Thoughts on Reaching A Larger Community

Lately I’m really fascinated with civic issues. I’m discovering the joys of potholes on Sherbrooke, bike paths are a daily topic and I’m so curious how we can galvanize and find this community spirit the older folk are so connected to.

Since I started doing The Trainman Report with Alex Montagano, I have started talking to people far outside the scope of my regular life. We’ve had a journalist, a scientist, an ex-mayoress, a rabbi who does match making, a Chris Chrome and more as guests. In 11 little episodes we’ve made our mission statement clear, we want to create a real NDG-centric community platform. A podcast that focuses on our lives, in NDG, and how our issues fit into Montreal and the province.

As a marketer I can’t help but use my analytical side to start tracking the desires and interests of the community I encounter. I realized, most of us in our tiny pocket of what I call “Old Person English Hip Hop”, don’t think about the regular degulars in the city we claim to represent. 

Hip Hop was a community thing, I think

I wasn’t in New York back in the 90s. From what I can tell, the people who really succeeded in Hip Hop were pretty invested in their communities. Even now, a lot of the pop stars, who are constantly mocked for being vapid, spend a lot of bread to improve where they came from. 

I’m in my 30s. This is that real grown ass age where things like civic duty and community are supposed to matter. When I started talking about city politics with my rapping peers, and even other “Hip Hop” outlets in the city, they acted like it was “off-brand” and didn’t care. Fine, maybe they didn’t want to pursue political content, but I struggle to find anyone who cares about civic issues as much as I do within our pocket of the scene.

I’m not saying they don’t exist, I’m saying I haven’t met them. I have every intention of running in the next city election to be a city councillor. I think I can sell more records doing that. Like many people who run for office, I am going to bank on civic duty to get fatter stacks in my life. Judge me for that if you want, however most of y’all aren’t even going to vote. 3 out of 4 people who could have been eligible to vote in NDG last time, chose not to.

I remember when Diddy did the Vote or Die campaign and singing along to Mosh by Eminem when I was a teen. I guess somewhere along the way rappers just decided issues that affect them at home, beyond the police, don’t matter. LIke where is the “Valerie Plante why you invested so much in animal shelters but letting people sleep on the street” tracks. 

I’ve definitely talked about Montreal politics in my songs before a few times. I even made a French verse with regards to my feelings on language politics. But I don’t really see the same passion from my peers for these topics.

Montreal is a pretty soft city

I am super aware that Montreal has many “Tale of Two City” stories. I grew up not far from Walkey and if you ask about my childhood, compared to someone from Walkley, they would have very different experiences than me. Even though I was like 2 KM away from Walkley.

Still, the majority of the people living here are just nice, go about their day folk who care about their neighbour. This is especially true after the government… did “questionable” things to clear out “questionable” folk on Walkley. My dad used to live there around 2005 or so, and he told me how the cops were doing daily raids into the buildings there. 

Walkey is real safe these days. The whole “Below the Tracks” area has been gentrified for the hospital. The Elmhurst area has all these nice new condos popping up. Obviously people who operate in a life I can’t relate to, operate how they do. For the vast majority of people, it’s just a safe nice area where the very occasional act of crime gets people in a tizzy.

I am sure there are better and worse hoods in Montreal, but overall, if we want to talk about the island at large, it’s a nice and safe city. It’s also a majour city so you have to be smart. If you leave your 2000$ bike outside too long, it will probably get stolen. Still it’s pretty easy to live an entire life here without seeing too much scary stuff.

We have community fridges and all these nice community things going on in NDG. Multiple food banks and group efforts to help those in need. I have seen countless people helped by strangers in Thrive NDG (a Facebook Group). 

There are a lot of hard times in Montreal. Homelessness is on the rise, and depending on where you get caught up in, that world is violent as fuck. Police still kill minorities and lots of terrible shit happens. But for the people at large, I’d say we’re a “safe” big city.

The community is evolving

By no means was the last section meant to belittle anyone’s experiences. But, since I’m a marketing and branding guy, I think being real about certain things is the only path to money. 

Turns out, Montreal only grows via immigration. This has been true for most of my adult life. Our birth rate has never been more than 2, so we don’t replace ourselves via procreation. We deadass have less kids now than 10 years ago. Yet our population continues to go up (Google shows a graph). Immigration fills in the gap.

Another thing that is happening is people are leaving Montreal for other, nearby cities, so they can finally own a home. I know a lot of people who moved to Longueuil once work from home became reality. Even driving in and dealing with traffic 2 days a week is manageable for a lot of people (myself included if it came to that). 

I bring this up to say, I don’t think a lot of people’s memories of the community reflect the current reality. Things have evolved a lot, where our memories are more nostalgic and don’t take into account the desires of people who weren’t born here. As an example, I mostly only hear white people going on about bike paths. The city is pretty multicultural, what do other demographics care about? 

This 2018-2019 report says literally 39% of our population is an immigrant. Only 37% are native English speakers. That means there are more immigrants than allophones born here. I’m sure that’s a drastic shift compared to the past, but it is our present.

Getting involved is the only way to know

There are statistics and then there is what you see on the street. Both matter when trying to create an objective reality. This whole blog is me trying to wrap my head around what a “community issue” is mixed with advocating for my peers to do more community work, publicly (I know there are people who do, shoutout cats like Regulators and Widget and Nate Husser). 

I just also think that by focusing on the legacy community, the one we remember, we may be missing the boat on the one being shaped before us. This is especially true when making appeals to the broader community.

As an example, it’s hard for me, who spends up to 15 minutes sometimes looking for parking, to feel bad for Terrebonne folk on this bike path issue. Even after losing their spots they will still have an easier time finding parking than I do. The community is diverse, and when trying to make big picture arguments, you need to be tactical in your approach. If you want my sympathy, find out where my heart strings are, then play that tune. 

I think so few people vote in elections because so much of the focus is on the legacy issues where nothing changes. The conversation is so dominated by narrow topics, that the 18-40 year olds without kids are just leaving, gutting the talent in the neighbourhood. Forcing people from outside the neighbourhood to come open up establishments. 

The leadership council of the city needs to care far more about what a 23 year old artist needs to thrive in my humble opinion. A lot of us in NDG help make St Laurent street a lot of money. A lot of us artists need to learn how to speak to the community at large. A lot of the community at large needs to look at what it really has become today.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone