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Old Posted Jan 6, 2019, 6:08 PM
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MTLskyline MTLskyline is offline
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Cities Held Hostage: Who Owns Montreal?

Seen this documentary a few times. It's an interesting look at the forces that developed Montreal in the mid-to-late 20th century and early 21st century.

It came out back in 2017, but I thought it was worth sharing for those that haven't seen it.

Quote:
Cities Held Hostage: Who Owns Montreal?

CBC · Posted: Aug 25, 2017 12:55 PM ET | Last Updated: August 30, 2017

Forty years ago, a young Montreal Gazette journalist named Henry Aubin explored a city in perpetual development and the forces that were shaping it in his landmark book City for Sale.

Aubin is the central figure in Cities Held Hostage, a new documentary that draws on his investigative journalism from the 1970s.

The documentary uses Montreal as a case study of urban development in North America.

Director Martin Frigon reveals how colossal real estate fortunes have been amassed through a system of government contracts awarded to steel, concrete and construction companies.

The documentary uncovers the under-reported history of the deals and decisions that have shaped our built environment.

Frigon examines our changing attitudes toward architecture, our tastes and tolerance for density, gentrification and suburban sprawl, and the environmental impact of growth.

Cities Held Hostage calls for the protection of the places and landscapes that Montrealers consider an integral part of their identity.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...real-1.4234221


Documentary here: http://watch.cbc.ca/absolutely-canad...5a-00ce3ab4178
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Old Posted Jan 6, 2019, 8:50 PM
Djesus777 Djesus777 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MTLskyline View Post
Seen this documentary a few times. It's an interesting look at the forces that developed Montreal in the mid-to-late 20th century and early 21st century.

It came out back in 2017, but I thought it was worth sharing for those that haven't seen it.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...real-1.4234221


Documentary here: http://watch.cbc.ca/absolutely-canad...5a-00ce3ab4178
I watched it earlier and it was a very interesting video, but at the same time, they were really alarmist. "The downtown was envied by so many people and now it's like every other" not at all or how that one guy was complaining about 40-floor towers and all. Building higher and denser is more sustainable than wanting 3-4 floor buildings scattered everywhere and there is a demand to live downtown now. With that said, they really need to start building more 2-3 bedroom units that are decently priced (it is downtown so it will be more expensive).
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Old Posted Jan 6, 2019, 10:34 PM
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MTLskyline MTLskyline is offline
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^ That's true. The guy who said that actually prefers the airy 4-storey (and rampant empty lot) vibe that was there before.

It's only natural that a city of Montreal's size has new constructions in its downtown almost exclusively over 4 stories.

Even most cities in Europe that are comparable in size to Montreal, the standard building height is 5-10 floors in their historic cores, but definitely not 3 or 4.

If it were up to me, I would never have authorized the 1960s and 70s bulldozing of many older central neighbourhoods. The Golden Square Mile, Shaughnessy Village and Milton Park should have remained largely as they were pre-WW2. Instead, I would have preferred the central business district relocate somewhere new (with no height limits), or at the very least, replacing areas with limited heritage appeal. Could you imagine if Montreal's skyline was centered around the Griffintown/Peel Basin/Goose Village/Technoparc areas starting in the 1960s? But what's done is done..
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Old Posted Jan 8, 2019, 4:01 AM
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Kind of a related article, with more anti-tower type comments.


Quote:
Montreal’s heritage at stake: What kind of city do we want?

Will Montreal miss its goal of becoming a livable, sustainable city for future generations? We need a blueprint to guide development, Heritage Montreal says.

MARIAN SCOTT, MONTREAL GAZETTE Updated: January 5, 2019

How to sum up the good, the bad and the ugly in Montreal’s ever-changing cityscape?

There’s been plenty of the last two, not so much of the good, says Dinu Bumbaru, policy director of Heritage Montreal.

In 2018, ground was broken on several giant condo towers; the art deco Montreal Children’s Hospital was reduced to rubble; and demolition workers razed buildings to make way for a future mega mall at the intersection of two of Canada’s most congested highways.

Vestiges of the Victorian architecture that once defined the downtown core continue to disappear, as steel and glass skyscrapers compete for prominence.

But missing from most of the real-estate projects transforming the urban environment is an overarching vision of what kind of city we want to live in, Bumbaru said.

“Do we really want a city of towers, or do we want a city that is dense without being inhuman,” Bumbaru asked.

[...]
https://montrealgazette.com/news/loc...itage-montreal
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Old Posted Jan 8, 2019, 4:25 AM
Djesus777 Djesus777 is offline
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Originally Posted by MTLskyline View Post
Kind of a related article, with more anti-tower type comments.



https://montrealgazette.com/news/loc...itage-montreal
"we should build a more dense city" ok, that's what 20-50 floor developments do lol. I don't get people here sometimes, obviously, it's a small group of special people but I'd rather have 40-50 floor developments densifying the city vs four-floor developments everywhere and ruining potential and running out of space faster as well.
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