Some consideration of what outcome Guy Turcotte could face after he’s ruled on by a commission that considers mental health issues. The key question is whether he’s a danger to the public. Meanwhile, someone has started a Facebook page to work up outrage for a demo against the verdict next month.
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Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and the Plateau are planning more ruelles vertes here and there; basically, it’s up to residents to express their wish to have one and work with it. I don’t see a list of specific features, but adding greenery outside of yard fences and doing things to discourage (but not completely block) traffic seem to be the main things.
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MB
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Charles
Very nice MB!
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There’s been a minor fuss this week over some British magazine saying Montreal is losing its charm; in response, Ville-Marie is going to invest massively in tidying itself up. The question whether urban charm derives chiefly or solely from having clean streets is not addressed: having major downtown streets in excavation for years on end, devastating the lower Main and leaving it that way, might reasonably be considered at least equally important factors.
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After yesterday’s verdict, Guy Turcotte may soon be freed or he may have to spend time in a psychiatric unit. We won’t know for awhile. But he won’t be putting on his white coat again anytime soon.
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Bill Binns
Canada must be the best place in the western hemisphere to get caught committing murder. I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often.
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Kate
I’ve been thinking about this, and it’s a pity they can’t arrive at a deal like this for Turcotte.
First, make sure he isn’t actively nuts. I don’t know how his mental state was characterized, but the man has brains and was able to keep it together through the stresses of studying medicine and becoming a cardiologist – that’s not trivial. But if he’s permanently broken there’s not much to do with him but institutionalize him for a long time.
But if it looks like he’s recoverable, it’d be a pity to waste all that training and experience. If I were the judge I would want to say: OK, Dr. Turcotte, I’m sending you into exile. You’re going to go practice medicine in Haiti for a period (10, 15, 20 years?) and only after that will Canada consider letting you return here, if you want to.
But we don’t do exile any more, and it’s entirely likely nobody would welcome a doctor who has been known to go off his head and kill kids, no matter how desperately their country needs medical care.
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walkerp
The public reaction to the verdict made the whole thing seem like the season-ending finale of a popular soap opera back when television was king.
I love the exile to Haiti idea. Probably be good for him too. If he really was out of his head when he killed his kids, his guilt and internal pain must be insane. Some suffering and helping others is probably the best thing when you are dealing with those kind of feelings.
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An interesting look of the real-world, physical correlate of socio-philosophical change as churches change hands from more traditional owners to more evangelical churches and to non-Christian groups. Not many end up as condos but nearly a third do become public spaces.
And, as anyone who knows the architecture of this town will already be aware, no church built since 1945 is considered worth saving. Tear ‘em down and put up something useful.
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David M
i don’t at all agree with that. there are some great great post-war buildings, especially in the east side.
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Kate
Which ones do you like?
Churches from the second half of the 20th century here have always struck me as bad, except for a few that are simply bizarre. Bad modern architecture, with bad modern art inside.
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Three boroughs are glorying in a surplus and apparently the city administration is going to let them keep and administer the money.
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Montrealers are satisfied with life in this town except on two points: the climate (although not on days like this) and, unfortunately, with the city as a place to bring up a family.
Has anyone studied why this idea has become so common here?
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Chris
The article/survey doesn’t say, but in my person experience, people don’t want to raise families here because there are too many cars! Then they move to the suburbs, which, due to low density, has cars passing less frequently, but then they “need” to buy a car because everything is so far. Then they complain that Montreal is too complicated/slow to navigate by car. Oh the irony! :(
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Jack
This actually is quite positive, considering the amount of Montreal bashing that occurs in Quebecor media. Watching TVA,LCN or reading the Journal you would think you were bringing up your family in Kabul.
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Bill Binns
Isn’t this the case with just about any big city? People with kids want 4 bedrooms, a backyard and a giant Loblaw’s / WalMart / Ikea down the street. Maybe not all people with kids but most of them.
I live downtown and every one of our neighbors who has had their first child while living here has headed for the burbs before the kids second birthday.
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walkerp
This is probably the best city in North America to raise a family. It may be just that people generally don’t believe children should be brought up in a city.
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Kate
Really? I’ve read stories of kids growing up in apartments everywhere from Tokyo to Vienna to New York. It doesn’t necessarily mess up their wee psyches.
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David M
obviously kids aren’t a problem unique to montreal, and urban centers everywhere obviously present these issues. personally, i find montreal to be a great kid-oriented city. the problem for me is the weather, which is a huge issue. like i’m always moving away from montreal only to return, only to leave again in the face of the weather. it’s really something.
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An OpenFile report finds that the Decarie autoroute is too noisy but that little is done to quiet it for nearby residents.
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Tux
I live about a 60 second walk from the Decarie and I don’t think it’s too bad. It’s basically white noise. When I lived in Montreal West I found the commuter trains going by to be a lot more annoying, you often had to pause your conversation while they roared by! The Decarie causes me no inconveniences, though it isn’t much fun to look at, a city-spanning scar. They should cover it over and have green space on top!
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ant6n
I don’t buy this “white noise” argument. Noise is measured in decibels, not in colors. And it effects you and your health even if you might not consciously realize it.
I think we have a real noise issues in this city – and it’s something that one can mitigate without too much cost to the municipalities – more 30km/h zones, stricter enforcement of noise regulations.
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Kate
I had to live on Decarie for several years when I was a kid and my memory is that the acoustics vary. My bedroom was on the second floor, directly looking out on the ditch, and it was noisier up there than from street level.
Indeed it does create a white noise background, but broken with enough honking, brake screeching and other such noises that it’s not exactly restful. Then there were the occasional pile-ups and the one time a truckful of pigs got out and started running around…
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Alex
Tux: Turning the entire Decarie into a tunnel with a forest on top of it……. woah that sounds wonderful
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Tux
Alex, just think is they ran bike paths through the green space too!
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I hope this kind of activity at the very least inspires people to think about their place (physical place, actual built environment) in the city. Montreal is charming (who cares what the Brits think—ever been to Manchester?) but for all the beautiful streets we have, mostly built before cars but almost always wide enough for cars, we plainly lack those interconnected narrow alleyways full of flowers and climbing greens that really inspire joy for the urban form. We have alleys but usually they’re single purpose and unkempt. There’s no commerce, they’re not connected, etc. Montreal is an inverted traditional city like no other place on earth; still urban but with the gardens in front on spacious roads rather than in the court. But hey, even as renters we can put up plants in our windows, balconies boxes…call the landlord to let him or her know about tagging if it’s offensive…clear debris and litter from our corners… In spite of the Victorian hypertrophy which we’ve inherited can we count ourselves lucky! We don’t lack a sense of real ‘place’ in this city so any encouragement to add individual touches of beauty, peace, calm, or idiosyncratic aesthetic pleasure is welcome in my book. Industrialism may have taken over our planning (the automobiles will never let us forget that) but we’re still humans. and always will be.