Saint-Henri, Montreal

St-Henri is located in Le Sud-Ouest Borough, and became a part of the City of Montreal in 1905. Its proximity to the Lachine Canal shaped the neighborhood with a large industrial working class. Industry lasted from the canal's opening in 1825, until its closure in 1970.[11] Its closure meant the predominantly working-class neighborhood began to lose their jobs, creating thousands of unemployed laborers.[12] This deindustrialization rendered the neighborhood the site for gentrification. Sitting on valuable land bordered by the Lachine Canal and both the downtown and Old Montreal, St Henri is primed for redevelopment of old industrial buildings into parks, mixed use developments, condos, shops and restaurants.[13] This transformation began taking form when the Canal was reopened in 2002 with the presence of pedestrian and cyclist paths, bringing more residents and tourists to the area.[14] St Henri is seen as a victim of gentrification, characterized by the arrival of younger wealthy residents and the revitalization of the neighborhood with parks and commercial spaces. Once described as a working-class neighborhood with factories, its contemporary form is a “lively and surprising borough” ranked as Montreal's second best neighborhood for its livability and atmosphere.[15]

Changes to the demographic composition of a neighbourhood are an indicator of gentrification. Particularly, increased proportions of college educated residents and residents aged 25 to 34 years old have been found to signal gentrification.[16] This cohort's role in gentrification has been in part attributed to amenities in downtown areas which draw this "creative class" to neighbourhoods perceived as undervalued.[17]

In St. Henri, between 2001 and 2011, the proportion of residents aged 25–34 rose by seven percentage points : from 20.1% to 27.1%.[18][19] By comparison, Montreal's share of residents aged 25–34 only increased from 16.3% [18] to 17.0%.[19] This overrepresentation of the 25-34-year-old age group reflects the gentrification of St. Henri. The progression of neighbourhood residents that are college graduates is less indicative of gentrification than the previous measure. However, during this period, the St. Henri neighbourhood goes from being below the city's average to above it with its share of residents having graduated from college increasing from 25.9% in 2001 (26.4% in Montreal)[18] to 43.1% in 2011 (41.5% in Montreal).[19]

Gentrification is most often associated with an increase in average neighbourhood income [20]. Contrasting the average household income of St. Henri residents with that of Montreal residents shows that the neighbourhood's revenues has comparatively increased. In 2001 the average household income in St.Henri was 29% lower than in Montreal.[18] In 2011, the average income in the neighbourhood decreased to about 17% lower than that of Montreal.[19]

The changes in availability of services is also telling of gentrification. From 1996 to 2011 rue Notre-Dame, a street which runs through the whole neighbourhood, has seen a considerable increase in the number of entrepreneurial services such as coffee shops and boutiques accompanied by a smaller increase in the number of corporate chains.[11] Conversely street-level vacant lots on this rue Notre-Dame decreased from 26.2% to 13.5%.[11] 

In St. Henri, up-scale condominiums, boutique shops and other signs of gentrification have displaced, marginalized and stressed those of lower socio-economic status (SES). In response to gentrifying practices, inhabitants within the historically low-income neighborhood have taken up various forms of everyday politics. The power on display in St. Henri can be understood as the increasingly prevalent neo-liberal order, resulting in a free market focus for urban planning initiatives (Rose, 2017). In St. Henri, everyday politics is a mode of resistance to the aforementioned powers by opposing oppressive and unjust treatment from powerful actors and broad social forces.[21] How subordinate inhabitants of St. Henri engage in this resistance can vary from informal behavior to formally organized and confrontational acts, the former being everyday resistance.[21] Through the gentrification of St. Henri, everyday resistance must precede overt forms of resistance, suggesting that the neighborhood has harbored this resistance, leading to more consistent resistance. Gentrification as a physical and social force, allows for everyday resistance to manifest into organized resistance,[21] garnering the attention of media outlets.

In 2016, a boutique grocery store known as ‘3734’ was vandalized by masked individuals, displaying anti-capitalist rhetoric and displeasure for the arrival of condos in St. Henri.[22] During a Halloween demonstration, the ‘Collective for an Autonomous Space’ rallied and marched for housing rights and alternatives to commercializing vacant properties.[23] With a surge of expensive condos being built in recent years replacing low-income options, dozens marched on Tenant's Day in 2016 organized by a coalition of actors, ending in front of the Quebec Minister of Economic Development office.[24] These organized forms of resistance, ranging from violent to peaceful, proceed with gentrification in St. Henri. In St. Henri, as gentrification proliferates, the inhabitants of the neighborhood look toward more organized and targeted political activism to resist the powers of neo-liberal urban planning agendas. Resistance in St.Henri can be seen as collective action and people-led solutions to neighborhood challenges. These solutions call upon formal authorities, resulting in programs affordable housing development initiatives and requirements by the Quebec government.[25]

Concerning Twigge-Molecey[11] and the St Henri neighbourhood, inhabitants form social ties to others within their same neighbourhood. However, this is particularly true amongst low-income groups, as these people often do not have the opportunity to build a social network outside their living area. In a situation where their houses are repossessed, such people struggle to find new houses within the same neighbourhood and fail to remain socially integrated. As a result, they are forced to live elsewhere, where there is distance between them and their social circle in the previous neighbourhood. This particular scenario embodies a form of social displacement.

Moreover, the notion of “sense of place” is threatened by newcomers whose presence would change the character and cultural shape of the place.[26] Regarding gentrification in St Henri, conflicts emerged between lifelong low-income residents and incoming condominium dwellers, the latter denying their belonging to St Henri neighbourhood. Newcomers also display forms of condescension and snobbery that create social separation between inhabitants of the same neighbourhood. Those behaviors underline the shifting of senses of place and highlight a cultural displacement. This type of displacement results “when the tastes, norms and desires of newcomers supplant and replace those of incumbent residents”.[27]

Finally, the cultural displacement is another indirect consequence caused by gentrification. In 2006 a new IGA supermarket opened in St Henri. As prices are higher to familial small-scale grocery stores located in St Henri, the buying-power of low-income residents has been reduced. Thus, low-income renters feel rejected from the neighbourhood. This feeling is also seen in the new renovated Louis Cyr park in St Henri. Since it has been rebuilt, it became attractive for dog-sitters who could now leave their dogs off leashes. As a result, it discouraged parents from letting their children play in those areas by fear of the aggressive dogs.[11] Overall, it appears that low-income residents suffer more from changes associated with gentrification through socioeconomic and cultural displacements.