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Inter Art actuel

Thirty Years of Urbanism in Quebec City A City Hit By a Traumatism That Ain’t the One We Think It Is Marc Boutin

Ville de Québec 1978-2008 Quebec City 1978-2008 Numéro 100, automne 2008

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Éditeur(s) Les Éditions Intervention

ISSN 0825-8708 (imprimé) 1923-2764 (numérique)

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Citer cet article Boutin, M. (2008). Thirty Years of Urbanism in Quebec City: A City Hit By a Traumatism That Ain’t the One We Think It Is. Inter, (100), 68–71.

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Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ (20oo) or Art-Action, born of the THIRTY YEARS OF opposition to this movement, they an exuberant vertical modernity, writings of Richard Martel (2005). have lost a great deal. All proportions juxtaposed to a rigorous horizontal We also have to mention the many URBANISM IN considered, Boston is the American residential areas, at once urban catalogues and quality publications city that most closely resembles and Victorian, among the most accompanying events such as QUEBEC CITY Quebec City. beautiful in the world (North End, Mirabile Visu, L'année photographique A CITY HIT BY A In 1950, these two cities had Beacon Hill, Back Bay). In fact, à Québec, Trois fois 3 passages, had almost 350 years of history. the public opinion uprising has Temporalité, Art d'attitudes, Bonheur TRAUMATISM THAT AIN'T From an "urbanist" point of view, tempered the renovation endeavors et simulacres, the publications THE ONE WE THINK IT IS their two downtown core are similar of the "planners", hence protecting of the editions J'ai VU, DVD's of in their compact quarters. These downtown's residential life. BY MARC BOUTIN* different editions of the Rencontre quarters have clear boundaries, they internationale d'art performance of are socially distinct and densely A Simple Concept... Quebec City's urban history was Le Lieu or the studio art Avatar, and populated. They cover most of the or Simplistic? marked by a major event which is the videos done by La Bande Vidéo, central territory, to the exception In Quebec City, the U.R. not the Conquest nor the Battlefields without mentioning the websites and of some great urban parks such as (politicians at the time had of Abraham. It is not to exaggerated the blogs of today's world. the Boston Common and the Plains associated the idea of progress to speak here of a cataclysm around They stand as the true memory of of Abraham. This is a distinctive to the extent that to be against it which stands the history of many art actuel in Quebec City, since 1978. mark of urbanity: each square meter meant that you were "retrograde") areas downtown. Indeed, it explains They are so rich of details. Others, available is occupied, and there has taken, from 1967 onwards, the the morphology and the structure of we can only hope, will be interested is basically no space for random forms of a street fight between the metropolitan region. Its impact to find out more, as soon as you will planning. We have to count on filling urbanists feeling entitled to power, on our daily life's organization is have dropped the last word of our the surrounding low waters to get and a certain civil society in a from far more important than all dialogue... more space. At the beginning of desperate plight. Statistics allow other local historical phenomenon the fifties, first in Boston and then [us] to understand the magnitude of Thanks for your complicity of the last 400 years. Nevertheless, in Quebec City, problems started to these fights, ending in 1978, when Guy our valorous tourist guides are not occur. Narrow streets are congested tired of these everlasting wars, the mentioning it and historians rarely th to the point that commerce is in City gave up on transforming Saint- Thursday March 13 discuss it in this respect. It is, without decline. The pressure for a radical Gabriel Street as a way to access Guy, a doubt, because the stir it has move exists. The U.R., along with the Place-Québec. Between these two I write. And the words help me to generated is yet to calm down. To urbanist's response to this pressure, dates, some 10 000 people had think. I have proposed this dialogue say the least, the public as well as is becoming a panacea for the been dislocated, fourteen public to you to destabilize my habits, to experts often mistakes it for its timely business world. It is the beginning schools were demolished or closed, destabilize myself, to open doors. corollary, the Quiet Revolution. This of the great malls at the periphery of more than 4000 rental apartments And we have succeeded, I think. event is called "Urban Renovation" the city - something most daunting were sacrificed. In terms of its You have written: the writing like (U.R.). "dusts on the City"... leaving you to for inhabited areas. demography, the agglomeration Like a natural catastrophe, the that? literally exploded. Indeed, the U.R. hit North America without any Lisanne The Urban Renewal average density has passed from warning. Each city had to cope with In Boston, between 1950 and 10000 people per Km- to less than it in its own terms. Younger cities P.S. Thanks for all of this. • 1960, urbanists made their first 1000, and that, despite the fact that like Winnipeg and Edmonton, in mistakes under the name of the the total population has passed from Canada, adapted rapidly. It was Urban Renewal. Scollay Square is 365,000 to 620,000 people. It is fair Lisanne Nadeau lives and works in Que­ for them a form of rapid growth bec City. Historian and art critic, she is the central location amongst the most to say that the dimensions of the considering their short past and Director of the Galerie des arts visuels of lively and welcoming. It is typical contrasting zone was multiplied by some infrastructures already in place. Laval University. Working for many years of the open minded and burlesque twenty. No city, with the exception at the center La chambre blanche, she In 1950, Boston and Toronto, cities quarters surrounding it. It was to of some third-world megapolis, has coordinated many events, confer­ viewed as the most dynamic today, Boston what was once the Place has suffered such an impact. From ences and publications dealing with resisted the temptation to get rid d'Youville in Quebec City: a popular the most densely populated city installation practices and in situ. She of their tramways. But Montreal publishes regularly in various specialized gathering place. All of it, including in Canada, Quebec City has now and Quebec City, wanting to be publications and was the coordinator its residential neighborhood, was become the most spread out modern, were eager to get rid of it. of the Summary of 20 years of thei%, in destroyed and replaced by the so- metropolitan region. Even today, we 2004, for the Ministère de la Culture et Today, Toronto is part of the avant- called Government Center, a huge are seeing a few striking contrasts. des Communications. Lisanne Nadeau garde with a vast rail network and The Faubourg Saint-Jean, for has been the independent curator for the agora in red brick, testimony to a its costs are easy to absorb. Quebec instance, keeps a density difficult to Manif d'art 4, in the spring of 2008. bureaucratic austerity as cold as can City is still hesitant to go ahead 2 be. It is also next to a monumental surpass, at 17,500 people/km while Guy Sioui Durand is a Huron-Wendat. He with a new network which would City Hall that would have made many suburbs are barely capable is also a sociologist (Ph. DJ, art critic and include structures that existed not a Hitler's architect Albert Speer very of reaching the national average of indépendant curator who has scrutin­ long time ago. It is important to be ized Quebec's art actuel'scene and given proud. Another example which countries like Belgium - which is 330 careful: to be of your own time. most of his time to the understanding of evokes Dufferin-Montomorency: a people/km-. If the average density, political art and contemporary native arts. suspended highway runs through before 1950, was to be viewed He is one of the founders of the review Boston: Our Close Urban the core of the city. It is indeed the today on the whole agglomeration, Inter, art actuel and the center for artists Relative Quebec City would virtually be as Le Lieu: a space dedicated to the art actuel same highway that was transformed The compact built environment populated as Paris with its 8 millions scene in Quebec City. Durand has written into a tunnel for an outrageous cost of North American cities, such as for many periodicals and publications. He (16 billions $US). people. Quebec City, Boston, New Orleans is the author of three books: L'art comme Nevertheless, in Boston, On an era that has 350 years of alternative: Réseaux et pratigues d'art and San Francisco served as a first resistance has been beneficial. history, we have instigated a develo­ parallèle au Québec (1997), Les très riches protection against the assault of Indeed, most living quarters in pment model that did not consider heures de Jean-Paul Riopelle (2000) and the U.R. But these cities were fast to Riopelle: L'art d'un trappeur supérieur. Indi- downtown, with the exception of how delicate the urban structure understand that a kind of passive dnité (2003). He also has authored articles the one surrounding Scollay Square, in place really was. In terms of the resistance would not be enough. and chapters in other monographies, remained intact. Since the 50's, circulation network structuring it, the such as the recent Aimititau ! Parlons- Eastern cities like Quebec City, Boston's center is an example of city has broken away from the stages nous ! (2008). Celebrated as a stimulating indeed the most directly European, the striking contrast between two of the commercial street to invest in speaker, his conferences and perform­ had the most to lose. And even if styles of urban planning. There is the realities of the highway, without ances are always greatly appreciated. they were the most vivid in their dealing with the intermediary stage this regard. And in 2003, our road unique residential downtown core, geois point of view. Between each of the urban boulevard. Indeed, engineers have pushed further preserved to no end, etc. Urban, in election, the idea of opposition was because of the strong pressure with the prolongation of the Vallon its form and by tradition during the in itself put on hold. Many meetings coming from the business world (as Highway. All things considered, last 350 years, Quebec City became a of the municipal council, where the if it wanted to get even with a past this record which could be in the rural city when the heart of its urban rule of unanimity prevailed, were from which it was always excluded) Guinness, explains at once the past, that is the Latin Quarter, was over in less than twenty minutes. The things had to be done thoroughly spreading, the dependency to cars, destroyed by the tourist industry unhappy ones - perceived as frus­ and in spite of the built environment the excessive costs of maintenance wanting it to become Old Quebec trated individuals in need of recogni­ and the existing site. And to this day, of such network and the City's low City. tion - were doomed to complain to Quebec City finds itself having only population density. To say the least, Indeed, the key element of this their counselor. few boulevards. And the ones that when it comes to its relations to "revolution" is not to find in the likes From 1967 and on, dissidence exist, for instance Pierre Bertrand, the car, Quebec City is ultimately of "Drummondville", this suburb as took another shape. It became often ends mid-way. "redneck". vast as can be and heavily relying a question of collective survival, To justify its concept, the City Indeed, today's city has on cars. This is a city that has give mostly located in the living areas of produces a report and turns it into been modeled by the brutal and an image of the province, as told "of the downtown core. On the front an event. Published in 1972 and sudden endeavor of a polynuclear the ancient limits" from the 1950's. line, a resisting force took place at written by the firm Vandry-Jobin, metropolitan structure, one that has We can find it in the city center, in the eastern limit of the Faubourgs under the supervision of the Service a dispersed and week template. And the so-called village d'antan which Saint-Roch, Saint-Jean, Saint-Louis d'urbanisme de la Ville, this report is the whole trauma was enhanced simultaneously appeared at the and Cap Blanc. It is along this futurist and yet, its projections are by the fact that the new structure Place-Royale as much as within the border which separates the tourist presented to the public as a given. was implemented on its complete walls. Laval University established and bureaucratic zones within the After 350 difficult years, Quebec antithesis. a precedent as early as 1960. It has inhabited areas, that the strongest City enters into a well deserved Since then, metropolitan Quebec turned its back to its long urban urban fights happened, in particular prosperity. The cover page shows City is made of two antagonistic history by moving to the fields, far the ones of the îlots Saint-Patrick a prospective image of downtown cities. One of these two cities from the noises and social diversity (called the Faubourg Saint-Louis), becoming, in the year 2000, a small celebrates if 400th year in 2008, the of the Latin Quarter of its origins. It Berthelot (the Faubourg Saint-Jean) version of Manhattan. And to make other will celebrate it in 2370. This built a campus of the pavilion type and Fleurie (the Faubourg Saint- sure that this image becomes a dichotomy in the landscaping has that could resemble Ohio State or Roch). The exterior limit of these reality, a network of highways and had an impact at the electoral level: Georgia Tech. To better understand, Faubourgs, includes areas such as roads that would make Los Angeles the first of these cities voted for the just imagine that Harvard University Montcalm, Saint-Sauveur, Vanier, green with envy, is proposed. It is Bloc Québécois, PQ and Bourget, at is leaving Harvard Square in Limoilou and Maizerets, served as a an insane stretch of cement and the federal, provincial and municipal Cambridge Massachussett, for the base supporting this frontline. In a asphalt cutting, like in butter, the level, respectively. And the other, suburbs near the commercial center. larger scale, we could see how the middle of many residential streets already old in spite of its age, voted Boston would lose its whole identity. closed territory formed by these nine of the downtown core. Saint- Conservative, ADQ and Labeaume Laval University leaving the quarters as a whole was caught in a Roch being the main target: three in the same levels, respectively. In neighborhood opened the way to stranglehold. Towards the exterior highways (Montmorency, de la fact, these two cities were placed in a form of mass tourism that did not (in the East), this territory had the Falaise and a direct link with Levis) a form of sterile rivalry, because no ask for that much. Becoming the pressure of the expanding white run through the parish Notre- serious consideration was foreseen, main tenant of the Latin Quarter was zone around the walls. This zone Dame-de-la-Paix, soon to disappear. by the fathers of the UR, to establish more than profitable in this area, includes Parliament Hill, d'Youville And to be consistent, add to this between them complementary already named Old Quebec City with Square and the sectors of the new two other highways (Laurentien infrastructures. Accordingly, the affection. This move was enough to Saint-Roch, of the Palais de Justice and Champlain via a tunnel). But first serious attempt was the give wings to any emerging industry. and of the Gare du Palais. Toward the project of building a bridge to establishment of the bus services Indeed, two industrial parks, such as the exterior (in the West and the Lévy-Lauzon brings controversy, its Métrobus'm 1992, by Claude Larose. an historical Disneyland in the East, a North), the pressure comes from the construction will have to wait the This autonomous transport network University and a Commercial power vast suburb at the periphery which change of mentalities. And what "light on the rails" could, in a center in the West, would dominate continues to expends since 1960. On does this report entail forty years foreseeable future, play an important the peak of Saint-Louis-Grande-Allée- the one hand, sky-scrapers and big later? While only one highway role in bringing things closer. But to Laurier Streets, with, in between the parking lots take over the inhabited (Dufferin-Montmorency) made do so, it would have to give back to two, a parliamentary zone located spaces. On the other hand, the car its way in the heart of Saint-Roch, the urban city its lost vitality. under the supervision of the Hotel invasion regulates the work week, forced to face the wall of popular Hilton International. This axial invades empty lots and creates traffic resistance as much as the Cap Bipolar Trouble: cohabitation of two white zones' jams on commercial and residential Diamant, and even if less than 25% Urban Renovation Places had an impact on the rural destiny of streets. of the global network proposed by Urbanity in Half-mast an "old National Provincial Capital", Vandry-Jobin was completed, the The U.R, seen as a conservative which, in the end, is very quiet. It "Excuse Us, This is Progress!" spirit of the report has prevailed. revolution, is not a vision of the would make possible, among other From 1967 to 1980, opposition Its elaboration, even partial, has mind. Contrary to other North things, Shows as terrible as the Red is the lot of few organized citizens. shaped recent history. At the end Bull CushedIce in the East and the lh American cities - with the exception They take the streets and use media of 20 Century, the Quebec region of Kingston in Ontario - Quebec City Budweiser Tail Gates, so cherished strategies to convince a split public has found itself with one of the has lived through radical changes. by André Arthur in the West. At the opinion. Along the borders of this biggest road networks in the world, The most urban city in North end, we have a city that has nothing territory, uncertainty is heavy. considering it population ratio: a America has collapsed under a rural to envy the city of Val-Bélair, when it In this respect, Bush's intelligent total of 145 km, that is 20 km for revolution. Maybe this is temporary comes to being "redneck". bomb labeled "Excuse us, this is each 100 000 people. These numbers - but we will have to wait and see. freedom" could evoke the bulldozers correspond to twice the average The city of Boston, under similar An Emerging Balance of of mayor Lamontagne while they of North American cities showing pressures, was at first casual before Power were politely demolishing with more than half a million people. it became again conscious of its Until 1967, the search for a their proud credo: "Excuse us, this Only rural and average cities of traditional urban role, amongst all consensus served as a working is progress!" It is indeed a slow the mid-West in the United States cities in the United States. Boston method for politicians in City Hall. war between unequal forces. On (such as Tulsa or Oklahoma City) known as a universal capital and By consensus we mean the discreet the civil side, eight committees of are comparable to Quebec City in research center. Boston and its predominance of the favorable bour­ citizens (only three of these are still in operation today) offered a emergence of a new Saint-Roch area Sainte-Foy's core. As a simple sign within Old Quebec City walls, will strong resistance. This resistance called of "new technologies" with of growth, the idea of an "academic" go elsewhere..."". The diagnostic is has contributed to create the actual its park "where we don't want to see food market is only a "natural" step clear: free speculation will win over urban setting: of the four highways any bellies2", or, say, its series of giant towards the creation of an hyper- residential life within the walls... pointing towards Saint-Roch, none parking lots often hidden behind an campus Pepsi-Laval coming with an Like in the Arab Emirates, in was able to cross downtown. The artistic façade (such as La Chapelle integral market. Such campus goes Dubai, in the Persian Golf, Old Dufferin-Montmorency highway, Street, behind the Cinéma Odéon, from the PEPS to the CHUL, passing Quebec City doesn't tolerate new solely, was able to do some damage and Saint-Vallier Street, next to the by three market places. residents unless they are the richest before stopping at Lépine Square, in Faubourg elevator). In its advertizing, the University of wanderers. These enjoy few pied- front of the now famous îlot Fleurie. As far as the citizens projects could voice "Register yourself, I am à-terre elsewhere in the world. This One doesn't count the emerging are concerned, realisations such as commercial!" allow them - on the contrary to the groups defending rights and services the public garden and the sculpture The Ruralopolis is at once weak latest native person - to escape the such as Day care, Houses for the gardens of the îlot Fleurie, have and strong. Its main weakness comes snubs associated with the festive youth, coop housings, etc. One of survived for a period (and with a very from the fact that to be able to move, local agenda. We think here of these groups, the ACEF-Quebec small financial support). They later it depends almost exclusively upon a the long list of medieval festivals (Association coopérative d'économie disappeared to the benefit of green blood stream too large and sucking and carnivals. Festivals like the familiale) regroups few sociologists spaces in complete agreement with up too much energy. The road Oktoberfest, the Grand Rire Bleu, the and social agents which published the new "urbanocratic" correctness. networks, the real blood system of Red Bull, the many national festivities the EZOP report Une ville à vendre (A Indeed, if political powers come and the rural city is to Quebec City what and other costumed parties. All City for sale) in 1972. This report is a go, bureaucracy stays. Nonetheless, the Olympic Stadium is to Montreal: events which give rhythms to the life marxist answer to the Vandry-Jobin some urbanist-bureaucrats which a vast grey elephant falling apart, on each side of the walls, and that, commission. Its content denounces were also artisan of the U.R., were showing prematurely its wrinkles. with the help of grants and the likes, the two-faced language of the city. able to keep their positions in the Vast and performing enough to serve stimulate the hospitality industry in It reveals the ramifications linking party. They contribute further to a metropolis of two million people, America's oldest city. real estate companies to this trend of the make-over, or the abolishment this network has a colossal cost of The white zone (or zone of the Urban Renovation. Its publication will of their own masterpieces. As the maintenance (for snow removal, hospitality industry) is an extension open the way to establish a better logic prevails, when a wind from the security and renovation, etc) that is of the glaze of the fortifications. It structured popular movement. It left is rising, bureaucrats are making three times heavier for a population runs up to the living limits of the will see to the creation of a new sure that the "Gift from God" shifts of 700 000 people. Besides the fact Faubourg and serves as a central municipal party, the Rassemblement smoothly towards the right. that it doesn't age well, it is like a tourism district (usually we say populaire (RP) which will gain power human being. The ageing process is CBD, or Central Business District) in 1989. Ruralopolis even more active because the city is in the city. It is because of the In the Kingdom of lawn mowers, young. enclave of the city-between-walls A Cosmetic Urban Planning frost metallic fences, tarmac parkings The strength of Ruralopolis is that the white zone has annexed This battle will move on to the lots, golf courses and the likes, the in the demographic domain. The Old Quebec City to itself and that political scene. For the RP, urban form of the pavilion dominates the great suburb, with its two third the tourist industry can screen all management will become a tool architectural landscape. From the of the population, gives the tone the festive activities. Until 1970, we to accomplish the impossible: to smallest bungalow with a garage to to the rest of the region with its celebrated the Carnival in popular please the tourist industry as much the largest airport facilities, one finds conservatism. The success of the neighborhoods, in areas like Saint- as the militant base of the party. cubic or rectangular constructions « radios-poubelles », for instance, Sauveur or the Latin Quarter. With Downtown, the great structuring isolated or surrounded by grass is not so much downtown as it is the U.R., the Carnaval installations projects are put aside to benefit a or asphalt everywhere. Austere or in the suburbs. But the suburb's are now closer to Hotel areas and type of cosmetic urban planning, simply bizarre, they are disseminated hold on the region is consolidated stay there. To submit to room rentals one that seeks to restore the most randomly or aligned orderly at the by a fictional ties linking it, by regulations, the event calendar is striking mistakes done by the U.R centers of lots of all sizes. They are popular areas, to the historic core accommodating scheduled dates over the years. We are assisting to framed by what Pierre Reveryd calls of the city altogether perceived as (the beginning of February). And, few changes: the Saint-Roch mall is "the most durable and solid hyphen a playground for suburbia. Indeed, contrary to the Rio or New Orleans demolished, the banks of the Saint- between beings": the fence. people walk, celebrate, and interact Carnivals, Quebec City's Carnival had Charles river are made to look more In this magma high in gaz and in great numbers with tourists in to break away from the Mardi gras, a natural, threes are planted, and, an tarmac covering more than 90% of this "enlarged" Old Quebec City. This celebration which gives full meaning urban complex is built to replace the territory in cities like Quebec City and includes the harbor, the agora area, to its historical as well as political wall of shame represented by the Levis together, the "architectonic" Carnaval Place, the bassin Louise, aspects. In this regard, the affective René-Lévesque Boulevard and to lines are blended. One doesn't know D'Youville Square, etc. Very often relations linking it to downtown "humanize" the boulevard Honoré the difference between a primary during such festivities, the "natives" residents is also broken. It is too close Mercier. This recent demolition of the school and a water treatment plant, hide in their homes or simply desert for certain people, too far for others. access roads of the Montmorency a public high school and a high it. highway, now obsolete, testifies to security jail. From morphological and ...and its Forbidden City the same philosophy. organizational points of view, what The Postcarded City, One task remains and it is Such cosmetic projects are simply difference is there between Laurier The Object City breaking the mold left by Quebec not enough to give development (sic) University Campus and the Laval All urbanists have not sold City's urban history. The city is a path, new directions. Without projects Commercial Center? As Siamese their soul to the city or the tourist and the interventions orienting its with solid bases, the left, even in rejects of the U.R., the two urbanistic industry. Here is a commentary from development, as massive as they are, power, could do nothing more than landmarks of the suburbs are indeed Jean Cimon3, retired urbanist and are not beyond remedy. répare the mistakes done by the first neighbors, today, in a cozy stretch artisan of the first urban battles in The key to a possible change in engineers of the Urban Renovation. that the well named Robert Bourassa Quebec City: "As long as there will Quebec City's urban history may be Consequently, by the end of Highway reaffirms instead of weake­ be a commercial lobbying to use Old in one of the seven doors of the city. L'Allier's years in power, the regional ning it. Since 1960, this perspective Quebec as a merchandise, as if it was It is important to know that in the dependence to cars was aggravated. and Sobey's complicity with the an open mine, and as long as the 19th Century, Quebec City walls had Among the best realizations, the University to open an experimental profit will prevail over the aesthetic seven passages and doors. Behind rise of area councils supporting the supermarket on the highway's of an extraordinary city, its future them were seven churches and Métrobus network is noteworthy. west side goes hand in hand with is threatened. And the promoters, seven chapels. Only six of the seven Also, in the white zone, we see the the industrial complex dominating when they will have killed the life doors coincided with a passage, the one of McMahon Street. Built later, it whatever he did, the man never all functions to mix and regroup Legends never had a door but only a simple pronounced a word. When the seven them according to their variety. It > Map 1 (Page 34) The wall. Although it is postern. The seventh door gives years were over, while the emissary wants to unite them like Lego blocks cut off form its historical core (D'Youville access to the Citadel. It is today the was drinking, eating, got bigger, of varied colors. The Albertan (or the Square), the Faubourg Saint-Jean was able to maintain a strategic position for only authentic door that remains. slept, and gave orders, he died. The citizen) moves daily from one role an inhabited quarter, as a high ground The others have been destroyed men covered him, threw him out of to the next on a regional scale. The of urban resistance. When you are at or have been simply replaced by the house, washed the bed, painted Utopian, on the other hand, waits the corner where the streets Saint-Jean stylized imitations. the walls, took a breath of happiness in his or her neighborhood that all and Saint-Vallier meet, the white zone While the U.R. transformed the and said: "No". functions split and come closer to his is narrower. But the skyscrapers, with whole agglomeration from top to or her area. the wind tunnels that it generates, and the suspended highway are obstacle bottom, the Citadel, perched on Theoretical Summary The Quebec country road, or to overcome for the pedestrians. its pedestal, remained intact and The formulas Quiet Revolution rows of before the Quiet Revolution, The seperation between the bourg haughty as if it was not part of the and Urban Revolution are popular is an example of urban country side. - Old Quebec City where urban life, is City. Its strategic and operational expressions. They have been The space is divided in productive distressing - and its Faubourg is physical functions being obsolete since recycled to no end in Quebec to lots. Each lot is identified to a as much as it is psychological. Frontenac's time, the military people serve political agendas, by public home in order to facilitate a familial > Map 2 (Page 35) Quebec 2008: a white play roles similar to characters in relation agencies known to make self-sufficiency where each farm zone dowtown. The urban renovation a light opera staged in a surrealist announcements which are the could diversify its production has created a non residential zone (see in white on the map). It encloses the city décor reminiscent of Rivages des opposite of what is to come, in order to the maximum. Since thirty within the walls. Linked to Ruralopolis syrtres\ So, why should we not make to move the attention away from years, this form of road network by 4 access roads (the Montmorency, of such a space a liberating Utopia? what is really happening. If we look is largely disappearing. The farms Laurentien, Charest and Champlain Some monumental constructions at facts, the Quiet Revolution was not exist in groups. They submit to higways), the zone has become a kind of strait jacket regulating the whole are imposing by their rigor to the revolutionary, nor was it quiet. The monoproductive and industrial metropolitan region. Its principal extent where getting rid of them is Urban Revolution, at least in Quebec agricultural norms which tend functions are: 1) recreative (it serves as becoming a necessary step towards City, was in no way renovating or to eliminate what is considered a playground for the quiet suburbs) the conquest of our terrestrial urban. We can speak, in the first, "residential". The country side in 2) industrial (it confines the forclosed city autonomy. Since 1608, Quebec City of a form of rattrapage (or reform) Quebec is becoming rural again. in its main touristic role) 3) repressive passed from a military governance evidently more agitated than quiet. By doing so, it follows the same (it maintains the Faubourg and the to another, from a governance of In the second, we can see a form of geographical patterns than its inhabited areas downtown, far from the St-Lawrence River and the most spirits to another: from the French reversal, indeed devastating, but capital. Quebec City's urban planning interesting historical sites...) Regime to the British Empire; from absolutely not reforming. We could has French origins and progressed > Map 3 (Page 36) Ruralopolis 2008. In the domination of the Church to qualify it as anti-urban to the extent until 1960, thanks to the extended black, the quiet suburbs; in squares, the a kind of market tyranny. And in of naming it a Rural Revolution. parochial networks. The sky-scraper services zones with their multiple func­ 2008, in terms of the liberation of The Urban Revolution is connected by highways to sleepy tions. In squared, the urbanised zones the minds, things are not that much the spatialization of the Quiet suburbs while passing by the before 1950, that we can examine on the better. Isn't our most recent tyranny Revolution, the latter being the inevitable malls - here is the perfect map 4, and, in white, insdutrial zones assumed by many as if it was a form "temporalization" of the other, rural trio. The urban city in itself or to be developed (non residential). To note: the four highways confronted by of "freedom"? Spatial formations have been part shrinks around mixed commercial the passive or active resistance of the streets such as Saint-Jean, Saint- To break this chain of servitude, of the Quiet Revolution. They had urban milieu. Contrary to what the think­ civil society could take possession an impact on the dominant values Joseph, Saint-Vallier, 3e Avenue, ers of the Urban Revolution had wished, of the Citadel - like some have done of today. Indeed, there was a first Cartier, Maguire, Begin, Racine, they could not cross the heart of the city. with the Bastille. It would not be phase of planning that dominated Royale, Trait-Carré, etc. Similarly, > Map 4 (page 36) Quebec 1948. This map to destroy the useless fortress but the pseudo-urban revolution. It the fact that cities become bigger and the previous one have the same break away from a taboo. People has produced and reproduced doesn't imply that they become scale. When you compare both of them, th one can see the amplitude of the urban could inhabit it. They would inhabit the consumerist and individualist more urban. In the 20 Century, spreading. We can qualify it as non urban postmodern values of today. Another masses of people running to slums it like we would in a modern urban and rural. area with people walking and no form of planning (dominating the and sleepy suburbs have not lost > Map 5 (Page 38) The west frontier of the cars. This green area would not past in Quebec City, and these days their rural characters by magic. white zone: the emergence of a balance contribute to further spreading of on the defensive mode or withdrawn Contrary to current opinion, the th of power. It is along this frontier that the city. It would be utterly devoided since the Urban Revolution) tends to 20 Century was not the one for separates the tourist and bureaucratic of speculation, composed of social foreclose and offer similar values. The the "urbanization" of societies. It zones from the residential area where housing for families and children. We first is said to be rural or industrial. was rather one of urban decline, of we will see urban battles unfolding, would inhabit it in more inventive, The second is urban. The first relates massive and adamant "ruralization" in particular the ones of the îlot Saint- Patrick (Faubourg Saint-Louis), Bertholot intelligent and enlightened ways to the so-called lucid vision of of cities. • (Faubourg Saint-Jean) and Fleurie than what the Governor General Quebec City. The second is a vision (Faubourg Saint-Roch). The territory has proposed. Let's think seriously showing solidarity. Notes formed by popular neighborhoods is about it before the tourist industry, Rural economy relies on material caught in a kind of stranglehold. On the 1 Terms which designate parks and one hand, sky-scrapers and big parking financed by some rich emirates, takes production and global markets. industrial spaces where residential lots take over the inhabited spaces. On it over. The Citadel could become Urban economy is driven by social functions are excluded. the other hand, the car invasion regulates our next Saint-Gabriel Street6!. reproduction and valorizes self- 2 Dixit Jean-Paul L'Allier. the work week, invades empty lots and sufficiency and local autonomy. A 3 Author of the book Mémoires d'un piéton, creates traffic jams on commercial and The Story of M. Keuner rural type of planning (say albertan) Sillery, Septentrion, 2007. residential streets. tends to isolate the different Let's end with a story authored by 4 See Jean Cimon, in Daphnée Dions-Viens " Marc Boutin has a B.A. in Architecture Bertold Bretch. An emissary from the functions to better disperse and « Avenir du Vieux-Québec: l'heure est à la and a Ph. D in Geography. He has been government arrived at a man's house regroup them by categories. The réflexion » in Le soleil, February 24"', 2008. involved as an artisan-architect in the and this man "had learn to say no." residential is found in the peripheral popular neighborhoods of Quebec City. 5 Novel by Julien Gracq, published in 1951. He is an agent of social change at the He asked to requisition the man's and vertical sleepy suburbs. The 6 This a street in the Faubourg Saint-Jean Comité Populaire Saint-Jean-Baptiste house, and food, and asked him: commercial takes place in the halls, in Quebec City. It was supposed to and a journalist at the popular neighbor­ "Would you like to me be at your the industrial in the parks, the become an access road to the highway, hood newspaper Droit de parole, where service"? During 7 years, the man academic in the campuses, etc. An but all houses were preserved and he has been writing articles on urban put him to bed, covered him, stayed urban type of planning (say Utopian) transformed into coop housing. culture and city planning for the last 30 years. late with him and obeyed him. But tends, on the contrary, to fragment