What or whom to blame are unclear in the death of that five-year-old girl this weekend in a bus accident.
Updates from December, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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TMR has removed the usual creche and menorah from its town hall, although it’s keeping a tree with lights.
Apparently a Muslim group wanted Islamic symbols displayed, but as it’s a religion noted for its ban on pictorial representations – you could have calligraphy, I guess, and maybe the crescent moon and star? – and because its lunar religious calendar means Muslim holy days move around from year to year, so there’s no particular holiday necessarily falling near the winter solstice, I’m not sure what would’ve been appropriate. Anyway, the town decided better to have none.
I think this is actually the way to go for government entities of all kinds: some lights and shiny stuff this time of year but no explicit religious content. If anyone’s offended by neutrally presented coloured lights and tinsel, I verge on thinking it’s tough patooties time.
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steph
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jeather
I think it would be perfectly lovely to have Muslim symbols represented at an appropriate time of year, but apparently we can only have religious decorations during December.
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Lovely piece from the Quebec French Guide blog on what the real Quebec French accent sounds like.
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Bill Binns
I can barely put three words of French together myself but I can clearly distinguish between québécois and the “France French” that my wife speaks. The accent seems to get thicker the further away from Montreal you get. My wife and I were in a diner in Magog a few years ago and she was convinced that the people around us were speaking Creole since she understood only every third word or so.
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Antonio
That was a most pointless, self-indulgent piece of pseudo-creative writing. Wow.
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Kate
Didn’t think it was sort of a poetic spin on the “quelques arpents de neige” theme? OK.
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Montreal wants Quebec to change the rules so that social housing units become obligatory in any housing project. Until now it’s just been a voluntary city guideline.
Too bad – I’d've loved to get a social housing unit in the Ritz project.
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John B
That’s what I thought. If I were to develop some crazy high-end property with $10m condos, would I have to include a “social housing” unit in it? And how would that affect the value of the neighbouring units?
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Kate
What’s been done so far – voluntarily, I suppose, since till now it’s just been a guideline – is the developer makes a deal with the city and pays for the construction of some units elsewhere. I recall that’s what the outfit did that’s turning the Centre 7400 into condos near de Castelnau metro.
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joe
It hardly seems fair to include social housing in expensive areas where others have had to work hard and save only to see their investment devalued because of tenements next door.
I used to walk by some very nice condos that were built next to Low-Income Housing units near Laurier metro and the subsidized building got worse every day. It would seem that its residents kept on breaking doors, windows and fences, there was trash everywhere and the whole place was a mess. I would’ve never even thought of buying one of the condos next door because of it.
We shouldn’t start building projects and confine social housing solely to some areas, but if the majority of Montrealers can’t afford the rent/taxes in a particular area (e.g. downtown), then maybe we shouldn’t give away apartments in that area either. Everyone ends up getting the shaft in the end.
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Faiz Imam
More specifically, the “optional” nature is whats called performance zoning.
Basically zoning restricts development in certain ways (ex: number of floors) but if the development includes certain things like public/green spaces, social housing, etc they are “awarded” more lenient restrictions (couple extra floors)
This is all well and good if the zoning office keep on top of things, but this being Montreal, developments get away with having a slightly larger lawn and calling it “green space”
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qatzelok
@ John B: “If I were to develop some crazy high-end property with $10m condos, would I have to include a “social housing” unit in it? And how would that affect the value of the neighbouring units?”
If you’re worried about snob appeal affecting the bottom line, you could call the moderately priced units “Servant Flats.”
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Martin
I remember reading about the history of social housing in Montreal, and thinking that as long as social housing looks ugly, is Not In a Montrealer Back Yard, and houses the poorest of the poorest in very small rooms, then it is considered acceptable. But as soon as it gets well-built, that it sounds financially viable and is made to house much more than the poorest, then you get the obligatory resounding “Not Here”. Why? John, Joe and qatzelok offer what I think is the best explanation: because it must not compete with the private sector. Anything blocking the Get Rich Boulevard is not acceptable.
The fact that some really nice projects are built or made into social housing, that they cost almost nothing to the taxpayer, that they blend well with other types of tenures, and that they bring value to a hood is never taken into account, because even if it is a fact, it contradicts the laissez-faire ideology and its get-rich-quick promises.
That is sad, and I think it shows that there’s no future in social housing in Montreal. Poor fellows will have to suffer shelter poverty as long as richer fellows want the best part of the pie all for themselves.
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A five-year-old kid was killed by a bus turning near Honoré-Beaugrand station Saturday evening – her folks, the driver and even some bystanders had to be treated for shock.
I completely agree. And those who still want to see the religious symbols can visit them at the local synagogue and church since the city donated them accordingly.