Montreal Lives up to the Hype (But Isn’t Perfect)

Sometimes when I’m having a crappy day I remind myself “Well, at least I’m in Montreal” which this video did automatically for me today. I’ll be visiting you guys for the Tulip festival BTW!

I feel like Montreal could greatly benefit from underground dumpsters like are used in various places in the Netherlands; they're perfectly suited for mid-density areas, as they can fit into a single parking space, can be emptied road-side in a fully automated manner, are critter-proof, have enough capacity to handle an entire block, and don't visually stand out like above-ground dumpsters would.

I lived in Montreal many years ago as an American student, and I can honestly say that there is SOOO much American cities could, and should, learn from Montreal. For the past few decades, I have lived in an American city of comparable size (city proper and metro area) and I always wonder how Montreal can have such amenities and high quality of life while my city is a dump that does not even come close to measuring up to Montreal in ANY area of importance. I've come to the conclusion that our politicians (both parties) are rotten thieves. Honestly, just knowing about Montreal makes me feel horribly cheated. Every American city should at least TRY to be like Montreal in whatever ways it could.

You two are giving Not Just Bikes a run for his money with your ability to convince me to move to a new city

The city of Montreal should just hire you at this point to run their marketing department lol. Great video as always

4:58 These points would fit perfectly for LA also. The rich homeowners get on city council and keep banning more housing and act like they are doing it to protect the city from greedy developers. The irony. 5:54 And then people will say exactly this. "You aren't entitled to live anywhere you want". How about this: You aren't entitled to tell people they can't build more housing on THEIR property.

I lived in Montréal back in the 90. I studied at the Université de Montréal and I lived in a plex close to Côte des Neiges. One of my favorite walk was to go up to the parc of Mont Royal, walking around the cemetery, then going up to the Observatoire and then going down to McGill university buildings. I would then head to Saint-Catherine and have a coffee and a muffin. As a European, this did not strike back then as being exceptional. 30 years later I must say I was quite wrong.

As a Montrealer, I can't convey enough how great it is that you put the French language as your first reason to love the city! Too many outsiders see it as a negative, as something that you enjoy the city "in spite of", rather than the asset it is! Merci pour ce vidéo!

I am also born and raised in Ottawa and moved to MTL at age 18 and was also a case of 'never look back'. I think this video is absolutely bang on in its analysis of pros and cons which was fair and balanced. I have always said it: Montreal is a hate it or love it type of place. The good thing about that is a lot of the 'hate it' people leave, so you are left with a lot more of the 'love it' crowd which explains why there is in my opinion an open-minded, passionate, 'joie de vivre' culture here that is lacking in most international North American cities.

As a Bostonian who now lives in Montréal, I understand the garbage critique but in my mind Montréal is a wicked clean city. They are pretty rigorous with their street cleaning compared to a lot of other North American cities I’ve been to. In the spring right after the snow banks melt it can get pretty bad since any trash stuck in the banks are left on the ground. But literally a week later all the streets are clean again. Yes there’s always room for improvement, but all the time I’ve lived here I’ve never once thought of Montréal as a dirty city.

This makes me miss Montréal so much. I’m from Houston but when I went to school near NYC, I’d make my friends join me and they all fell in love with MTL as well. It actually inspired me to start learning French at L’alliance Français de Houston. I hope to return to MTL one day soon!

I'm from Boston but have frequently visited Montréal and Québec City over the years for away hockey games. I don't travel domestically in the USA too much simply because most American cities are depressingly similar to each other and suffer from the same issues. The aforementioned Canadian cities offer a breath of fresh air from both the city planning and linguistic points of view. Of course I get a few jeers around the Bell Center with my Marchand jersey on, but seeing the River, having a quiet dinner in Verdun, and exploring the city are always rewarding experiences. Every time I go I discover something new people can do with their duplex balconies. Hopefully QC gets a team to give me an excuse to return.

There was a kid's show called "Mighty Machines" about real life vehicles and work machines. The episode on snow clearing was shot in Montreal and oh man is it ever on a different level than Toronto. Snowblower vehicles going down sidewalks with a dump truck keeping pace beside it to collect the snow, for example.

Good timing with this video; there was an article in the Globe and Mail this weekend about how last year, for the first time since 1971, more people moved from Ontario to Quebec than the other way round. This is a perfect complement 👍

5:00 Toronto's approach reeks of short-term thinking. By adopting policies that benefit homeowners who bought before the price spike (who are generally older and no longer having kids) at the expense of renters (who are generally younger and in a position to choose to have more kids), they're trading long-term sustainability for short-term gains. You can't have a city without people.

Something I love about Montreal is how amazing it is for school trips as well, since its so walkable it greatly reduces the costs of the trips, allowing more kids to experience new things and various cultures

I love how the REV is evolving. Even when I'm living notably removed from downtown, I can get there in half an hour on my bike. The Peel addition was also great for getting to work downtown. It's part of my daily commute.

Thanks to you guys and Paige Saunders I rediscovered Montreal. Just a few days ago I got my acceptance letter to Concordia for urban studies and I'll be moving up there over the summer. I really want to thank you guys for helping open up this new chapter in my life.

You two nerds are really great at making balanced, informative and interesting videos about controversial topics without going anywhere near the polarizing political commentary that we would expect basically anywhere.

When I visited Montreal with my family we walked literally everywhere and I loved it! If I went again I would definitely love to try the metro, but I just loved how easy it was to walk everywhere