1.1. Hollow Mount Royal, hallow Mount Royal, Holy Mountain: Mount Royal has already been tunneled through and hollowed out in certain areas to create underground storage for various rail companies (CP/CN etc), the STM, McGill, Université de Montréal, the Montreal General Hospital, the Shriners Children's hospice, the Ville de Montréal, among other organisations. All of the aforementioned organisations own and maintain property underneath Mount Royal, literally within the Mountain itself. This is why the city is so intent on keeping trespassers from entering the Mountain's many tunnels and doorways.
1.2. Since Mount Royal is already hollowed out, would it be possible to create a public space under the Mountain so that residents and tourists can explore Mount Royal's real underground city?
1.3. The underground city under the Mountain is directly connected to downtown Montreal's underground city via common public railway. It's kind of brilliant, really, when you think of it.
1.4. Montreal needs a series of municipal Living Machines (natural waste water treatment facilities) integrated into our public parks as water features to act as both a) water treatment system and b) public water source and recreational space (ie kill two birds with one stone).
1.5. There should be an internet café in the chalet on Mount Royal. I have no doubt that it would be a profitable little business, especially if Amis de la Montagne founds it under it's NPO, the profits would return to the Amis coffers, which could then be used to re-forest and re-populate Mount Royal with desperately needed flora and fauna.
1.6. The city of Montreal is a perfect blank slate for Green Roof technology. Most of our buildings have flat roofs that are a) old and need to be replaced and b) would be prefect candidates for municipal (or provincial! or, dare I hope, FEDERAL!) green roofs and/or sustainable engineering legislation.
1.7. Montreal should create mandatory green roof by-laws forcing all new developments to create green space/roofs on their property.
1.8. The city of Montreal needs to be bold and step up and find clever ways to use what resources we have available to us to create a city of the future. We are a very rich city but resources are being misdirected. We have a massive work force of trained engineers, scientists, intelligent students and blue collar workers, and a highly motivated welfare class with a lot of talent and potential, but they're bored and need something productive and valuable to do with their lives. They don't want to WORK, they want to CREATE. They want to be part of something good and beautiful and positive. We need to take our discouraged workers and our motivated welfare population and give them a reason to get up in the morning.
The city needs to create a sort of make-work project, not to make WORK but to use our highly skilled but discouraged labour force and give them something beautiful to create. These people are so smart, and so talented, in so many ways, that if you round them all up and give them a big project, something huge; a huge huge municipal project where companies donate material resources and residents of Montreal (and worldwide volunteers, why not) donate their labour, to create, I don't know, something as great and timeless as the Pyramids or Stone Henge or Mayan temples. The city of Montreal, the people of Montreal, all us smart but bored and discouraged workers, we need something positive to do with our time. We need this. What could we create?!
1.9. Mount Royal needs to be re-forested and re-populated with appropriate flora and fauna. There are almost no fruit or nut or flowering trees on Mount Royal, and almost no flowers, ferns, or bog areas because natural streams have been diverted and dried up over time. Mount Royal needs a bird sanctuary. A honey bee and butterfly sanctuary. A few rehabilitated deer would be nice. Visitors need to stop feeding the raccoons.
1.10. The city needs to stop dumping asphalt and gravel on the mountain, it dries up streams, attracts malign bacteria, and it's difficult to walk on, I am constantly seeing elderly people stumble and slide on the gravel pathways. Falling or sliding on gravel causes skin abrasions.
The city needs to start using mulch and compost instead. It's soft and easier to find footing on, if visitors fall on a path of mulch they are rarely injured, at most they're covered in some wood and dirt, no skin abrasions. It also deters cyclists from riding off-path because mulch is lot harder to ride on than hard gravel is, bike wheels sink into the ground. Mulch would also deter cyclists from speeding down the main pathways on Mount Royal as bicycles travel faster on gravel than they do on mulch.
That said, while bikes travel slower on mulch than on gravel, bike wheels don't slip on mulch the way they do on gravel. When I ride my bike on gravel I have to grip the handlebars to keep my wheels from twisting from side to side, but when I ride on mulch I may have to pedal harder but my wheels stay straight. It is also easier to roll a wheelchair or stroller on mulch than it is on gravel, the wheels stay true in mulch rather than spinning from side to side trying to find purchase on gravel.
Unlike mulch, gravel doesn't absorb moisture. If mulch were used on Mount Royal instead of gravel the mulch would absorb rainfall and spring thaws, reducing the number of pools and puddles and mud pits on pathways, and retain that moisture over the summer season so that plants and animals have the moisture they need to survive the hot season. Right now Mount Royal is almost entirely covered in gravel, so by the time July comes round the mountain is dry as a bone and plants start withering, parasites and pests overpopulate the mountain and destroy vegetation. If plants had access to the water they need to survive they would grow strong and be able to resist parasites, creating a healthier Mount Royal.
Mulch is also beneficial to young children playing on Mount Royal as dust and gravel attracts malignant bacteria and could make them ill, whereas mulch attracts beneficial bacteria and is unlikely to cause any harm to plant, animals, or humans alike. Also, mulch is a hell of a lot lighter than gravel is. It's cheaper to transport, easier for workers to carry and shovel, and it's a renewable resource. In fact, am ambitious city would create a municipal compost system just so that we have enough mulch and compost to replenish our parks and green spaces for "free".
1.11. We should be striving for an Edible Mount Royal.
1.12. There should be a lot more police on horseback in Montreal. When police ride around the city on horseback people want to come up to them and pet the horse, talk to the officer, engage with law enforcement in a positive way. Horseback riding is also beneficial for police officers with post-traumatic stress. Horses also have higher mobility than automobiles and bicycles. They can swim, they will run through fire to save a life, they eat cheap grass instead of expensive oil, and you don't need to build factories to make them because they procreate all by themselves. More, they're empathetic and when you need a shoulder to cry on they're always there. Can't say the same for automobiles.
1.13. Horses are also the oldest sustainable form of transportation in the history of mankind. Domesticated animals that are given species appropriate diets and living quarters live much longer than their wild counterparts do. There is a beneficial symbiotic relationship between horses and humans so long as we respect each other as a species (I believe all animals and organisms are sentient, and should be treated with the respect sentience demands). One of the biggest mistakes large cities ever made was banning horseback riding from urban areas. Montreal should allow residents and tourists to ride and keep horses in the city. This would create more jobs, and opens up a new market. I know this is a stretch for a lot of people who have never even seen a horse in real life, nevermind been on one. But trust me folks, horses are way better than cars or bikes or skateboards. Way, way better.
1.14. The city of Montreal should allow residents to keep their own chickens. I can't even wrap my head around why it's illegal in the first place, because babies create far more waste and need far more infrastructure than chickens do, and yet you don't see us banning babies. What I mean to say is, banning chickens is ridiculous.
Free the chickens!!
(fuck that, free the humans!! free the humans!!)
1.15. The St-Lawrence river needs to be clean enough that residents can swim in it and drink the water. The St-Lawrence needs to be potable. If we have to build dams on either end of the island to filter the water ourselves then we're going to have to do it. Montreal needs clean water. It's so hot here in the summer, and so dehydrating that people die of heatstroke and sunstroke every year, and yet we're on island surrounded by fresh water that we cannot swim in or drink to squench our thirst because it's too polluted. I dip my foot in the St-Lawrence and it's itchy all day from some mysterious bacteria or substance (e. coli? listeria? staphyllococcus? toxic waste? who knows!).
1.16. Being a good mayor is thankless work. Thank you, Mr. Tremblay.
1.17. We need a drinking fountain at the lookout point on Camillien-Houde. I don't usually advocate police patrol unless it's absolutely necessary, but it really creeps me out when I'm walking down the mountain late in the evening and I have to walk through a crowd of drunk and somewhat belligerent young men. I have no problem walking through Berri Park with all of its crack addicts and squeegie kids, or virtually any other place on the island of Montreal. So when I say it creeps me out, it really creeps me out. Besides, most of those kids are drinking and driving. There should be a DUI patrol on the lookout, especially in the summer, pretty much every night of the week from April to November. Just get a bad feeling..
1.18. Mount Royal should be a 24 hour park.
1.19. The city of Montreal needs to create a migrant camp space. All major cities should. Just a clean, simple open space outdoors with basic electricity and cold water. This is not desirable for most cities, but it's natural. Human beings have been nomads since the beginning of time, we need to stop looking at them as "street bums" and perhaps learn to accept that some people just like to sleep outdoors under the stars without having to worry about paying the rent or dealing with the usual social conventions. Some human beings are somewhat feral and we should let them be that way if that's what makes them happy. There is nothing immoral or anti-social about being a nomad. We should support and respect nomad culture rather than having contempt for it.
(I suspect a lot of people hate on nomads because they secretly want to leave the tediousness of domesticated life and throw a bag over their shoulder, leave it all behind and join the gypsy lifestyle. i think people are subconsciously jealous of the nomad/street bum lifestyle and veil their jealousy with fake concern for their welfare.. but hell if anyone'd admit it).
1.20. I've lived here my whole life almost and I'm still awed almost every day by how beautiful this city is. It's not an aesthetic, it's a vibe. A current. It's the people. We are what makes this city so amazing. It's us. :)
1.21. Orr maybe.. it's because Mount Royal is an inactive volcano and gives off an electromagnetic charge that attracts a certain type of person to our city... too. But now I'm just being silly. :D
Peace.
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