OUTREMONT (BOROUGH)

'Outremont' is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The neighbourhood is the traditional home of Montreal's wealthy Francophone community. It is also home to a large number of Hasidic Jews.

Contents

Geography

Features

Politics

Federal and provincial elections

Borough Government

Trivia

External links

See also

References

Geography

A separate city until the 2002 municipal mergers, Outremont is located north of downtown, on the northern side of Mount Royal (its name means "beyond the mountain").
The borough is bounded to the northwest by Mount Royal, to the northeast by Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension and Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, to the east by Le Plateau-Mont-Royal and the Mile End district, to the south by Ville-Marie, and to the west by Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. The Mount Royal Cemetery is located in the south eastern tip of the borough.
It has a population of 22,933; its area of 3,84 km² makes it the smallest of Montreal's boroughs.

Features

Outremont is served by the Outremont and Édouard-Montpetit stations on the blue line of the Montreal Metro. (Édouard-Montpetit station is actually located in Côte-des-Neiges, but right on the Outremont border.)
Major thoroughfares include Van Horne Ave. and Côte Sainte Catherine Road, with Bernard and Laurier Streets as the principal shopping and dining areas. The area has some of the most sophisticated restaurants, cafes and shops in Montreal. Residents include a substantial percentage of ex-patriates from France. There is also a sizable Hasidic Jewish community, representing about 15% of Outremont's population, which resides mainly in the eastern and northern portions of the borough^[1]. Many Jewish synagogues, schools and businesses can be found on Van Horne, Bernard and St. Viateur streets. There is also visible friction between the francophone and Hasidic communities.^[2]
Among the attractions in the mainly residential community are the Mount Royal Cemetery, the Salle Claude-Champagne, the Outremont Theatre, the Saint-Grégoire-l'Illuminateur Armenian Cathedral, and part of the Université de Montréal campus.
Outremont also has a rail yard along its northern border. The rail yard has been purchased by the University of Montréal and is to be developed to house its hospital complex, its research faculties, and the faculty of Health Sciences (Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal).
The area has seen an increase in crime which has been fueled by young gangs establishing a foothold in the area. On July 2, 2007, a woman was abducted and stuffed into the trunk of her car. She was later found severely injured and beaten.^[3]. This shocked residents of the area who had becomed accustomed to the tranquility and safety that Outremont had previously offered. On August 16, 2007, a suspected paedophile was arrested in the borough's Beaubien Park.^[4]

Politics

Federal and provincial elections

The borough is entirely contained within the federal riding of Outremont and the provincial electoral district of the same name. In 2006, the borough mostly voted for the Bloc, but the riding itself voted Liberal.
The current borough mayor is Stéphane Harbour.

Borough Government

The borough is represented by one city councillor (currently Stéphane Harbour). It is also divided into four districts:

★ Claude-Ryan

★ Jeanne-Sauvé

★ Joseph-Beaubien

★ Robert-Bourassa

Trivia

The area was originally known as Côte Sainte-Catherine. It came to be named Outremont after a stately residence built by Louis-Tancrède Bouthillier in 1833 and named Outre-Mont. In 1875 the new Village of Outremont was named after the house, which still exists today on McDougall Street.
In 1927, Outremont became the first place in the world to use a snow blower to clear its streets in the winter. It was the first production model of Canadian inventor Arthur Sicard's Sicard Industries.^[5]
Outremont was twinned as a sister city with Oakwood, Ohio and Le Vésinet, France.

External links

★ Borough website (in French)

★ Historical buildinds of Outremont on IMTL

★ Outremont Restaurants

See also

★ Boroughs of Montreal

★ Districts of Montreal

★ Municipal reorganization in Quebec

References

1. Statistics Canada 2001 Community Profile
2. [1]
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4. [2]
5. [3]