Unterwelten

Well, I admittedly never realised how crucial this is! My friends (who are admittedly rather unsophisticated in these important matters of skyline design) had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the 5 tower, 180m thingy jingy. I think I have to talk them out of living life soley on the ground and encourage them to look at skyline photos on the internet - if only to see the outrages that are being perpetrated behind their backs. Only when I talk them into being outraged over the 5 tower, 180m thingy jingy that they have no clue about will they truly know how bad they've had it all along! I'm going to organize a protest at city hall, are you in? (bring your own tinfoil hat) Really? Like 'aesthetic skyline design' is an actual thing? lol

To who? People who obsess over skyline photos on the internet? That's got to be maximum 100-200 people out of 2 million Montrealers. Talk about stupidity.

My apologies to "everybody". All 94 of them.

I have to laugh every time I see these conversations. I say "see" because I never hear anyone talk about this in real life. The only place where these conversations exist are on a handful of 'skyscraper' sites where people (99.99% male because women truly are more intelligent than men) spend hours and hours gazing at skyline photos on the internet then arguing about who has the biggest erection(s). As if it matters to anyone beyond a tiny little group of skyline fetishist dorks. I have friends from all over who love to visit me in MTL. It's an easy sell. They usually come for a specific event - Jazz, Formula 1, Mutek, Jardins Botanique, Igloofest, JPR/JFL, Piknic, Musée des beaux arts are popular and I had 2 groups who came specifically for Leonard Cohen at MAC. And of course, they all want to go to Vieux MTL and the Mountain. While they're here, I take them to other events that they may not be aware of - Francos, Tams, SATosphère, Darling, MURAL, Arsenal, Complêtment Cirque, Tohu, MTL en lumière, Pointe à Callière, etc., etc., etc... I've literally had to drag people to the JC for les Feux d'artifices only to have them thank me profusely afterwards. "When you said fireworks, we thought you meant.. you know.. just regular fireworks. That was fucked up!" is a variation of the usual response. My buddy from England said his summer in MTL was "magical". Another from Halifax calls it "Model City" because of our notoriously beautiful Montréalaises. A Calgarian just wanted to walk around all day, every day, everywhere and anywhere repeating "This is so cool!" wherever she went. I took an old pal to MTL en lumière after his Hab game and he bluntly stated "Something like this could never happen in Toronto". Ditto for people I've dragged kicking and screaming to Igloofest only to have them want to go back the next night. That's a constant refrain "This would/could never happen in ____________". To get to my point, not once, EVER, has anyone said to me "MTL is great but it would be so much better if it had an 200m+ tower." Never. EVER! Maybe I choose my friends well or maybe I simply choose to hang out with adults but this topic has never come up. Much as it has never come up in when I've visited Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris... you never hear anyone say "This place really needs a 200m+ tower in order to make it truly interesting". Any city that does is probably so lacking in other areas that Mc Tall Towers are needed as compensation. Keep the limit and build nice things. Create great public spaces. Build an awesome transit system. Keep the echelle humaine. Let me glimpse the mountain because its presence comforts me, it reminds me of where I am - much as the PVM phare does. It's not that I'm worried. Outside of this little nest of skyline fetishist weirdos - nobody cares about the height of our collective erection(s). If they truly did care, they'd all move to the Greatest, Most Visionary, Most Exciting, Most Ambitiousy Forward Looking City the World Has Ever Seen - Dubai, Erection City!