Why Griffintown proposal is dumb for Montreal and why we should focus on eliminating downtown empty lots
Currently, a private a developer is proposing to take a large area of Griffintown, to the south of Notre-Dame Street and, with the help of enormous injections of public money, create a massive number of parking spaces to service new shopping malls and other stores. Other elements, including housing, are also proposed.
First let`s take a look at the proposed project`s impact on the development of Griffintown. Since the proposal is largely about big parking lots to service shopping malls, the real development impact for Griffintown is questionable since much of the land would remain unbuilt. For, as long as the shopping malls remained in place, the extensive land used for their giant parking lots would not be built on or otherwise `developed`.
Secondly, we have to look at the Griffintown proposal`s potentially negative impact on our nearby downtown core and, by extension, on the economic wellbeing of all Montrealers. If the project goes ahead it is doubtful that it would have much direct negative impact on downtown since the city centre attracts a particular clientele and those people who want to drive to shop elsewhere have long since exercised the option.
However, indirect negative impacts also have to be considered. When looking at investment decisions (especially of public money) it is always necessary to consider the `opportunity cost` of how the money or resources involved could potentially be employed for better return. In other words, could the city and province get better returns for the Montreal economy by using the huge proposed contribution of many millions of dollars of public infrastructure investment in other more fruitful ways.
Like me, you may have noticed that a lot of our existing public infrastructure (roads come to mind) is in dire need of repair or renovation and that much of central Montreal is still pockmarked and scarred with empty lots and abandoned buildings.
Streets such as St-Laurent, Crescent Street, Mackay, Mountain, Bishop, Réné-Lévesque and Ste-Catherine are littered with many abandoned buildings and dozens of empty lots where buildings once stood. On a recent forty-five minute tour of sections of these streets, I was able to identify more than sixty empty lots and/or abandoned buildings.
Currently, downtown Montreal is significantly unbuilt with about one fifth of its buildable surface area subsisting as empty lots. Because there is currently little or no private sector pressure to build in downtown Montreal these lots are mostly used as parking lots and their very presence sends a negative message to one-and-all, locals and visitors alike.
Twenty years ago, in order to publicize this same situation (and the then Doré, MCM administration`s failure to act to remedy it), I ran several free annual bus tours of what I called ‘MCM scandals of downtown'. Almost all of the empty lots that we visited then are still empty lots today.
Let`s forget about earmarking hundreds of millions of dollars of public infrastructure investment to underwrite a private profit building project in Griffintown and instead roll up our sleeves and get on with the real work of building our city. What other city do you know where you can find empty lots scattered throughout the very core of the downtown. Not Toronto, not New York or Boston or London or Paris or, for that matter, any city that is globally considered to be successful. Eliminating our empty lots and getting our city built up would provide a massive shot in the arm for our economy, boost tourism, increase foreign investor confidence and create lots of jobs into the bargain. But, how can this be done ?
Simply. The city has extensive expropriation powers that can be invoked when land is necessary for public projects and the proposed Griffintown public infrastructure millions could be used to buy key downtown empty lots at fair market prices and to then transform them to public use - probably aimed at catering to the increasingly important tourist industry.
For instance, the huge Overdale site below Réné-Lévesque and between Mackay and Lucien L`Allier could make a magnificent, much needed extra downtown park and at the same time spruce up this dreary stretch of our `prestige` business row. Any sort of building at all would be welcome on the north-east corner of Mountain and Réné-Lévesque – even a false front, for heaven`s sake.
Our city can never have too many small specialized `boutique` museums, art places, sculpture gardens or other specialized ingredients for tourist or local`s diversion. We could certainly use a municipal hostel for visiting young tourists (later to become richer, older tourists) or a civic shelter for the homeless as is done in some other cities.
Currently, the City of Montreal does not even have a tourist bureau downtown and could usefully appropriate an empty lot for this purpose. The provincial government does have a downtown tourist bureau but it is there to promote tourism in the other `regions` of Quebec.
Meanwhile, which should we do – pump many millions of public infrastructure tax dollars into helping a private developer create a `new` area of near downtown or should we use the same money to plug the holes in our existing downtown and to help get our common vessel sailing at full speed.
Generally speaking, it`s best to finish what you have started before moving on to new projects and our distressed downtown is certainly in need of a great deal of public investment attention if it is likely to achieve anything like its full potential in the interests of all of us. What do you think.
There are very likely many far more creative ways to use better use public infrastructure dollars or to turn potentially expropriated empty lots to public use. I am just proposing one. If you have suggestions for better uses e-mail them to me at jeremy.searle@sympatico.ca and I may use them in a future column.
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