Montreal no-no gets built - dreaded skywalk at the superhospital

You will note that the new superhospital contains a skywalk, overhead passage, or hallway in the heavens, whatever they are called.
  These vista violators long been tacitly banned in our city as Jean Drapeau didn’t like ‘em and veteoed them whenever he got a chance, including one on McGill College Ave. where a new concert hall was going to be built.
  Montreal has left these overhead indoor footbridge building connectors to places like Calgary who can boast about how you can't even see the western sunset because of these blasted urban blights.
   We’ve got our signature underground city connecting our buildings, hit the basement to get to the next structure and buy a pack of gum at the food court run by kindly Bangladeshis along the way. And if you’re that desperate to get from one building to another, walk outside, a little fresh air and sunshine won’t kill ya.
   So lemme tell youze the role I played in blocking a major skywalk thingy a few years ago. It's a tale that demonstrates how much of life is controlled by spin.
   Someone from The Grif called me a few years back irritated that the Irish character of the neighbourhood was being overrun by French students from the local ETS engineering school. The massive influx of French college students was threatening the traditional English nature of Griffintown, he argued.
   He had a pretty good example: when Murray St. was extended north above Notre Dame, it was not simply called Murray. It was given some other name, Jean Destrees or something, under the excuse that there was some sort of little tiny half block at the top with no buildings on it that had gotten that name. So rather than simply adopting the name of the larger entity, some contrived name from a non-street above was used instead.
   So when the francophone ETS engineering school decided they were going to place a wide skybridge over Notre Dame from their new campus to their living quarters, I called ‘em up to query them about the plan, ready to give 'em a little comeuppance and temporarily quell their plans to dominate the neighbourhood.
Hell I needed a story, I needed an angle.
   Now the person who answered me was probably getting paid two, three, four times my paltry $517 weekly salary at the stumblebum Mirror, a paper only perverts knew about or read, but I was no wimp.
    “Um, I'm not sure about the exact plan," she said. "Maybe if you call me later I can check and... oh I see that yes we have that in the plan... why is that a problem? We want to connect the two campuses with a hallway... yes so people won’t have to walk outside.”
   She eventually mentioned that that there was, once-upon-a-time an industrial skybridge connecting buildings at the very same spot a long time ago.
  No sale. After hanging up, I rang up heritage guy Dinu Bumbaru who spoke against skybridges, and then some cranky city politician, maybe Jeremy Searle, who also tsk tsked it.
   The article came out and the skybridge over Notre Dame was never built.
   However had the ETS hired a media person who actually understood how journalists think, the skybridge might have been there today.
   Here is how she should have responded.
   “Oh, yes, you're Kristian Gravenor, for sure I’ve read your articles. I love The Mirror. You know you should come on down here, we have the most incredible expresso machine in my office, I bought it off craigslist, I’ll show you around, maybe you’ll meet Mitsou, she was here to check something out recently. Oh yes, the skybridge? Yes, we’re excited because it’s bringing back the architectural heritage of Griffintown, as it’s a rebuild of an industrial bridge that once hovered over the street. We are returning the architectural heritage to the area, it's an exciting time, we're really proud to giving back to this old neighbourhood. In fact, could you write an article about how we are looking for photos of the old bridge? We think this is a great project and it’d mean so much if your paper would spread the good word. When can we do lunch? I've got a lot of other story ideas I bet you'd like.”
   But you see, she didn’t say any of that, so now the students will never have the joy of walking over Notre Dame in their crusty housecoats while sipping coffee on the way to class from their dorms and most tragically ETS's well-scrubbed future engineers will never be able to go viral walking in the air over Notre Dame in a  skywalk flashmob I’ve-got-a-feeling lip-dub video in support of Tibetan farmers.