Hampstead, Quebec

Hampstead
—  Town  —
Town of Hampstead
Hampstead Town Hall

Coat of arms
Nickname(s): Garden City
Location of Hampstead on the Island of Montreal.
(Grey areas indicate demerged municipalities).
Coordinates:
Country  Canada
Province  Quebec
Region Montreal (06)
Founded 1914
Electoral Districts
Federal

Mount Royal
Provincial D'Arcy-McGee
Government[1][2][3]
 • Mayor William Steinberg 
 • Federal MP(s) Irwin Cotler (LIB)
 • Quebec MNA(s) Lawrence Bergman (PLQ)
Area[4]
 • Land 1.79 km2 (0.7 sq mi)
Population (2006)[4]
 • Total 6,996
 • Density 3,908.8/km2 (10,123.7/sq mi)
 • Change (2001-06) 0.3%
 • Dwellings 2,639
Time zone Eastern (UTC-5)
 • Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code(s) H3X
Area code(s) 514/438
Website www.hampstead.qc.ca

Hampstead is a town in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the Island of Montreal.

Contents

History

The Town of Hampstead was founded in 1914. It was designed to be an exclusive garden city. There are no retail shops within municipal boundaries. Houses were assigned relatively large lots to allow space for trees and shrubbery. The town's roads were designed with curves in order to slow down traffic and to create an interesting and intimate landscape. Despite its rather flat topography—much of the territory was once a golf course—the town was named after another garden city, the hilly London suburb of Hampstead Village. Like its namesake, Hampstead is the home of many affluent citizens. It competes with a few other suburbs for first place in the rankings of highest average household incomes in Canada.

Merger and Demerger

On January 1, 2002 it joined with Côte Saint-Luc and Montreal West as the Côte-Saint-Luc—Hampstead—Montréal-Ouest borough of the City of Montreal. On June 20, 2004 it voted to demerge and was re-established as an independent municipality on January 1, 2006 as did Cote-Saint-Luc and Montreal West

Places of interest

A new public pool has recently been opened in Hampstead Park for the enjoyment of the town's citizens. The park also includes 2 basketball courts, 3 baseball fields, 10 tennis courts, soccer fields, a beach volleyball court and a play area for children. In the winter 2 ice rinks are built where the children play and skate.

Government

In the November 6, 2005 municipal elections, William Steinberg (of the Quebec Steinbergs) was elected mayor of Hampstead. Steinberg was the first new mayor after 4 years of civic control by Gerald Tremblay, when Hampstead was part of Montreal. Until Hampstead merged with Montreal, Irving Adessky had been mayor for 27 years (1974-2001). In his honour, the community centre has been renamed after him. Steinberg was re-elected on November 1, 2009 defeating former town councillor David Sternthal with 61% of the vote.

There are six city councillors.

  1. Abe Gonshor (Health & Sponsorships)
  2. Bonnie Feigenbaum (Community Services, Communications & Marketing)
  3. Harvey Shaffer (Legal & Traffic)
  4. Jack Edery (Finance & Co-chair Environment)
  5. Leon Elfassy (Urban Planning & Public Security)
  6. Michael Goldwax (Public Works, Information Technology & Co-chair Environment)

Demographics

4% of the population are Protestant compared with a Canadian average of 38%, whereas 84% are Jewish compared with a Canadian average of 1.2%.

Languages

Almost 90% of the population uses English as their preferred official language.

In terms of mother tongue, the 2006 census found that, including multiple responses, almost 63% of residents spoke English, and about 16% of residents spoke French. The next most commonly reported first languages learned were Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish and Romanian.[5]

Mother Tongue Population Percentage
English 4,260 60.9%
French 970 13.9%
English and French 45 0.6%
English and a non-official language 55 0.8%
French and a non-official language 85 1.2%
English, French and a non-official language 20 0.3%
Hebrew 240 3.4%
Yiddish 175 2.5%
Polish 160 2.3%
Romanian 145 2.1%
Spanish 135 1.9%
Arabic 110 1.6%
Mother Tongue Population Percentage
Korean 90 1.3%
Hungarian 65 0.9%
Tagalog 60 0.9%
Chinese 45 0.6%
Italian 40 0.6%
Russian 40 0.6%
German 35 0.5%
Persian 35 0.5%
Vietnamese 35 0.5%
Bisayan 20 0.3%
Greek 20 0.3%
Serbian 20 0.3%


Home language (2006)
Language Population Percentage (%)
English 5,440 77.77%
French 890 12.72%
Both English and French 70 1.00%
Other languages 590 8.43%

Transportation

Two major thoroughfares exist in Hampstead. One is Queen Mary Road and the other is Fleet Road. While it is difficult to drive quickly down Queen Mary (because of all the stop signs), Fleet Road is geared for automobile traffic, with synchronized traffic lights.

Hampstead is accessible by STM bus lines:[6] 51 Édouard-Montpetit (Queen-Mary) - Snowdon Metro 66 The Boulevard (Côte-Saint-Luc) - Guy Metro 161 Van Horne (Fleet) - Plamondon Metro 166 Queen Mary (Macdonald) - Snowdon Metro

There were various stages of development for Hampstead. The newer areas tend to be to the north and to the west. The city is almost completely composed of single family residences, except for the apartment buildings on Cote-St-Luc Road, and the duplexes and triplexes along MacDonald, Cleve, Dufferin, Heath, Holtham, Harrow and Aldred Roads. There are no commercial properties in the city. There is only one school in the city, the Hampstead Elementary School, which is public.

At the beginning of each summer is Hampstead Day, which features a small carnival and fireworks.

References

External links

See also