Several of my artistic acquaintances have left Vancouver over the last few years for Toronto, Montreal and elsewhere, often complaining that the cultural scene is not as vibrant as it used to be. A recent commentary piece in The Globe and Mail claims such alienation has to do with skyrocketing housing prices:
Talk to Vancouverites in their 30s or younger, and you learn why, despite a booming economy, a lot of them doubt they’ll spend their futures here. Which can’t be good for the city’s own future. […]
In Vancouver, the rental vacancy rate is under 1 per cent. Landlords, therefore, can be very picky, and so a caste system has developed among prospective tenants. To be young is to occupy a bottom rung. […]
What does it mean that Vancouver, itself only five or six generations old, feels so unwelcoming to its latest generation? For one, the brand doesn’t fit the reality. The young city about to play host to the world’s Olympians in the prime of their youth is verging on becoming a preserve of affluent, staid boomers. Nothing cool about that.
I love Vancouver but I have to mostly agree with this assessment. I think that one of the reasons why Montreal has such a vibrant, edgy arts and music scene is that rent is reasonable enough (despite having risen quite rapidly since I arrived in 2000) that people don’t have to work all the time to live, which means they can devote some time to creative projects that fall outside the profit motive.
What can or should Montrealers do to ensure that the same fate does not befall their city?
