St Urbain: Triplexes

Man Of Letters Dept: But the onetime grandstand lies at the doorstep of the neighbourhood that produced Mr. Richler, and the flat-roofed triplexes of St. Urbain Street that the author immortalized in his fiction are visible through the trees just a short distance away, according to Globe And Mail. “Our artists are always controversial. It doesn’t mean we ignore them,” said Helen Fotopulos , who is responsible for culture on Montreal’s executive committee. “In the case of Mordecai Richler, he was a significant Montrealer regardless of your point of view, and to deny that is to deny a part of history.” An 83-year-old gazebo that rises gently on a slope on Montreal’s Mount Royal was chosen by city hall as an apt honour for Montreal’s famous man of letters, nearly 10 years after his death. Its current state isn’t especially homage-worthy – covered in graffiti, its ironwork is rusting, its paint peeling, and two homeless people were asleep inside it Thursday morning under a blue tarp. And, by choosing an off-the-beaten-track spot, the city may have found neutral-enough territory to honour a man whose writings polarized the province and garnered praise as much as they infuriated Quebec nationalists. As reported in the news.
@t mordecai richler, globe and mail