La Presse has a story today about the Plateau’s blue-collar workers writing an irate letter to borough mayor Luc Ferrandez. It’s a slightly odd story – first, nothing says it’s an open letter, and it dates back to June 6, so who sent it to the media now, and why?
Also, I would not at all be surprised to discover partisan shenanigans behind this affair.
Several hundred people dressed in black marched in a funeral for democracy on Saturday afternoon.
I think this comment was meant for the post below this one. I can’t move it, but that’s the context.
Slightly annoying piece about Carré Saint-Louis: it’s a long time since it had the sort of louche vibe the writer implies. And police horses aren’t wildlife.
yeah, i lived for a decade around the corner from the square, like i don’t know how old this writer is (definitely pre-prince arthur pedestrianization), but square saint-louis has been really nice for a really long time. that said, even if she was weirdly hyperbolic about it, she’s bang on about its special role in the hood. that place probably has more first kisses, shared bottles, read book chapters, meditative stares and various other interludes than any other block in the city.
More on the city’s plan to add 300,000 new trees over the next ten years with some stats on how existing trees are distributed by borough.
Rivière-des-Prairies councillor Maria Calderone has thrown in the towel on political life, which will mean a byelection in that district. La Presse says it’s considered a fief of Union Montreal but goes on to say every other councillor there is with Vision, which doesn’t quite make sense.
Work on the Ste-Catherine Street sinkhole has been completed before the estimated date.
The city has a page on moving house more greenly with information about recycling useful stuff you no longer need, dumping large items you no longer want, and links to pages about moving your pets and avoiding bedbugs.
There’s also a guy that moves your stuff using bicycles… no more moving trucks! http://www.demenagementmyette.ca/
The Timothy Leary archives have put up a new transcript of a conversation among John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Leary and his wife in Montreal in May 1969.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve never really seen the point of the bed-in, but that event still gets this city a disproportionate amount of PR.
Other than interesting hair and clothes, and working polyphonic harmony to death, what was so great about the Beatles? Weren’t they just the biggest boy’s band in history because they came out just when the boomers were peaking.
I’ll let Adam Gopnik explain.
Trust @qatzelok to not recognize anglo culture :)
Doing my final OpenFile shift for the summer: some news briefs, notes on the quarter century of the loonie.
CTV summarizes various highway closures expected over the long weekend.
On Forget The Box, blogger Maria Amore notes that Ontario voided all rental leases prohibiting pets in 1991, and links to a petition from the SPCA to pressure Quebec to do the same.
Sure, let’s give landlords another reason to convert their property to condos.
I’ve heard that la Regie du Logement won’t actually evict people with small pets who defying a lease that says ‘no pets’. It’ll likely still put you in sour standing with your landlord.
Property value is more important than animal life? Is this true of larger animals as well?
qatzelok, right or wrong, to many people, the answer is ‘yes’. So many rental units are going away already, and few are being built. The more control taken away from landlords the more chance they won’t rent. I know I wouldn’t rent out my place with the risk of piss and shit everywhere.
Good grief, if you have a pet then don’t sign a lease in a building that doesn’t allow pets. Is this really so complicated? Many people don’t want to live around animals because of allergies or noise. There are landlords that want to cater to them. What is the problem? What right does anyone have to tell them that they can’t do that?
Likely this will happen hand-in-hand with landlords getting deposits. It’s likely the biggest reason that landlords are afraid, the damages.
If the Regie doesn’t evict people in violation of their lease, you are more likely to get a landlord who will want to take possession and stop renting, which is exactly the problem we are seeing. There are two sides to every sword.
Some of the folks from Spacing are repeating (and, I think, expanding) an exploit from last summer: walk the region starts them Saturday morning in Kahnawake, thence through segments of the south shore, the islands of Montreal and Laval and fetching up eventually in Lachenaie. Radio-Canada will be following them on this map. 75 km, three days’ hike.
No, I’m not involved. Saturday I’m doing my last OpenFile shift of the summer, so I can’t embark on the first day; I’m pondering joining them for some of Sunday if I can figure out a public transit way of connecting up with them (and getting home). Anyway, Joël Thibert and Alanah Heffez will be tweeting the walk, so you can follow them even if I decide it would be less strenuous to sit on a terrasse and watch the Euro 2012 final Sunday instead…
To be fair to the writer, she was writing about the square she knew during her childhood. And the reference to horses was meant, I think, to make the point that wildlife was scarce thereabouts.