We all have a fetish . . .

[dr_kromm]

. . . and mine is for zombies. But I'm also happy to see latex, leather, etc., if it's for a good cause. In this case, the cause was a Save the Main event. These guys are campaigning to keep Montréal's red light district from being turned into yet more office space (we already have more than we can lease!). Anyway, part of Bonnie's baladi troupe was dancing in the evening's cabaret element, although the feature event was a fetish film festival as part of the Montréal Fetish Weekend.

The dance connection wasn't the only reason I went. As it happens, I believe that cities need red light districts. Tonight, I heard that lots of cities are bulldozing red light districts to make room for more offices. Well, I've seen that happen, folks, and the reality is this: It disperses the district's people and activities all over the city. If you're into this stuff, it becomes harder to find. If you're opposed to it, guess what? It ends up in your back alley. Either way, nobody wins . . . least of all the people who work there.

And that's enough politics for one night.

Comments

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

This is 100% gentrification and 0% religion. Contrary to popular myth, Québec isn't religious . . . indeed, we have the lowest provincial rate of churchgoing north of the U.S. border, and the city-state of Montréal is on the low side of that. We're a regular Babylon.

What you say about an economic rationale is completely true. Everybody knows it, too. The problem is that Canadian culture – and I include Québec culture here, although that's approximate – doesn't work that way. You're speaking American. Up here, people expect a socialized solution. Of course, this would come from the same place as the impetus to build big glass towers, whence the problem.

To expand: The very artists who want the region preserved are relying on economic handouts; they are not generating significant revenues. Unsurprisingly, the Powers That Be feel that makes them a net loss where office space would earn. The moral issue is that this comparison is a lie. We already have a ridiculous vacancy rate for office space, so office space would be a net loss, too, and would represent the economic momentum of an earlier era carrying a delayed plan forward when it's no longer the best plan. Even if the region were vacant lots, it would be dumb to build offices; therefore, doing so when people and businesses stand to be displaced seems especially offensive to some.

[zonemind.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm speaking American (in the US, religious and traditionalist arguments carry a lot of weight), but I'll cheerfully accept that I'm not speaking Canadian or even in the remote vicinity of Québécois!

At this point, though, it's clear that all I can do is turn up my palms and say, "Sucks, don't it?" I clearly don't understand the situation, for example how development got backers when the vacancy rate is already so high. There must be some sort of government development subsidy? My instinct is always to follow the money, and that applies pretty much regardless of culture. So now I'm curious: Who's getting some on this deal?

Construction unions?

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Here in San Diego, we have a lot of empty commercial space downtown. But I see new commercial space being built. The city never seems to lack for someone who wants to build a mall, and can get zoned for it. I think the underlying governmental theory is that new commercial space will produce higher tax revenues and so its creation ought to be encouraged . . . by zoning and in some cases by eminent domain. But I don't really know the political ins and outs. chorale and I go about, though, mocking the city of the empty shopping mall or office building.

There may have been some effect from the housing bubble. I've read that it's starting to turn into a commercial real estate collapse as well, though more slowly.

[zonemind.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. There's heap big trouble looming in the commercial real estate market. I mean serious bad mojo. Real estate is the family business (lot of ex-preachers in real estate), and the abdominals are definitely clenched. Never been so glad to have passed that flavour of entrepreneurialism by. My dad's REIT is basically going to live or die on a rail line extension from New York that may or may not be refurbished, and that assumes NYC herself doesn't go back to her 70's style malaise.

I see a lot of empty office space out in Oregon's Silicon Forest (i.e. Hillsboro and vicinity), where all the dot-coms died. Downtown Portland, though, place be hoppin'. I'm thinking we have our "urban growth boundary" to thank for it. Even so, when I see a massive class 'A' complex in Hillsboro with an actual for sale sign on it, something is very very wrong.

A couple of Asian churches got very nice digs as a result, though. Which led to the further jarring-but-rather-nice image of a lovely children's playground next to a shining glass tower.