The mayor is soliciting ideas from the public for a suitable memorial for Gary Carter, who died earlier this month. Anyone can submit an idea on the city website till March 31.
Updates from February, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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A Le Devoir writer talks to several people involved in creating or preserving public art and what they feel it does for the urban fabric.
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The city has begun to clear the weekend’s snow but may be slowed down by another snowstorm expected Monday evening and further snowfalls later in the week.
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The Olympic village is up for sale by its current owner, an Israeli real-estate magnate.
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The PQ, predictably, isn’t happy with plans to provide the West Island with two train projects, saying it’s too expensive.
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Chris
$1.3 billion is a lot of money… still lots less than what the province spends *per year* on roadways ($3.9 billion).
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David Tighe
It appears that Montréal, despite its modest airport, will be the only city in North America to have an exclusive link between it and the centre. In fact, not that many European airports have one either, for the obvious reason that it cannot be economically viable without very large numbers of passengers paying a very high fare. Normally, an airport train is integrated within the suburban system with obvious synergy benefits (considerable here given the primitive suburban network). If this project goes ahead, it will be one of the most wasteful politically-motivated projects ever. Moreover, it will divert funds from the inadequate suburban network for many years.
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Marc
Rapid transit to YUL should be integrated into an existing line just as it is in, off the top of my head, Vancouver, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco.
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ant6n
Is there anybody who thinks two trains is a good idea, except the Aeroports de montreal?
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Dan G
@Marc so true. and don’t forget Newark, JFK, Minneapolis, Dallas, Baltimore, Portland, Burbank & St. Louis, all of which are accessible by non-exclusive rail lines.
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Marc
Add to that Philadelphia. Why I left that one out is beyond me since I used it last year. oops.
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Steve Quilliam
I have to side with the PQ on that one. Two projects is not reasonable and not necessary. 1 project that will serve the West Island as well as the Airport plus 2 or 3 stops beetwen the airport and downtown should be good enough for everyone.
In the list of cities you guys mentionned could have also been London, Paris, Brussels, Madrid and Moscow etc… They all have several stops beetwen downtown and the airport. At least they had when i was there.
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Faiz Imam
A couple years back, Fagstein did a very good job comparing both proposals.
back then there was no “train de l’ouest” it was just a plan to use the AMT tracks for an airport connection. But its worth reading to get a feel for the issues that have divided stakeholders thus far, many of them are quite legitimate.
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ant6n
It seems that ADM wants a direct connection to gare centrale because they surveyed some people who preferred the sound of of that. Is that a legitimate stake? Or put another way, has ADM any legitimate stake to dictate transportation policy?
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David Tighe
To those cities with integrated rail service I add Paris and both London Gatwick and Heathrow, much busier airports by many orders of magnitude. It is horrible to see how economic and social feasibility can be thrown aside here when it is a question of politics.
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Faiz Imam
As far as traditional transportation policy is understood, the ADM has no legitimacy. They are the same as any other private entity that wishes for certain transportation projects, such as stadiums or industrial/commercial parks. They have simply put up a significant amount of money forward and have sold the idea of a “gateway” from the airport to the city to certain politicians.
I really hope the projects are consolidated, I think the expansion of the “train de l’ouest” concept has been very positive. Timeline and budget notwithstanding, it seems like an inevitability. And thus having a second parallel track will seem more absurd by the day.
I would love to see Central Station be expanded as much as anyone, but there are too many issues that make this unfeasible. I just hope that this consolidation happens quickly, because if the ADM would be willing to add their $200 million to train de l’ouest, it would solve many of its current problems.
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Quel Avenir has a good guest blogger today, explorer Bernard Voyer, who thinks if Montreal is going to pat itself on the back for being a creative, innovative city, everyone has to contribute rather than snipe passively from the sidelines.
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Devin AlfaroJoel Thibert asks who’s buying all those condos, a question that has also crossed my mind. -
Quel Avenir asks whether we think we should try to rebuild a major-league baseball team again.
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Josh
MLB is not returning to Montreal for *decades*. Even if 40,000 seat licenses were sold, even if corporate Montreal put up $300 million for a stadium, even if Bell and Quebecor agreed to go 50/50 on ownership like Rogers and Bell did with the Leafs, MLB simply would not grant the franchise – not so soon after having left in the first place.
It could happen sometime well down the road – say 20-25 years – but right now, it’s foolish to even think about.
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Steve Quilliam
I think the departure of the Expos may have been a good thing for other entertainment or cultural activities in Montreal. Instead of spending money on highly paid baseball players people went to concerts, festivals, restaurants, museums etc…
Just like Quebec city didn’t really suffer from the departue of a hockey club Montreal didn’t suffer at all except maybe for some ”free” exposure in the US amongst baseball fans.
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Josh
@Steve: Pro sports teams do employ people, and they do bring visitors to cities though. It’s important to note that, for instance, thousands of people calling themselves “Nordiques Nation” have been traveling to other NHL cities recently as a kind of pep rally to get Quebec City a team again. And in so doing, they are pumping money into the economies of Ottawa, Montreal, New York and every other city they visit.
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Public daycare workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, yet to be voted on.
Could be great news. I hope they make the grounds around it more accessible.