park(ing) in montréal.
(posted by markefrank)
Well, we did another little park(ing) event this weekend, this time in support of the 5th Annual Citizen Summit organized by the nice (and smart) folks at the Urban Ecology Centre.
For those who didn’t hear about the Summit, this is from their website:
The 5th Montreal Citizen Summit is a social forum open to all and is based on the concept “The City We Want”. This event will take place from June 5-7, 2009 at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and will be an opportunity for citizens and civil society practitioners to strengthen their ties in order to collectively organise social action initiatives. The Summit will also be the opportunity for citizens to learn and exchange on urban issues related to this year’s themes: 1) Economy 2) Urban Planning 3) Social justice 4) Environment 5) Democracy 6) Culture.
The organizers asked us if we would stage another park(ing) event, and we thought it would be great to contribute in some way to such a worthy event, so we said sure. (The only drawback was we didn’t have time to actually attend any of the events taking place inside! I did get to chat with one of the big stars of the Summit, keynote speaker Richard Register of Ecocity Builders, because he loved our space so much he keep coming back to hang out in our little oasis).
We are definitely getting better at putting these things together, and I have the strong impression we should do more. But we should do them in Mile-End, and bring out all the examples we have of interesting urban ideas and development going on around the world, because that is what really seems to move people.
The shake their heads and say, “That is SO great.” And we all wonder to ourselves, “Why isn’t that happening in Montréal? Why is Montréal so behind?”
So next time we’ll bring more examples from around the globe, and we’ll also bring out all the information the city hides deep on its websites, because our experience from our last park(ing) was that most people in Mile-End are completely unaware of the ideas the city has been planning for our neighbourdhood.
I should add too that this weekend’s park(ing) was definitely different from our first event, and the first big difference is as simple as a change in neighbourhood, from Mile-End to St. Catherine East. But even given the diminished sense of belonging or community in the surrounding streets, we did have many short conversations with people interested in what we were doing, in the images and examples we brought to display, and in the idea of the Citizen Summit.
I am convinced that if we want to open up some room for true democracy and citizen participation in municipal politics in Montréal — breaking up the love-in that has been going on between city councils and the construction and development industries — then we’ll need to do more talking amongst ourselves. As regular people. As citizens who care about this place.
We’ll need to meet, share ideas and stories, and come up with something more sensible than all the nonsense we’ve been seeing lately from municipal governments that are clearly incompetent, and clearly in need of a helping hand from their constituency.
So meet in the streets, shall we? And just chat. Figure some stuff out?
Or do you know of somewhere better maybe? Like a green, abandoned field somewhere, that feels like a real bit of urban oasis? Or, maybe a rooftop garden not too far from where you live?
…let us know, and we’ll meet you there!
(PS - We’re waiting to get more photos back from our friend Ted. When we get them, we’ll share them!)
