Meet the complaint man at St-Denis work site
‘Extremely available’ co-ordinator acts as liaison with area residents
Nearly everyone on St-Denis St. seems to know his name, but JeanLuis Cantero isn’t a celebrity.
He is the city’s appointed complaint person, a resource for business owners and residents living in the construction site that has taken hold between Duluth Ave. and Marie-Anne St. since last September.
Visiting the street recently, nearly every merchant and restaurant owner spoke about Cantero, whose job it is to co-ordinate the work between business owners, residents and construction crews during the 14-month project. Each have Cantero’s business card readily on hand and they readily email or call with questions, complaints and suggestions on how the work can be improved.
“We have demands every day,” said Caroline Tessier, the general manager of the merchants’ association Pignons rue Saint-Denis. “We send (Cantero) emails, photos, texts and he is extremely available to answer all our questions. It’s going incredibly well.”
Cantero keeps stakeholders informed on the progress of the project, informing residents about interruptions in water service or electricity, or when work is planned for late night or early morning.
“I’m on the street every day, speaking to residents, but also to the construction crew,” Cantero said. “Nothing happens on the site without my knowing about it.”
A relatively new job, the city created Cantero’s position after merchants and residents on Parc Ave. complained about a lack of communication with the city when that street was redone between 2010 and 2013. There are now two coordinators working on major arteries: Cantero is in charge of St-Denis and Jarry St. while another liaison officer works the St-Paul St. site in Old Montreal and Ontario St. near the Frontenac métro station.
Cantero has been busy. Since the St-Denis St. project began last September, he said he has sent out 70 emails with progress reports to residents. That’s not including the personal phone calls and emails he has exchanged with individuals.
Cantero said his work has also entailed fulfilling some special requests from merchants, like improving access to stores, or building special walkways for shoppers and residents.
So far, he has been getting good reviews from business owners. Sylvie Bergeron, the co-owner of the clothing store Artefact, said Cantero was quick to act when people were having problems accessing her store.
“They had to dismantle the cement in front of our entrance, and we wanted to make sure the crew understood how to properly redo it,” Bergeron said. “He brought the engineers and workers in within a half-hour and it was all properly co-ordinated. He then came back to make sure it was done well.”
Bergeron said Cantero has returned several times since, to see if the store owners had any other outstanding issues.
But not everyone is happy. Elise Rouleau, the owner of la Brise du Sud, a swimsuit and undergarment store on the street, said she finds the work has been badly co-ordinated, and the city has been slow to react to some of her complaints.
Cantero said for the most part residents have been polite. When asked if there were some that were rude, he said he wouldn’t mention specific interactions.
“Normally people are polite,” Cantero said. “I won’t go into case by case. Sometimes people just need you to listen. That’s a big part of the job.”
I’m on the street every day, speaking to residents, but also to the construction crew.