A group of residents in Montreal’s Parc-Extension neighbourhood is fundraising in the hopes of launching legal action against the city to halt work that has already begun on a bike path removing 250 parking spaces.
In the span of a week, the group, called Coalition for Democracy Park Extension (renamed Coalition for Democracy Montréal), has raised $5,000, a 10th of its goal.
The bike path project has caused a fervour rarely seen in municipal politics, except perhaps for other initiatives to remove parking.
[…]
In Montréal-Nord, a borough east of St-Michel, a similar debate has been playing out. There, Borough Mayor Christine Black, who is part of city opposition Ensemble Montréal, attempted a compromise by implementing a secure bike lane that removes roughly 100 parking spots only three seasons a year — not in the winter.
Angry residents still showed up to her council meeting this week.
When asked about it, Mary Deros, who has been a city councillor in Park Ex since 1998, said, “It would be better than nothing.” Thavalingam, too, said she would prefer that option to losing the 250 spaces.
Deros also wondered aloud why the borough had not chosen already wide one-way streets, such as Bloomfield and Champagneur avenues, for the bike lanes. She said she only found out about the project shortly before it was announced, despite knowing Park Ex “inside out.”
“I was never put in the loop,” she said. [Read full article]
