They're At It Again...

In September 2008, the Powers Of The City's Most Corrupt Administration Ever decided to allow the tearing down of cultural hallmarks and heritage spots to build condos and expensive live show venues, all while letting smaller show venues wither and die.

A year later, they're still at it, this time targeting a strip of the instersection of our two main streets, Saint-Laurent and Sainte-Catherine, expropriating commerces that have been in place for a century, defining Montréal institutions like Montréal Pool Room (usually considered the best steamed hot dogs in town) and vaudevillian/cabaret/burlesque venue Café Cléopâtre.

They claim they want to keep the façades and build 11-story buildings behind them which will house both condos and commerces, and we all expect them to end up not being able to use the façades and just build their new towers instead of what is already in place.

What's funny/odd is they want to destroy what is already there instead of using the vacant lots surrounding the place, but if they really wanted to revitalize that part of town, shouldn't they start with the vacant lots? And that's saying nothing of the fact that 11-story buildings are not allowed in that particular part of that particular street for preservation reasons.

But the people of my generation no longer care about issues like these. They're past the cynicism of decades past and just don't care or, worse, full-on agree that the cleansing of ''morally questionable establishments of the moment'' is the right thing to do, that it's vital that we turn a reputation-carrier into a cross between a peaceful suburb and Disneyland.

And that type of attitude is contagious, because fuckers like me then feel outnumbered and powerless when facing impossible odds when all we're trying to do is keep our city - and its spirit - intact.

Our city is known for its art and its artists. But you can't perform regularly when the only venues that are left are those who'll charge your crowd $50 a ticket to see you perform. And it's hard to create when you're too busy packing from being expropriated and evicted every other month because your landlord is no longer content on the $500 you give him monthly and would rather sell your place as a condo for a cool quarter million or more.

A friend of mine keeps telling me of his dream, to run off into a forest and just build himself a shack there out of what's available, and live outside of our way of life, except that the government wouldn't let you do this, they'd still come at your door and expect something of you.

Well... I'm starting to be at a point where I think to myself: if my city refuses to be a City, with decent public transit, a 'normal' amount of potholes, affordable housing, culturally diverse, at least some services and commerces available 24/7, varied entertainment, laws that make sense... then maybe I should move to such a place. Or go all-out opposite and move to Gaspésie, near the ocean, and relax, eat shrimp and lobster daily, and not worry about the assholes wasting my tax dollars, lounging on their friends' yachts after taking bribes for them.

S(p)in City

What the hell happened to my fair city, the one I was born in, that I loved so much that it made me move back to once I had fled to NYC?

They cleaned up the filth, they say, but I don't see it anywhere - the politicians are more numerous and dirtier than ever, streets have become enormous potholes with some patches of asphalt in between them at times, the people seem so fucking down all the time.

They tore down a three-block patch of the downtown core to shreds, to be replaced with theatres and show bars, or so they say. Meanwhile, in the past year alone, 5 clubs that I regularly went to see shows at have closed down. Something doesn't work somewhere.

Was it just an excuse to ransack mom-and-pop stores, peep show places and get the hookers out of the intersection of our two main streets? 'Cause on paper, two of those things seem right and ethical, until you realize we humans, as a race, are filthy and degenerate.

Where does the guy who prefers to masturbate outside of home go? And when he finds a spot, what of the onlookers, what if they're kids? And if all the whores are off the streets and you have to use the services of street gang-controlled escorts to get it on with another human, what are the consequences of that, huh? More money in the pockets of big-time criminal organizations, so they can buy more drugs to sell to our kids and have more guns to scare the cops off? And who's to say the 19 year-old looking girl isn't a 12 year-old kid from a halfway home with added makeup on? The ethics alone make this a terrible idea.

But if it really is about the Arts, and bringing more shows to town, having more venues to express our creative spirits and spurts, then... why build brand-spanking-new venues rather than the old ones? Just to spend money? How are these venues going to be paid, with increased ticket prices? We just shut down venues that often charged less than $10 for a seat... how many $50 shows do you think people can afford anyway?

Especially once they've paid their fines for jerking off in public and paid for that underage escort they found in the back of a free weekly paper.

It seems like The City's been making the wrong choices since the mid-90s. That's something like 15 years.

Gone are the Jazz Days during prohibition where the best musicians in the world would spend most of their time playing to people who appreciated their work and didn't bug them about their race; long-gone are the days when we were a sports capital, aiming at bigger things rather than having trouble staying small.

We've suffered so much we've made art that has been respected worldwide in recent years more than at any time in the past 30 - Arcade Fire, The Dears, Cirque Du Soleil, Priestess, the Sainte Catherines... we're nearing the point where we're too starved to create, and we're just watching it wither away.

There have been happier days. Brighter days. And to think I wouldn't even be complaining if you gave me back my whores.