I was stopped coming back from Blockbusters today by a reporter from the Gazette named Jan Ravensbergen started asking my son & I questions about the moving of the last open storefront on the St-Catherine's strip between Lambert-Closse and Chomedey. Bombay Palace is moving out.
I remembered reading “Tipping Point” (kind of a link to the thought behind it here http://www.gladwell.com/1996/1996_06_03_a_tipping.htm and http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070326/OPINION/703260308/-1/opinion04) and how small things can lead to a clean-up of a locality.
Having pretty much the whole street boarded up, with posters for upcoming (and sometimes long gone shows), graffiti…gives the impression that nobody cares for that block.
St-Catherine IS Montreal. It’s what ties everything together. To come visit Montreal and not spend some time on St-Catherine is impossible. What would a visitor say about Montreal, when he passes Lambert-Closse? It obviously detracts from our fine city.
It started with the Seville Cinema which closed in 1994, followed by the closing of the Montreal Forum in 1996. Since then, the block has slowly died.
Following the thoughts of the Tipping Point, could not the city decided to clean up that block? Why not give a subsidy to build a theatre (we all know that movies are dead) for local shows, and plays and concerts. Once you have that started, just wait and that block will be filled with restaurants, maybe a art dealer, Starbucks... If the city would take in initiative to start something, such as a my proposed cultural block, then local students from Concordia and Dawson could put on plays, we could have local artists hang their art in a gallery, we could have trendy restaurants and coffee shops to accommodate the show going crowds.
The same thing happenned at the corner of Charlevoix and Notre-Dame. They opened up a theatre, and the next thing you know, you have Joe Beef and other trendy hot-spots cropping up!
Come on Montreal...let's re-open the Seville and give some life back this dead zone!
