[URBAN NOTE] "Montreal's gay village seeking ways to reinvent itself"

[rfmcdonald]

The CBC carries Guiseppe Valiante's Canadian Press article about the decline of Montréal's gay village. I mourn this, I suppose, but then I last visited it in 2003. If it can't find a new niche in our era, then it may well be for the best that it disappears.

Whither Montreal's gay village?

The area anchored by the Beaudry Metro station has for the past few years been faced with the challenge of reinventing itself. Merchants in the area are looking for new ways to attract people to the area after major cultural shifts in technology and LGBT acceptance have changed the neighbourhood's makeup.

Business owners and gay activists point to mobile dating applications as a key reason for young LGBT people ditching bars and nightclubs as places to find partners.

"The determining factor is the internet," says Yves Lafontaine, editor-in-chief of Fugues magazine, the largest French-language gay publication in the province.

"Before 2005–06 the only place gay people could meet was in gay establishments. Now, the paysage has changed."

Lafontaine also believes young gay men and women feel more at ease in many parts of the city and don't look only to the village to live, shop and party.

What's left is a neighbourhood in flux as businesses rely more and more on the summer tourist season to stay financially sustainable.