The Montreal City Council approved plans for the Griffintown development Monday night with only three dissenting votes. Two came from Marvin Rotrand and Warren Allmand from the ruling Union Montréal and the third from Robert Bergeron, head of Projet Montréal. Rather sad to see such unanimity about a project that should be studied--and probably modified--much further.
There has been considerable comment, but none more eloquent than Jack Ruttan's terrific cartoon, which he posted on his website yesterday. Griffintown has been home to horses since it was first laid out at the turn of the 19th century. Recently the equine residents have been limited to those horses which draw calèches in Old Montreal, but their stables are threatened by the $1.3 billion redevelopment project.
The developers have made some improvements to their plan--see Henry Aubin's article in The Gazette: "Better, But No Cigar"--but it is far from what a sustainable, walkable city like Montreal needs. As I said before, however, making sure Devimco does what it says it will do is perhaps a bigger problem than what will happen if doesn't. The danger is that it will build the shopping center complex and then beg off on the nearly 4,000 dwellings it says it will build. That would be a real catastrophe, and I'd like to know what kind of assurances the city has that Devimco will follow through.
1 comment:
No matter what the people want, the administration of Gerald Tremblay (and Michael Applebaum and friends in the Borough of NDG) will do what they please.
This is not a government of and by the people, but a small and powerful group within the City administration who are intent on their self interest.
They get very upset when anyone dares to challenge them. So it is important for the public to watch them closely and always expose the truth.
Phyllis Carter
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