Montréal is a city known for its
cultural diversity, which can be seen from the diverse selection of restaurants
and festivals as well as shopping and clubbing venues. Streets like
St-Catherine, St-Denis, St-Hubert and Mont Royal are most famous to outsiders
for these types of activities, events and places. Unfortunately, many often
limit themselves to these hot spots and therefore miss opportunities to uncover
hidden gems in Montréal.
A stranger to this city not too long ago, I was determined to discover the core culture in Montréal by finding artifacts that truly belonged to the Québécois culture. One of the gems I found was in an improbable area for the average tourist: the Centre-Sud district.
Historically, the Centre-Sud was an important industrial district during and
after the Second World War. Its decline was a result of a mix bag of events such
the Révolution Tranquille and Montréal's economic progress focused on the
downtown area. As industry players began relocating to better
manufacturing real estate, buildings were left abandoned and many became victims
of fires. The voids left by these abandoned and empty lots in the
community can still be felt. These changes prompted infrastructural and social
imbalance. Today, it's an old neighborhood where time has left its mark on the
old apartment buildings and the stores at street level. The smell originating
from the J.T. McDonald's cigarette factory -one of the last industrial
residents- can be overwhelming at times. Recent residential, entrepreneurial
and urban developments are slowly rejuvenating this small community. Le Touski,
a small work-cooperative café has been acting as a social pillar for this
community since 2001.
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