Quartier des Spectacles - Montreal

Created by decree in an attempt to revitalize an area previously known for sketchy bars, even sketcheir strip joints, and plentiful illicit activity on its streets, the Quartier des Spectacles is undergoing a transformation that has been compared with (some say, modeled after) the makeover of New York's Times Square.

Much as this comparison is apt, the overall idea here is somewhat different, however: instead of an outright Disneyization and commercialization that had been the main methods used to “revitalize” Times Square, in the case of the Quartier des Spectacles, the city of Montreal decided to assemble all the cultural and nightlife entreprises it could think of in one area. Thus, projects on the drawing board for the neighborhood include theaters, concert halls, dance studios, clubs, bars, etc - that is, everything that could be called remotely creative - using the whole as a “lever for further development.”