Good La Presse review of the new Quartiers disparus show at the Centre d’histoire makes the valid point that at the time the demolitions and changes seemed like a good thing to many people, even though their eventual effect was to damage the city fabric and individual lives, and nothing very much has ever been made from the destruction of Goose Village. (One quibble: he says Goose Village was part of Point St. Charles, but as the daughter of someone who grew up there I can say it was not considered as such – the Point never extended east of Bridge Street.)
Updates from June, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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A pile-up involving 3 trucks shut down the 20 on Friday morning in Dorval and it was closed for hours. Worth reading also is the longish comment to the Radio-Canada report describing highway conditions as seen by a working trucker posting as Bishop001: même si je garde la distance sécuritaire entre 2 véhicule qui est selon la SAAQ de 6 secondes entre 2 véhicule, celà s’avère impossible lorsqu’il y a une forte concentration de véhicule sur une artère à grande vitesse. Dans les faits, à la moindre occasion, les automobilistes combles la distance que j’essaie de maintenir sécuritaire.
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Chris
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Stefan
the irony that not being able to guarantee road safety in everyday conditions is taken as a normal.
at the other hand, as soon there is a responsible body, paranoid regulations ‘for our security’ is imposed. i.e. i have to keep my two-year old son at arm’s length in the public wading pool, and if the life-guard on duty for that wading pool has not arrived yet (despite there being two others on duty and one having a pause), we’re not permitted to enter the water. and this is just one of many examples … -
Kate
Why the arm’s-length regulation, Stefan?
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Stefan
the lifeguard (teenager, summer job?) explained that ‘these are the rules’. i left it at that since i didn’t feel that i could pursue a reasoning beyond that from him, or the persons in charge. i guess that it is related to getting sued, in case something happens.
but taking away responsibility creates a sense of danger if something is not regulated/fenced-off/supervised/etc., makes us less able to deal with dangerous situation and therefore reinforces such regulations.
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The city is inching away from its fear of food carts by allowing a very small number to perambulate selling produce, as has been done in traditional towns since time immemorial. The project is called Fruixi and although there’s talk about bringing fresh food to disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the ones mentioned are the Plateau and Ville-Marie, which are not precisely impoverished, plus the environs of several hospitals in those areas.
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Stefan
making healthy food cool. i wonder if will they also pass the bars at 3a.m. :)
maybe disadvantaged refers to the fruiterie/fast food quota in ville-marie? -
Ian
Not being able to buy hot dogs on the street is a classic example of Montreal’s nanny-stateism. It’s even funnier that food vending wasn’t banned for health reason, but aesthetic ones. That said, given how lax Montreal is for regulating and enforcing anything except signs in English I’m not sure I’d want to eat something from a street vendor here.
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Police and the city have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract; the brotherhood votes June 16.
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Singlestar
How many people will they be allowed to kill each week?
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Stefan
there’ll be quotas for homeless, immigrants & cyclists
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Tux
and they’ll formally codify their official creed: if it wasn’t photographed, it didn’t happen.
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La Presse’s Michèle Ouimet visits Luc Ferrandez and finds a man under siege. Mathias Marchal of Métro compares boroughs in terms of their progress, and finds the Plateau is way ahead of the pack.
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Stefan
according to the media reactions, the plateau must be the most important borough in entire quebec. every time there is a change equivalent to a little fart, the whole island is shaking and in quebec they probably sense an earthquake.
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Both the mayor and the Quebec ombudsman are saying that Quebec’s system of having police investigate police after shootings or other extreme incidents has to be changed and a new system of inquiry put in its place.
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Grand Prix weekend is always a big take for Montreal merchants although the strong Canadian dollar is keeping many Americans away.
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Canada Post is reducing deliveries to 3 days a week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (in some areas, as noted below, but not in Montreal yet). Page says it’s not just a response to the current labour difficulties, but a permanent change to adapt to a decline in mail volume.
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Stefan
what’s not clear to me – is this affecting montreal as well?
from their website: “Letter Carriers will deliver mail on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (NOTE: Letter Carrier Depots that have been converted to the new Postal Transformation delivery model in Winnipeg and in the Toronto and Montreal areas will continue to deliver mail five days a week due to the new route structure.)”
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Kate
I guess you’re right, but it seemed to me like an interesting social change and it wouldn’t surprise me at all for the same change to come to the big cities as postal volume declines.
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Marc
3 day per week delivery is fine by me. At least once per week the box is bone dry. On average 2 or 3 days per week is there legitimate mail (eg. not take-out menus). When was Saturday mail delivery scrapped…late 60′s/early 70′s?
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ant6n
Seems that these days, Canada post is working very hard to make themselves obsolete.
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Kate
Technology is making at least part of the traditional postal service obsolete, let’s say.
But I would far rather have things delivered by Canada Post, and here’s an example why. Fido insists on sending new handsets via Purolator. Like many people, I am out most of the daytime, and they leave a note.
If something is not deliverable by Canada Post, I can walk over to the local post office and pick it up, which takes about 15 minutes.
But if something comes to me via Purolator, it goes back to a central sorting office somewhere in Lachine which is virtually unreachable by public transit. Last time I got a new phone I had to round up a friend with a car and we had to go looking for it, which took close to two hours all told plus the general irritation from the hassle.
Canada Post even owns Purolator, and if they want to provide more of an integrated service, Purolator ought to leave undeliverable packages at local post offices at the very least. The physical delivery ought to be as flexible as online delivery, instead of which it’s back in the dark ages (“no, we can’t even try to deliver a second time, fuck you” is not sufficient). (For that matter, Fido ought to send you their phones by mail, or even tell you to pick them up at a Fido storefront. But that’s another story.)
I’ve also had to trek out to Anjou at some point in the last few years (I think that was a FedEx delivery) and that was also another epic journey by public transit involving the end of a metro line, a bus ride and a hike through a blasted industrial zone, and back.
With modern tracking and dispatch services, all these entities should be giving better service. But as long as it’s the way it is, the post office is still by no means obsolete.
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JaneyB
Oh, the courier craziness! Having to chase down the package at the depots….They need to make drop-off arrangements at the nearest depanneurs. Almost no one is at home during the day. Hard to believe they are so unaware of this….
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Chris
Kate, they’re not interested in providing better service, they’re interested in generating more profit.
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Stefan
yeah, courier deliveries are a PITA. seems best to specify your office address (if it’s not a big shop), but does that work for cafes and parks? :-) (they could permit giving them your cellphone to ring on the second try, but i guess it’s not about efficiency for the receiver, it’s about selling to the senders)
delivering only 3 days/week makes sense economically. but it delays already slow snail mail from 2-4 working days to 3-5 working days effectively. in austria and germany the post service manages to guarantee 95% of letter delivery overnight, that’s for regular service and costs ~50c. i read that germany has an intriguing organization where postal airplanes from all states meet overnight in a central airport and people run around to exchange sacks of letters!
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Kate
they’re not interested in providing better service, they’re interested in generating more profit.
Granted, but a courier service that became known for its flexibility and accuracy would get a better reputation and thus more customers, no?
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Chris
Kate, that’s the theory, isn’t it? Yet it does not happen; why? Having lots of pickup sites would mean more rent to pay, etc. I guess they figure their way is more profitable. :(
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Stefan
sender pays for (and receives good) service. so why’d they care about the receiver, as long as they obtain it. especially if these are different target groups (companies vs. particulars).
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Ian
Worth noting, while Purolator and UPS have almost non-existent customer service, Fedex is actually quite good for flexible delivery & redelivery. I actually prefer Fedex over Canada Post – it’s faster, and the Canada Post delivery person doesn’t even try to ring my doorbell as I live in an apartment building, so I never get my packages on the first delivery day but have to go pick them up. It costs more but if you actually need a reliable delivery service for business reasons or simple convenience, Fedex is far superior.
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Marc
If I had to pick one of the courier companies, it would be FedEx, hands down. I *HATE* UPS.
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ant6n
Well, I for one would like have my packages delivered at home while I am home. Canada post does not deliver parcels to my door – ever.
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nixi provides a lighter web interface for Bixi.
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Julia
Here’s something that I made for my own use last summer. It’s a bit less shiny, but has a different colouring scheme: http://jvns.ca/bixi/map/
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Kate
That one’s really nice too – thanks for posting it!
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Stefan
julia’s site lets you find the station effectively by one street name + pulldown selection (the other directed me to some far north coin of quebec)
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Montreal drivers are horrible. This is but another example. :(