Progress shock - surprises await you if you're coming to Montreal after a long time away

   The Big Wheel - Jesus at the harbor, the wistful vista of a church near the river, as seen from Notre Dame, a view described in Lenny Cohen's Suzanne, has been altered by a festive wheel in the old port. It's not a bad ride and brings a new spirit to the area.

Another wheel has been put up at the top of the island at Montreal North but this one is a sculpture that doesn't actually move or give rides. Some complained that it's pointless - prompting a round of people to brilliantly spout the city's slogan "fix the potholes first"  - but it only cost $1 million and it's a cool landmark. Now that we've got wheels on the north and south ends of the island, how long until we get wheels at the east and west in Anjou and Ste. Anne's?

The Disneyfication of the Lower Main. Were it not for Johnny Zoumbalakis, the heroic owner of the Cafe Cleopatra and its building, the area of St. Lawrence between St. Catherine and Dorch would entirely lost its gritty soul. The entire west side between the Monument National and Cleos has been redone and the once-iconic southern corners were also demolished and rebuilt.

The old Children's hospital is gone. Demolished. New condos are almost ready. We were hoping they'd be connected by underground tunnel to the tunnel at Cabot Square, creating a second underground city that reaches to Westmount Square but we doubt that's in the works. Photo Dave Sidaway.

The 30-year wound left on the downtown cityscape by art dealer Robert Landau has finally been healed, as someone else took over the Overdale project and actually built something on the land. Several other buildings at Mackay and Dorch are also going up.

Ben's is gone. Back in the 80s it was either Dorch or De Maisonneuve that was going to get built up. De Maisonneuve won. The only real holdout being the little Ben's restaurant building, which everybody knew was doomed as far back as the late 80s. This classy Manulife building stands where the famous restaurant once fed the late nighters.

Griffintown - that's the area south of downtown that you never have any reason to go to - is now a big thing. Huge numbers of people now live in an area that housed just a few dozen a few years ago. While it seems close to downtown it's still a lonely, long, uphill walk up to Dorch and the traffic is a little bottlenecked on Mountain. Otherwise a pretty cool place.

Mountain and St. Antoine. A bunch of skyscrapers have replaced older structures that were once home to black nightlife. There was great demand for condos near the Bell Centre not because of the hockey connection but because they are some of the few residential units right on the underground city, so you could walk to your job at Place Ville Marie without wearing a coat. We're sorry to see this cool old block of buildings at the corner of St. Antoine and Mountain be put down, for social housing of all bad ideas.

 If you have any suggestions for stuff I've overlooked please share in the comments and I'll add it.