Stats show that parking meter usage is down by 8% in the Plateau, which is not great news for merchants in the area or for borough revenue.
Updates from September, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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The good news is that our air quality is better than Sarnia’s. The bad news is that it’s worse than in any other Canadian city. The report is from the World Health Organization which will give you world data on the topic as an .xls file.
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Peter Dedijer
Maybe all the rain for the next week will clean it up ;-)
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Kate
Alas, the measure is not taken just one day, but looks at an average over time.
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Kristian writes about a Montreal jazz musician and his obsession with the long-gone Victoria Rink, once a major social and sports locale downtown. Above is an engraving from the Canadian Illustrated News, 1879, showing a “fancy dress entertainment” at the rink, among several images of the place saved by my man E.Z.-
People person
The skaters at the bottom right seem very tiny.
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Kate
We have this concept called “children” you know.
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Snowpea
Ruh roh. Blackface.
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People person
But even if they’re children they’ll be larger because they’re in the front!!!!!
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The Grande Bibliothèque is getting more and more digital books which I suppose have the advantage of not potentially containing bugs – at least, not the six-legged kind.
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Sara
Oh it happened to you too, eh? Also, tiny bugs all around a peanut butter stain in the middle of a book.
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Kate
Not to me, not yet, but we had a post and discussion here about it last week.
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Sara
Ah, I must’ve missed that post. Thanks for pointing it out to me!
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Blork
Any idea how that works in terms of what kind of reader you need?
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Charles
I’m surprised not many people are asking about the future of public libraries. Will they still be used in 5 – 10 years? The same question could be asked about book stores, video stores, magazine stands, music stores, etc. There’s going to be a lot of empty commercial space. What is going to replace them? I’d be interested to read what people think here…
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People person
Excellent question Charles. I think it might be decades before everything gets scanned. People use those libraries as little study spaces more than anything. As for those other storefronts, two words: Vacuum repair shops… (err three anyway). That’s the future. Can’t fix your vacuum over the internet.
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Kate
@Charles, I think if you look around you’ll see there’s actually a fair bit of angst going on about the future of libraries. @People person, there’s nothing wrong with study spaces, especially in a place where you can get help with what you’re working on if you get stuck.
I am no expert on this but I’m aware that there are major issues with intellectual property rights that will block the digitization of many existing books and other printed material for decades yet. Obviously lots still has to be done and legislated in this area but libraries are by no means dead. I’ll see what else I can dig up on the issue.
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Ian
Book people are increasingly a niche market, and places like second hand book stores will no doubt turn toward the collectors and specialty market. Those that don’t simply fold the storefront and operate online at better margins, anyhow.
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Kate
Well, one bit of good book news I saw today is that Westcott Books, pushed out of its Ste-Catherine location, will move books, cats and all to the old Photo Galicia storefront on the Main.
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walkerp
Oh interesting news. That store is less than stellar (hey how about alphabetizing your books there guy) but I am happy for any used book store that stays alive these days. What’s the cross street?
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Kate
It’s just north of Duluth, facing Laïka across the Main.
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walkerp
Oh yeah, the place with the retouched photos in the window. That was an establishment. Glad there is going to be a bookstore there.
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ant6n
How about using the libraries and related commercial space for mini community centers, that still have books and study areas… but also other things, like spaces for clubs, or small neighborhood swimming pools (sauna anyone?)
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Kate
@ant6n I’ve read about them trying this in the UK but since the whole purpose of libraries is to give people a place to sit and concentrate on material they’re reading, whether for pleasure or for research, having other social things going on nearby works against that. From what I can tell, people were not happy with the compromise.
Ours is a time that fractures attention spans and we need some institutions that help us put them back together.
@walkerp I used to get my passport photos done at Photo Galicia, so I feel a little sad they’re gone. It was very old-school in there! (Incidentally, it’s tangentially interesting to know that Europe has two places called Galicia that are quite far apart. The photo place was run by people from the Spanish one, which is the little chunk of Spain north of Portugal.)
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Doobious
Those awesome once-in-a-lifetime cheapo finds at the used bookstores… they can be a bit of a bug-fest too. You’d do well to keep that in mind, people.
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Kate
Oh man. Well, I’ve been buying used books for years – from bookshops, garage sales, library sales, you name it – and so far don’t seem to have imported any visitors with them yet.
At this rate, we’ll all need some kind of death box outside our homes to fumigate or irradiate anything we’ve bought before it can infest the building.
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ant6n
I think the only bugs to be really afraid of are bed bugs… Maybe fleas, but they are easier to get rid of and stay on pets, not in books. That “death box” is called a freezer, and it’ll kill them bed bugs in 2 weeks for sure.
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A teenage kid is in critical condition after a motorist apparently accelerated to knock him down in an alley in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve where he was walking with a friend on Monday afternoon. The friend managed to leap out of the way. The driver has been arrested.
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In the National Post today, a piece in a heavy-handed style talks about an incident in Lachine that’s gone to court. Cutting away all the grand guignol, a group signed a contract to rent a space, then used the space for something disallowed by the contract, but the writer is trying to elevate it into a case about religious freedom. It isn’t.
(Also, the writer invites a misrepresentation of the word culte in French. The original meaning of this word simply means religious rite or observance, or one might speak of “the cult of Brother André” to mean the circle of people who revere him. If the legal document used the word, it simply meant general religious activity and nothing to do with the modern meaning of the word “cult”.)
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Samuel
The fact that the writer used to be editor in chief at The Gazette is frightening. How could someone be more one sided and de mauvaise foi is hard to see. Shame on him.
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Clem
I wonder what the National Post would have said if instead of “catholic”, it had been “muslim”?
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qatzelok
@ Clem:
They would have said that coalition troops did everything to limit civilian casualties, but that in a war, it’s an unfortunate reality that non-radical worshipers like these sometimes get killed.
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KC
Come on, guys, admit it, this is militant atheism at work. But Catholics aren’t one of our protected minorities. Had the case involved Muslims, it would be headed for the Human Rights Commission.
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Robert J
The most unfortunate aspect of the Gazette is that it is a community rant forum for a grumpy old generation of anglophones from the West Island. It would be nice to have a more neutral, English-language paper that didn’t write condescending articles about anything related to francophone Québec. The level of journalism is generally quite low. It reminds of papers like the Ottawa Citizen or the Kingston Whig standard. Perhaps they should hire more American writers to have a more neutral point of view. Just an idea.
Take Le Devoir, for instance. It has a long history of editorial support for all francophone causes and in particular the Parti Québecois, the Bloc Québecois, and the separatist movement, but somehow it still manages to produce the highest level of journalism on either side of the “solitudes”. It does so by publishing a great number of neutral, analytical articles, accompanied by more partial editorials. It is very rare to see the kinds of rants that are common to the Gazette.
So unfortunately it does not surprise me to know that the National Post writer was once editor of the Gazette.
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Kate
@KC: militant atheism? The group signed a contract that included an agreement that the premises weren’t to be used for religious observances, but went ahead and did just that. That has nothing to do with atheism, it has to do with their group flouting a contract.
It’s not as if Montreal is short of Catholic churches where you can hear Mass if you want to, so please, don’t try to make Catholicism out to be some kind of persecuted minority: the church still owns a fair chunk of Montreal’s real estate.
@Robert J: I tend to agree with you. One of the reasons for the existence of this blog was an effort to try to gather news stories in a different spirit. I was reading multiple local media to find out what was going on already, so it seemed natural to start blogging about it, and here we are.
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Domenico Cotugno
While I agree that the article is quite biased and written in a tone that betrays its intentions by coming off as nearly fanatical, I’m not sure that the group “flouting” their contract by using the premises for religious observances is a valid argument. Just because something is written in a contract does not mean it can supersede local laws or constitutional rights.
My employer can write in my employment contract that he can kill me if he so chooses (I know, it’s an extreme example). If he decides to act on this part of the contract, the law will (obviously) not condone his actions.
What remains to be seen is whether application of the clause of the contract in question does or does not contravene Quebec law.
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The Museum of Fine Arts has shown its new Quebec and Canadian art pavilion to the media, who seem to like it. It opens to the public on October 14.
Also this week, the UdeM opened its new Laval campus near Montmorency metro – it’s not just a satellite to the main school but a full campus where a student can follow a complete program and never have to go into town.
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Robert H
L’ouverture d’UdeM à Laval serait une nouvelle étape pour la ville qui voudrait se voir plus qu’une banlieue dortoir de Montréal. Au moins ce n’est pas un autre centre commercial, un autre Dix30. Ah, Laval…la Mississauga du Québec.
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Peter Dedijer
October 14th opening – - now ther’s a piece of news I can’t live without :-(
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The AMT’s plan to change its zone borders so that four urban stations become zone 2 and their users would face a 21% jump in fares has met dissatisfaction from city council, but it’s not for them to decide. Funny how every time the AMT makes changes “for fairness” everyone ends up paying more.
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Frederic
It wouldn’t be so bad if busses were on time and metros didnt constantly break down – many the times i froze my ass waiting for a 90 that never came
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ant6n
Fairness…
So the straight line distance between gare centrale and St-Lambert (Tram3) is 4.6Km, but the straignt line distance between gare centrale and Canora(Tram1) is 5.2Km. So out of fairness we should move every station north of Gare Centrale to Tram3 at least. And then, out of fairness, we should consider that metro Honore-Beaugrand is all of 11Km away from gare Centrale, and move half the stations on the green line to Tram3 as well.
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Maybe if we had fewer councilors, the AMT would listen to their unanimous motions.
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Ephraim 16:49 on 2011/09/27 Permalink
Well, who would have thought that putting up the price of the meters, increasing the number of meters, blocking streets, slowing and diverting traffic and basically making everyone miserable in the area would have had this effect. Ferrnandez seems to be Egyptian… completely in “de nile” that he’s responsible. Funny, the point of being the mayor is that you are responsible… not shucking responsibility.
walkerp 19:54 on 2011/09/27 Permalink
You have to account for the major road work as well, which is the City’s doing, not the boroughs.
That being said, there are always stores closing down and new ones opening in the Plateau. I didn’t see any hard numbers coming from the merchants, only anecdotal evidence. Place seems booming to me. Certainly no shortage of beer being consumed.
I wonder how much the increased bike traffic contributed to sales.
david m. 20:00 on 2011/09/27 Permalink
the roadwork is major, and the economy generally is doing worse, i’m pleased at anything that reduces traffic on the plateau, even if some of the merchants suffer, and i’m mostly pleased with the job ferrandez is doing. now let’s get some major density in our hoods! songs for a responsible skyline!
MB 00:58 on 2011/09/28 Permalink
Yeah, the only road to prosperity is via convenient automobile access. Let’s keep doing that!
MB 01:02 on 2011/09/28 Permalink
(What I mean to say is: businesses should be allowed to fail if they cannot adapt, where entrepreneurialism should not be underestimated or otherwise encouraged.) To think that there are entire city centers in the world that thrive while prohibiting the automobile entirely…it’s just reality! Quality of life will always make for better business, and ultimately trumps all.
David M 01:53 on 2011/09/28 Permalink
which is to say that i walk or bike virtually everywhere and mostly don’t bother getting a metro pass until it’s too cold not to, so for me, neighborhood-servicing shops and transit-oriented development are clutch. that said, it would be horrific if the hungarian market or slovenia or even that newish caribbean joint closed for lack of cross-town patronage. solution, as always, is improved transit!
Kate 08:48 on 2011/09/28 Permalink
The Plateau is so accessible by public transit that I find it almost perverse that anyone able-bodied would feel a need to bring a car there. But then I’ve never driven, so it’s natural for me to see it that way, I guess. I mean, we’re not talking about Pierrefonds here.
Ian 12:39 on 2011/09/28 Permalink
…as long as you’re not trying to take the bus on Park, or for a better part of the summer, Saint-Urbain… I took the 80 southbound yesterday and it turned east on Laurier, south on Saint-Urbain, west on Mount Royal, then back onto park with its first stop in front of the statue. So basically half of Park’s Plateau commercial strip is inaccessible to southbound buses. Not that I’d drive, parking is even more messed up than usual since so many of the main street spaces are blocked off by either active construction or equipment storage. That said, at least it’s essential infrastructure work and not just cosmetic like the decimation of businesses on the Main.
Jack 12:45 on 2011/09/28 Permalink
OMG 8% more folks decided to use public transit,walk or bike. Are they f…ing crazy. Ephraim you are so right the additional 6 minutes a week you spend in your car dictates your consumption habits.Fernandez is the best thing that has happened since Tremblay…..Michel Tremblay.