To consult or not to consult

By Jason C. McLean on March 21, 2010 – 4:58 pmNo Comment

Tweet

Apparently, the new design of the 2-22 Ste-Catherine building is good enough for Gerald Tremblay that it won’t undergo a public consultation process and construction can start May 2nd. No word on if the city is planning a consultation process on Angus development’s proposed new design for the controversial Quadrilaterre project, but there will be one whether the mayor wants it or not.

Nothing to talk about: New Tremblay-approved 2-22 design

The Save the Main Coalition will be holding their own public consultations on Thursday, May 6th and are calling upon residents, artists, architects and even developers to propose ideas for how the lower main can best be redeveloped. They’re open to all types of propositions.

According to a press release, the boarded-up buildings that currently surround Café Cleopatra (most of which were thriving businesses until Angus bought them out in the past year) can’t stay. Solutions are needed that are built on a human scale and respect the diversity and heritage of St-Laurent Boulevard.

Last time around: Velma Candyass and Felicity Fuckhard at the OCMP consultations last year (photo Chris Zacchia)

This follows a series of public consultations last year that dealt with one plan, the Angus plan for a skyscraper office tower, which was rejected by the vast majority of consultation participants. The OCPM ruled and the city chose to ignore the decision and carry forward with the project anyways.

After nine months, a municipal election, criminal revelations and admitted financial difficulties on the part of the developer, we’re back at square one. Gerald Tremblay forcing through a project no one wants that no one but his handpicked developer had a chance to bid on.

This time, however, while the 2-22 is pretty much a done deal and there will probably still be no other bids allowed for the stretch of the Main where Cleopatra sits, there will be plenty of other options for the city to consider implementing. By providing an open consultation where all ideas are welcome, the Save The Main Coalition are doing what the mayor should have done years ago.

Interested parties are invited to submit their proposals (three pages or less, indicating whether or not a PowerPoint presentation is needed) to Viviane Namaste 514-848-2424 x 2371, viviane (at) alcor.concordia.ca no later than April 15th.

Jason C. McLean is a Montreal-based actor, writer, activist, culture-jammer and sometimes singer. He is a co-founder of the Forget The Box Media Collective and currently the editor of Forget The Box Magazine as well as a columnist (The Soapbox), theatre and music reviewer and general contributor. Jason is also a co-creator, writer and in-character host of JC Sunshine's Fireside Chat on Forget The Box TV. Outside of FTB, Jason is a co-founder of the International infringement Festival, organizer of the Montreal infringement Festival and a member of Optative Theatrical Laboratories where he acts, writes, organizes and contributes to the Optative Blog. He also contributes to Art Threat, has written for the Montreal Mirror and holds a BA in Journalism from Concordia University.