It’s “Hot Time, Summer in the City” in Montreal these days, but I’m not just talking about the weather.
Our often feverish outdoor temperatures reflect the fever in our streets in recent weeks, because both are sizzling.
What are the signs of Montreal’s summer?
Sizzling weather. After a long, cold winter and soaking wet spring, someone clicked the switch from OFF to ON and we changed climates faster than flying to Miami.
I’m not complaining: I definitely prefer 33 above to 33 below. But with climate change, 30 degrees is the new 20.
When we’re not living in a “heat dome” — the latest weather buzzword — it still “feels” like it. Whatever the temperature, there are Environment Canada warnings that the “real feel” is 38 degrees.
So we’re told to drink twice our weight in water, wear sunblock 227 and hide in a dark room with the curtains down.
Air conditioners are becoming as essential as heating here, with 60 per cent of Montrealers already owning one. Some people cool their whole house, some just have one cool “safe room,” while others find shelter in the nearest supermarket walk-in beer freezer.
In sweltering Europe, this summer has been described as “hot as hell.”
But most people there disdain air conditioning, partly for ecological reasons but also from winter-hardened stoicism.
Few Europeans heat in winter. They just dress warmly, eat under three blankets and make a “nice fire” while heating is viewed as an unnecessary American luxury.
But in Canada, if you don’t heat in winter, you die. Climate control is a fact of life here, so it’s easy to slip into cooling our houses, too.
Unlike Americans, at least we don’t air-condition our stores, malls and homes so furiously in summer that we freeze and have to wear parkas.
Sizzling streets. Head downtown and you’ll see crowds of people everywhere filling streets, sidewalks, parks, terrasses and festivals.
There are six major festivals going on this weekend alone.
Quebecers are desperate to make up for eight months of snow, ice, rain and nice-day forecasts of: “Cloudy, with occasional sunny-with-cloudy periods.”
To accommodate our solar addiction, Montreal routinely closes streets for festivals, street fairs, book fairs, bike races, parades, protests, movie shoots and Moving Day. Whatever streets are still activity-free are then closed for construction.
Our city shuts down streets as routinely as other cities shut their street lights each morning. Just call Montreal festival headquarters to book your own street, if there’s still any room left.
“This is festival traffic control. Sorry, but you cannot have Rachel St. for the Festival of Moldavian Urban Shepherds next Thursday.
“It’s already reserved for the Festival of St-Eustache Sudoku Wrestlers followed by Bhutanese Yak Whisperers and High-Wire Knitters.
“But would you like to reserve a street for October?”
Sizzling crowds. Our city handles some of the continent’s largest, most crowded outdoor events as effortlessly as other towns host a four-person string quartet.
All open-air events are free and everyone’s invited, because Montrealers are always eager to gather ensemble. Quebecers love a mass festival, the more crowded the better.
Why? Perhaps it’s our winter hibernation that creates a need to celebrate each moment it’s not snowing, raining, drizzling or freezing.
Or maybe it’s the history of the church here, which created a strong sense of community?
It could also be our roots in Europe where festivals go back to the ancient Greeks. Or maybe we’ve all just gone gaga from the heat?
Or because there’s too much lead in our drinking water.
Sizzling safety. The recent mass show by Quebec’s new global rock duo sensation, Angine de Poitrine, was the apex of this year’s summer fever.
More than 100,000 people flooded the jazz fest site. Tens of thousands more tried to get in or else escape the site in a staggering two-way people jam.
Yet incredibly amid this mass crush, no one was mugged, robbed or trampled. There were just six people hospitalized for heat stroke.
If you held that event in almost any American city, there would be thefts, fights, murders and maybe a riot, not to mention 10,000 lawsuits from angry businesses and mired motorists. But here almost no one complains because we’re proud our city specializes in summer street life.
Long ago Montreal stopped trying to keep up with Toronto and New York when it comes to business, so we went into leisure instead, thinking if we can’t be No. 1, let’s have fun.
Our always peaceful mass festivities are also a sign of something important we usually take for granted here: safety.
Montreal has the lowest per-capita homicide rate of any city on the continent, far lower than other Canadian cities and a fifth that of American ones.
Our violent crime rate is also among the continent’s lowest, along with Toronto and Ottawa.
If you’re worried about car theft, this may be a slightly risky town. But when it comes to walking the streets, we are probably the safest big city in North America.
So enjoy the sizzling sun, streets and safety and come out to join the festivities.
But don’t forget your sunblock 227.
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