Shifting public attention from cars to housing on wide downtown streets

Couple of steps far better marry ecological and social justice than turning public land devoted to noisy, risky and polluting cars into social/co-op/rental housing. A key candidate for this sort of transformation is the René Lévesque Boulevard in Montréal.

On April 1, I bumped into about 500 college students protesting at the rear of a banner stating, “Justice Sociale, Local climate Justice: même combat” (“Social Justice, Local climate Justice: Identical Struggle.”) As the march spilled on to both equally sides of René Lévesque I was reminded of its monstrous character. At its widest the boulevard is 10 lanes and a couple of yrs ago a metallic barrier was put in in excess of numerous blocks throughout from Complexe Male-Favreau. The presumed goal of this “highway-ization” of downtown is to quit pesky pedestrians from crossing halfway down the avenue. 

In tacit recognition of its disastrous character, promoters of the Réseau categorical métropolitain (REM de l’Est light-weight rail) efficiently argue they can establish an higher than ground eyesore on René Lévesque that will strengthen urbanity because four lanes will be turned into a pedestrian promenade and bike paths. When that may be appropriate, it is barely an argument for not constructing the line underground. 

From Atwater to the Jacques Cartier Bridge, most of René-Lévesque is large enough to establish a row of lodgings with a narrow avenue on each facet. In a immediate automobiles-for-shelter trade, countless numbers of social/co-op/rental units could be constructed whilst at the same time improving urbanity. 

Even though it may seem to be radical, this shift would simply just reverse an historic mistake. In the 1950s, hundreds of properties and properties had been demolished to widen the street. If housing ended up to replace the roadway, thousands—probably tens of thousands—could acquire access to affordable housing in an area with simple obtain to employment and providers by foot and bike as very well as to the city’s two major Metro lines. 

At the pupil march on Friday, protesters chanted towards colonization. As portion of getting community land absent from polluting automobiles the city could commit some of the land to Indigenous operate/focused cooperative or social housing. It would be a small Montréal contribution to the developing “land back” movement. 

With no cost land in a centrally located area, co-op housing can be crafted with modest general public aid and authorities backed loans. To build sizeable quantities of social housing would require provincial and federal governing administration funding. 1 (fewer than great) way to fund the housing could be to offer you elements of René-Lévesque to rental corporations in exchange for setting up social housing units in other places on the road. The metropolis can also offer discounted land to corporations that commit to setting up rental units. In the prolonged-expression, home taxes from hundreds of units on René-Lévesque would deliver much much more profits than parking service fees. 

Yet another gain would be lessening greenhouse gas emissions. Non-public cars are the major supply of GHGs in Montréal, with transportation representing 40 per cent of the city’s GHGs and is also increasing. 

Just a several days in the past, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Local climate Modify produced a new report that concluded we are “firmly on observe toward an unlivable earth.” The analyze appeals for immediate, huge-scale shift away from fossil fuels. 

Turning René-Lévesque into social/co-op/rental housing is the form of change that can dent runaway weather transform although increasing housing affordability and urbanity. 

It is time for radical motion. 

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