{"id":6574,"date":"2010-04-07T18:49:34","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T23:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=6574"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:22:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:22:18","slug":"how-my-father-sees-the-mile-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/04\/07\/how-my-father-sees-the-mile-end\/","title":{"rendered":"How My Father Sees the Mile End"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2630\"<\/p>\n

This post is a guest contribution by Daniel Rotsztain, a student in Urban Geography who is originally from Toronto.<\/em><\/p>\n

My dad was born in the Mile End so I was extremely excited to show him the new life I had forged in the Plateau amongst our family roots shortly after I moved to Montreal. I imagined the joy we would share taking part in one of our favorite pastimes: conquering a city by foot. I was eager to show him the highlights of my beloved adopted neighbourhood, convinced that he\u2019d be thoroughly impressed by the neighbourhoods\u2019 street life and pleasant mix of peoples, parks, grocery stores, d\u00e9paneurs, homes, and caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

But as we walked around the Plateau and Mile End, my dad quietly announced his honest feelings: he found the neighbourhood somewhat tired and grey, treeless and barren. A neighbourhood that I and many others find to be the height of urbanity, a stimulating mix of density and community, my father simply isn\u2019t passionate about.<\/p>\n

I was amazed. My father too is a lover of cities, a natural born walker and appreciator of great urban spaces. But the Plateau and Mile End, through his eyes, is dramatically affected by his history and emotional connection to the neighbourhoods.Let me explain. My grandparents first arrived in Montreal from Poland after World War Two. They settled into the Jewish community already established along St Laurent Boulevard, populated by working class immigrants from Eastern Europe, a place that some considered urban slums. This is where my father was born, in an apartment on Parc Avenue just north of Bernard.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the context in which he understands the Plateau and Mile End: he does not forget that his family and immigrant community desperately wished to escape, and establish themselves in modern, newly-built quarters. His opinions were formed alongside my grandmother, who constantly expressed determination that her family move up in the world to leave behind the mess of poverty that was the Mile End in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

Walking around the Plateau and Mile End with this in mind certainly changes the way I see the neighbourhoods. I can appreciate what my dad means when he comments on the lack of trees, dilapidation and jumbled density. With these photos, I\u2019ve attempted to illustrate how, from a certain perspective, this is very much the case.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2642\"<\/p>\n

Grey is the dominant colour. Barren edifices face equally empty streets, power lines criss-cross the graffitied apartment buildings and tree-less sidewalks. Considering my father\u2019s experiences, a part of the neighbourhood\u2019s soul, its former characterization as a slum, can be easily read. But my instinct is to revert to my experience, and continue to admire the dense, eclectic mix of places and people that populate Mile End, the most positive characteristics of the neighbourhood today.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2615\"
\nI hope my musings show how gentrification can be a somewhat tricky phenomenon. The same buildings that my grandparents and father perceive as rundown have since become extremely trendy and desirable within my father\u2019s lifetime. We often see \u2018before and after\u2019 photos of particular places in Montreal on this blog. I hope this post has inspired a deeper consideration of those fascinating photo montages.<\/p>\n

As time goes by and a city\u2019s form changes, there is also a fundamental change in its character. Here we see the fluid nature of urban identity and its often fragile, always fluctuating relationship to physical form. The same city space can simultaneously evoke different reactions, connections and reverences from two people, especially when their points of reference are anchored in different histories. It is up to us to enrich our daily experiences of the city informed by the history of inevitably changing ways of urban life.
\n
\nThis post was inspired by Alanah Heffez’s post \u201cHow other folks see the city<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is a guest contribution by Daniel Rotsztain, a student in Urban Geography who is originally from Toronto. My dad was born in the Mile End so I was extremely excited to show him the new life I had forged in the Plateau amongst our family roots shortly after I moved to Montreal. IContinue reading “How My Father Sees the Mile End”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7837,7839],"tags":[167,1114,14,38,125,5158,56,1108,152,5020],"class_list":["post-6574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-neighbourhoods","tag-daniel-rotsztain","tag-eastern-europe","tag-historical","tag-mile-end","tag-montreal","tag-natural-born-walker","tag-plateau-mont-royal","tag-poland","tag-toronto","tag-urban-geography"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow My Father Sees the Mile End - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/04\/07\/how-my-father-sees-the-mile-end\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How My Father Sees the Mile End - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is a guest contribution by Daniel Rotsztain, a student in Urban Geography who is originally from Toronto. 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