griffintown Station Griffintown – Bernard-Landry - Discussion

[ScarletCoral]

Publication dans le groupe FB du monument commémoratif

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Blackrockmemorial/permalink/1553538528129600/

General Update

We are reporting that we had a productive and interesting meeting with the Mayor of Montreal earlier today. There were a dozen representatives of the Montreal Irish Community, by City invitation, in attendance - which provided a pretty fair overview of the concerns of our community as they relate to the City of Montreal. As well, there was The Mayor, and a number of City representatives in the room.

It was mentioned that the City would have liked to have invited additional Irish individuals and groups but felt that a total of about 20 Irish & City people overall was the most manageable number for an open discussion.
Although we did touch on a few other issues, there were two main points of contention that we had an opportunity to review in depth & in a fair, and reasonable manner.

The first point was the “moving of Bridge Street” that is absolutely necessary to build a proper world-class memorial space around the Black Rock which, of course would remember the 6000+ Irish immigrants that died and were buried in the area in 1847 and also to honor the many Montrealers at the time of every language, religion, and heritage that provided care and comfort to these Irish.

In this case, the City generally made a very clear commitment to relocate Bridge Street and seemed to fully understood our concern over this matter. As they say the “devil is in the details” – planning, costs, negotiations with Hydro Quebec that owns the land etc., etc. But the commitment to do everything possible to move Bridge Street was definitely and clearly stated by the Mayor and other City Councillor representatives at this meeting. I guess the statement that “We will move Bridge Street” is a clear as it can get!

This commitment regarding Bridge Street is very, very excellent news for the community; and everyone that has been involved in this effort for the past 10-12 years and will allow planning for the actual memorial space to move forward.

The 2nd point about the naming of the REM station after Mr. Landry was a little more contentious. The Mayor reinstated her belief that the Griffintown Station include the name of Mr. Landry. However, the members of the Irish Community in attendance, also made it very clear that having Mr. Landry’s name on the Griffintown station was completely unacceptable - and that thousands and thousands of Montrealers, many of non-Irish descent, were also very opposed to this idea. At the end, no real decision was made – the Mayor again mentioned that REM would be responsible for naming the station; however, she would spend some time to rethink her position over the next few weeks. We will await her final decision on this matter but regardless we think that we made it very loud & clear that the Irish Community, and other interested parties, will always be opposed to having Griffintown rebranded with Mr. Landry’s name.

Some of the additional issues mentioned was the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Irish season events, as well as, the need for the GAA to find some proper space where their practices and games could be held.
Overall, we can say that the Mayor was opened to hearing our concerns and including the REM Station naming where there was obvious disagreement, she indicated that she would fully consider all our comments.

Time, as usual, will tell….

Of course, any members of the Irish Community that were in attendance are encouraged to add their comments to our view of this meeting….

[ScarletCoral]

  

à l’instant, ScarletCoral a dit :

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/plante-open-to-diverting-bridge-st-for-irish-famine-memorial-organizers-say

Plante open to diverting Bridge St. for Irish famine memorial, organizers say

According to members of the Montreal Irish community, the mayor also indicated she might be willing to reconsider her controversial proposal to name the future REM station in Griffintown after late premier Bernard Landry.

MARIAN SCOTT, MONTREAL GAZETTE 
Updated: January 19, 2020

Members of the local Irish community are optimistic about the prospects for a proposed memorial park to honour Montreal’s Irish famine victims after meeting with Mayor Valérie Plante last week.

Plante expressed willingness to reroute part of Bridge St. so the park can be created on the site where up to 6,000 Irish immigrants died of typhus in 1847-48, according to some of those present at the meeting at city hall office on Wednesday.

She also indicated she might be willing to reconsider her controversial proposal to name the future Réseau express métropolitain (REM) station in nearby Griffintown after late premier Bernard Landry, according to people who attended.

“She said, ‘Yes, it’s our intention to move Bridge St. Yes, we’re 100 per cent committed to do a study on moving Bridge St.,’ ” said Victor Boyle, a director of the Montreal Irish Memorial Park Foundation, who attended the meeting with co-director Fergus Keyes. The foundation has been fighting for more than a decade to create a commemorative park on the site.

In November, archeologists for the REM discovered the remains of more than a dozen people while digging near Bridge St., where the future light-rail system is being built. The discovery came as a vindication for members of the foundation, who have strived to bring the unmarked cemetery to public attention and create a small park around the Black Rock memorial to the typhus victims.

The Black Rock is the world’s oldest Irish famine memorial. In 1859, workers building the Victoria Bridge installed and inscribed the giant boulder to honour the thousands who fled Ireland in overcrowded coffin ships in 1847-48, only to die of typhus on Montreal’s waterfront. At the time, Bridge St. did not exist.

Today, the boulder sits on a median between traffic lanes in the busy commuter artery, where most people driving by barely notice it.

Speaking to reporters after a news conference Thursday, Plante refused to confirm that her administration is willing to reroute Bridge St. so the memorial park can go ahead, saying Wednesday’s meeting was private.

However, she acknowledged the present location of the Black Rock is unsuitable because people have to cross the fast-moving street to get to it.

“Our goal as the city is to make sure that the Black Rock is in a place that will be easily accessible, because right now it is absolutely not accessible,” Plante said.

However, other sources that attended the meeting also confirmed the mayor made it clear the city is open to moving the road, barring technical obstacles or objections from other institutions involved in redeveloping the area.

Hydro-Québec, which is building an electrical substation nearby, has been extremely supportive of the memorial park, for which it has agreed to cede 1.5 hectares of its site.

The mayor said at the meeting that the city will carry out a study on rerouting the road by 2021.

However, Boyle said it’s crucial to carry out the study as soon as possible, since the configuration of Bridge St. could affect multiple projects underway in the area, where the Goose Village neighbourhood stood until its demolition in 1964.

“We would like to take advantage of economies of scale, and if the city is doing construction with regard to any of these projects, let’s roll it out at the same time,” he said. “So we’re hoping the study isn’t dragged out.”

Boyle said Plante was initially adamant at the meeting that the REM station should be named after Landry, but after hearing the concerns of those present, she agreed to consider the options.

“Fergus made an excellent point. He said, ‘I’m not arguing as an anglophone or as an Irish descendant. I’m talking as a Montrealer who knows Montreal history. That in and of itself should stop you from putting Bernard Landry’s name on that REM station.’ And she listened,” Boyle said.

Boyle said the foundation is not proposing to name the station after anyone else.

“It should stay Griffintown station,” he said.

The Montreal Irish Memorial Park Foundation’s favoured option for the park would be to locate it where the Black Rock now stands, and to reroute the road east of there. The park would include a pool to evoke the immigrants’ ocean crossing, a paved walkway, an agora, panels explaining the significance of the site and a vegetable garden to evoke the failed potato crop that caused the famine.

The panels would focus not just on the suffering of the Irish, but also on humanitarian efforts to care for them. Many Montrealers died while nursing the sick, including nuns, priests, doctors and the city’s mayor at the time, John Easton Mills.

 

[Chuck-A]

Il y en a qui font leurs petits comiques sur le compte Twitter du REM pour suggérer un nom à cette station :

Dans un autre ordre d'idée, la communauté irlandaise espère toujours qu'on y donnera un nom représentatif de l'héritage culturel qu'elle a apporté à Montréal, mais elle questionne les délais avant de connaître la décision.

REM names 25 of 26 stations, but mum's the word on Griffintown
Irish heritage advocate says 'we're hoping it's something positive' but question the delay

Isaac Olson · CBC News · Posted: Feb 14, 2020 5:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

[...]

All but one of Montreal's light-rail network stations has an official name, but the whereabouts and name of the most controversial station remain under wraps.

"The exact location and final name of the Peel Basin, located in Griffintown, will be announced at a later date in collaboration with the City of Montreal," said Thursday's announcement by the Réseau express métropolitain (REM).

That nameless station is causing a stir in the Irish community, as Montreal's mayor, Valérie Plante, has proposed it be christened in honour of former Quebec premier Bernard Landry, who died in November 2018.

After Plante's announcement, outraged Irish heritage activists started a petition that garnered thousands of signatures, demanding the station be named for the Irish working-class neighbourhood that stood there for 150 years.

• Petition calls for future REM station in Montreal's southwest to be named after Irish community

"We really don't know what it means that they named basically every other station except the one in Griffintown which is, of course, the one that we don't want named after Bernard Landry," said Fergus Keyes, an Irish community activist.

"We're hoping it's something positive — that they will come out, both the mayor and REM, and they will announce they will not be naming it after Mr. Landry."

The information is vague, he said, and he has not heard recently from Montreal or the REM regarding the decision.

The tracks and station will both be in the vicinity of the mass gravesite of an estimated 6,000 Irish immigrants who died from typhus soon after arriving in Montreal in 1847 during the Great Famine. Keyes and his group have been working for years to have the site turned into a memorial park for the victims.

Keyes said his group has agreed that naming the new station Griffintown, after the neighbourhood it is in, would be in keeping with how other stations have been named, such as Île-Bigras, Île-des-Sœurs and Pierrefonds-Roxboro.

• Irish group says naming Griffintown REM station after Bernard Landry ignores area's heritage

But when it comes to Griffintown, the City of Montreal told CBC to ask the REM, and the REM isn't answering any further questions about the station's name.

The REM appears to have only named one station after a person: Marie-Curie station will be in an industrial sector of the Saint-Laurent borough known as Technoparc Montréal.

This is intended as "a nod to the scientific research park in this sector," the REM said in a news release. The station is located close to Marie‑Curie Avenue."

The REM says it's relying on some guiding principles for naming stations that apply to the greater Montreal area. For example, the Metro stations are named after streets, and commuter stations are named after the neighbourhoods they serve.

The REM has been basing its decisions on circumstances such as existing stations, bus terminals, streets and municipalities. 

This photo of the Irish Commemorative Stone was taken by amateur photographer Alfred Walter Roper in 1898. (McCord Museum)

To avoid confusion, it's also avoided duplicating other station names: for example, L'Anse-à-l'Orme station in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is so named to avoid confusion with Vaudreuil-Hudson train line's Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue station on the West Island.

So if the REM follows its own guidelines, Keyes said, it won't name the Griffintown station after the former premier.

"If they do continue to decide that they will name it after Mr. Landry, obviously we have no intention of giving up the battle," he said.

[...]

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/rem-station-names-griffintown-1.5463583

[ScarletCoral]

Benoît Dorais ne semble pas vouloir appuyer la proposition de la mairesse. Première fois que je vois une réponse claire. Au conseil d'arrondissement, il avait un peu patiné quand un résident lui a posé une question au sujet du nom de la station

 

[Chuck-A]

il y a 37 minutes, ScarletCoral a dit :

Benoît Dorais ne semble pas vouloir appuyer la proposition de la mairesse. Première fois que je vois une réponse claire. Au conseil d'arrondissement, il avait un peu patiné quand un résident lui a posé une question au sujet du nom de la station

 

Excellente nouvelle ! 

Maintenant, sait-on quand est-ce que la ville annoncera "officiellement" avec CDPQi que cette station sera située à côté du Parc Griffin ?  Il me semble que cela a assez bretté... surtout qu'elle "serait" inaugurée l'année prochaine. 

[Né entre les rapides]

L'histoire de cette question qui n'a su trouver réponse impose le choix suivant: Station Indénommable.  -- Un vrai mot, peu usuel toutefois, qui cadrerait bien avec l'esprit du New City Gas tout près. Dites oui si vous êtrs en faveur de l'enrichissement du vocabulaire,  de la même façon qu'on apprend à  goûter des saveurs exotiques! 

(attention: ce n'est pas synonyme de innomable)

[Chuck-A]

Nouvelle proposition de nom pour cette station: station Griffintown–MR-63 (basé sur le complexe du projet MR-63, qui sera érigé sur un terrain appartenant à la Ville de Montréal, à l’angle des rues Ottawa et Peel, en plein cœur de Griffintown, et qui ouvrira à l'été 2022).

Un extrait de l'article paru dans La Presse ce matin à ce sujet:

MR-63 ou comment faire vibrer Griffintown
Publié le 23 février 2020 à 5h00  |  MARIO GIRARD  |  LA PRESSE

[...]

Non loin d’une station du REM

Le complexe MR-63 sera érigé sur un terrain appartenant à la Ville de Montréal, à l’angle des rues Ottawa et Peel, en plein cœur de Griffintown. Un bail emphytéotique de nombreuses années sera bientôt signé entre les promoteurs du projet et la Ville.

Évalué à 10 millions de dollars, le projet bénéficie d’une aide financière de 350 000 $ de Desjardins. Des démarches auprès des gouvernements fédéral et provincial sont en cours. « Nous comptons également sur l’aide de commanditaires et sur des dons privés », dit Étienne Morin-Bordeleau. Si tout va comme prévu, MR-63 ouvrira ses portes à l’été 2022.

Les promoteurs du projet MR-63 espèrent très fort que la station du Réseau express métropolitain (REM) prévue dans Griffintown sera située à proximité de leur centre. En effet, alors qu’on a récemment dévoilé la plupart des noms des dessertes du REM, celui de la station qui doit apparaître dans ce secteur a été maintenu secret. Son emplacement n’est toujours pas connu. Mais des sources m’indiquent que la station sera effectivement érigée non loin du projet MR-63.

« On a l’audace de dire qu’elle devrait être nommée Griffintown–MR-63 » - Étienne Morin-Bordeleau

[...]

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/202002/22/01-5262044-mr-63-ou-comment-faire-vibrer-griffintown.php

 

[Javabien]

Considérant qu'il y a beaucoup de résidents qui ne sont pas vendus au projet de MR-63 et qu'ils auraient préféré voir ce 10M$ investi autrement, je crois qu'ils devraient se garder une petite gêne pour leur suggestion de nom "Griffintown - MR-63".  En plus, ce serait un peu étrange d'utiliser le nom MR-63 pour l'une des stations du nouveau réseau de train léger, sans oublier toute la controverse.

[champdemars]

il y a une heure, Javabien a dit :

Considérant qu'il y a beaucoup de résidents qui ne sont pas vendus au projet de MR-63 et qu'ils auraient préféré voir ce 10M$ investi autrement, je crois qu'ils devraient se garder une petite gêne pour leur suggestion de nom "Griffintown - MR-63".  En plus, ce serait un peu étrange d'utiliser le nom MR-63 pour l'une des stations du nouveau réseau de train léger, sans oublier toute la controverse.

C'est une blague qu'ils ont fait. 

[invest26]

Malgré le fait que tout semble laisser croire que la nouvelle station sera proche du new city gas , les travaux actuels proches de la promenade smith me laisse encore réfléchir un peu sur la possibilité d’une station à la promenade smith 🤷‍♂️