Snoop and the City

This year’s orientation concert was memorable if only because so few people will remember it. A sense of excitement flooded campus when rumours of Snoop Dogg’s impending visit were confirmed. Instead of the traditional concert on Mackay St., a series of venue changes led to a very small group of students actually being able to see him. Some of the blame for the disorganization can be laid on the CSU. But they would not have been sent scrambling if the City of Montreal hadn’t succumbed to complaints from a small group of local residents, and held back the permit for the outdoor show.
The same thing happened this summer, when a small group of area residents and business owners blocked the “greening” of Mackay St., with complaints and a petition. The greening project has been tossed around Concordia for years. Originally the plan called for the street to be closed to traffic permanently, and turned into a pedestrian mall. After failing to get off the ground, the plan was scaled back drastically. The proposed “greening” would have left one lane open on Mackay St. and lasted for a couple months, over the summer. Even that plan was blocked by a petition that received only 400 signatures and was largely concerned with the temporary elimination of a mere 40 parking spots.
All this despite the fact that, were it not for Concordia students, the area around the school would look more like the wasteland between Sir George Williams campus and Atwater metro. The City has pledged its support for the Quartier Concordia project, the idea of turning the area around the campus into a real neighbourhood – focused around our school.
But while these politicians may talk the talk they clearly don’t walk the walk. There is no reason 40,000 students – and the merchants whose businesses are kept alive by those students – should be controlled by the whims of a much smaller group. But politicians know that students don’t usually complain and they definitely don’t vote.
With Montreal’s municipal election campaign underway since Friday, now is the time that Concordia students can have the most impact on city hall.
Because the City is the lowest level of government, politicians are more directly connected to the people they represent. City and borough councillors and mayors represent a smaller number of people, the party lines are not that strong at city hall, which makes city councillors more likely to listen to their constituents.
But what can you do? You can get informed. Find out who’s running in you area, and what they stand for. Get in touch with the candidates – let them know what you care about and what you want them to do. Between public transit, police, urban development, recycling, garbage collection and infrastructure, the city government affects our lives on a daily basis. The result of this election is far from a forgone conclusion. Recent polls show the two front-runners for mayor, Louise Harel and incumbent Gérald Tremblay, are neck and neck, with Richard Bergeron pulling up a not-too distant third. And 40 per cent of Montrealers have yet to make up their minds.