It seems the geniuses at Montreal city hall have concocted a scheme to stem the exodus of young families from within city limits. The plan will cost the city $12.9 million and consist of things like: financial incentives and refunds for young families to purchase property; adding larger parking spots (identified with a teddy bear icon) near public areas like arenas and parks; and discounts on public transit.
This is a classic government manoeuvre that looks at a problem, allocates a sack of cash and then tries to figure out how to spend it to address the issue. The thing is, the issue is not one that can be solved with cash.
First off, the incentives for purchasing property are only available for new homes with at least three bedrooms, 1,033 square feet and a maximum price of $295,000. The average price of a home on the island of Montreal was recently reported as $324, 000, so where exactly are these mystical, brand-new, $295K homes going to come from? While we're at it, who exactly will be patrolling the parking lots to make sure that the teddy-bear spots aren't used for delivery vans, or overcompensating egomaniacs depositing their Hummers? And what good is a discount on public transit when your stranded at a bus stop with two screaming kids in minus twenty weather because the wheels fell off the bus?
Another brilliant suggestion was to install child seats on the famed Bixi bikes. I don't know if you've ever cycled in downtown Montreal, but if I were crazy enough to want to weave my way through a maze of death-defying traffic, the last thing I want is to risk my child's life as well.
People sneer and snicker at the burbs because of their dependence on cars, lack of a core centre and generally bland night life. Fair criticism to be sure, but one thing suburbs have that a city doesn't is space. Kids like space to move around, parks to play in, a back yard with a swing. Suburbs are generally safer than the city, with significantly lighter and slower traffic in most neighbourhoods, so kids won't be taking their life in their hands just to go kick a soccer ball.
It has also been claimed that the burbs leave a much larger carbon footprint than city centres. I would like to see the hard data on this, because there are a lot cars downtown, many of which sit idling in bumper to bumper traffic. Not to mention massive office buildings with their lights on through the night, parking garages spewing exhaust fumes and massive amounts of heated, recycled air. I'm no expert, but the smog doesn't seem to be hanging over the west island.
Grocery essentials are more expensive in the city due to high commercial taxes. Every year, enormous quantities of fresh water leaks out of the city's water system due to ageing and failing infrastructure; we can only imagine what is happening with the sewage. The cost of renting or buying property is not only much higher, availability continues to be a challenge. Transit discounts would do little to offset the higher property taxes. Besides, if we're trying to encourage public transit usages, why are we creating more parking spaces?
Given the choice, it doesn't surprise me that young parents would want to put some kilometers between themselves and these problems.
Don't get me wrong, I love my city, but let's face it raising a family downtown is a game for the rich, who would not stand to benefit from the property incentives being proposed. I'm also fairly certain that if your rich, you ain't strapping little Johnny on the back of a Bixi bike.
What the Montreal city council really doesn't get is that these incentives, which are also rather insulting to those already living in (and paying taxes to) the city, do nothing to improve the overall cleanliness, congestion and safety issues.
If anything, this money ought to be allocated to areas where the city is truly in need. Affordable housing, repairing and replacing infrastructure, improving public security, air quality or at the very least having the politician's heads extracted from their colons.
The latter would definitely be money well-spent.
No comments:
Post a Comment