A Look Back at Montreal's Contentious, First Attempt at Slum Clearance

Montreal, late to the trend of slum clearance by the 1950s, finally broke through a contentious political stalemate by 1957, wiping out what was the city's red light district (known for its crime and substandard living conditions) and replacing it with the kinds of modernist apartment blocks written off then, and still today, as doomed attempts at social engineering.

The "Dozois Plan," a slum clearance strategy approved by the province, called for the worn-out homes and streetscapes throughout the neighborhood to be eliminated and replaced with modern, government-run apartments. The plan's affiliations, named in honor of the centrist, business-connected Montreal politician Paul Dozois, forced local real estate agents to ease up on equating public housing with Communism. Still, Mayor Jean Drapeau, described years later in Sports Illustrated as "suspicious of public welfare, feeling it erodes individual dignity," remained strongly opposed.