chapter 03

Tomorrow

Mile End continues to change — the people, the places, the prices. More gentrification may seem inevitable, but some of the people who hold the place dear are trying to impede the process. Whether or not they’ll succeed depends on whom you ask.

Roughly four decades ago, one of Mile End’s most celebrated artists was already sure his neighbourhood was on the verge of biting the dust.

Mordecai Richler grew up on St-Urbain in the '30s and '40s. In a CBC documentary filmed in 1975, he expressed concern for the future of his beloved childhood streets. “When all is said and done, I got this time and place right,” Richler said. “Because these alleys and these houses are doomed.”

He predicted that his childhood streets would one day be obscured by the shadows of high-rises. “Hopefully I will have been some kind of witness, and left a record of what was here at one time.” The neighbourhood as Richler knew it lives on in his works, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and St-Urbain’s Horseman.

Dan Seligman’s view of the neighbourhood's future is not as bleak. He’s the creative director and co-founder of international music and arts festival POP Montreal. Its offices used to be in the megastructures, but have relocated in recent years to a visible storefront on Park Ave.

“If it hasn’t happened already, it probably won’t,” Seligman said. “I think things will continue to change and develop, but just based on the demographics of the neighbourhood and the people who live here, I doubt there will ever be a Wal-Mart and a Starbucks side by side.”

He says there is a certain inevitability to the way Mile End is evolving — places will open and places will close — but that it will retain its artistic vibe.

“It’s an easy place to feel inspired, and see what’s happening,” said Seligman. “Even if its just through osmosis, to get a sense of creativity.”

Meet the Players Several community-based groups fight to preserve and enhance the culture of Mile End. Click on a card to learn more. Founded: 2010 Pied Carré is an artist collective that lobbies against rising rents. The organization works to keep gentrification from pushing out Mile End's artistic community. It struck a deal in 2013 with Allied Properties, owners of Mile End's megastructures on de Gaspé St., to protect all gallery and studio space for 30 years. Pied Carré Founded: 1982 The Comité des Citoyens du Mile End is a 30-year-old community advocacy group that tackles everything from neighbourhood greening to trash collection. It organized community forums in 2008 and 2009, nicknamed the "cafés citoyens," to discuss the neighbourhood's future. The committee is now planning a series of similar meetings in 2014. Mile End Citizens Committee Founded: 1986 With branches throughout Quebec, CDEC (Corporation de développement économique communautaire) works to build and support local businesses and the social life flourishing around them. CDEC Founded: 2004 Mile End/Montréal Pour Tous formed over concerns that rising rents would drive minority groups out of the neighbourhood. Initially Mile End-centric, this group has garnered much attention and support, which led to it expanding into a city-wide movement. The organization circulated a petition requesting a city-wide municipal tax freeze for 2014, 2015 and 2016 in light of corruption revealed at the Charbonneau Commission. Mile End/Montreal Pour Tous Ateliers Créatifs Founded: 2007 Alongside Pied Carré and CDEC, Ateliers Créatifs focuses on maintaining an affordable supply of artist spaces in Mile End.

Frank & Oak’s Ethan Song isn’t too worried about the future, either.

“I’m not a person to be afraid of gentrification — I’m all about progress,” he said. “I don’t think there is anything bad about the area. I think its great to create a movement.”

Song says people looking for a more niche space will move north. “You can’t stop it. But, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

But this migration is exactly what makes Richard Ryan shudder.

As the Projet Montréal councillor for Mile End sips a latte at Café Matina on Bernard St., he estimates that three-quarters of the clientele at this café and others nearby live north of here, in neighbourhoods such as Villeray or Rosemount.

“This is their community,” Ryan said. “They come here to be, and work — but people just don’t live here any more.” He says the change happened gradually in the '90s and 2000s, but that things have grown worse in last couple of years.

Ryan says Mile End faces “extreme” speculation, which poses a huge threat to the area’s social diversity — a long-standing source of pride.

Housing is a major concern. Ryan says the Plateau borough is going to have to get inventive.

During his mandate, Ryan hopes to obtain more power over housing from the city of Montreal.

At the end of the day, Ryan’s not sure he can win this fight. But, if he can’t keep Mile Enders here, he hopes he can at least keep them close.

Slideshow: Faces of Mile End

He says that the neighbourhood was among the first to be audacious enough to fight the changes that threatened to drive out longtime residents and that, if nothing else, its actions can serve as an example for surrounding neighbourhoods to start implementing before it’s too late.

“Petite-Patrie, Hochelaga, Mile-Ex — if they can act now, we will achieve keeping people in this central area.”

Forde Cooper has been working at Café Olimpico on St-Viateur for 16 years.

“I'm living out in Villeray, because that's where I can afford to buy,” he said. “It’s not where I would have chosen to live — it’s great, I'm happy — but if I had the money I would have preferred to buy here (in Mile End).”

Cooper’s not surprised by the financially-dictated migration that’s happening out of Mile End. “It'll always happen, I think, anywhere that's kind of hot, and gets going — it happened to Brooklyn, happened to Williamsburg,” he said.

Once the people that make a place appealing move on, he added, they will take their appeal with them, and the cycle will continue elsewhere.

Cooper said his workplace is an integral part of the neighbourhood, and though things around them have changed dramatically, the the spirit of this place has not.

“We'll be keeping Olimpico nice and simple,” said Victoria Furfaro, Café Olimpico's co-owner. “My prices have been good for many years, we try to keep it old school.”

While some of the older small businesses have trouble weathering the changes, members of the community can at least take solace in the fact that its institutions are doing just fine. Everybody breathe, the bagels will still be here.

“The institutions will stay,” said Saul Restrepo, manager at the iconic St-Viateur Bagel bakery. ”That's why the others are coming, because we are here. This is good, it brings us new clients — but we're staying here, we're not going to move.”

In this 2011 photo. Pedro Benitez prepares bagels for the wood-fired oven at St-Viateur Bagel bakery. Photo by John Mahoney. In this 2011 photo. Pedro Benitez prepares bagels for the wood-fired oven at St-Viateur Bagel bakery. Photo by John Mahoney.

Meanwhile, the community will be renewing its efforts to keep people from leaving.

The Mile End Citizens’ Committee is gearing up for another round of “Café Citoyens” set to be held this spring. The committee is also planning a citizen’s forum in May.

“We feel like the population of Mile End is in the process of changing,” said Claudine Schiradin. “There are people here that might not even know who we are, so we have to reach out to them, and figure out how to do that.”

One of the neighbourhood’s most prominent property owners, Allied, plans on being here for awhile.

CEO Emory said the firm “loves the area” and is interested in continuing to invest in Mile End.

As far as keeping the artists in town, the real-estate company said it's not opposed. Emory said the renewal of Pied Carré’s 30-year lease is not only probable, but likely. But that’s still decades away.

Pied Carré co-ordinator Carine Valleau said one of the great community benefits to creativity is that it helps bring people together.

Valleau believes it is important for artists, and everyone else in the community, to be inclusive when looking ahead.

“What are the big privates going to do in this new Mile End? What should we do?” She said those players need to be invited into the community to work collaboratively on solutions in the next five years. So far, she says, “they’ve been willing to listen.”

Lawn chairs sit outside café Brooklyn on St-Viateur St. Photo by Peter McCabe. Lawn chairs sit outside café Brooklyn on St-Viateur St. Photo by Peter McCabe.

Ubisoft still feels it has a role to play, and just like Allied, the company plans to be here a long while.

“I hope what is pleasing us right now in the area is still going to be here in 2023,” Orvoine said, referring to the date when the company’s lease is set to expire.

In late September, Ubisoft announced the creation of 500 new jobs. Inevitably, these new jobs will invite even more change to the neighbourhood.

So the companies want to stay, the artists are fighting to stay, and the Mile End Citizen’s Committee is definitely staying.

And while some might say the neighbourhood isn’t what it used to be, the people who live and work here clearly see something worth fighting for.