spokesperson, noted the city has committed unprecedented amounts of money to repairing the city's crumbling infrastructure and put $66 million toward cleanliness in 2006 and again in 2007. But the results are not immediate, and residents have to play a role as well, he said.
Montrealers are fond of patting themselves on the back, but not so good at taking criticism, Lapointe said.
When British marketing guru Simon Anholt, who advises governments on brand management in tourism, came here last spring, he commented that on the drive from Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport to downtown, he thought he was in the wrong country.
"He said he thought he was in Kazakhstan," Lapointe said. "We didn't like that.
"But to an extent, he was right."
rbruemmer@thegazette.canwest.com
Heritage groups upbeat
Say provincial body must heed outcryQuebec's toponymy commission will have little choice but to reject the proposal to change the names of Park Ave. and Bleury St., a coalition of Montreal heritage groups predicted yesterday. |
Aislin archive February 12, 2007
Monday Jan 8, 2007 
Don't write off Park Ave. yet, opponents of name change say
Remember Park Ave., that ragtag artery of reversible bus lanes and pricey views of the mountain, a ...
"The night of that vote was a turning point," said Maria Griffiths, general manager of CKDG 105.1 FM and one of the leaders of the Save Park Ave. movement.
"We were 720 citizens standing outside city hall in the freezing rain. We looked up and saw them looking down at us from warm, well-lit rooms, and some of us said: 'Enough is enough.' "
Griffiths and four others who work on the avenue - Jimmy Zoubris, Chris Karidogiannis, Elias Hondronicolas and Mario Rizzi - pooled resources to hire lawyers Julius Grey OWN and Sui Mei Chiu to represent them before Quebec's Commission de toponymie, the body that will rule whether the city's choice of street name will become official.
2006
Tuesday Oct 31, 2006 Tremblay grilled on Park
Protest moves to City Hall. No reprisals against party members opposed to name change, mayor says
Friday Oct 27, 2006 
Retailers willing to wage court battle
Park merchants confront mayor on renaming: Helen Fotopulos, mayor of the Plateau Mont Royal borough, leaves Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay's office yesterday with Dimitri Galanis, president of the Park Ave. Merchants Association. Fotopulos was targeted in anti-renaming pamphlets distributed during rush hour
Montreal October 22, 2006 MAKE no mistake: visiting Montreal is not like going to Paris. True, the brooding facades and crooked streets of Old Montreal feel distinctly European, and yes, the locals take their French seriously.
 |
 |
36 Hours in Montreal A lively patchwork of gleaming skyscrapers, bohemian enclaves and high-gloss hideaways now outshines the city's gritty industrial past. • 36 Hours: City by City |
nyt Montreal Travel Guide
A collection of free articles and multimedia from The Times as well as hotel, restaurant, sightseeing information and travel tips from Fodor's.
Hôtel Le Saint-James
National Post, June 22, 2006 Suburban thrall: Montreal's expansion strategy will keep its economy competitive
For various reasons, Montreal has been losing economic ground to Toronto and other North American urban areas over the last decades. But this could be changing. Politics and infrastructure are combining to substantially improve the competitiveness of the Montreal region. Article by Wendell Cox, MEI Senior Fellow photos
MEI June 20, 2006 Montreal gaining a competitive edge as Toronto and Vancouver adopt anti-suburbanization measures, says a new study
Thursday, June 01, 2006 Politicians should admit it
The city of Montreal is too big: Budget deficit stems from the fact the megacity can't control costs
HENRY AUBIN, The Gazette
Peter Trent had a ready response before the mergers whenever he was asked what life would be like in mega-Montreal. The leader of anti-merger forces would say that during the first five years services would decline somewhat and that taxes would only rise moderately. But in the sixth year, he predicted, the city would enter grim financial straits.
Bingo.montrealgazette/
Enlarge Mayor Gerald Tremblay
Portrait by Ted Romer |
Thursday Jan 5, 2006 rci MONTREAL: RECORD TONNAGE PREDICTED AT PORT OF MONTREAL Dominic Taddeo, the president of the Port of Montreal, is expecting the port to set a record in total tonnage in 2006. Mr. Taddeo said that growth in container traffic and petroleum products should help the port handle as much as 25 million tonnes. The Montreal port handled 24.2 million tonnes in 2005. Mr. Taddeo also predicted that the recent takeover of CP Ships, the port's largest customer, by TUI AG of Germany should be positive for the port. The total cargo handled by the Port of Montreal last year included 11.1 million tonnes of container traffic, a fourth consecutive record for that category. Mr. Taddeo was at a ceremony honouring the captain of the first ship to reach the port in the New Year, the CP Ships container vessel CP Bravery from Lisbon, Portugal. CP Ships and its Montreal terminals dominate the container business in Montreal.
CBC Montreal: Year in Review Quiz
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 gaz Exploding myths about demerged cities' taxes
Councils to set rates, not committee. Suburbanites often will pay less than they would have paid in megacity
by ANTHONY HOUSEFATHER
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 gaz City to get new agglomerated council
MONTREAL -- The future agglomerated council of the Island of Montreal will be made up of 31 members, 16 of which will be representatives of the city of Montreal.
The mayor of the city will inherit the presidency of the agglomerated council and the votes from the city will count for 87 per cent, in proportion with its large population.
The municipalities will have 15 representatives and their votes will count for 13 per cent.All the members of the agglomerated council will be linked to their respective municipalities.
Minister of Municipal Affairs Nathalie Normandeau announced the changes after studying a report from the transition committee.
The report suggested an agglomerated council be made up of 80 members.
The council of ministers now have to ratify the change.
Normandeau said there needs to be a light and flexible structure put in place to deal with the $2.5 billion annual budget.
Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005 gaz Play about Montreal's structure is a comedy of errors
HENRY AUBIN The Gazette
, has to stand out as one of the lowest of the many lowpoints in the six-year attempt to revamp local government on Montreal Island. A conflict among three characters - principled elder statesman, clueless provincial minister and angry mayor - crystallized the madness of the Quebec government's whole "reform" effort. It was a day fit for a playwright.
Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005 gaz Size does seem to make a difference.
Size of island council, tax hikes trouble MNAs
Transition report Suburbs might boycott meetings, Westmount's Chagnon says
Too many or too few Montreal city councillors on the post-demerger island council could undermine its success, local MNAs said yesterday. They also expressed concern about unexpectedly high tax hikes predicted for the demerging suburbs - in the case of Dollard des Ormeaux, 23.4 per cent.
The island council - responsible for big-ticket items like police, firefighters, public transit, water and sewer services - should be representative of the whole island, said Jacques Chagnon, Liberal MNA for Westmount-Saint-Louis.
The Montreal transition committee recommended Thursday a 79-member island council, including the mayor of Montreal, the 63 city councillors and 15 representatives of the demerged suburbs.
Saturday Oct 15, 2005 gaz would be wrong to exaggerate the influence of Icann Can Concordia save the West End?
When the Habs left the Forum, the surrounding neighbourhood went into a slump. AMC and Le Faubourg failed to bring it back. A burgeoning university might have more staying power
by MARY LAMEY
The western end of Montreal's main shopping drag has become the land that street life forgot. The economic boom that brought investment and fresh retail vigour (Urban Outfitters, Zara and Caban, to name a few) to the downtown core in recent years, bypassed the Atwater to Guy corridor almost entirely.
At one end, the Pepsi Forum is on the sales block. The home of the AMC Theatre has yet to find its feet as an shopping and entertainment palace. At the other end, the Faubourg Ste. Catherine is in transition.
The ground floor is under renovation and half its retail space vacant. In between, the boarded shell of the Seville Theatre remains a barrier to development 20 years after going dark. Street people haunt the doorways, corners and Cabot Square
Wednesday Oct 12, 2005 gaz What the heck is going on? ...before Montreal enters the demerged era, the people of this island still don't know what the rules of their democracy will be.
Monday Apr 25, 2005 MONTREAL: YEAR-LONG CELEBRATION OF LITERATURE GETS UNDERWAY Writers, publishers and scores of book lovers gathered in Montreal on Saturday for the official launch of a year-long celebration of books and literature. UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, chose Montreal as the World Book Capital for 2005---the first time that a city in North America has been awarded the title. Montreal's mayor Gerald Tremblay said that the honour is a unique opportunity to publicize writers living in the city and elsewhere in the province of Quebec. The federal government and the Canada Council for the Arts each pledged CDN$1 million for activities relating to the literary celebrations.
Sunday Apr 24, 2005 MONTREAL: CANADIAN CITY IS WORLD BOOK CAPITAL
Montreal became UNESCO's World Book Capital for 2005-2006 on Saturday. It's the first time that a North American city has won this distinction, which was previously conferred on Madrid, Alexandria, New Delhi and Antwerp. Many book-related events are scheduled in Montreal, including the opening of the city's new Grande Bibliotheque or Central Library at the end of the month.
Friday Jan 28, 2005
City rich with creativity, guru says
Montreal has the potential to become one of the brightest creative-sector economies in the world, the scholar who coined
"creative class" as an urban economic philosophy said yesterday.
Richard Florida, author of the widely praised The Rise of the Creative Class, could barely contain his enthusiasm for the region at a Montreal Board of Trade luncheon yesterday.
Friday Jan 28, 2005 Tremblay 'the worst,' blues say
Montreal has never had an administration more hostile to its blue-collar workers than that of Mayor Gerald Tremblay, a spokesperson for the city's blue-collar employees' union says. [good, they must not price us out with higher taxes]
Montreal | ville.montréal.qc.ca
The real (old) Montréal
INDUSTRIAL "CITÉS": A POLICY BASED ON QUESTIONNABLE BELIEFS by Michel Kelly-Gagnon, past MEI's Executive Director
According to a MONTREAL ECONOMIC INSTITUTE (MEI) study, nothing indicates that industrial “cités” are a financially sound policy for Quebec taxpayers or an effective development tool for Quebec companies.
