I was driving around from Ville Saint-Laurent to Downtown over the weekend and the only thought on my mind was "Montreal Looks like shit."
Everywhere I went, I was staring at sad looking cracked concrete. Every street corner had a gaping hole surrounded by a orange barriers. Cones lined every single street I drove through, and the streets that weren't under construction looked like they were built in the 1800's.
There are so many construction projects going on at the same time, some get forgotten and abandoned all together.
People living near construction sites are being poisoned by the fumes.
And if you look at this construction map, you can't even count the work sites because there are so many they actually overlap.
I used to be bothered by the sounds of sirens, but these days I'm bothered by the sounds of concrete saws and pile drivers.
In fact, this should be Montreal's new flag:
A photo posted by cone hunter?MONTREAL (@constructiondestruction) on
It's gotten so bad, it even makes the street art look like shit.
If you put bright colorful street style art murals near beautiful buildings it adds playfulness and whimsy to the neighborhood. But when the neighborhood itself looks like a war zone, then the street art ends up looking like a crappy poster in a teenager's room.
What's truly insane is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The city has already been hijacked by orange cones and yet construction hasn't even begun on several massive projects.
At first I thought it was funny that the city is biting off more than it can chew, but as I kept digging I realized that this isn't funny, it's scary.
Photo cred - ville.montreal
- Montreal Is Building A Path Connecting Mount Royal All The Way Down To The Old Port
- Montreal’s Jacques Cartier Bridge Will Be Lit Up With Glowing Lights In 2017
A photo posted by Port de Montréal (@portmtl) on
- Montreal Is Building An All-New “Super Tall” Lookout Tower In The Old Port
- Montreal To Allegedly Get A Giant Aquarium In The Old Port
And that's still not all!
The Biodome is getting makeover.
Sainte-Catherine street is being completely re-built.
Cartier des Spectacle will be getting a facelift.
$15 million dollars will be spent on new bike paths.
And The Olympic stadium is getting a new entrance.
Plus at least 20 more.
If you'll notice, all these projects have one thing in common, they are mostly unnecessary. What about the water pipes that keep breaking? The crumbling overpasses? The building projects that have dragged on for nearly 10 years, such as the Dorval Circle.
We keep adding stuff to our to-do list but we never actually scratch any items off.
Montreal is like an overachieving procrastinator.
It's irresponsible, selfish and it's straight up impossible to think that we can actually complete all these projects by the 375th anniversary.
Would you even believe the city if they said these projects would all be done by 2025?
I didn't think so, yet somehow somehow we're expected to believe all of these projects will be done by next year.
Good luck with that, I'll believe it when I see it.
