{"id":1652,"date":"2011-12-20T12:51:55","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T17:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/?p=1652"},"modified":"2016-05-14T12:52:53","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T17:52:53","slug":"demolition-by-neglect-threatens-the-main-national-historic-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/demolition-by-neglect-threatens-the-main-national-historic-site\/","title":{"rendered":"“Demolition-by-neglect” threatens The Main National Historic Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Main National Historic Site has been the epi-center of a cultural war<\/a> being fought<\/a> in Montreal, and it is again the focus in the latest salvo. At stake is the city’s cultural future. Artists and activists demanding cultural integrity<\/a> have been battling corporate interests hell-bent on Disneyfication<\/a>, and this time the corporate side is attacking again. The potential casualties include people living and working in the neighbourhood, historic buildings<\/a>, working artists, and the colourful\u00a0heritage of\u00a0Montreal’s old Red Light District<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After losing the fight<\/a> to expropriate the historic Caf\u00e9 Cleopatre to the artists trying to save it<\/a>, the Angus Development Corporation is now\u00a0rumoured to be\u00a0plotting the\u00a0“Demolition-by-neglect” of an entire block of heritage buildings. Having bought out and boarded up all other\u00a0nineteenth century buildings on the western block of The Main between Sainte Catherine and the Monument Nationale, Angus Development Corporation is not properly maintaining or heating them, which caused city officials\u00a0to declare them dangerous and close off part of the street<\/a>. Montreal’s Minister of Culture, Helen Fotopulos, is now suggesting that the buildings may be dismantled<\/a> for potential re-use in the future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Heritage Montreal<\/a> has called on the City of Montreal to prevent the demolition of these historic buildings, adding their voice to artists from the Save The Main <\/a>coalition, who recently presented their own official\u00a0urban plan<\/a> to save the buildings and promote tourism at the same time.<\/p>\n

If the “Demolition-by-neglect” strategy is permitted by the Tremblay administration, it will effectively ruin The Main National Historic Site<\/a> and prevent tourists from enjoying Montreal’s colourful Red Light heritage<\/a> in the Quartier des Spectacles<\/a>. If the historic buildings are razed, The Main National Historic Site will lose its commemorative integrity, as is already happening on the historic corner of St. Laurent and Ste. Catherine Streets.\u00a0Once famous globally for its illicilt reputation, the\u00a0Angus Development Corporation recently built the architecturally questionable 2-22<\/a>\u00a0on the South-East corner, totally distorting the integrity of the historic neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The message from artists and activists is that these irreplaceable buildings should be protected and redeveloped responsibly, and if the Angus Development Corporation is unwilling or incapable, another developer should be found. At stake is nothing less than commemorative integrity of\u00a0The Main National Historic Site, including the historic\u00a0Monument-National<\/a>\u00a0on the southern end of the block, home to Canada’s National Theatre School.<\/p>\n

Please demand that the historic buildings on the Lower Main be saved and redeveloped responsibly. Ask the politicians and developer\u00a0to follow the artists plan<\/a> instead of the destructive corporate strategy, by writing letters to:<\/p>\n

Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay – geraldtremblay@ville.montreal.qc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal Culture Minister Helen Fotopulos – hfoto@videotron.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

Christian Yaccarini (Angus Development Corporation) – CYaccarini@technopoleangus.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Main National Historic Site has been the epi-center of a cultural war being fought in Montreal, and it is again the focus in the latest salvo. At stake is the city’s cultural future. Artists and activists demanding cultural integrity have been battling corporate interests hell-bent on Disneyfication, and this time the corporate side is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,36,1],"tags":[399,349,396,395,400,353,398,401,356,397],"class_list":["post-1652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community-issues","category-uncategorized","tag-cafe-cleopatre","tag-christian-yaccarini","tag-demolition-by-neglect","tag-helen-fotopulos","tag-heritage-montreal","tag-lower-main","tag-montreal-red-light","tag-monument-national","tag-save-the-main","tag-the-main-national-historic-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1652"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1666,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions\/1666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}