Any day of the week, you’ll find Jean Talon market bustling with shoppers and tourists.
But merchants here are growing increasingly worried over plans to remove 10 of the market’s west-end parking spots in favour of a public square.
“For the market, 10 spots means about 200 customers a day,” said Lino Birri, co-owner of Birri – a plant and vegetable shop that has been in his family for 50 years.
He says losing those parking spots will make it difficult to load delivery trucks.
“We serve up to 100, 150 restaurants around Montreal – all around the city – so they load in the morning, they go, and they come back. To reload and go again,” Birri said.
Over at Chez Michel garden centre, Nino Bono says people who spend the most money come by car.
He says he feels ignored and abandoned by the city.
“If it continues like that, we will not survive here. We don’t sell ice cream, we don’t sell coffee. We sell flowers, soil, and things for gardens,” he explained.
The new square is meant to be an extension of the already-pedestrianized Shamrock Avenue.
Merchant Joe Romito, owner of Marche Tania, says every year it gets harder for people to access the market and find parking.
He wonders why the city doesn’t build the square across the street in an abandoned lot.
Birri and several other merchants took their concerns to City Council Monday night.
Councilor Francois Croteau said deliveries can be made within the market until 10 a.m.
That doesn’t satisfy the owners of Chez Nino – many of their clients are restaurants who pick up orders all day long.
Birri and others have started a campaign to fight the decision.
The next step, he says, is a petition before construction begins next month.
City Councilor Marvin Rotrand tweeted on Tuesday that the borough's decisional summary on Jean-Talon market says only five merchants were consulted before the plans were green-lighted.
