Bicycle paths in Parc-Extension: the debate beyond mobility

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It is October 3, it is 6 pm. Anita John was one of the first of the group to demonstrate in front of the city hall in Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension. In his hand, a sign, on which you can see a car, a peace symbol and a bicycle. She takes the speakerphone to express her concern: when she comes home from work, she sometimes spends up to 30 minutes looking for a parking space. Shouts of support answered him.

Anita has lived in Parc-Ex since 1998. She is a nurse and sometimes has to work two shifts due to the lack of staff in the health sector in Quebec.

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“Sometimes [the bosses] ask me if I can come later and I do, so I go home at midnight and at that point I don't have a parking space. I am scared of what is going to happen this winter.” The anxiety is on her face. “When there is snow, I will have to park far away; and I could slip, fall and get hurt,” she fears.

However, the development of bicycle paths is favorable. She even says she enjoys it: “I love bikes, my granddaughters use them and that's very important. The problem is that they are taking away our parking spaces”, reiterates the nurse.

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Five months of debate

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The debate on the Park Extension bike paths began in June, after the town hall organized an information session on upcoming work. Five months later, the demonstrations continued: on November 7, residents opposed to the project wanted to demonstrate again and make their voices heard at the same time as the monthly meeting of the district council was taking place. Their request? “Restore our parking and prevent any further removal of parking spaces in our borough without public consultation.”

Between those who demand, loud and clear, “We want our parking spaces! and those who shout “We want our bike paths!” ”, it seems difficult to find common ground.

Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, the mayor of Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension, took a position in the debate. In fact, work has begun.

But this debate goes beyond mobility, especially because it is a district in full transformation. Many residents fear that it is in the process of gentrification, as before Plateau-Mont-Royal, Rosemont and, more recently, Verdun and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

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What is causing the tension?

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Parc-Extension is densely populated, and 43% of its residents live below the poverty line. It is the neighborhood with the largest number of immigrants and visible minorities, accounting for nearly 60% of its inhabitants. The latter come mainly from Greece, India, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The neighborhood also welcomes more new residents than the Montreal average. Of the families with children who live there, 83% are immigrants.

Currently, the city is implementing a project that is in line with the aspirations of the Projet Montréal administration: to make the city greener. The planet requires it and science confirms it. Thus, bike paths have been created on Ball, de l'Épee and Querbes avenues. The project forces the removal of on-street parking on one side of the street.

This is where the problem lies: 250 parking spaces have already been removed. The demonstrators made it clear that they were not opposed to bike lanes. Instead, they are contesting the removal of parking spaces on streets where it was already difficult to park.

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What the town hall says

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For Mayor Lavigne Lalonde, the safety of cyclists is essential. When asked why citizens were not consulted before the project was launched, she recalls the validity of this decision, which “makes it possible to ensure a certain equity in the quality of infrastructure in the territory”.

According to City statistics, half of the citizens of Parc-Extension own a car. What solution is offered to them to go to work, to take their children to school, to go to the market? “1% of public space is dedicated to cycling infrastructure. The rest of the public space is still used by people who use a vehicle to get to work and to make other trips,” explains the elected official. “And then, when we build infrastructures like this, yes, we remove some parking spaces, but there are still parking spaces that exist. But people usually have to park a little further away,” she continues.

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Raising the debate

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Gonzalo Lizarralde is a professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Montreal. Asked about the need to make the city more ecological, he said he understood the importance of cycling. On the other hand, he points out that the practice cannot be separated from the profile of the citizens who have adopted it. In this case, they are generally young and healthy. Other users who do not have the same provisions are generally left out. “A family where one person works in the evening and goes to work at 8 pm in winter will not ride a bike. A mother who has three young children cannot take them to school by bike either,” he recalls.

To engage in dialogue, the preferred path should go beyond the opposing positions of environmentalists and car advocates, believes the researcher. “A policy can have many side effects, even if it is good in theory. Not all of its impacts will be positive, even if the city needs to be improved.”

According to him, it is necessary to work in depth on the concrete application of ecological policies. “It is very easy to get carried away by ideologies such as sustainable development and green culture, or by stories that are very common, but you also have to weigh them. Authorities need to do this with concrete data. There are already numerous examples in Montreal of what has happened in terms of gentrification and what needs to be done. These examples need to be documented and, once documented, used for public policies,” he said.

However, the projects committed to reducing car use, such as the REV (bicycle express network) in Saint-Denis, are not sufficiently documented, he says. “Two winters have already passed, and all we know is that one million people use it every year, but we need a lot more data. Who are the millions of people who use it? Are they more men, or women? What is their socio-economic level? Do they have kids? This is data that even pro-bike agencies don't present.”

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A cultural factor

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Cultural aspects must also be taken into account, the expert believes. In fact, Parc-Extension is a multi-ethnic neighborhood, where not everyone considers cycling as a means of transportation.

He regrets that such crucial decisions for residents are not made based on previous studies of data. “I think that, in many cases of gentrification, the problem is transferred, but not solved. When a mayor's office makes unilateral decisions, there's also a bit of that. If I impose a rule and ask those who don't respect it to leave, I don't see the problem anymore.”

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Officials “turn a blind eye”

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“Not seeing the problem” is exactly what bothers Miguel Ángel Pérez, resident and owner of two buildings for rent in Parc-Extension. He has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years and has no intention of leaving.

He too participated in one of the demonstrations that took place in October. The man, who is in his fifties, is of the reserved type. While there, he mostly listened to the speeches. He had prepared a sign on which was written: “Keep our parking lots, Mairesse, listen.”

His question, right now, is this: how is it going to attract new tenants? Indeed, potential customers often ask him if there are parking spaces near his buildings.

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“I have to be honest and answer them in the negative. So I won't be able to rent the available apartments, he said, worried. But it also affects me because I live in one of the buildings and my children come to visit me. They're coming by car and, even for them, it's going to be a problem. Especially in winter, when everything is complicated by snow.”

For those who say they know Parc-Extension well, the problem is not going to end there, “because we are going to start invading other streets to be able to park.”

Especially since, according to him, most immigrants in the neighborhood need a car to get to work. We do not have official data on this subject, but he assures that the majority of them have to travel long distances to work, making it difficult to use alternative means of transport.

Miguel Ángel also regrets that the municipal authorities say that it is not the City's responsibility to guarantee parking spaces. Last September, during the question period for the council of Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension, the mayor, Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, said the following: “The City is not responsible for finding a parking space for each car on the territory.”

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Immigrant and cyclist

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Martin Saintice, like Miguel Ángel, is an immigrant. This local resident, with tired eyes and impeccable clothing, recognizes that it is not easy to find parking in Parc-Ex. But this problem does not concern him, because he rides a bike, even at the age of 70.

He has lived alone for 10 years, on Outremont Avenue. Her children grew up and left. We find him in early November in front of a Tim Hortons, very close to City Hall where the demonstrators went a month earlier.

He joins us by bike, after walking the six streets that separate his house from Tim Hortons. It is a path that retirees take almost every day, for shopping or for a simple walk. His eyes reddened by the wind, he declares that he loves his tricolor bike, which above all allows him to keep in shape. He does it even in winter, “as long as they clear the streets of snow.”

“Drivers don't like cyclists, and that's the problem,” he laughs, adding that this is the crux of the debate in the neighborhood. “But I need it every day. To do sports, for tonicity”, assures Martin, who seems to be in great shape.

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According to him, those who do not agree with the new bike paths have a selfish vision of public space. “They only think of themselves. (...) Cyclists have the right, like everyone else, to circulate in the neighborhood. There is no priority for one type of citizen,” he says in a more serious tone.

As for the fact that it will be more difficult for drivers to park near their homes or businesses, he does not hesitate to answer: “Absolutely. That's right, because parking is already difficult in Parc-Extension. It has always been difficult in Parc-Extension”, but for Martin, it cannot be “an obstacle that prevents cyclists like him from having access to safe bike paths.”

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What about gentrification?

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Martin also recognizes that Parc-Extension has been changing in recent years and has no doubt that this could affect the most disadvantaged families in the neighborhood, which worries him.

In this regard, Gonzalo Lizarralde believes that bicycle paths add to a series of accelerated changes that are causing part of the poor population in the neighborhood to be displaced. The architect recalls that Parc-Extension is in the midst of gentrification, especially since the construction of the University of Montreal's MIL campus, which was inaugurated in 2019.

“These urban development policies end up displacing people who can't keep up with the speed of change in cities. This process started several years ago in Parc-Extension and, of course, it is not the bike paths that are going to accentuate it, but they are an element that is added to others in the process”, explains the architect.

The shortage of housing, the difficult access to homeownership — these are evils that, according to Mayor Lavigne Lalonde, are causing gentrification on the Island of Montreal. She considers that the construction of bicycle paths is not linked to any gentrification. “And we are working on it in a lot of other ways to ensure, precisely, that we are able to build housing”, assures the mayor.

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Things could have been done better

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Paula Negrón-Poblete, professor at the School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at UdeM, is not surprised that the debate is still continuing today, given the lack of consultation with the population. If such a consultation had been put in place, it would probably have led to a clash, believes the researcher, “but it would have been more interesting to leave room for reflection, with questions such as: “What can we do to make the people of Parc-Extension use the car less?” ”

“Public space belongs to everyone, and it's not just where cars park or bike paths. Public space is also the sidewalk and the benches in the streets. If you want people to move differently, you have to make them want to walk around the neighborhood,” she explains.

Thus, the professor considers that the measure, although good in its nature, was poorly executed, for lack of a more global vision of what mobility involves.

“If the sidewalks are wider or if benches are set up so that people can walk and take breaks, especially the elderly, the situation changes. If people see things like this, they may say that they have lost their parking space nearby, but that they have other benefits.”

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Know how to adapt

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Given the lack of common ground and the implementation of the project, the mayor is asking the residents of the neighborhood to adapt. “I can understand that, for some people, it creates a turmoil,” she says.

For her, these bike paths offer freedom, an ability to emancipate from the isolation of the sector, so that young people can participate in activities that may take place a little further away from home. “They will be able to do it safely by bike. So, we are responding to a need that is real, and that is a request from many citizens as well.”

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