“Until the late 19th century, La Petite-Patrie was mainly agricultural, with the exception of limestone quarries, now the location of Père Marquette Park. The construction of a tramway in 1892 linking the neighborhood to downtown led to the urbanization of the area, which continued until about the 1950s. La Petite-Patrie area includes several ethnic communities, including an Italian community, a Vietnamese community and more recently a large Latin American community.

La Petite-Patririe is a solid urban neighborhood with a thriving commercial district along Rue St-Hubert, plenty of mixed-use streets, excellent access to two subway lines and 5 subways stops, and great bike infrastructure. All around this is a very walkable and multi-model community. La Petite-Patrie manages to be a solid urban district even with a high poverty rate of just over 1/3 of its residents. Unfortunately the price of for sale homes, while more moderate than surrounding gentrifying districts, is way out of reach of most residents in the neighborhood. For La Petite-Patrie to became an even better urban district I’d also like to see improved urban form and quality infill along some if its auto centric edges (i.e. Av. Papineau and Bd Rosemont), more park amenities, and more affordable for-sale options.

Click here to view my Petite-Patrie Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

• Also decent biz districts along Rue Bélanger, and Saint Denis and Christophe-Colombo are nice residential Blvd.
• Excellent commercial district along Rue St-Hubert with comfortable new streetscaping, covering pathways and tons of stores.
• Good tree canopy throughout most of the district.
• Urban form is generally good with consistent rowhouse fabric ranging from 1900s-1960s architecture.
• Pere-Marquette Park is a decent size and multi-faceted. Some other smaller parkettes and plazas spread throughout.
• For sale housing has more moderately priced 1 & 2 bed options than neighboring Little Italy but still plenty of higher priced hsg. Similar trend with rentals.
• Great local retail options especially along Rue St-Hubert. Lots of more affordable retail as well. Also several supermarkets and drug stores.
• Good cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants & bars, several night clubs & local theaters.
• Great subway access with 5 metro stops. Also wonderful bike infrastructure including several dedicated bike lanes and plenty of bike rental stations.

URBAN WEAKNESSES

• While urban form is good the detailing of the architecture is pretty plain.
• Rosemont is a mixed-use street but rather gritty and has a lot of autocentric uses, pretty uncharacteristic for this part of Montreal. Av. Papineau on the Northeastern edge of the neighborhood has these issues too but not as severe.
• Very working class neighborhood with a high poverty rate (36%). But much more intact and thriving than the equivalent American urban neighborhood.”