Consistently ranked as one of the safest cities in the world, Montreal doesn't really have dangerous neighborhoods the way big cities often do. That said, Les Habitations Saint-Michel Nord, a social housing development about 45 minutes northwest of downtown, was about as bad as the city gets. Built in 1972, the 5.6-acre complex consisted of 185 units in 27 two- and three-story buildings arranged in an introverted, garden city-inspired scheme that cold-shouldered the surrounding streets. Buildings within the complex didn't have an address: a small thing, maybe, but it undermined the ability of residents-many of them newcomers to Canada-to develop a sense of identity and belonging in the place. Added to that, visitors were constantly getting lost among the look-alike buildings and courtyards. And just try getting a pizza delivered. As the decades passed and the buildings deteriorated, so did residents' quality of life, from mold in the walls to drug dealing in the cul-de-sacs. Adjacent property owners topped fences with barbed wire. School friends couldn't get permission to visit.
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