Whilst my(our) focus at Montreal Start Up is the growth and subsequent success of Montreal’s tech entrepreneur community, I am also very supportive of any initiative which improves the quality of life in the city. As an (uneducated) appreciator of good urban design I am particularly interested in initiatives that improve the aesthetics of the city.

One of my pet peeves with Montreal is the amount of graffiti everywhere. I walked through Square Victoria the other day following a student protest against proposals to charge for higher education. As the protesters walked away I noticed grafitti scrawled In the middle of this well restored area – “education gratuite” (this person certainly needs some sort of education and I’d be willing to pay for it !). One month later it’s still there ! The statue at the foot of Mount Royal has just been refurbished to its former glory – almost as soon as it was finished some idiot has climbed up the statue and scrawled graffiti on that too.

Much has been written on solving these issues so i won’t go on too much, suffice to say I support the “broken windows” theory:

The germ of the idea is simple and compelling. A broken window–or a littered sidewalk, a graffito, or what you like–does no great harm to a neighborhood if promptly addressed. But left untended, it sends a signal: that no one cares about this neighborhood, that it is a safe place to break things, to litter, to vandalize. Those who engage in such behaviors will feel safe here.

On a more positive note I was very pleased to see that a new initiative was launched last week to redevelop much of the land around the grain silos in the Old Port.

The vision is a harbourfront area that is a popular urban space that will make Montréal a better place in which to live, work and play. This will also help make Canada’s economy stronger. The vision is driven by four objectives:

Healthy and prosperous cities and communities;
Clean-up of contaminated land and sustainable urban development;
Respect for all levels of government and the interests of third parties;
Economic vitality.

The vision is to be achieved by:

Transferring several federal properties to the Canada Lands Company (CLC) to rehabilitate some 4.8 million square feet (448,242 square metres) of federal land, (three times the size of the Montréal Convention Centre) in order to fully realize the area’s potential.
Making Montréal’s harbourfront a greener, cleaner and more welcoming area for businesses, residents and tourists.

Complacency is always a dangerous state of mind, whether it be with respect to “a successful business”, a “well-balanced way of life”, a “safe environment in which to raise kids”. The Montreal tech community, with prodding from a few key individuals, seems to have grasped this and has motivated itself to improve and grow. As members of the community at large we should be spreading the message our experience has shown us – that a little bit of action can go a long way to creating a more positive, dynamic community.

*(Steve Austin is … the 6 Million Dollar Man.)