City puts up $500 000 to help boroughs build pedestrian parkland

editor robert

10 years ago

During a Sunday morning press conference, Montreal’s Mayor Coderre announced that the city would be investing a total of $500 000 in order to finance 5 selected pilot projects by which different city boroughs will transform a number of selected streets into pedestrian parklands.

Last year, following the program’s initial launch, ten city boroughs developed a number of different pedestrian parkland initiatives out of which the city selected five for future development.

While some of the projects are bound to improve and extend public plazas such as the one that’s already located at the intersection of Valois and Ontario in the Ho-Ma (Hochelaga-De Maisonneuve) district, others will create and extend under-used green space such as the one that’s located near Stanislaus Street in the city’s Ville Saint-Laurent borough.

According to the city’s own documents, the five new projects are meant to transform the old streets into a pro-active public space that will further define and stimulate urban

activity within their immediate environment. The new parkland is also meant to emphasize the importance of pedestrian activity within the inner-city boroughs as well as to encourage deeper links be tween residents and their immediate environment.

The mayor also mentioned that the five new pilot projects are meant to be working models by which further projects could be designed and developed in other boroughs including the city’s critically important Ville Marie district.

While the selected boroughs will have up to three years to complete their projects in time for the city’s big 375th anniversary, the mayor also mentioned that the new projects are meant to be models by which the city can further improve its expertise in functional urban design concepts that are meant to transform the city into a pedestrian friendly environment.

“These five projects…are meant to provide our boroughs with the tools they need to convert their streets into the kind of public space that stimulates the kind of urban vitality that defines both the city and its boroughs,” said the mayor.

Following The Suburban’s question about future projects, including the much-discussed ‘Greening of Mackay’ initiative that’s located near Concordia University in the downtown core, Mayor Coderre said that he was well aware of the situation.

“I’m well aware of that project and we’ll be looking into it when we get around to developing new projects in Ville Marie [the Ville Marie Borough] and elsewhere,” he said.

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