My group’s mood box was mildly architectural, with ‘wireform’ buildings on opposite sides of a ‘street’ interconnected and linked together into a sort of  ‘web’.  The outside of the box was covered with a facsimile of peeling posters, the kind that one sees on the hoarding of construction sites, falling off in inch-thick layers of history, a strange record of the history of popular culture in the city.  This was the feeling my group got from Mont-Royal Street: a close-knit community with strong ties between its members, sheathed in a run-down and decaying cloak.

My impressions of the neighborhood remain largely the same.  There are close-knit ethnic communities, predominantly the Portuguese community, that have lived in the area for decades.  The street’s small family-run stores are supported by the local residents, who take pride in the smallness of the establishments.  Some, like Beauty’s, right across the street from my site, has been there for decades and is practically a Montreal institution.  In 1996, the community rallied against the opening of a McDonald’s franchise at Mont-Royal and Parc, saying that the corporate presence was unwelcome in the neighborhood. 

When one takes a walk along this section of Mont Royal Street, it still looks run down and quite worse for wear.  There are lots of empty storefronts (like much of Montreal) and plenty of less reputable establishments (sex shops, pawn shops and dollar stores).  The Mont-Royal Arena was, before it burned, a microcosm of this phenomenon.  The low-peaked roof of the arena was visible above the little stores that fronted Mont Royal, which included a sad second-hand store and a large dollar store filled with plastic goods manufactured in China.

Further east, Mont Royal Street is a pretty trendy place to be: brand-name shops, nice restaurants, funky bars.  This section of Mont Royal is only starting pick up.  Old industrial lofts are becoming office spaces for young companies like Atelier Big City, attracted to the high ceilings and low rents.  New residential developments are being built next to traditional Plateau triplexes.  The area is becoming a popular place to live and was ranked recently in a magazine as one of the funkiest places to live in Canada.