Le Plateau- arguably Montreal’s best Urban District

Plateau is a larger neighborhood containing several sub districts I consider neighborhoods on their own right (i.e. Mile End, De Lormier, Laurier-Est, and Milton Parc). Plateau is arguably Montreal’s best urban district outside of the Center City thanks to its several great business districts (St. Laurent Blvd, Saint Denis St, Ave Mont-Royal, and Rue Rachael,) and a couple smaller scaler pedestrian streets mixed-use streets i.e. (Duluth, Rue and  Prince-Arthur) and lots of mixed-use blocks often with commercial on the corner buildings.

The neighborhood takes its name from its location on a plateau, on the eastern side of Mont-Royal. Starting in 1745, the urbanized area of Montreal began to extend beyond its fortifications and the Plateau-Mont-Royal was born as Faubourg Saint-Laurent extended to the northwest. In the early twentieth century, The Plateau was mostly a working class neighborhood but gradually in 1900s it became more economically well off and cosmopolitan especially the sections closest to Mount Royal Parc where many Protestant traders and Jewish business owners operated shops on St. Lawrence Boulevard. Greek Canadians set up shop mostly along Park Avenue (Northwest of Mont Royal) and more recently, Vietnamese and Portuguese settled in the Plateau. Since the 1980s, the area’s bohemian aura and proximity to McGill University attracted young professionals, artists, musicians, students. and the neighborhood began to gentrify.  While Le Plateau likely experienced grit and some crime in the 1970s & 1980s  I don’t get the sense that it ever faced serious disinvestment. In the 21st century Le Plateau is known as having the highest concentration of youths in Montreal and has interestingly attracted a large number of French-born residents giving it the nomenclature “le Petit-Paris”.

There aren’t many areas of fault I can find with Le Plateau as it is basically my idealized urban district hosting high but not overwhelming density, great access to public transit and especially bike infrastructure, amazing mixed-use fabric with several pedestrian streets, great public parks along with a wonderful array of retail and restaurant amenities. The neighborhood would likely be on my top 10 list if I ranked it alongside my best American urban neighborhoods. Probably its biggest need is for more affordable housing especially affordable for sale options.

Click here to view my Le Plateau neighborhood on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS

• Convenient access to 4 subway stops and incredible bike infrastructure
• Excellent walkable neighborhood thanks to 6 business districts and lots of mixed-use blocks.
• Great array of late 19th century French inspired rowhouse architecture mixed-in with quality urban in-fill. This probably has the best concentration of the iconic Quebec spiral staircase.
• Convenient access to several outstanding parks (i.e. Mount Royal Park, Parc de la Fontaine, Saint-Louis Square. Also lots of well designed playgrounds and pocket parks generally interspersed every other block.
• Decent tree canopy tucked into dense rowhouse blocks. Much more trees than one would expect for such a dense neighborhood.
• Excellent cultural amenities including great food & bev bizs, several local theaters, a couple movie theaters, plenty of live music venues & night clubs, several art galleries, and a couple local museums.
• Great retail amenities too esp. with all the supermarkets, drug stores, lots of bookstores, clothing stores, dessert stores/bakeries, gyms, churches, boutiques.
• Lots of studios, 1-beds and 2-beds. 3 & 4 bed rentals are a bit limited. Prices are a bit expensive but not terrible considering the high level of urbanity in Plateau.
• For sale product is pretty expansive but also on the high side. But still some moderately priced condo product with some 1-beds selling in the 300K&400 and 2-beds selling in the 400Ks & 500Ks.
• Lots of interesting murals and public art spread throughout the Plateau.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Some intersections don’t have up to set ADA curb cuts.
• Alleyways aren’t very inviting and not well kept. Some grit in spots. Back yards are not the most attractive.
• Rent and especially for sale housing gets pricey but much than its equivalent quality urban district in east coast American cities and certainly cheaper than its equivalent in San Francisco.”