Red Light Changes

The Red Light district has changed several times during the last 5 decades ; it has even moved a few blocks several times, it has inflated and it has shrunk. Another shift is occurring right now in the midst of the growing Quartier des Spectacles.

The Quartier des Spectacles is Montreal's newest entertainment district and the administration's newest bid to upgrade the Red Light into disappearance.

The traditional Red Light businesses are pushed further east, west south and north. However, in all four directions there is only one or two blocks of available low end real estate. As a matter of fact, the neighboring districts - Retail district, Quartier Latin, Chinatown and Gay village - will for the most not harbor low end strip joints, clandestine massage parlors and gambling salons, leaving the Red Light squeezed into disappearance it seems.

The eastern stretch of Saint-Catherine Street between Saint-Laurent & Saint-Hubert is all that is left of the Red Light as we know it. Up Saint-Laurent between Saint-Catherine and Sherbrooke and down to Saint-Antoine are the most likely overflow areas for the survival of the underground sex & gambling industries, as well as Saint-Hubert street between René-Lévesque and Ontario.

But, inevitably, the nature of the underground world and its existence will need to find a new district in the wake of the ever shrinking Red Light, for the demand doesn't cease

Other districts may inevitably harbor the illicit activities and this reality has already started happening. The Sainte-Marie district along Ontario street east and the Centre Sud district along Sainte-Catherine street east between De Lorimier and the Port railway yards have seen their illicit industry offer rise steadily. Even Hochelaga district along Sainte-Catherine between the Railway yards and Pix-IV are fertile grounds for the street industry.

 South West Hochelaga seems the most likely place for the new Red Light in the near future because Sainte-Marie and Centre Sud have already started seeing their real estate values rise steadily. That is bad news for the already poverty plagued area of Hochelaga.

Above : (Saint-Laurent @ Sainte-Catherine where one of the citie's worst eyesores has been replaced by the '22 vitrine culturelle')

This whole discussion brings to mind the question of managing illicit industries for the good of everyone. The demand for illicit sex and gambling will not ever disappear. So it's best to manage it and make it worth while for the community. The Casino has contributed in hiding a problem on an island and lives continue to be destroyed while the government keeps exploiting these vices stacking money and offering less and less services for sick people.

Why don't our well thought out leaders think with vision and create a true Red Light. One that is above ground and submitted to law and rules of engagement like that of Amsterdam and many Asian cities. A legal Red Light District in a specific downtown area, open to tourists and free to be invested, developed and maintained where everyone can earn a decent living in secure environments with social and health services readily available. Please people, arrive to modernity, we are in 2014

Text and Photography : Éric Soucy

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