[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

yeah, and a concerted effect to repair the damage to the street-level wrought by several decades of catastrophic development policy and a history of failed social housing projects and mafia-backed proposals. there are so many empty lots in the downtown core that i avoid certain streets entirely (parts of bishop, mckay, city councillors, mayor, union, virtually everything between rene-levesque and saint-cath from guy to lorimier, the ville-marie/craig stretch, the list is nearly endless). we fix those in a way that creates consistent streetscapes and rebuilt retail walls, and we're going to have an amazing city, like once we did.

I agree with you, and I'm less concerned with highrise or skyscraping than with bringing back the buzz that used to exist before highways and other things wreaked havoc on St Antoine, Notre-Dame and the area around Windsor station for instance. Looking at old pictures, it is hard to imagine how vital streets were sacrificed for ugly massive and nondescript infrastructure.