Revitalization and “tourist bubbles”: Instant gentrification through the touristification of everyday life?
Many revitalization programs and projects, through different actions, stage a “pasteurized” authenticity and shield off neighborhoods in order to offer an experience. By focusing on the transformations of the built environment of Montreal’s central neighbourhoods, and on their gentrification and the impacts thereof on local populations, our work has brought to light a new phenomenon in Montreal’s neighbourhoods and more specifically in the Quartier des Spectacles: The commodification of housing is expanded to include a “hyper-commodification of urban life” that views potential residents as if they were tourists in their own lives. An analysis of the promotional discourse of new real estate developments shows that the tourist bubble is extending into the everyday spaces of living.