Red Light District

Montreal, QC - CE - Thursday, May 17th, 2007 : goo

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After passing through the north gates of Chinatown on blvd St-Laurent you will enter a noticeably seedier part of the city. This is the part of Downtown is generally known as the Red Light District (I've also heard it referred to as the "tenderloin" for some reason, I'm sure the French probably have some good names for it too). The area is well known as a good place to get any sort of drug, prostitute, or poutine desired. Cheap import stores are also in high abundance slightly further north on St-Laurent. The lines are blurred and gentrification is blurring them further but most would agree that it is in a small area between St-Urbaine to the west, Chinatown to the south, Sherbrooke to the north and parc Berri (which is its own article) to the east with the intersection of Ste-Catherine and St-Laurent as its centre.

This area will likely undergo some major changes in the coming years. Montreal has recently been experiencing varying levels of gentrification, especially along blvd St-Laurent. As a result, this area is prime real-estate, it pretty much has it all; cheap rentals on two of Montreal's most important streets, it's right downtown and is close to Chinatown, Vieux-Montréal, The Plateau and the Gay Village. It is also in the centre of the Quartier des spectacles which is somewhat of a branding scheme by the city to lump all the show bars and concert halls in the area into one marketable location (there are others such as the Quartier du Musée in the west end of Downtown). Many "improvements" to the area are planned to make it more appealing to tourists and suburbanites not so accustomed to the grittiness who want take in a play or concert. It will be interesting but probably also quite infuriating to see what changes the city and developers will make

This section of St-Laurent (just north of Chinatown) is well known for seedy strip bars, burger joints, and porn theatres. It also has a small collection of building facades with nothing behind them.

We now find ourselves in the juiciest part of the Tenderloin, the intersection of St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine. On the northwest corner is none other than a yellow same day cheque cashing joint.

To the northeast is a very important component of any seedy part of Montreal, La Belle Province. La Belle Province specialises in anything greasy especially poutine. Its decor changes from store to store and its price range depends on how much disposable income the people in the neighbourhood have in their pockets. Only in Quebec baby!

To the southeast is a strip joint which has a screen that lights up at night on the second floor that plays a loop of a silhouette of a naked woman dancing. When I first moved to Montreal, I thought it was real.

Finally, to the southwest, is a former Burger King that moved further west and has since been replaced with an electronics store.

Further north on St-Laurent can be found more strip joints, cheap clothing stores, import shops, empty lots, and condo conversions.

We now find ourselves at St-Laurent Metro station with Les habitations Jeanne-Mance in the background. A short history lesson: Les habitations Jeanne-Mance was built in the 1950s to replace the city's original and much larger Red Light District. It was once a dense, gritty part of the city teeming with local watering holes, strip joints, brothels, Chinese gambling rings, and any other vice you can possibly imagine. It was an extremely popular destination for Americans during the prohibition era and later with soldiers on leave during the Second World War. The mayor at the time, Jean Drapeau was obsessed with cleaning up the city, building giant monuments and public services, and getting rid or anything deemed unpalatable to good and wholesome members of society. He ordered the destruction of the old Red Light District and constructed a typical modernist, Le Corbusier style social housing complex much like those in many major American cities (except this one didn't totally suck). Oh, he also had members of the opposition party arrested during municipal elections only to be released after the election was over.

Back to Ste-Catherine. East of St-Laruent until Parc Berri is a popular hangout for punk rockers, bikers, and squeegees. Always an exciting place after dark! This ice cream joint usually has a line of Harley's outside of it at night.

Foufounes Electriques is an incredibly famous punk rock bar much in the same vein as New York's CBGB. They have various theme nights where live DJs play punk, hardcore, metal, ska, etc. and the crowd moshes to the music.

Red Light District, Downtown (East), Ville-Marie, Montreal

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colavitos ghost: a question: who are the "squeegees"?

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