Interaction Peter-McGill

 It’s fully booked! Thanks for your interest!

La Table Interaction du quartier Peter-McGill appuie le projet conjoint de l’arrondissement Ville-Marie et de l’Université McGill visant l’aménagement d’un terrain multisports au Parc Rutherford, situé entre les rues Docteur-Penfield, des Pins et McTavish.

Tel que souligné par la commission responsable du PPU des Grands jardins (pages 35 et 68 de leur rapport), nous considérons que la présence de lieux permettant la pratique d’activités sportives, de récréation et de détente est essentielle pour permettre l’émergence d’une vie de quartier et d’un sentiment d’appartenance au quartier. Il y a peu de parcs dans le district Peter-McGill et nous croyons qu’il faut faire tout en notre pouvoir pour tirer le plus de chacun d’entre eux et pour faire en sorte que les citoyens du quartier se les approprient et les fréquentent. L’aménagement de terrains de sports est une demande qui a été maintes fois répétée par nos membres, tout particulièrement par les jeunes familles qui finissent souvent par quitter le secteur parce qu’elles n’y trouvent pas ce genre d’infrastructures.

Les gens qui choisissent de vivre au centre-ville le font souvent en raison de la proximité de tous les services. Or, voici un besoin qui n’est pas comblé : les résidents doivent aller ailleurs pour pratiquer des sports ou carrément s’en passer. Nous croyons que l’aménagement d’un terrain multisports au Parc Rutherford favoriserait le développement de saines habitudes de vie et bénéficierait grandement à une population dont 45% des ménages vivent sous le seuil de la pauvreté. Ce lieu public serait de plus propice à la création de liens entre les résidents et à l’intégration des nouveaux arrivants.

Cependant, voici ce qu’un de nos membres, Robert Hajaly, souligne:

   Concerning planned sporting activities for Rutherford Park, my reaction is that while the emphasis on soccer and football is correct the remaining activities mentioned [rugby and ultimate frisbee] do not provide a sufficient variety of sports to promote the maximum use of the park by the public. Having regard to the many sporting activities provided in public parks in the eastern part of Ville-Marie borough I would suggest that at a minimum Rutherford Park, in addition to a properly developed soccer/football field, should provide tennis, basketball and possibly volleyball courts; and especially for older people a facility for playing bowls, and for younger people a skateboarding facility. In the winter there should be skating and ice hockey rinks. There is plenty of room for all these facilities in this park, and also for one mini-soccer field (or two of them, as proposed, if the meteorological apparatus now in the southwest corner of the park were transferred to the Mount Royal mountain). As for the suggestion of frisbee this is now played on the McGill University campus field above Sherbrooke Street which is open to the general public to use.

   However, let me emphasise that my suggestions are only those of one person. As I said at the last Ville-Marie borough meeting I think it highly desirable that the borough carry out a thorough public consultation on the use of Rutherford Park. This could be accomplished by mailing out a form to all households living within, say, a mile of the park, explaining the borough’s intention to develop the park and asking people what sports or other activities, if any, they would actually like to play in the park. People could choose from a comprehensive list of possible activities and mail in or email their answers. This survey could then be followed by a public meeting to discuss the results of this survey. As well as letting the borough administration know accurately what people would actually use the park for, this consultation would have the valuable funtion of letting the public know that there is a public park here that they can use. Right now most people that I have spoken to about Rutherford Park do not know that it is a public park open to the general public. They think it is only part of the Montreal waterworks or else owned by and part of McGill University. Therefore a public survey on the use of the park would correct people’s misperception of the park, and also create interest in its use by the public. This consultation would also give people the sense that it is their park, increase their sense of ’appartenance’ in regard to the park, so likely further increase their use of it. For all these reasons I strongly urge that the borough hold a real public consultation regarding the use of this park.

   One last point I would like to raise is the proposed use of synthetic grass for this park. I would like to suggest that the use of natural grass is preferable to that of synthetic grass. First, natural grass is more ecological–it absorbs and converts greenhouse gases from the atmosphere whereas synthetic grass doesn’t do this. Second, natural grass is cooler to play on, especially in the hot part of the summer. Further, third, when synthetic grass gets hot and is vigourously played on it can give off vapours and particles which are unhealthy for people playing on it to breathe into their lungs. There is some evidence that this absorption of these vapours and particles can be carcinogetic. For this reason the city of New York as well as our city of Westmount have stopped using synthetic grass in favour of natural grass. Therefore I would strongly urge the borough to reconsider the use of synthetic grass for Rutherford Park.

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Robert Hajaly

La Conférence de presse que nous avons faite mercredi 9 novembre avec Habiter Ville-Marie et la Table de concertation du Faubourg Saint-Laurent suscite des réactions dans les médias! Espérons que cela suscite des changements et que la stratégie d’inclusion de logements sociaux de la ville soit plus souvent appliquée!

Dans Le Devoir: Jeanne Corriveau, « Nouveaux projets immobiliers au centre-ville de Montréal – Mais où sont les logements sociaux? », 11 novembre 2001.

Dans le 24 heures: Emmanuel Delacour, « Immobilier dans Ville-Marie : volte-face du maire », 9 novembre 2011.

Lire la suite…

Dans le Métro: Mathias Marchal, « Peu de nouveaux logements sociaux dans Ville-Marie », 9 novembre 2011.