Special to Ex-Montrealers

It's taken about twenty years for the city to finally begin overhauling the the crumbling macrame knot deathtrap known as the Parc Ex interchange, but look up from it to the west before you crash and you can see it took but a few hours notice for municipal workers to change something we all cherish, heathens and Christians alike: the huge Vegas-like cross on top of the mountain. How prescient of me to have opened my old pope blog with a Prince lyric. As soon as the world became popeless, the cross turned PURPLE. I'm enjoying it like a comet cuz it will be back to yellow by the end of the week.

Also to those of you who have loved and been lost to Montreal, I am sorry to report that the city's trend towards blandifying its funkiest (and I do mean funky in all senses of the word) decor continues. What is this, Toronto?? I guess in this sense, kind of. An unfortunate by-product of a city on a huge economic upswing seems to be that all sorts of beloved quirky old buildings, interiors, and signs bearing witness to all the different eras of an old city get made over with all the originality and panache of a Comfort Inn.

Of special sadness to me is the loss of weird signs from the sixties. One example: remember the sign of Florateria at the corner of Pine and St. Urbain--the shop that was started by two of the Dionne quints? Black background with big and small boxy white script unlike any other? Gone. (Though the green and orange slat awning remains...for now.) The worst of it is, this sign, like most of the other losses, has been replaced not only with something really boring, but something that isn't even trendy. What's the point of changing a great old sign like that if you're not even going to cash in by attracting trendy customers?? At least in Toronto cool old things get turned into homogenous but fairly good-looking things (industrial minimalism with bounced coloured light, anyone?) In Montreal cool old things get turned into something your grandma would have liked circa 1988. Look what they did to deli Reubens. Another nice sign about to disappear: the huge south-facing label of the old brick Southam Press building on Bleury. It's now obscured by yet another banner announcing EVEN MORE new condos.

Think of any fascinatingly crusty old underused building or unexpected little green and muraled vacant lot you used to be fond of. I garauntee you it has been or is currently being turned into a condo development.

If you care about anything but aesthetics, this is not all bad. Many great historical facades may end up being preserved precisely because many people are living and working behind them again. More people choosing to live in the city is also good for inspiring little spin-off service businesses and overall civic vitality, and really, really good in terms of discouraging people from wasting lots of gas and municipal tax money in catering to inefficient suburban/commuter living. I just wish not all of this new housing was geared to high-earners whom you will still never see walking around the neighbourhood vivifying public space. Though in this small city almost everything an able body could need is within walking distance, the luxury condo yuppies still drive to the dry cleaners. My recently hyper-developed quartier has a thousand new residential units yet still looks like a ghost town at at sreet level.

New Yorkers get it. I hope Montrealers someday will, too.