Urban Behavior

Montreal Less Sleazy Areas

Like all big cities, Montreal has areas where urban behavior is less savory than in others. Visitors are wise to stay away from them at night. For example, since the creation of the Quartier des spectacles, the Montreal Red Light is now anywhere in the heart of the city and some areas in Ville Marie are not safe late at night.

Drug use and dealing has increased noticeably in the Shaughnessy Village around Ste-Catherine between Atwater and Guy.

It's not such a dangerous area but if you can avoid it, do so, especially around the Cabot Square.

Downtown Montreal east of St-Laurent becomes fairly seedy and dangerous at night, especially near Papineau in the Montreal Gay Village where there's plenty of drug use and prostitution. Try to avoid Parc Extension and Victoria Street in lower Côte des Neiges as they are not unfamiliar to gang violence and bully activities.

In the North part of Montreal, two large groups defend their territories, the Crips in Saint-Michel and the Bloods in Montréal Nord, Rivière-des-Prairies and Laval. Also called the Blues and the Reds in urban slang. These neighbourhoods, and some others, are where your urban survival kit becomes handy.

In our poorest neighbourhoods, on the 1st of the month tenants wait for the mailman, buy food in bread and pasta food banks and fantasize on big lotto winnings.

The city’s five poorest neighbourhoods are: Maisonneuve, the Gay Village, Pointe St-Charles, Côte des Neiges’s Victoria district and Park Extension. The richest are: Westmount, Hampstead, Mont-Royal, Beaconsfield and Montreal West.

In spite of everything, there is hope and possible solutions. The latest Mercer index ranks Montreal and four other Canadian cities as 1st among the safest cities in North America. Mercer carried out a classification of 215 large cities throughout the world.

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