Vancouver is often called the most livable city in the world. After visiting Montreal, I wonder about the criteria.
What I saw was a city where decent rental housing was available for a couple hundred a month. Ownership is still possible under $200,000. The streets were very safe. The neighbourhoods are compact and walkable. The people are diverse and accommodating. Road rage is relatively non-existent. I saw very few panhandlers, none who would follow you with their story about running out of gas and needing to get back to Abbotsford. Though built out, it is green. Trees everywhere. They don’t seem infested with the kind of view-mania that nags BC trees to death. There are neighbourhood parks throughout. There is public art everywhere. Public festivals fill the calendar.
Montreal is a mature and confident city from which Vancouver cities have a lot to learn.
tobias c. van Veen Says:
September 26th, 2006 at 5:51 pmVisit tobias c. van Veen
Dear Matt: Having lived in MTL for a few years now, let me say ‘yes’ to everything you’ve written here but also pop your bubble:
1. Rents are escalating. Property rates have jumped some 60-70% over the past few years in all neighbourhoods.
2. There is culture because people a) smoke and b) don’t work and c) are alcoholics during the depressive winter.
3. There’s may not be road rage, there’s simply hit-and-run death strikes from cabbies. Cycling in this city is seriously dangerous. Nobody signals. Anyway, read the stats: Quebec has the worst accident rate in Canada. The construction holiday this year (when all the crews go on a holiday over the same 2 weeks, leaving the roads in shambles) resulted in some 12 or so deaths.
4. The city is polluted and recycling and environmental awareness are not nearly as ingrained as in Vancouver.
5. There is no view mania because err, there is no view.
6. The “parks” are nothing compared to Stanley Park. Mont Royal is a paved, controlled area.
7. Yes, if you live in the pricey Plateau you can walk anywhere but if you are in the depths of Cote-des-Neiges, by the highway, where the immigrants are, where they put the highway through decades ago — destroying the old black neighbourhood — you better be prepared for the worst slumlords in the country, spiralling rent, gangs, prostitution, etc.
8. Don’t forget the Hell’s Angels ran this town for many, many years.
Grass is always greener ..
tV