[montréaliste]

When I first saw this about Wellington street, I thought they were talking about the near eastern end if it, in the recently upscaled Griffintown part of it. It’s a strange street, it starts in Old Montreal and ends up turning at a near right angle when it hits Verdun. That is the liveliest stretch of it by far. The eastern part of it has become pretty busy with pleasure seeking local residents, but it still needs time to establish some interesting spots to generate landmarks, like nearby Notre-Dame street West in Little Burgundy/ St-Henri or Wellington in Verdun. Both of the latter, would have been laughed off if mentioned as a go to, 40, and maybe even 25 years ago. They were interesting streets, but rough; and businesses like fancy bars and restaurants would have been squished under the thumbs of the protection racketeers like the Dubois clan; the 9 brothers and two hundred associates had no time for hipster driven aesthetics.

So Wellington, and other streets on the list I gather have improved a lot in quality, and added interest beyond the mom and pop proximity of more mundane businesses. It’s worth celebrating the work that locals did in order to turn the tables IMO.

At the end of a long exhausting day though, these things are clickbait, but what do you expect?