Milton Park : Housing Ownership and Community Control

In the 1960s and early 1970s, real estate developer Concordia Estates Ltd., an American development corporation associated with the Winnipeg-based Great West Life Co., purchased most of the historic grey-stone buildings that make up Montreal's Milton-Park neighbourhood with the intention of demolishing them to make way for new shopping, hotel, and apartment developments. The Milton-Park neighbourhood, also known as the ‘McGill ghetto,’ spans six square blocks, bounded by Hutchison, Ste. Famille, Milton, and Pine Ave. Angered by this encroachment, a group of local activists in the 1970s protested this urban 'renewal,' claiming it would destroy the character of the community and leave long-time residents without homes. The author outlines how some of the low-income tenants of this neighbourhood, led by McGill University students, the Company of Young Canadians, Montreal architect Phyllis Lambert, the Milton-Park Citizens’ Committee, and local conservation groups, fought Concordia Estates and the City of Montreal through demonstrations, occupations and protests to protect the neighbourhood. These grassroots organizations won their fight. Today Milton-Park is a six-block downtown land trust on which there are twenty-two non-profit housing co-ops and 1500 people in residence.

Master's Thesis

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA

1980

198p.

en