A Tale Of Two Bronx’s - Neighbourhood Branding in the Modern Era

I was sitting there minding my own business and I found out a whole part of Lasalle (in Montreal) was called the Bronx. 

I am truly fascinated by neighbourhood names. They are arbitrary constructs that are both managed by bureaucrats and simultaneously defined by the people who live in them. Then there are colloquial nicknames given to an area by the people who live there. I once lived across the street from an area known as “BuckTown”. When I last looked into it I could not find a rhyme nor reason to our naming conventions, they mostly just happen organically. 

That is until we get into the branding efforts of twisting a name like Bronx into something darker. 

The Bronx in Lasalle is based on cute historical ties to New York City

Here is a blurb from the City of Montreal website validating this is a real thing. 

Called Bronx or Village des Rapides, this residential sector, located at the eastern end of the Borough, between the St. Lawrence River and the Aqueduct Canal, is easily recognized by its houses dating back from the 1920s to the 1950s. The name “Bronx” was prompted by the purchase of several lots in this area in 1919 by New York brokers around rue Broadway.

I found an old article from Le Journal Metro that said it got its name because there is a Broadway street and numbered avenues. So a bunch of New Yorkers moved in and then the area got renamed because people felt it was New York like.

I came across this cool photo tour of the area by accident looking into the history but that’s all there is to it, a quaint neighbourhood with New York investment.

This is the old way neighbourhoods got their name.

It used to be that people would gather and come up with a name for their part of town. It could be the church (we still have parishes up here), it could be an ethnic background (like Chinatown) or it could be some random name people just came up with, like Texas in Lasalle (that one’s for you to Google). 

Sometimes the naming is a lot more deliberate. 

Montreal-Nord was not happy being nicknamed “Bronx” over gang violence

The way the Montreal cops and Quebec media see The Bronx as a place of violence and criminality. 

It turns out in the case where they investigated the death of Freddy Villanueva it was revealed that the cops who patrol Montreal-Nord call it the Bronx. It goes so deep there are apparently two Bronx’s in the area as the media pushed the name farther. The residents are not thrilled.

While there is crime in those parts, there is also crime in all the nice parts of town too. 

It also goes to show the bigotry that drives the media. All these articles are in French and they were very comfortable to characterize gang activity as “Bronx-like”. I was simply curious why there was a Bronx in Lasalle but then we find out there’s a far more sinister Bronx in Montreal-Nord. 

It’s worth noting that people chose to reinforce this stereotype, because to them it made sense. 

Neighbourhood names are a branding effort

Historically neighbourhoods got their names based on their actual origins.

In modern times there are real efforts to leverage neighbourhood names to reshape perception. Look at the Montreal construct known as “Griffintown”. The first time it appeared came with condos and luxury homes. The history of the area was largely ignored to enforce gentrification in the area. Now the bougie restaurants are around there.We can see how the before and after of neighbourhood naming took place with our Bronx’s.

The Lasalle Bronx is based on a bunch of New Yorkers investing in the area. Because there is a Broadway and other “New York” styled ideas taking place, it got named the Bronx. This wasn’t some deliberate effort, it happened organically and is something the area takes pride in.

Then we see the way the SPVM and media attacked Montreal-Nord and the Bronx all at the same time.

They assumed that people associate Bronx, New York, with crime. They see it as a violent place, maybe because of whatever media they have consumed. They created a link between the Bronx and violence and attached it to Montreal-Nord. The people in the hood get offended and it’s kind of wild to see big publications like La Presse throwing the term around. In 2009 I was not equipped to consume French media to see that kind of thing. 

Now I am and can share my findings with you when relevant, like how Bronx was really, actually, used as a negative slur. 

Hope you enjoyed this one, I know it was a bit different.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone