One afternoon, the 15th October, in Saint-Henri...

We met at 4:30 p.m. in front of the Ludger-Duvernay elementary school on du Couvent street.

Here, behind the parents with strollers supporting the committee, you see Sophie Thiébaut of Projet Montréal; Véronique Fournier of Vision Montréal; Émilie Bordat, independent; one of the organizers (aka your humble correspondent) and the journalist Ann Lang of CBC radio.

Isabelle, our communications specialist (and mother of 18 month-old Julieanne) succeeded in attracting the CBC's interest.  And what extraordinary coverage.  Two live interviews with the organizers, and a third with an urbanist from McGill (whose name I forgot to note) who Ann Lang had invited along (unbeknownst to us).  When asked by Bernard St-Laurent if he thought it reasonable of us to demand that our needs as residents be placed before those of automobilists, he said "Yes it is.  These kind of measures are being applied all over the city, in other neighbourhoods.  I don't see why they couldn't be applied here."

Who else was present?

Hélène Leblanc of Projet Montreal, Paul-Émile Rioux of Vision Montreal, Danielle Godbout, Nicole Boudreau and Pierre Fréchette of Union Montreal.  Line Hamel and Michel Fortin, independents.  Community workers from the CLSC, Tandem Sud-Ouest, and Famijeunes.  Around 30 residents, including numerous kids (kids are residents too, aren't they?).

We split into three groups, each piloted by a local "guide", and brought the candidates for a walk along rush-hour St-Antoine, so they could experience our unpleasant every-day reality, and so we could point out the narrow sidewalks, the three lanes of one-way traffic, the excessive speed, the traffic-light poles planted smack-dab in the middle of the sidewalk blocking stroller passage, the school-crossing signs blocked by tree branches and facing away from the drivers.  Here, the politicians followed the residents as we walked toward the Centre communautaire des femmes actives.  Not the other way around.

One community worker said, "Walking along here, one gets the feeling that the houses are just accessories to the road."  The urbanist pronounced flat-out, "this road is not walkable."

At the Centre Communautaire, the residents were the first to speak.  Then we presented our demands.  Marie-Ève read our declaration:

Line Hamel listened:

We made two simple, inexpensive and easily-enacted demands:  1)  That the traffic lights be de-coordinated, so that drivers are forced to slow down  2)  The parking be permitted on both sides of St-Antoine, at all hours.  Not to encourage car use, but to push the traffic away from pedestrians, and reduce St-Antoine's capacity.

The Union Montreal team seemed to enjoy this:

In front of Sophie Thiébaut and Hélène Leblanc, one of the big reasons we're doing this:

We asked the candidates present to sign written engagements promising to do everything in their power to improve the situation once elected.
A community worker mulled it over:

And we succeeded in getting every one of the ten candidates present to sign our engagement.  We were afraid that otherwise they would make typically vague promises, and then scoot out of there without leaving us anything concrete.  There were some minor divergences, when it came time for them to make their statements.  Understand that we hadn't wanted to organize a debate, worried that things would get out of hand, and so we asked the candidates to stick to their ideas and propositions, and save mutual criticism for another occasion.  Pierre Fréchette said that slowing down the traffic too much would create congestion and pollution - provoking a heated reply from Émilie Bordat, who said, as many nodded in agreement, that quite the opposite would happen:  if St-Antoine gets too slow, drivers will naturally find alternative routes.  Mr. Fréchette also spoke of the importance of "voting for a team", leading Line Hamel to reply that as an independent, she could get a lot more done, as she wouldn't be obliged to follow a "party line."  Now, leaving aside whatever I may have written about Line Hamel here, that statement made sense to me.  On the other hand, we sent her a copy of our letter last spring complaining about the situation - she was one of the people at the Borough who never got back to us.  So unless the old Vision Montreal had a "party line" about ignoring citizen's letters, one has to wonder if her independent status will really bring a change in her behaviour. 

We succeeded in getting the three parties to promise firmly to improve the situation.  (Projet Montreal has quickly come out with a communiqué supporting our action, and I believe it speaks, quite well, for itself).

We succeeded in getting exceptional media coverage, considering we are group that has been around officially for two weeks.

But what I was the most happy about, what I think is the most significant aspect to the activity, was the participation of some of our neighbours and parents from Ludger.  People who had been a little reluctant.  Who had questioned if this kind of thing would really "do any good."  People who had told me beforehand, when I asked them if they could share their concerns and anecdotes about the traffic situation on St-Antoine, "Oh no, Manuel, I don't want to get up and speak in front of everyone, I'm no orator, it's just too embarrassing."  And then, when the time came, they stood up, one after another, to denounce the situation, to speak of their feelings of fear for the security of their kids, who said, "It's not acceptable that the city wait for one of our kids to get hit by a car before taking action."

Yannick, a single father of two boys, 7 and 9, who in fact came from the hospital as a new-born baby to an third-floor apartment on St-Antoine, said, "We talk about St-Henri being an underprivileged neighbourhood.  This is one of the reasons why."  Alice spoke of the "slush-showers" pedestrians endure walking down the sidewalk.  Carole spoke of the numerous complaints she had made by telephone five or six years ago, regarding the speed, and how nothing had ever been done.  Annick, mother of two young kids and a St-Henri native, said all her neighbours are ready to sign a petition, once we get one going.

In another, more formal setting, these residents might have been intimidated by the local "notables", by the bureaucratic hierarchy.  But here, after walking on the dusty, noisy sidewalks with them, after sitting side by side in the cozy community center and sipping the warm coffee Alice and the gang had thoughtfully prepared for us, we were all on the same level.  Politicians and citizens.  And the citizens had the first, and last, word.  I got the feeling that when the time comes (as I imagine it will) for us to go back to the Borough council and say, "okay, you made your promises, where are the results?" these families won't be shy.  They won't be intimidated.

I don't want to get all maudlin on you now, but what I saw in their eyes at the end of the meeting was something resembling...hope.  Not a passive hope that one of these politicians will sweep to power and save us.  Not an obamesque vague emotional hope.  No, the concrete feeling, the perception that this time, after all these years of isolated complaints from one neighbour or another, it may just work.  Because what is different this time is that we are no longer alone.  Together, we are powerful.  Together, we say what we want, and what we need, and the politicians, they haven't the choice but to follow...