Revolt!

Frank S. Besner: 11th May 2007 - 12:05 GMT

The strong Socialist/Communist presence in the Pointe has always hit me as something of an obvious necessity. I haven't experienced a neighbourhood in witch the pattern of affluence and scarcity is so tightly sandwiched. The neigbourhood can't be more than a kilometer across (from the Canal to the Alstom test track) and it literally goes rich canal loft dwellers, devastatingly poor north of the track, slightly less poor south of the track, Plateau-esque plentitude of the south of Wellington, back to the devastingly poor that live in the low rent high rises, around the trainyards.

EvilGentleman: 11th May 2007 - 18:47 GMT

Socially stratified contrasts in high proximity. Some of it has been like that for decades, if not centuries, like the famous divide of Westmount, with those "above the tracks" being wealthy, while those "below the tracks" are poor.

But most of what Frank describes is the effect of gentrification, as the yuppies take over inner-city neighbourhoods that are still full of the original working-class tenants.