Montreal's underground city - let's stretch it further

   Montreal's underground city was, once upon a time, considered a big source of pride in this town.
   It was our inverse Big O: we boasted about it and talked about how you could get from one place to another without ever leaving the comfy climate-controlled balmy conditions, even when it was a bone-chilling minus 20 outside.
  We talk about it less these days, but in fact the underground tunnel network has become increasingly relevant and more exciting than ever.
  When it was built, it was only of use to shoppers and workers.
   Now people are living in homes connected to the network, which means that you could conceivably go through the entire winter without boots, jacket or sweaters, walking from your condo to your workplace without ever going outside.

Mountain, Crescent and eventually Guy could
be attached to the Underground City via the new
Selfridges project.

   The first residential units connected to the underground city were at Westmount Square and Alexis Nihon Plaza. To get to the bigger, more glorious network you still had to hop on the metro.
   The downtown PVM/Eaton's Centre/Peel axis got on line with condos when the Mount Royal Hotel was converted into residential units.
   The condos above the Bell Centre will also be hooked into that tunnel system through the Windsor tunnel/Bonaventure thing, so you can get to PVM underground, although those tunnels near the Bonaventure are a little downscale, not quite as glorious as those above Ste. Catherine.

McGill students could get right to the gates underground

   It would be nice to see the underground city extended and the best candidate for that would be the new Ogilvy's complex that will be built where Hotel de la Montagne long stood, it's close enough to Peel. That development will also include units on the east side of Crescent, so it will surely already be attached underground to Crescent.
   Crescent is getting very close to Concordia, so a few more hops-and-skips and you're connected all the way from Peel to Guy on underground foot tunnels.
   Another no-brainer would be to give McGill students a chance to walk right across from the Roddick Gates underground. The plan: hook up the building at the SW corner of McGill College and Sherbrooke (housing Paragraph books, offices and the University Club) to the building across to the south, then again to the south, then under McGill College to the Eaton Centre. 
  Many Montrealers enjoy the chill of a nice winter's day and would have no interest in avoiding the snowy environment altogether.
   But others abhor the icy streets, including some older people, or people from other countries, and they would go to great lengths not to have to endure the icy pains that stab on a cold day, if they chose to do so.
  And it's never a bad idea to try to attract some wealthy people to this town, especially now that the provincial government has made the challenge more difficult by raising taxes on the wealthy.
   So it's time to get excited again about the underground city and try to invent ways to keep expanding it.