Everyone dunks on Griffintown. Here's what they're missing.

“We don’t want another Griffintown.”

That’s what a group of Brossard residents told the Journal de Montréal when they spoke out against a plan to build new high-rise apartments in their suburb.

And who can blame them? Griffintown is a soulless collection of condo towers and condo people, the very embodiment of what happens when you let greedy developers run rampant.

Right?

Well, no. The fast-growing neighbourhood at the foot of Peel Street has become a punching bag for Montrealers who don’t like high-density development and a certain athleisure aesthetic. But the Griffintown bashers have got it all wrong: what’s happening in one of the oldest parts of town isn’t a mistake to be avoided. It’s the beginning of something actually kinda good.