MONTREAL

A Citizen’s Guide to City Politics

Jean-Hugues Roy and Brendan Weston, editors

Montreal has suffered from every ill of urbanization. As a major world city it stands at the crossroads of change. The conventional municipal political parties present traditional choices about what can be done, but in the cafes and meeting halls other more imaginative policies are being debated. The debate is over the future. Montreal has one of the largest city councils among North American cities. Does this legislative body reflect these debates? Can this great international city, this crucible of important urban contradictions, become a city for people?

This citizen’s guide attempts to critically inform the reader of what has happened to Montreal since the demise of the Jean Drapeau era. Some of the city’s best known journalists, community activists, urbanists, politicians, and academics guide the reader through the maze of local politics. Montreal is scrutinized from every angle: housing and urban planning, ecology, public transportation, public health, its governing institutions and democracy, economic development, relations between ethnic groups, and crime. What emerges is a clear picture of the policies and actions that influence the development of Montreal, with a vision of what the future could be like given the will and the imagination.

“All our urban centers suffer from many of the same problems. We can all learn from Montreal's problems and solutions.”--Canadian Book Review Annual

“…the writing is high caliber… visible minorities speak for themselves, just as the MCM were permitted to do.”--McGill Daily

Among the contributors: Phyllis Lambert; Dinu Bumbaru; Joseph Baker; Lisa Jensen; Denyse Lacelle; Wayne Hiltz; Robert Lamarche; Tom Kosatsky; Billy Bob Dutrisac; Tom Naylor; Harold Chorney; Eric Shragge; Gilles Cormier; Jean-Pierre Wilsey; Michel Hudon; Claire Morissette; Heidi Modro; Jean Panet-Raymond; Arnold Bennett; Peter Wheeland; and Dimitrios Roussopoulos.

Jean-Hugues Roy is a journalist with La Revue Voir and Brendan Weston is a journalist with the Montreal Mirror.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Brendan Weston and Jean-Hugues Roy

URBAN FORM
Phyllis Lambert: Urban Heritage- Concerns and Challenges
Dinu Bumbaru: Conservation- Queen’s Hotel Post-Mortem
Joseph Baker: Livable Cities- The Downtown Master Plan

SHELTER
Lisa Jensen: Overdale- The Great Betrayal
Denyse Lacelle: Housing Crisis- Real Estate vs. Homes

ENVIRONMENT
Wayne Hiltz: Municipal Waste- Trash and Burn
Robert Lamarche: Green-space- The Grey City
Tom Kosatsky: Public Health- Toward Healthy Cities
Billy Bob Dutrisac: AIDS in Montreal-City Under Siege

ECONOMY
Tom Naylor: Business Prospects- Decline and Fall
Eric Shragge: Urban Poverty- The Politics of Need
Harold Chorney: Urban Economics- The Challenge of Full Employment
Gilles Cormier and Jean-Pierre Wilsey: Community Development- Southwest Model
Michel Hudon: City-run- Development Corporations and Banks

TRANSPORT
Claire Morissette: Streets That Breathe- Controlling Cars

SOCIAL JUSTICE
Heidi Modro: Women and Public Security- Violence Against Women
Brendan Weston: Race and Ethnicity- Euphemisms vs. Action
Jean-Hugues Roy: South Africa- Apathy Against Apartheid
Brendan Weston: Militarism- Montreal’s Nuclear-Free Zone

POWER POLITICS
Jean Panet-Raymond: Democracy- Decentralisation: Discourse and Reality
Interview with Marianne Favreau: Promises- The MCM’s Credibility Gap
(Melancon, Rotrand, Goyer, Boskey, Bastien): Resignations- MCM Councilor’s Letter
Arnold Bennett: Dissent- Why I Stayed in the MCM
Marcel Sevigny: Dilemma- Pointe St. Charles in the MCM

ELECTORAL FORMATIONS
Peter Wheeland: The MCM Splinter- The Alternate Parties
Brendan Weston: Civic and Municipal Parties- Parting on the Right
Dimitrios Roussopoulos: Urban Ecology- Toward a Green City

EDITORS’ CONCLUSION