Attack on St-Henri café motivated by anti-gentrification?

A small-business owner in St-Henri is wondering how welcome he is in the neighbourhood after his café was vandalized for the second time in a year.

Patrons and staff at Café St-Henri arrived early Jan. 29 to see three plate-glass windows splattered with paint, dripping onto the slush-filled sidewalk.

The latest attack, more severe than the first one, has owner Jean-François Leduc concerned they are a reaction to gentrification in the neighbourhood.

Leduc, 32, opened his café on the corner of Notre-Dame and Bourget last year. With fresh roasted coffee, free WiFi and an eclectic atmosphere, the café has become a popular neighbourhood hangout. But within the first few months the shop was vandalized for the first time.

"Someone tagged the words 'Yuppie scum' on the tiles below the front window," Leduc said.

"I don't know why someone would want to do this to my business," he said. "I thought development was a good thing."

A report was filed after the second more severe attack, but Montreal police say there are still no suspects.

Traditionally a working-class neighbourhood, St-Henri has seen rapid condo construction replace some of the low-rent housing in the area. The new housing has prompted changes in the types of businesses setting up shop on its main strip, Notre-Dame St.

High-end restaurants and café’s now sporadically dot the street, between second-hand furniture stores, pawnshops and a Dollarama.

But how welcome are these new businesses?

Since opening two years ago on Notre-Dame, upscale restaurant Tuck Shop, where main dishes range between $22 and $32, has also been vandalized. One of the restaurant's owners, Jon Bloom, said their sign was targeted multiple times by vandals.

"We also had someone make comments about how we should get out of the neighbourhood," Bloom said. "But others have told us how nice it is that we took a chance on St-Henri."

The change in the neighbourhood has been a rallying topic for some local community organizations, like Popir, a housing advocacy group that’s been around since 1969. But employee Valérie Simard said she doesn’t place any blame on new businesses settling into the ‘hood. Simard said she believes the problem of gentrification – where young, urban professionals move into former working class communities – is solely due to condo development and not with the new, high-end cafés and restaurants popping up in the area.

"The responsibility is on the condo developers," Simard said. "I think the people that open cafés and restaurants are only catering to a new demand and consumer class."

Simard said she works with many long-time St-Henri residents who've been forced out by landlords wanting to renovate and raise rents. Simard said landlords know that if tenants leave, the property can be sold to a condo developer. "This is something we see a lot," she said.

Listen to Valérie Simard talk about condos and the canal in St-Henri:

Local blogger Ken McLaughlin, also known as “Neath” to those who read his blog Walking Turcot Yards, grew up in southwest Montreal and has been keeping a close eye on change in the area. He says gentrification is a slow process and, from time-to-time, locals feel the need to express themselves through graffiti.

"It's been going on for quite awhile and it seems to flare up every now and then. It's hard to pinpoint it and say there's momentum to some kind of movement right now because of what you're seeing painted on walls," McLaughlin said. "But talking to people and getting a sense of things, they feel over time it's hard to say you've got any empowerment in this whole process."

According to McLaughlin, many St-Henri residents are starting to feel that condo development means somebody new is coming into the area, while somebody already living there is put out.

Despite this, McLaughlin said he finds the attack on Café St-Henri to be unusual.

"The people that do graffiti tend to follow the [Lachine] canal and go up lanes along the sides of highways," he said.

The Lachine Canal, which Simard likens to a “backyard for condo owners,” seems to have become a gallery for artists and activists to vent their frustration at all the new condominiums being developed along the waterfront.

Graffiti spotted on buildings around neighbourhood say: "Fight gentrification! Don't get pushed out by rich developers" and "Combattez la gentrification!"

Leduc said he realizes his café may be the focal point for residents angry at gentrification. But he hopes residents make the distinction between big chain stores and his small café.

"Change is for the better,” he says. “I believe in St-Henri. It's all independent business owners like myself can afford."

Listen to Ken McLaughlin talk about the future of Notre-Dame St.