Brown, who rents an apartment on Bourret Ave., hopes by joining the association she can keep the issue alive. "I've been tossed around from one guy (city representative) to another, and they don't want to hear about me anymore," she said.

Borough councillor Marvin Rotrand, responsible for Snowdon, where many of the association members live, insists the number of traffic and garbage complaints is actually falling.

He said he supports residents' community involvement but questioned how broad-based the recent initiative is.

"I want to work with bona fide organizations. There are many community groups with long histories in our neighbourhood. . . . They often have an agenda that's different than the borough council's, but when they come to us they've talked to thousands of people," he said.

Cote des Neiges might have no shortage of community groups, but a permanent resident-run association would be a first and serve a different purpose, said David Austin of Project Genesis, a group that has worked in the district since 1977.

"There is a role for advocating on behalf of residents, but we have residents of all shapes and colours in this neighbourhood with different skills, and those also can be put to use on behalf of the community," Austin said.

Garbage and traffic are genuine concerns, he said, and there are many more in a borough with 37 per cent of residents living in poverty and 77 per cent in largely inadequate rental housing.

kstastna@thegazette.canwest.com

Tomorrow's general assembly is at St. Kevin's Church, 5590 Cote des Neiges Rd., at 7 p.m. Call (514) 904-0025.

 

 

March 31, 2005

Alex Montagano is the kind of citizen whom Montreal's political establishment detests. He scorns city hall's traditional view of democracy - the belief that citizens should be grateful they can vote every four years and the rest of the time they should stand back, shut up and let their elected representatives do as they please.

Last June, the Cote des Neiges resident got fed up after the municipal public-works department ignored for three months his requests to remove rubbish on his block. To get the Tremblay administration's attention, he trucked two soggy carpets, a toilet tank, tree branches, two TVs, a box spring, a mattress and enough furniture to equip a living room to the steps of city hall. He dumped them there.

That made the front pages - but it didn't make officialdom any more responsive. The mayor of Cote des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grace borough, Michael Applebaum, told the media his constituent was a complainer who avoided discussing problems in a civil manner.

So last fall, taking a page from textbook democracy, the 35-year-old salesperson co-founded the Cote des Neiges Residents Association and became its president. Instead of being a lone individual, he's now one of scores of members who share his concern over two issues - neighbourhood cleanliness and traffic control.

At borough council meetings, for example, members ask questions that one councillor, Jeremy Searle, calls "effective and well-researched."

"I'm a fan," he says. Significantly, however, Searle is an independent - the only one of the borough's six elected officials who is not a member of Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay's ruling party. Some of the other councillors groan at the mere mention of Montagano's name.

This week, Montagano got nailed for his civic activism.

A bailiff served him with 22 tickets carrying a total of $2,110 in fines for violating an anti-clutter bylaw that prohibits notices on utility poles, lamp posts, bus shelters or other city property. He put up signs publicizing a meeting of the group.

Never mind just about everyone else slaps up notices about lost cats, garage sales, music lessons and house painting with impunity.

Never mind, unlike most signs, the association's were affixed with plastic bands - which, when removed, don't take paint from the pole, as does tape.

Never mind if people aren't allowed to place notices on poles, they'll place them on windshields - where motorists will throw them away and really litter the landscape.

The supreme irony is that a purpose of the meeting in question was to discuss ways of pressing the borough to do a better job of picking up garbage and other litter.

The borough mayor, Applebaum, insisted yesterday he didn't ask the public-works inspectors to write the tickets; he said he was as surprised as anyone they were issued.

Yet he was also uncritical of the crackdown, saying that by Montagano's own account there were 200 of the signs, which is more than the number people usually put up.

So what? The fact is the public-works department is this citizens' group's target, and the department has made the group its own target. I don't know if this is innocent coincidence or gross retaliation, but the perception of a conflict of interest is obvious. Applebaum should be reading the riot act to the department instead of defending it.

 

 

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The forgotten borough

Cote des Neiges residents are forming an association, hoping to gain more clout in the fight for cleaner, safer streets

October 25, 2004

When Alexander Montagano dumped trash on the front lawn of city hall this summer to

draw attention to the garbage problem in Cote des Neiges, he got plenty of press but few results.

Tireless lobbying of his elected representatives and frequent visits to borough and city council meetings didn't get him very far, either. So last month, Montagano, a salesperson by profession, made his personal battle a community one.

Starting on his own Lacombe Ave., he went door to door asking fellow residents to help him create a residents association aimed at improving quality of life in Cote des Neiges.

So far, about 30 people have signed on and Montagano, 35, and his supporters hope many more will attend a founding general assembly tomorrow and pay the $10 annual fee to join the organization.

"There is a chronic problem in Cote des Neiges related to garbage, dirtiness, the lack of maintenance of infrastructure, the fact that parks are not maintained properly and there is a major issue of traffic and noise," Montagano said.

Despite initiatives such as a "cleanliness declaration" issued in April 2003 or the more than $90,000 recently spent on benches and garbage cans on Victoria Ave., residents complain the borough hasn't done enough to keep a lid on accumulating garbage or to control traffic.

"If we present ourselves at the borough as individuals, we're pigeonholed as complainers or nuisances," Montagano said. The new association will be about airing grievances but also about fostering a sense of community, he said.

Cote des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grace is the city's most populous borough, with about 164,000 residents, 65 per cent of them in Cote des Neiges, and the second- biggest tax contributor to the central city after Ville Marie.

It is home to some of the city's best academic institutions, including the Universite de Montreal and College Jean de Brebeuf, and key hospitals such as the Jewish General and Ste. Justine.

With immigrants making up 45 per cent of the borough, it epitomizes the ethnic mix Montrealers like to brag so much about. But instead of being prized, say residents, Cote des Neiges is undervalued and underfunded.

Prior to the recent promise of a $2.2-million annual budget increase starting from 2005, Cote des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grace was at the bottom of the barrel in terms of budget allocation per capita.

Turning many Cote des Neiges streets into high-speed collector roads has ensured that many view the district as one big access route to the Decarie Expressway, said Vikram Bhatt, a founding member and Lacombe Ave. resident.

"This is such a vibrant, multicultural and potentially the most beautiful part of the city, which unfortunately in the greater urban scheme of things has become a sort of through-place rather than a to-place," said Bhatt, 55, who teaches architecture at McGill University.

It's a complaint echoed by Fernande Brown, 77, who collected 1,000 signatures on a petition for reduced speed limits and a crackdown on traffic violations to make the borough safer for pedestrians.

HENRY AUBIN

The Gazette

On paper, Montagano is precisely the sort of citizen the Tremblay administration should welcome. He is raising his young family in Montreal instead of a suburb. He takes good care of the duplex he owns. And his organization's mission statement is all about "improving the quality of life in our community."

In practice, he's a pariah. Some councillors question his motives, saying he wants to run for office - he swears he doesn't.

The treatment he's getting is symptomatic of the city's overall anti-democratic climate. Tremblay's party, for example, prohibits members from expressing opinions on any issue that are contrary to the party's - a gag rule that is extremely unusual in Canada.

The city is also unique in North America for the secretiveness with which it makes decisions (through its executive committee). Even the zoning committees in many boroughs, including Applebaum's, hold their meetings outside the view of citizens.

If Montreal wants to attract more people from the suburbs, it should give citizens like Montagano not only the basic services they ask for, but also simple respect.

Henry Aubin is The Gazette's regional-affairs columnist. haubin@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005

Alex Montagano is being harassed by the public-works department for trying to do something to clean up his borough

Fighting city hall