McGill Ghetto

Typical McGill Ghetto street, Aylmer looking north from the corner with Milton, in August.

The McGill Ghetto (also known as Milton Park or officially, Milton-Parc, after the neighbourhood's two main streets, Milton and Park) is a neighbourhood in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, named after McGill University, situated directly to the east of the university campus. The Ghetto is located in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough of Montreal. Many McGill students live in this area, which is characterized by a mix of rowhouses and low- to mid-rise apartment buildings. The area is roughly bordered by University Street and the university campus to the west, Sherbrooke Street to the south, Pine Avenue to the north, and Park Avenue to the east, though McGill University considers this area to extend as far east as Saint Laurent Boulevard or just short of Saint-Louis Square.

The neighbourhood has many historic townhouses built in the late 19th century, which housed affluent businessmen and their families. The area remained a wealthy enclave throughout the early half of the 20th century. Eventually, many of the affluent residents of the area moved to other boroughs such as Westmount or to the suburbs.

While the space is colloquially known as the "Ghetto", the name for the area is used with the original definition of the word "ghetto": a socioeconomically homogeneous area. In recent years, more students have begun to move out of the Ghetto because of rising rent prices, with fewer moving in for the same reason.^[1] It should be noted, however, that Montreal's historic Jewish "Ghetto" coincides in part with the present student Ghetto since the old Jewish Ghetto, established at the beginning of the twentieth century and existing as such until mid-century, was centered close to the present student area, at the intersection of Duluth and Saint Laurent.^[2]

The area has many small businesses catering to the needs of the local McGill community including The Word Bookstore, Café Lola Rosa, and several small convenience stores, as well as many "third places" hangouts.^[3]

Development and preservation

In the 1970s, community activists were concerned that the vast La Cité mixed-use complex (consisting of apartments, offices, a mall, and a hotel - now McGill's New Residence) would destroy the neighbourhood's character.^[4] A campaign to stop further redevelopment was led by a residents' coalition and the then-newly formed historic preservation group Heritage Montreal.^[5]

When McGill University acquired the hotel component of La Cité (at Parc and Prince Arthur) and transformed it into an undergraduate student residence (called New Residence Hall), the student population in the Ghetto increased by 650 people.^[6] In 2009, McGill University purchased a second hotel (Four-Points on Sherbrooke) and transformed it into another student residence for use starting in the 2009-2010 school year.^[7]

See also

• Student ghetto
• Le Plateau-Mont-Royal

References

1. ^ "In the Ghetto", "McGill Reporter", September 9, 1999. Accessed June 5, 2008.
2. ^ Foran, Charles. Mordecai: The Life and Times. Toronto: Random House of Canada, 2010, p. 36.
3. ^ Askren, Hana (2007), The rhythm of student life, Montreal Magazine, http://www.montrealmagazine.ca/MM/content/view/106/19/ 
4. ^ Gravenor, Kristian (2008-02-26). "Dashed projects". Coolopolis. http://coolopolis.blogspot.com/2008/02/dashed-projects-1968.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26. 
5. ^ John Pierce, Ann Dale, ed (2000-05-01). Communities, Development, and Sustainability Across Canada. UBC Press. pp. 20. ISBN 0-7748-0722-9. http://books.google.com/?id=s8KvskbIL1wC&pg=PA19&dq=%22Heritage+Montreal%22&q=%22Heritage%20Montreal%22. 
6. ^ "Residence Renaissance", "McGill News", Summer 2003. Accessed October 18, 2010.
7. ^ "McGill acquires Four Points", "McGill Daily", March 9, 2009. Accessed October 18, 2010.

External links

• DeWolf, Christopher (2007-09-05). "A window Into Another City". URBANPHOTO. http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2007/09/05/a-window-into-the-seventies/. Retrieved 2008-03-28. 
• Gravenor, Kristian (1987-07-20). Studies in Citizen Response: Community Reaction to the Threat of Demolition in Goose Village and Milton Park, Canadian Urban History, Concordia University. keepandshare.com. http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=807158&da=y. Retrieved 2008-09-17. 

Coordinates: 45°30′30″N 73°34′29″W / 45.5083°N 73.5747°W / 45.5083; -73.5747