Another change in policing that emerged in post-renewal Little Burgundy concerned the built landscape. It is notable that, as the crack crisis emerged, the neighbourhood had still not been fully rebuilt from the renewal-era demolitions and still had not attained the desired mix of public housing and privately built homes. This was a lingering problem. One of the objectives of the urban renewal program itself was to reignite development in the neighbourhood. The authors of the renewal study for Little Burgundy concluded that, although the neighbourhood was not yet a slum, it did show signs of decline.305 Thus, the renewal program was meant to interrupt this process of decline by demolishing the outmoded buildings that suppressed the surrounding land valuation, which would supposedly spur new construction and new investment to the
neighbourhood. This was one of the foundational logics of urban renewal. As noted in chapter three, the urban renewal program failed to attract private development, leaving instead large tracts of vacant land. The City attempted to encourage private residential development in the post-renewal period through the programs Opération 10,000 and 20,000 logements. Private development was slow to establish in Little Burgundy even with this subsidized program, possibly due to its reputation as a low-income slum, but it did see a major in increase in private construction through the Logements program between 1982 and 1986.
The ongoing failure of residential development seems to have shaped how security programs were viewed in 1980s Little Burgundy. A direct relationship between policing and property interests in post-renewal Little Burgundy is difficult to establish, but some observations suggest that further investigation of the role of police in protecting property and in creating the security conditions conducive to development might be warranted. The increase in police violence reported in 1984-85 coincided with the uptick in private housing development through Opération 20,000 logements. In the Gazette article reporting these concerns, a Little Burgundy resident was quoted as saying, “We get chased by cops carrying guns a lot. … I was walking home via the back of the new buildings they’re building in the area. Police don’t like it when
305 Mayer, “L’idéologie du réaménagement urbain à Québec et à Montréal.”
[B]lacks do that.”306 This juxtaposition of police harassment and the new housing developments is telling of the relationship between policing and property.
The logic of property interest in relation to security emerged again as the crack crisis was escalating, this time from the perspective of a property owner in a letter to the editor:
WRONG GEOGRAPHY
I live in a beautiful, quiet area, rich with landscaped pedestrian walks, flower gardens and a new children's park.
Your July 14 story, titled "Attack on crack," has erroneously lumped our area between Guy and Mountain Sts. into Little Burgundy. A check with city hall on the name of the area would inform you that officially the area commonly spoken of as Les Floralies belongs in Bonaventure and is not part of St. Henri or Little Burgundy.
This kind of story, designed perhaps to alert the public and to influence the police to take action, is very harmful to the residents as the value of real estate is clearly affected adversely.
Thérèse M. Brault, Montreal307
The July 14th article that this letter refers to featured a sensational description of a neighbourhood gripped by violent crime that left residents afraid to leave their homes.308 Even after reading of the physical and psychological insecurity that her not-quite-neighbours were living through, Brault was still able to pen a claim that even being associated with the crime of the area was “very harmful to the residents” of Les Floralies. This letter articulates the stakes for homeowners in controlling the crack crisis in Little Burgundy. This connection shaped the
dominant perspective on criminality and points to one of the potential logics behind the increased police harassment observed during the growth of a property-owning population segment.
In addition to threatening the interests of existing property owners, criminality and the crack crisis may have also deterred further development. Although the proportion of owner-occupied units had quadrupled by the end of Logements in 1986, there is a sense that housing development had not reached the desired level. Planning documents from the 1980s and 90s make little mention of Little Burgundy and outline no significant plans to stimulate residential development, but the historical progression of owner-occupancy shows a trend of growth that
306 Johnston, “Blacks and the Police; Rookie Cops Guilty of Racism Little Burgundy Residents Say.”
307 Emphasis added. Thérèse M. Brault, “Wrong Geography,” Gazette, August 2, 1990, sec. Letters.
308 Peritz, “Attack on Crack; Little Burgundy Residents Work to Oust Pushers.”
was notably stalled during the period of insecurity called the crack crisis.309 Comparing the census data on owner-occupied homes with renter-occupied homes from the renewal to post-renewal period (see figure in Annex 1), we can observe a dramatic rise in owner-occupied units between 1981 and 1991. This growth levels off in the period between 1991 and 1996, with barely 30 units added, only to increase by nearly 50% between 1996 and 2006. Considering the
insecurity surrounding the crack trade started to enter the media in 1989 and continued to be in the news through 1992, it seems reasonable to conclude that the crack crisis was a factor in the lack of growth, and once it was contained development resumed. Further research into the geography of policing policies would be necessary to come to conclusions about the spatial relationship between promoting residential development and managing insecurity.
I have suggested here that changes in policing in the post-renewal period may well have been shaped by the physical legacy of urban renewal of a neighbourhood with vacant land and unfulfilled development which had been its promise. Many factors contributed to the struggle to actualize the desired level of development, and as I have already shown, there were different governance efforts to overcome the obstacles that were envisioned, whether by changing the name of the neighbourhood or subsidizing land prices for private developers. The examples in this section provide clues that connect interests of development and property ownership to the changes in policing in post-renewal Little Burgundy.
309 Whether promoting private housing development by improving security conditions was part of the logics of governance during the post-renewal period, however, is harder to establish. In the first part of the post-renewal period, facilitating development was a priority and the reputation of the neighbourhood was important enough to warrant changing its name, but it is not clear if there were preoccupations with crime or security specifically. After the MCM was elected to City Hall in 1986, Little Burgundy was absent from plans for private housing development.
Opération 20,000 logements program resumed in 1991 under the name Habiter Montréal, but very few lots in Little Burgundy were made available through this program (In the second phase in 1993 one lot was listed for 10 proposed units). Montréal : Service de l’habitation et du développement urbain, “Habiter Montréal : Phase II.” In the
Directive Plan for the Southwest borough of the Montreal Master Plan, certain sites were targeted for residential development, but none located in Little Burgundy. Montréal : Service de l’habitation et du développement urbain, Plan d’urbanisme : plan directeur de l’arrondissement Sud-ouest, 19. The directive plan did, however, include a general aim for residential development “in the areas likely to offer a quality environment.” « …dans les secteurs susceptibles d’offrir un environnement de qualité » Montréal : Ville, “Réussir Montréal : résumé du plan
d’urbanisme” (Ville de Montréal, 1992), 10. The directive plan for neighbouring Ville-Marie included further residential development in Bonaventure, on the site of the former CN rail terminus the same area of Les Floralies, which bordered Little Burgundy along Guy street. Montréal : Bureau du plan d’urbanisme, Master Development Plan for the Ville-Marie District, 32.