À St-Henri, le 26 août – Screening Thursday Night

Great opportunity to see this film and pick up some information about Projet Montreal.

From the NFB page-

Glide along the boulevards of St-Henri with the charming perpetual motion machines that are this district’s diverse denizens, from the taciturn milkman to resourceful Doris the gleaner to a group of fashion-forward Mohawk hipsters. This kaleidoscopic romp through a semi-industrial neighborhood pays homage to Hubert Aquin’s 1962 film of the same name by seamlessly drawing together the work of sixteen cinematographers to capture everyday life in a vibrant working-class community on a single summer day. A thoughtful spatial metaphor in which people—the city’s vital force—flow through St-Henri’s streets, steam tunnels, train tracks, and magnificent central canal like blood throbbing through veins. In St-Henri, people are definitely on the move, not to escape from home, but rather, to revel in it. With an original score by Polaris Prize-winning musician Patrick Watson, this dawn-‘til-dusk collage provides a rare opportunity to see a community transform in front of one’s eyes.

Inspired by the 1962 ONF film “À St-Henri le 5 septembre”, this unique collaborative film brings together some of the brightest talents in the contemporary Montreal documentary community to capture this story.

Cher membre, chère membre,

L’association de Projet Montréal dans Le Sud-Ouest vous invite à la projection du film « À St-Henri, le 26 août », le jeudi 29 novembre, à 19 h, à la permanence de Projet Montréal. Le film est une reprise d’un classique de l’ONF, et nous sommes heureux de pouvoir rendre hommage à notre quartier adoptif avec le visionnement d’un film local, tourné en 24 heures dans cet ancien quartier prolétaire vibrant d’histoire.

Vous pourrez profitez de cette soirée pour rencontrer des personnalités du parti, ainsi que des membres de Projet Montréal et d’échanger sur les enjeux qui vous intéressent, ainsi que sur les réalisations du parti et les projets à venir.

L’événement se déroulera au 4000, rue Notre-Dame Ouest, à deux pas du métro Place St-Henri, de 19h00 à 22h00, afin de laisser place à la discussion avant et suite à la projection, qui débutera à 19h30. Le coût d’entrée est de 5 $ avec des boissons et popcorn à 1 $.

Vous êtes libres d’inviter des gens intéressés. Nous espérons vous y voir en grand nombre!

Pour plus d’information, veuillez communiquer avec nous au 514 390-0792 ou par courriel.

Au plaisir de vous compter parmi nous,

L’équipe de Projet Montréal dans Le Sud-Ouest

Projet Montréal

4000, rue Notre-Dame Ouest
Montréal (QC) H4C 1R1
Canada

514 390-0792
http://www.projetmontreal.org

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780 Saint Remi

Now almost famous building at the heart of the expropriate and demolish issues at the core of the government’s Turcot plan. Couple of articles in French discuss the building and it’s occupants here and here. I really like how Kate over at Montreal City Weblog summarized the situation, “…the kind of folks the city likes to pay lip-service to in discussions of creative capital, but moves aside easily when big projects come along.”
Indeed.
I have been lucky enough to visit the building on a number of occasions and have met a lot of the residents. There are many interesting people living in 780. Maybe it takes a special type to live so close to a freeway, the Turcot wilderness beckoning from beyond the ramps stretched out in it’s vastness, an alternate universe to the endless elevated hum of vehicles rushing to places elsewhere, anywhere but here, the sounds of industry and another time echoed by freight trains passing through and the energetic ding ding ding of the street barriers further down Saint Remi, but it is also a community.
I participated in a one day photography exhibition along the walls of the first floor corridor last June. It was pretty cool. And that might make me a little biased, but you won’t find more creativity living in one building, not in Pointe Saint Charles, not even in Griffintown! 780 Saint Remi is the western tip of the (Griffintown) Cultural Corridor which runs through the SudOuest burrough.
Here are some views from the roof.

Village des Tanneries. The street going towards downtown on the left is Cazelais, the left side of which was to be demolished under the original plan, though it now appears that most may be saved. Sadly, that construction tower is putting up an 8 story building that will just block this view.

Train going in to Dead Dog Tunnel. This was taken on a Saturday and those ramps were closed to traffic while some work was being done. There is always work being done at Turcot.


According to this page not a lot is known about the history of the building.
Two of my favorite pictures I have taken of 780.


Montreal needs to save this building for all kinds of good reasons. The MTQ wanting to build a dysfunctional freeway that will hurt the city is not a good reason to lose a treasure such as 780 Saint Remi! I urge everyone who reads this to go for a visit, take in the surroundings, and be amazed!

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Mobilization Turcot Meeting Thursday

Turcot Mobilization meeting
April 15th 2010 – 18h00
at CRCS St-Zotique
75, rue Sir Georges-Étienne Quartier
Metro Place Saint Henri

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Saint Henri Community Forums Begin Wednesday

Des Cafés citoyens à St-Henri

Toute personne qui réside ou qui travaille à St-Henri est invitée à participer à une série de cafés causeries thématiques à l’annexe Charlevoix (633 rue De Courcelle): Discuter des enjeux locales, planifier des projets de quartier,

* mercredi le 10 février 19h-21h Qui représente les citoyens de St-Henri? Que seraient les mérites d’une coalition de citoyens à St-Henri?

* mercredi le 24 février 19h-21h Quoi de neuf au sujet des expropriations de la rue Cazelais et St-Rémi ?

* mercredi le 10 mars 19h-21h Thèmes et sujets à venir selon vos besoins
* mercredi le 24 mars 19h-21h
* mercredi le 14 avril 19h-21h
* mercredi le 28 avril 19h-21h
* mercredi le 12 mai 19h-21h
* mercredi le 26 mai 19h-21h

Info: 514-440-2288 R.S.V.P.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Le-Forum-des-Citoyens-de-St-Henri/266574742631?v=info&ref=ts

Bâtir notre quartier: C’est à nous de le faire! Avez-vous des idées ou des projets pour St-Henri ?

Contactez forumcitoyens.sthenri@gmail.com

Un sondage sur ligne se trouve sur le babillard électronique du site http://www.villagedestanneries.com

St-Henri Community Cafés

Anyone who lives or works in St-Henri is welcome to attend a series of themed community conversations at the Annexe Charlevoix ( 633 rue De Courcelle). Let’s discuss local issues, develop neighborhood projects, transform our urban landscape for the better!

* Wednesday le 10 février 19h-21h Who speaks for the people of St-Henri? What would be the merits of a neighborhood citizen coalition?
* Wednesday le 24 février 19h-21h What’s new regarding the expropriations in theTanneries ? Invited guest still to be cnfirmed
* Wednesday i le 10 mars 19h-21h Themes and topics to be decided based on expressed needs
* Wednesday le 24 mars 19h-21h
* Wednesday le 14 avril 19h-21h
* Wednesday le 28 avril 19h-21h
* Wednesday le 12 mai 19h-21h
* Wednesday le 26 mai 19h-21h

Info: 514-440-2288 R.S.V.P.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Le-Forum-des-Citoyens-de-St-Henri/266574742631?v=info&ref=ts

Creating a sense of community: It’s up to us! Do you have ideas? Together we can build St-Henri into the neighborhood that we all want! forumcitoyens.sthenri@gmail.com

You can help by filling out the community needs assessment online at http://www.villagedestanneries.com
JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

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Work At Turcot

Here is a couple of shots taken by Daniel Guilbert recently on Pullman near the gate to Turcot and the Falaise Saint Jacques.

A guess would be that they are preparing a space to do some repairs. Turcot has become so mysterious since they put up a fence (wink)!

And another view from Pierre Zovile.

Up yonder is where, legend has it, a Superhospital will be built one day

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New Turcot/Saint Henri links

Adding a few sites to the old blogroll.

Signe Turcot
Un échangeur en crise. A junction with issues.
Provides information about the project.

Turcot Blog
“The Turcot interchange, handling over 280,000 vehicles every day, is a distinct landmark in Montreal. The Turcot is now reaching the end of it’s serviceable lifespan and the Quebec Ministry of Transport is planning to rebuild by 2015. Visit this bilingual site to find a selection of information on plans, counter-proposals and issues arising from this project.”

Saint Henri Chronicles
A delightfully well written blog “about the political, social, cultural, and family life of one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Montreal, told from the perspective of someone who has lived and worked in the neighbourhood for the last seven years.”

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Call To Action!

Appel à l’action!
Assemblée Populaire

Quand? Le jeudi 9 avril, 18 à 21 H

Où? Au Centre Communautaire St. Zotique ( 75 Sir George Etienne Cartier, Salle 120)

C’est une assemblée populaire pour les résidents de la Village des Tanneries et du 780 St. Rémi pour se parler entre nous du projet de Turcot, les expulsions, et la destruction environnemental que ça va amener.  Mais le plus important est que c’est notre chance de décider qu’est-ce que nous, en tant que communauté, voulons faire pour le résister!    Il aura une discussion ouverte avec une modératrice, où tout le monde peut dire leurs opinions dessus.  Ca sera une espace où on peut se rencontrer, se parler, et de faire une plan d’action ensemble sur les actions qu’on a envie d’organiser. Un repas gratuit sera servi et une garderie sera disponible sur place.

Contexte:

Le projet Turcot est le plan du ministère des transports pour remplacer  l’actuel échangeur Turcot par la construction d’une nouvelle autoroute à côté de celle qui existe déjà. Le projet devrait coûter plus de 1,5 milliards de dollars et prendrait environ sept ans à compléter. Il est probable que le projet va conduire à l’expulsion et au  déplacement de plusieurs centaines de personnes dans plusieurs communautés à faible revenu dans le sud-ouest de Montréal.  Certains de ces résidents ont habité leurs foyers pendant des décennies et ne seraient jamais capables de trouver un loyer comparable.  Le projet va également créer un chantier de construction qui causera des dommages irréversibles à l’environnement, et va laisser des résidents restants de vivre dans une zone de construction pour des années. Nous sommes tannées de participées aux “consultations” symboliques lorsque l’ensemble des décisions ont déjà été prises. Cette assemblée est une chance pour la communauté de se parler et décider qu’est ce qu’on veut faire.

Pour plus d’info contacter:  cazelaislibre@gmail.com

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Call to Action!
Neighbourhood Assembly

When: Thursday April 9th,  6 – 9pm

Where:  St. Zotique community centre  (75 Sir George Etienne Cartier, Room 120)

There will be a popular assembly for the residents of The Village des Tanneries and 780 St. Remi to get together and talk about the proposed Turcot project, the evictions/displacement, environmental destruction.  Most importantly, let’s figure out what we (as a community) want to do about it!  It will be a facilitated open discussion, where everyone can voice their own opinions.   It will be a space where we can meet each other, talk, and come up with a plan of action.  A free meal and childcare will be provided.

Background

The Turcot project is the Ministry of Transport’s plan to replace the current Turcot interchange by building a new super-highway next to the already existing one. The project is slated to cost over 1.5 billion dollars and is estimated to take the next seven years to complete. This project is likely to lead to the evictions and mass displacement of several hundred people in several low income communities in the South West of Montreal. Some of those residents have been living in their homes for decades and will never be able to find a similar rent again.  The project will also create a construction site that will cause irreversible environmental damage and force those not directly displaced to live within a construction zone for years to come.  Those most affected by this have been given little voice in the matter and have been presented the project with little options. This assembly aims to gather the community together and hear what people have to say about it.

For more info contact:  cazelaislibre@gmail.com

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Let’s Paint The Riviere Saint Pierre Across Turcot!!

Turcot won’t be available for long. There are hardly any cities in the world capable of doing this project – who has that kind of land empty so close to the city center? Does anyone have any ideas on how to proceed?

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Les Tanneries Trees

You can see how they got started in this post.  They sure have grown!

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Tonight!

We are community organizations, instituttions, and concerned citizens that have been meeting to discuss and fully understand the impact and implications of rebuilding the elevated highway structures known as the  Turcot Interchange.

PUBLIC MEETING

Tuesday May 27th at 6:30 pm

At the Gadbois Recreation Complexe, 5485, Chemin de la Côte-Saint-Paul

The Ministry of Transport du Québec (MTQ) plans
to rebuild the Turcot Highway Infrastructure

Here’s you’re chance to get the latest information
and strategies for mobilization

The Turcot Community Forum is a coalition of community groups, elected officials, and individuals who share a concern for the healthy development and quality of life in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest working in partnership with elected officials, university researchers and other experts. The coalition is looking at the impacts of the Turcot interchange reconstruction project from various perspectives such as health, urban planning, housing and socio-economic repercussions. Input from the citizens of Le Sud-Ouest is needed to ensure that these issues are properly adressed.

http://mobilisation-turcot.info/

http://www.freewebs.com/villagedestanneries/

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De Carillon Street Entrance

A few shots of the canal like road coming up from de Carillon. This was the main entrance to Turcot after the interchange was built.

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Public Consultation in NDG – November 19, 7pm

Finally, the MTQ people have agreed to hold a public consultation meeting for residents of NDG (for some completely unknown reason they did not originally see NDG as an area that would be directly affected by the new Turcot plan/construction hence the pressure to get a meeting there) on November 19 at 7pm at the Saint Raymond Centre, 5600 Upper Lachine Road.

Of course this leaves citizens with as little time to get organized as possible. Still, there is hope that some of the concerns raised by residents of NDG will be publicly heard.

Here is the blurb from The Green Party.

TRANSPORT QUEBEC HOLDS PUBLIC HEARINGS ON THE TURCOT INTERCHANGE

 IN NDG

   The NDG Green Party of Quebec is pleased to annouce that our
pressure campaign to force Transport Quebec to hold a public hear
-ing in NDG has payed off, and it is scheduled for Monday 
Nov 19th at 7pm at the St-Raymond  center at 5600 Upper 
Lachine road.

 Here are 3 specific important questions about the Turcot 
rebuild that the NDG Green Party would like answered:

1- Will the new electric tram-train link between downtown and 
Dorval  airport, using the CP tracks through Montreal West, NDG 
and Westmount, be  operational before highway 20 lane closings 
occur in 5 years, so that  there is an alternative way for more residents to get downtown or to  the airport before the big 
delays begin? 
 
2- The Turcot planners want to demolish the St-Jacques bridge 
over the  highway in 2010 for several years while they build 
the new highway 15  lanes below.  At the same time, the MUHC 
planners want to close the  deficient Decarie Street underpass 
under the CP tracks in 2010 to rebuild  it as the first, 
necessary step in their controversial traffic plan for  the 
Glen hospital site.  
 CLOSING BOTH THESE KEY ROUTES AT THE SAME TIME WILL ALLOW 
NO WAY FOR TRAFFIC FROM DOWNTOWN TO PROCEED WEST AND NORTH 
INTO NDG.  Please let  the residents of NDG know which will
be first and precisely what  alternative routes will be 
recommended to drivers. 

3- Transport Quebec wants to move Highway 20 and the CN-Via 
tracks  right up against the St-Jacques escarpment to free 
up land near Notre Dame  street for development or a park. 
 We feel that it would make more  sense to leave the highway 
where it is now:
  -if the St-Jacques escarpment eco-territory was fully 
upgraded  into a linear park with a nice bicycle-cross 
country ski trail running  along its length (just such a path 
was started by the RCM in 1994) and  also with several paths 
or stairs running up and down it (one such police  car 
accessible road already exists and comes out on St-Jacques 
near  Cavendish), the residents of NDG and St-Raymond 
(which the city plans to  densify) would have good access 
to this park,
 - at the same time, a new sustainable residential development
 could be encouraged in the Turcot yards because of pedestrian 
and bicycle  access to this park and through it to the retail
 stores that already  exist along St-Jacques at the top of the escarpment.
  -Transport Quebec's plan, on the other hand, would mean 
creating a hard to access from any side strip of park or 
development between heavy industrial Notre Dame St.(with 
the Lachine Canal behind it true, but with even heavier 
industry across the canal there in LaSalle) and the newly moved highway 20.
 

So please come out on Monday Nov 19th at 7pm to the St-Raymond 
center at 5600 Upper Lachine road to hear Transport Quebec's 
answers to these and also your important questions about 
this massive project and its effects on NDG in the years ahead.

Peter McQueen
President of the NDG riding association
Green Party of Quebec
514 678 5515

 

I urge everyone to attend this and see for yourself how democracy is served in this city so Be There!

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Get Together

Just a reminder that some of us will meet tomorrow at The Green Spot, 3401 Notre Dame Ouest, in Saint Henri at 2pm.

All are welcome.

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1913

Here is a map of the eastern side of Turcot Yards from 1913.

A- Montreal Park & Island Railway(1885-1911).

Interesting that they had a facility right there in the middle of the Grand Trunk Railroad’s Turcot Yards and the Canada Car & Foundry complex. Not a lot of information right now beyond that it serviced Montreal-Nord, Outremont, Cartierville, and Lachine. Was also the first local transit company to issue rolls of 5 detachable tickets at a discount in 1908. It closed in 1911 so maybe the name was still on the building for this mapmaker?

B- Vaillant Park.

Approximately. Some confusion here with Byron street which may never have actually become a regular street. And later the middle street would become Bourassa. And we end up today with De Carillon running down to Notre Dame where Byron was (smile). It also looks like they had zoned lots right into the Falaise Saint Jacques above Pullman. But maybe what we see there today is actually landfill that was put in with the building of the Turcot Interchange?

C- Neighborhood?

A lot of changes here beginning with all those streets- Clovis, Victor Hugo, St. Omer, Stephens, and Beattie that stopped existing at some point. Doesn’t 4th Avenue seem kind of random and out of whack? Today James Lyng High School is roughly at Victor Hugo and Notre Dame. I really want to know how wide/deep that river was. A contemporary map here.

D- Saint Paul Locks

Easy to forget that there was a lot of these “side canals” along the Lachine Canal. The grand old Canada Malt Plant in pink at the right was pretty much brand new in those days.

E- The Turcot Roundhouse 1906-1962. The largest roundhouse in the world.

F- Riviere Saint Pierre, or Little River Saint Peter, ran through the middle of Turcot Yards. Not sure what year it got drained or covered and/or diverted. If anything it served as a handy border between NDG and Ville Emard.

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Saint Henri / La Glen

I’ve only recently discovered this amazing website that focuses on “La Glen” area of Saint Henri or Les Tanneries as it is often called today. It is a remarkable little history of a city neighborhood from approximately 1930 to 1970. Please do check it out here.

Here is a shot from the site that shows Vaillant Park and the Falaise Saint Jacques.

Turcot Yards is just beyond those buildings!

Some guys outside the White Owl Social Club.

Baseball team with trophy.

I look at the faces on those kids and I realize what an interesting world this must have been, so much to explore. Can you imagine being a kid and wondering what was up on that hill?

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