{"id":1408,"date":"2014-01-02T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T21:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/01\/02\/lavals-golden-door\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:41:24","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:41:24","slug":"lavals-golden-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/01\/02\/lavals-golden-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Laval\u2019s golden door"},"content":{"rendered":"

City growing stronger, more diverse, despite the scandals<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\u201cGive me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By <\/b>Robert Frank<\/b><\/p>\n

\nwww.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The words incuse at the base of the Statue of Liberty could just as easily adorn the gateway to Laval. <\/p>\n

After allegations of corruption at Laval city hall broke, last fall, a Montreal reporter described Quebec\u2019s third-largest city on national radio as a kind of a wasteland composed of bungalows and strip malls. <\/p>\n

The remark epitomized many Montrealers\u2019 snobbish attitudes. Seeing Laval as a giant, boudoir community, they fail to notice the accelerating growth that the city is enjoying on multiple fronts. <\/p>\n

Who wants to stay in Montreal, and face ever-increasing property taxes\u2014not to mention the extra tax load the provincial government imposes on the metropolis\u2014when you can move to Laval\u2014a city with a budget surplus and a property tax freeze, where seniors ride the buses for free? <\/p>\n

Consequently, despite construction cranes erecting condos as fast as they can, Laval remains a seller\u2019s market for residential real estate with the region\u2019s fastest-rising home prices on or off Montreal Island. <\/p>\n

Not only is the population burgeoning, it\u2019s fast becoming more cosmopolitan. The arrival of a rainbow of ethnicities is conspicuous. Laval has become the destination of choice for new Canadians who are starting to make it in their adopted home.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nTheir presence has enriched the city in general, all the way from Val des Brises to Vimont, and is particularly evident in Chomedey and Ste. Doroth\u00e9e. Moreover, everyone gets along pretty well, and the city is well-served by a polyglot police force that reflects a slice of Laval\u2019s changing demographics better than any other civic administration.<\/p>\n
\n
Besides giving Laval some great restaurants, the diversity has added zip to the city\u2019s economy. It\u2019s no accident. The city has a refreshingly open outlook toward trade. It funds Laval Technopole, a sophisticated business development outfit that has fostered some $9 billion in direct investment in Laval during the last six years, and actively helps Laval firms to market their wares on international markets. <\/p>\n

The multilingual workforce is increasingly well-educated, thanks to Montmorency College, a University of Montreal satellite campus and the Armand Frappier Institute\u2019s academic research facility.<\/p>\n

The Armand Institute, in turn, is the lynchpin of Laval\u2019s Biotech City\u2014a leading North American life sciences cluster that continues to attract corporations to set up their Canadian headquarters here. <\/p>\n

In 2013, pharmaceutical giant Valeant went a step further, becoming the first to relocate its world headquarters to Laval. It\u2019s unlikely to be the last large firm to do so. <\/p>\n

Rapid development isn\u2019t always painless. The growth strains a mass transit system more suited to conveying commuters to jobs in Montreal. Laval\u2019s Metro is already operating beyond capacity. Adding more stations can only exacerbate the problem, at eye-watering expense. <\/p>\n

Despite the knocks that it earned through its politicians\u2019 alleged misdeeds, financially the city continues to thrive. Because it continues to live within its means, Laval enjoys a credit rating that places it among Canada\u2019s best-managed cities. <\/p>\n

With a new civic administration, Laval brims with promise in 2014. Sniffy Montrealers should take a second look. Learning Laval\u2019s winning formula could help the metropolis follow in the footsteps of Atlanta, rather Detroit. <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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City growing stronger, more diverse, despite the scandals \u201cGive me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.\u201d By Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com The words incuse at the base of the Statue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLaval\u2019s golden door - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/01\/02\/lavals-golden-door\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Laval\u2019s golden door - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"City growing stronger, more diverse, despite the scandals \u201cGive me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 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