Saint-Michel, Montreal
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Saint-Michel is a neighborhood in the Montreal borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. Its boundaries corresponds to the former city of Ville Saint Michel, which was annexed to Montreal in 1968. This former independent city was known as Saint-Michel-de-Laval from its inception in 1912 to 1914 and Ville Saint Michel from 1914 to 1968. This was one of the last cities to be merged into Montreal until the 2002 municipal reorganization.
Saint-Michel is home to the headquarters of the world renowned Cirque Du Soleil as well as the Tohu, la Cité des Arts du Cirque and the Complexe environmental Saint-Michel. The former Miron and Francon quarries are also located here. Autoroute 40 
runs through the area.
The 1990s saw Saint-Michel's reputation tarnished by its severe street gang problems and the negative coverage surrounding this situation. In consequence, Saint-Michel has been long viewed as one of Montreal's most dangerous inner city neighbourhoods. Although this problem persist to this day, the phenomenon seems controlled and has to an extent been relocalised in adjacent neighbourhoods.
Saint-Michel is one of the most ethnically diverse areas in Montreal and in the province of Québec. Italians, Haitians, Arabs, Asians, Hispanics as well as people of French Canadian descent (Québécois) represent the major ethnic groups of this inner-city area. French remains the first language spoken at home, by 51% of the population. But most people have a working knowledge of both of Canada's main languages. The area is also home to many university students because of the relatively low rent and cheap housing and its proximity to the University of Montreal.
The presence of The Cirque Du Soleil since the late 1990s (along with recent real estate development) has begun to change the public perception of the area. Several condominium projects are currently in the works and signs of urban renewal are clearly evident. The neighbourhood has a dense conglomerate of residential architecture unique to Montreal, notably row houses featuring outdoor spiralling metal staircases (mostly present in the Villeray part of the borough, but also present in Saint-Michel.).
Saint-Michel is mainly served by the blue line of the Montreal Metro, although some metro stations from the green and orange lines do have buses that pass through the neighbourhood. Metro stations that are physically located within the neighborhood are Saint-Michel station and the north entrance of D'Iberville station.
Two municipal electoral districts (François-Perreault and Saint-Michel) are in the neighborhood. The Saint-Michel civic district is currently held by Soraya Martinez of Vision Montreal party. François-Perreault district is currently held by Frank Venneri of Union Montreal. Justin Trudeau, son of former Canadian prime minister Pierre-Eliott Trudeau, is the liberal incumbent, in this part of Montreal. Trudeau defeated incumbent Bloc Québécois MP Vivian Barbot.
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Coordinates: 45°33′34.7″N 73°35′59.5″W / 45.559639°N 73.599861°W
