Fagstein notes the reopening of Dorchester Square (which I will always think of as Dominion Square) after renovations and prettyings-up. I went and had a look and it really has been done well and with a light hand.
Updates from June, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Rue Frontenac offers a look at chef Normand Laprise’s new baby, the Brasserie T! in the Quartier des spectacles.
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RCMP guys from Montreal have held out for decent hotel accommodations while keeping an eye on the G8 and G20 summits – none of your cheap cots in communal trailers for them.
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The zoo that owns the tiger and camels paid for some information that led to finding them. Whoever took them fed the tiger Friskies cat food. I wonder how many of those tiny cans it got through. (I’ll have to add a scene to my screenplay in which one of the henchmen goes into a Couche-Tard off the highway and buys out every can of cat food in the place, clutching and fumbling and dropping them while the cashiers look on in complete boredom.)
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Stats show that new arrivals are more and more commonly choosing the suburbs over Montreal, and some Montrealers are moving out into the countryside.
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Janey
The problem is that there is very little affordable housing on the Island. You can buy a 3BR detached home with a yard on the South Shore or Vaudreuil-Dorion for 210K. On the Island, for the same money you might get a 2BR condo with no yard and no parking and no metro – if you’re lucky. The trend seems to be 1BRs with elaborate bathrooms. Beautification of parks is good but when young families can no longer afford a city’s housing, something really big must be done….
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Kate
I’m sure you’re right, but cities are disinclined to do the kind of thing you suggest because the higher the real estate values, the more tax they can collect. I don’t know what the answer is.
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Martin Girard 12:28 on 2010/06/25 Permalink
Really beautiful. Considering the very central location of this square, I’d say that was money well spend.
admin 12:50 on 2010/06/25 Permalink
It’s lovely but there’s one bug: the central monument in the square (not shown in my photo above, but you can see it in Fagstein’s top photo, surrounded by red flowers) is a memorial to Canadian participation in the Boer War. This was considered a big patriotic deal at the time, but in retrospect the picture of the British squabbling with Dutch settlers over land that properly belongs to Africans is not an edifying one.
I’m not sure what I’d propose – certainly I’m not saying the monument should be taken down. But perhaps, when the time comes, the square could find room for a memorial to Nelson Mandela, by way of balance.