This guy, Lucien Saulnier, was Mayor Drapeau's right hand man for long enough to make the city a little more unpleasant. His crime ? He paved over the little strips of grass next to the sidewalks, as evidenced in his comments in the article from La Patrie in August 1961. Other cities, such as Winnipeg - (in the photo) have proudly 
maintained their grassy strips, which they dub Avenues. If you want to see the worst local example of lost public lawn, go down Willibrod in Verdun, 
which must have been a gorgeous streetscape before the pavers got to it. It appears that it has never occurred to city officials to rehabilitate these little bits of green. Those we've mentioned it to just shrug. So get on the phone with your city councillor right away and but 'em to get it in gear.
There are a couple of streets in Verdun with the sidewalks "re-greened" such as Gordon. But "green" is generally a joke throughout Montreal, and, yes, it was the Drapeau regime that probably contributed to that more than any other administration. The problem at City Hall since then is there hasn't been anyone with the vision or cajones to do something about it!
ReplyDeleteDo you really think the Blue Collars would actually regularly maintain the grass strips??? Undoubtedly they would become overgrown and an unsightly mess like the city parks.
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