Pity the Plateau wealthy

>> New residents aren't exactly thrilled with the neighbourhood's less savoury characters

By NOEMI LOPINTO

 Hard as it may be to believe, the latest victims of gentrification in Plateau Mont-Royal are the new yuppie residents. Developers' lack of focus on urban planning and public consultation means new home owners find themselves faced with the contradiction and colour of urban life: the homeless, the noise, partygoers, drug addicts, festivals, parades and more. And some of the bourgeoisie are simply not emotionally equipped to deal with it.

 Constable Sylvia Da Sousa, who has been stationed at Station 37 on Rachel for two years, says she is sometimes exasperated by what she terms a class conflict.

 "These people move here from the suburbs," she says, "because they have been drawn by the hype, and they are in for a shock. The kind of person who drives to the depanneur to buy milk hates the street festivals and the parades. They buy a condo for thousands of dollars on l'Esplanade and then they call the police to complain that there are Tam-tams. What I want to say is, 'When you were buying the beautiful place on Mont-Royal or St-Denis, you didn't look around?'"

 The Bourque administration has spent millions of dollars in attracting the cell-phone, designer-clothes set: $15-million on repaving Marie-Anne, Berri and St-Laurent; $13.1-million on the new chalet in Jeanne-Mance park; $4-million into Lafontaine Park; $10.3-million into subsidies for local businesses; and $1.8-million into other municipal subsidies and renovations. Comparatively low mortgage rates means property has sold like hotcakes, driving poor renters out, but doing nothing about the homeless. And the city's love affair with festivals is a shock for some.

 Da Sousa says half her daily calls are from angry residents who can't believe they have to share the sidewalk with the hoi polloi. "The portrait of this area is not of ethnic conflicts," notes Da Sousa, "it's definitely class conflict--on rue Rivard, you have luxury condos built right next to a rooming house. There is no urban planning at work here. This is the only neighbourhood in Montreal where you'll find so many lawyers, university professors, doctors and businessmen sharing a wall with a pair of junkies. What I am shocked by is their genuine surprise that this exists."

 Hell hath no fury like a yuppie lacking sleep. "I have to tell people, 'I am NOT going to shoot your neighbour's dogs,'" Da Sousa says. "And I cannot close down the Tam-tams, or evict a tenant, or close down a bar for making too much noise after 11 p.m. They are going to have to figure it out."

 The disenfranchised, however, are getting back at them, as demonstrated in the growing number of breaking and enterings. In 2000 in the south-east end of the Plateau, there were 1,393 breaking and enterings reported--compared to 1,194 in 1999.

 "The city has decided to make this an area where there is a mix of residents and businesses, stores and bars and that is part of the lure of the Plateau," Da Sousa remarks. "Some people just believe their quality of life is impeded when a homeless person opens the door for them at the bank. We are allowed to tell people, 'Look, homeless people exist,' but they are the taxpaying citizens, so on some level there is a prioritizing taking place." :