Living in Old Montreal: Residents’ perceptions of the effects of urban development and tourism development on local amenities

Urban development and tourism development have transformed urban environments within older neighbourhoods. While urban policies highlight the necessity of developing housing and mixed land use in tourism districts, previous studies have shown local effects of tourism and gentrification. In this paper, we focus on residents’ perceptions of the effects of urban and tourism development on local amenities such as shops, local social infrastructure, and public services. Our case study is the Old Montreal district, the population of which has more than tripled since the 1980s. We conducted a survey with 331 residents, and 20 semi‐structured interviews, analyzing their perception of Old Montreal as a place to live and their use of local amenities. Our findings revealed that, although urban and tourism development tend to limit the local amenities intended for residents, these are not necessarily perceived as incompatible with a residential living environment. In addition, residents adopt several strategies to satisfy their daily needs, but this behaviour contributes neither to the quality of the living environment, nor to a sense of place in the district. We propose to approach urban and tourism development in historic districts differently, by emphasizing the tensions and complementarities of uses rather than the incompatibility of functions.