Anglo Montreal institution Bill Haugland retired from Pulse News today.
posted at 20:34

 
Opponents of the Park Avenue name change are preparing for a second wave of resistance at the provincial level; columnist blames anglos for resisting the name change, although reader commentary below the piece contradicts her.
posted at 11:17

 
Five years ago, on November 30, 2001, I made the first entry to this weblog*. That makes today Montreal City Weblog's
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY!
*I can't link to it now because a disk crash in March put most of my archives out of reach.
posted at 10:52

 
The city's 2007 budget means tax increases for some residents as the impact of increased valuations is spread over four years, and a rise in other charges.
posted at 10:42

 
Despite protest and chaos, the mayor had his way yesterday and carried the vote to change Park Avenue/Avenue du Parc to Avenue Robert-Bourassa. Now he wants to put the whole mess behind him but I don't think it's going to be so easy.
posted at 11:32

 
Federal Liberal hopefuls and their supporters are converging on the Palais des congrès today through the weekend for their leadership convention.
posted at 10:55

 
A coalition is begging the city to expropriate certain neglected apartment buildings in Ahuntsic and make them fit to live in. And this is by no means the first time this blog has seen mention of the state of those buildings.
posted at 10:22

 
The Government of Canada climate change site is currently unavailable – until the climate changes?
posted at 01:55

 
Adieu Avenue du Parc, bonjour Avenue Robert-Bourassa.
posted at 13:21

 
The Italian ambassador to Canada has registered a protest about RCMP characterization of the mobsters rounded up here last week as "Italian" organized crime.
posted at 11:27

 
A lot of money is being poured into a project to give Montreal a last-minute cut-price ticket booth like TKTS on Broadway.
posted at 11:21

 
A new bus station for the îlot Voyageur is planned for May, despite UQÀM's problems with funding the new project.
posted at 10:48

 
A seriously massive geezerplex involving five huge buildings is to be constructed on Sherbrooke East out by l'Assomption metro. It's being described as de prestige, so the lives of the inmates are likely to float above the generally less fortunate and more dangerous lives of the ordinary residents of the area.
posted at 10:24

 
More details on transit fare increases: passes up to $65, single fares to $2.75 and a strip of tickets will be $11.75.
posted at 10:16

 
The vote on changing Bleury and Park to Avenue Robert-Bourassa has been held over till this morning, but is expected now to go the mayor's way.

For a long time Mayor Tremblay seemed relatively free of the Napoleonic egotism that has afflicted most Montreal mayors in living memory. But there must be some kind of whammy on the mayor's official seat. Eventually they start thinking Montreal's some kind of Lego toy village for them to play with, and then you know what happens.
posted at 09:46

 
Superior court upholds the publication of rental guidelines yearly.
posted at 22:42

 
City council is to vote tonight on changing Park Avenue to Boulevard (or Avenue) Robert-Bourassa.

Mayor Tremblay is faced with one of the harsher weeks of his mayoralty so far, as the transit commission has just announced that fares are going up again and the new city budget is also coming down this week in an atmosphere of panic.
posted at 11:06

 

This part of Eleanor Street may disappear so that the École de technologie supérieure can construct student residences on this block. Lansdowne Avenue, in the middle distance, is already a ghost – there's hardly a laneway there, let alone a street.

One of the other buildings to be demolished. Despite the dog warnings on two doors, it appears no one has lived or run a business here in some time.

The two most notable older houses to be demolished, described as patrimoniale in a blog entry from yesterday, although no dates are given. They've been allowed to deteriorate, but there are a couple of well-grown trees out back that it would be a shame to cut down.
posted at 14:57

 
The enlargement of Molson Stadium is only one of a whole slew of projects that are nibbling away endlessly at the "protected" territory of Mount Royal.
posted at 13:44

 
A look at St. Joseph's Oratory's hundreds of crèches and the seasonal show of 290 different nativity scenes from around the world.

And artdaily.com has a brief notice and one image on the Girodet show at the Museum of Fine Arts.
posted at 13:20

 
ATSA is doing another État d'urgence festival at Place Émilie-Gamelin (Berri Square) to highlight the plight of the homeless; a protest has been held against Ville-Marie's law barring the homeless from sleeping in squares and parks.
posted at 13:57

 
The city and the Centre d'Histoire have launched the Musée de la Personne, which encourages ordinary people to record their lives and their family history. It'll be interesting to see whether people do succeed in using it effectively.
posted at 13:04

 
The École de technologie supérieure, the big engineering school on Notre-Dame at Peel, can tear down two heritage buildings to put up student housing. The housing has to have a rappel historique, whatever that means.
posted at 12:04

 
As has happened before in criminal pursuit of the Mafia, it could be the taxman that's the undoing of reputed mob boss Nicolo Rizzuto.
posted at 12:02

 
Kristian Gravenor, who used to do a "year in crime" retrospective in the Mirror, has been doing blog entries this year instead, along with other interesting pictures and reviews.
posted at 14:14

 
Here are some old photos of Park Avenue and Bleury, forwarded to me from Nikos Karabineris.


Park and Laurier, looking west, around 1910.

Bleury and Ste-Catherine, 1916.

Park at Van Horne, new in 1920.

Park and Laurier, looking south, 1933. The barbershop with the striped awning in the foreground is now a Starbucks.

Construction of the Park Avenue train station in 1931. After a time it fell into disuse, then was briefly an Indigo bookshop and is now a large SAQ store.

Police lined up for the royal visit to the park in 1939. Hard to believe now, but from all I've read, that royal visit was a major event back then, and the royal family still popular here.
posted at 13:59

 
With a nod to Buy Nothing Day, suggestions for spending a Saturday in Montreal while spending no more than $10.
posted at 13:44

 
Jaggi Singh, who hasn't been mentioned in this blog for some time, was arrested today at a press scrum at the Montreal General with Prime Minister Harper.
posted at 13:08

 
Unions are reacting to the mayor's plan to cut costs by cutting 1000 permanent jobs from the city's payroll.

All this seems a bit odd to me. City taxes are scheduled to rise over the next few years, so there will be more revenue. Can't the city hold out till then, and not axe things like food inspection and air quality control as a kind of melodramatic statement?
posted at 12:45

 
The rector of UQÀM, Roch Denis, steps down after large cost overruns were discovered on the science complex built at Sherbrooke and Saint-Urbain.
posted at 12:40

 
The five police officers who managed to bring a halt to Kimveer Gill's rampage at Dawson were honoured yesterday in a ceremony.

Also, a foundation has been created to support the most severely injured survivor of that attack.
posted at 12:22

 
A lawyer living on Park Avenue has slapped a formal demand on city hall asking for public consultation on changing the street's name to Robert-Bourassa. It's unclear how much leverage this action has.

I've received in email a whole collection of historical photos of Park and Bleury and will put some up soon.
posted at 11:39

 
The city is cutting a thousand jobs in order to reduce its budget deficit: jobs will be lost by attrition as people leave or retire, but the city's also ending food inspection and air quality testing, which sounds unwise, and going out of the horticulture business. Let's just say the unions are not pleased and wait and see what happens next.
posted at 11:07

 
It's a story with ramifications, but the upshot is that the head of the SAQ is being blamed for inflated wine prices costing Quebecers millions of extra dollars over the course of the last year or two. But given that the government has treated the SAQ like a cash cow, this hardly seems surprising.

Ideally our wine prices should come down a notch now, but does anyone really expect that they will, now that the government is accustomed to this level of revenue? I didn't think so.
posted at 11:08

 
Ville-Marie's new cleanup law involves resto and bar owners in sweeping up the endless cigarette butts and related trash outside their establishments. Needless to say, they aren't thrilled.
posted at 11:03

 
A study from the Société du Havre suggests the demolition of the Bonaventure expressway to clear more room for development, basically meaning lots of condo and office highrises around what's now considered Griffintown.

Another new route is also being proposed for the theoretical tram that would solve every possible transit woe downtown, from getting tourists to Old Montreal and the Quartier Latin to bringing patients to the new CHUM hospital and serving neo-Griffintown as described above. Is there anything it can't do?

Eventually it will even go up Avenue Robert-Bourassa and bring people to the newly enlarged Molson Stadium for an Alouettes game: there will be no referendum on this, as opposition to the plan did not succeed in signing up enough names requesting one.
posted at 10:40

 
Big story today is about members of the Montreal Mafia including elderly patriarch Nicolo Rizzuto being rounded up in a dawn raid. A litany of charges awaits them in court.
posted at 10:30

 
I don't usually do video links, but you've got to see this old Montreal metro commercial on youtube. Warning: perky music. (Smaller, sharper version here, not sure how long it will be up. Thanks to Chris de Wolf for this one.)
posted at 10:12

 
An underground race and group walk will be featured in February's Montréal en lumière fest.
posted at 01:27

 
Montreal writer Peter Behrens gets the Governor-General's award for a novel about an Irish immigrant to Canada.
posted at 01:24

 
Just passing along this reminder about a meeting tonight to keep the name Park Avenue:

This evening, Tuesday, November 21, 2006, starting at 7 p.m. at the Bibliothèque interculturelle at 6767 Côte-des-Neiges (east side, across from Côte-des-Neiges Plaza). Organized by city councillors Marvin Rotrand & Warren Allmand. How to get there: 165 bus. The library is located at the corner of Goyer Street, four blocks north of Van Horne, two blocks south of Jean-Talon.
posted at 13:09

 
Review of the new show on Girodet at the Museum of Fine Arts plus a preview of Christmas concerts to come.
posted at 11:04

 
Urban sprawl is constantly growing around Montreal as the population continues to shift to the suburbs – although the city's also gained in numbers between 1994 and 2004.
posted at 10:55

 
The register is open today till 7 p.m. at city hall for people from Ville-Marie or Plateau Mont-Royal to sign so that there should be a referendum on the enlargement of Molson Stadium.

Projet Montréal lists three good arguments against: the project is asking for $23 million in public funds, would draw a lot more people and noise into the residential area east of McGill, and would damage the fragile ecosystem of Mount Royal. All this to support a professional sports team that interests relatively few of us. Go sign that book if you live nearby – there's even a bus navette set up to make it easier to get to city hall (see the article).
posted at 10:53

 
UQÀM is faltering on funding the development of the giant project on the îlot Voyageur, meantime, the HEC is lusting after a new pavilion despite having built that postmodern palais on Côte-Ste-Catherine not so long ago.
posted at 10:33

 
Downtown dwellers will have to clean their house frontage and sidewalk and maybe even the street in front of their house, according to a new law. But since most of them don't live in houses as such, I wonder how much effect this will have on downtown's general tidiness.
posted at 10:28

 
A landlords' group is in court trying to chip away at rent control; a tenants' group is fighting them.
posted at 18:43

 
The smoking law has held up to a court challenge mounted by a coalition of bar owners.
posted at 18:36

 
Now the Journal de Montréal is campaigning for more high security measures at the city's universities, as they clearly won't be satisfied until everyone has to present I.D. or get iris-scanned to enter any building at all. According to this philosophy, crowded public buildings as diverse as the Bell Centre, the Grande Bibliothèque, Notre-Dame during Christmas midnight mass, the Paramount cinema, any mall or plaza on Saturday in December, is merely a potential target for crazed killers. The fact that this hardly ever happens, that injuries and deaths from this kind of incident are negligible next to statistics for road accidents or smoking-related mortality, is not mentioned. Presumably we're all safest alone at home behind locked doors, is the subtext – but it'd be a hell of a life.
posted at 08:54

 
Thanks to blork blog I became aware of the Canadian Blog Awards and that this blog has been nominated in the Best Media Blog category, I don't know by whom.

You can vote until Tuesday in any or all categories, but you know who to vote for in the Media Blog category.

I've also found some very interesting blog entries among the noms, including Chicagoan in Montreal's detailed photo essay on snow removal in Montreal and two excellent pieces written in the aftermath of the Dawson College shootings.
posted at 04:06

 
The city is being sued for millions for damages in connection with the summer 2005 flooding of l'Acadie circle and surrounding buildings.
posted at 02:54

 
The B.C. Lions beat Montreal on Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg to win the Grey Cup, as was widely presaged. Detailed post-mortem and more descriptions of the game than you can shake a stick at.
posted at 02:53

 
Review of a travel book by the publishers of Vice recaps the Montreal history of the magazine; do I detect a sort of nostalgie de la boue from this most establishment of Gazette writers?
posted at 02:46

 
Serge Savard's jersey number 18 was retired last night in an emotional tribute at the Bell Centre.

At this rate, won't the Habs be running out of numbers soon?
posted at 14:54

 
I have to admit it isn't my sport, but the Alouettes face off against the B.C. Lions, favourites to win the Grey Cup, in Winnipeg today. The game starts at 6 p.m. our time.
posted at 12:32

 
The Saputo soccer stadium will be built out by the Olympic park near Viau and Sherbrooke. This still seems odd to me, as the whole exercise of renovating Molson Stadium is based on the knowledge that lots of people won't go all the way out past Pie-IX to see a sports match.
posted at 13:03

 
City libraries and cultural centres will be offering internet wi-fi. A login and password will be required "so the city can monitor the person's Web activities," says the planner, – but that's required at the Grande Bibliothèque as well (which, for example, blocks the port that carries AIM chat).
posted at 12:57

 
A developer is stopped while demolishing a building dating from 1870 for which the city had only issued a renovation permit.
posted at 12:36

 
Opponents of the expansion of Molson Stadium are out this weekend to focus opposition to the project, trying to get people to sign a register to force a referendum on the topic.

Although the area is residential, it's not so simple: a lot of the residents are transient student occupants who won't be there for long, and who might even think it would be fun to have a bigger venue up the street. That's until they're trying to pull an all-nighter on a term paper while a rock concert's being held a block away. But then it'll be too late.
posted at 10:48

 
Despite posting recent profits, Loblaws plans to close 19 Provigo and Loblaws stores in Quebec. Although this is being described in terms of lost jobs – a legitimate concern – it's also bound to have an impact as modest neighbourhoods lose their grocery stores.

Obviously it looks good on a corporation's short-term balance sheet if they maintain a few very profitable outlets and cut off those that don't turn an immediate profit. We've already lost most of the city's bank branches to this process, for example. But as a highly centralized suburban model continues to invade the city it puts the burden on the consumer to travel further and spend more time to do regular errands. Inevitably this means more and more dependence on the car, just as we begin to realize how insane this is as a sustainable model for living.
posted at 10:39

 
The still quite undeveloped Anse à l'Orme area in the West Island is under threat of development and loss of green space as a 45-hectare project involving industrial and residential construction blandishes the suburbs with the promise of a new tax source.
posted at 10:29

 
An American blogger in Montreal writes about the implications of Quebecers flying the Confederate flag.
posted at 10:09

 
View of Montreal as a brainy society from a McGill professor observing how foreign students respond to the city.
posted at 14:40

 
UQÀM deficit puts its plan to develop the Voyageur bus terminal block in question.
posted at 14:33

 
Official opposition at city hall is asking Mayor Tremblay to submit his Park Avenue name change idea to the Conseil du patrimoine.

Councillors are not sticking to party lines over this issue, and the outcome is uncertain.

An email sent from city hall to critics has incensed many by its airy reference to "neo-Montrealers". This is the kind of arrogance that isn't soon forgotten – especially at the ballot box.
posted at 14:25

 
An internal police department suggestion that policewomen call in a male colleague to do the talking in matters connected with the Hasidic community has raised hackles in the police brotherhood. Women make up one third of the police force in Montreal.

(I wonder whether the Brooklyn police have any special policy for dealings with the Hasidic community there.)

In another story bearing on the accommodation of religious feelings, the Park Extension CLSC has banned men from its prenatal classes even though boyfriends and husbands routinely attend elsewhere.
posted at 12:43

 
This ranking of Montreal rental sites might be useful – if not now, maybe next spring.
posted at 14:58

 
The Park Avenue merchants' association is circulating a petition throughout Montreal to try to carry the vote on November 27 over whether to change the street's name to Robert-Bourassa. Close to 35,000 people have signed so far. Links to the two petitions are at right.
posted at 11:24

 
Montreal is getting a sizable slice of this new federal transit security money with the federal minister doubletalking about how commuters ought to feel safer but actually have no reason not to feel safe now.
posted at 11:21

 
Developers are gearing up to fight what they call immobilisme and what community groups call sustaining their communities and maintaining affordable places to live.
posted at 11:14

 
This has been the rainiest year on record in Montreal – you're not imagining it.
posted at 11:09

 
Maisonneuve writer lists three downsides of Montreal that all sound to me like things that can't be fixed.

One thing that annoys the hell out of me that I think could be fixed is having to listen to the bus driver's radio. I don't remember exactly when drivers won the right to listen to the radio (sometimes turned up quite loud) while driving, but it certainly wasn't an improvement for the customer. The idea seems to be that if you can't afford a car, too bad: you've got no choice but to stomach CKOI or Q92 if that's what your driver likes. Feh, I say.
posted at 11:05

 
One story says Montreal must work harder to attract foreign students while another story says foreign students are falling over each other to come study here.
posted at 11:13

 
The University of Montreal's plans for the Outremont rail yard are coming into better focus, but federal money for the project is still a dream.
posted at 11:08

 
A massive new project involving office spaces, major stores and thousands of condos is being proposed for Griffintown by the canal.
posted at 10:49

 
Parking meters will be eating more change; more spaces will also be metered.
posted at 10:32

 
The city's cemeteries, although large, are running out of spaces for new customers.
posted at 10:30

 
The Conservatives are doling out cash to certain cities to heighten security on their public transit systems. With a keener eye for real hazards, Montreal is adapting some of its snow clearance equipment to work on dispersing ice: ice storms are becoming more common as the climate changes. Also, the city is considering clearing bike paths in wintertime, rather than arbitrarily shutting many of them down November 1, as is currently done whether snow has fallen or not.
posted at 10:19

 
With winter waiting in the wings, bar owners try to quash the smoking law at least as it applies to their establishments: they're not concerned with reviving smoking in restaurants and other public places.
posted at 11:19

 
Although called a success, the summer's Outgames have posted a $5M deficit and burned through a fair bit of public money as well.
posted at 10:59

 
Peter McQueen, a longtime NDG resident, has a site to fight the proposed traffic changes surrounding the site of the nascent superhospital on the old yards south of Vendôme metro.
posted at 23:31

 
The Alouettes are off to the Grey Cup final in Winnipeg next weekend, which directs our attention pleasantly away from the Habs' performance this weekend...
posted at 22:59

 
The roadwork being done up and down the Main is rerouting the 55 bus and scaring off shoppers, not good for retail businesses in the area, but you can't keep everybody happy, especially as presumably somebody wants the street spiffed up: omelets, eggs, wtf.
posted at 22:39

 
Some downtown shopkeepers are amenable to the homeless sleeping in their doorways, since their presence can protect businesses from vandalism. I don't know what to think about this, as even guard dogs get to have more shelter than that.
posted at 22:33

 
The smoking huts being bought by bars may well turn out not to be legal after all.
posted at 15:08

 
A French weekly looks at Quebec – some good reads but some, alas, locked to subscribers only.
posted at 14:50

 
A study shows that the Highway 25 extension bridge will be privately managed, and will cost commuters to use. Funny how people may tolerate this kind of charge from a private company, but not accept city tolls on older bridges.
posted at 14:37

 
The city's sale of St. Jacques market on Ontario is meeting some resistance, even though the city has made it a condition that the ground floor remain a market.
posted at 14:34

 
Yet another tale of filthy, decrepit apartment buildings and the city's apparent lack of will to grapple with the owners and demand action.
posted at 14:20

 
The city's removing its bike racks for the season, along with any bicycles left attached to them by unwary owners.
posted at 14:13

 
The city will be spacing out an increase in its tax valuations over four years, not three.
posted at 12:35

 
The police successfully tested a semi-unmarked police car that moves among traffic to stop and ticket drivers doing illegal things, and is now going to add four more to create a furtive fleet.
posted at 12:34

 
The city installed a concrete median to reduce chaos at the corner of Jarry and Saint-Laurent, and it seems to have made things worse.
posted at 12:19

 
The Crown wants the 17-year-old that's been arrested in connection with a series of sexual assaults to face trial as an adult; psychologists say his methods were becoming more violent and, had he not been caught, might well have progressed to murder.

(The police sketch clearly depicts a black suspect, but the CTV photo shows what seems to be a white guy and a policeman. Odd.)
posted at 12:03

 
Montreal has a lot of street murals, official, unofficial and commercial in intent, one of the most striking being the faces on Ste-Catherine just east of the Main. Also some photos and a list of notable mural works although it leaves out the venerable lips mural that's been there so long.
posted at 13:01

 
Farmers dumped tons of corn yesterday on René-Lévesque by complexe Guy-Favreau to protest the federal government's inaction in supporting the Canadian farmer.
posted at 12:51

 
The city's intensive care units are short-staffed and risky for patients, says a DVD circulated to the media by six specialists in that kind of medicine. At the same time, it's becoming clear that medical specialists are being well paid by pharmaceutical companies to shill their wares to general practitioners.
posted at 12:40

 
Condo developers are feeling frustrated by environmental rules protecting wetlands in the Montreal area.
posted at 12:33

 
A 17-year old has been arrested in connection with a series of sexual assaults in the north end.
posted at 12:29

 
A nephew of Robert Bourassa argues for changing Park Avenue as a gesture of gratitude toward his uncle with a letter in today's La Presse in which he pulls out all the stops, including what's meant to be the killer one: resistance to the change, he claims, is merely an angryphone stance. (Strange then how so many of the names on the pro-Parc petitions – links still available on your right – are French or Greek.)

Such divisiveness has been common enough in Quebec politics, but has no place in Montreal now. It's not a 'phone issue, it's an issue touching everyone in the city.
posted at 11:23

 
Bars are making elaborate plans to allow smokers to step outside for a smoke this winter as the bar owners' organization continues to fight the anti-smoking law.
posted at 11:17

 
Interview with a French filmmaker transplanted to Montreal, and a piece by an American student coming to terms with McGill and the city.
posted at 11:14

 
Preview of the documentary film festival opening today.
posted at 11:11

 
Université Laval is planning to establish a campus in Montreal, and has an eye on the Centre 7400 on Saint-Laurent in Villeray.
posted at 11:06

 
Plans for this winter's Montréal en Lumière are unveiled.
posted at 11:03

 
Various of the Ville-Marie city councillors have taken steps to become marriage officiants, as have the mayors of several other boroughs.
posted at 11:01

 
It used to be news when big films were shot here; now it's news when big producers merely visit to size the city up as a possibility.
posted at 10:54

 
Arrests have been made after another stolen car plowed into a police station last night.
posted at 10:44

 
Two young Alouettes players face charges after an incident with police Monday night.
posted at 10:42

 
Montreal's vocation as a sex tourism destination with younger and younger prostitutes is blamed on gang activity.
posted at 10:37

 
More on the Park Avenue YMCA and how its newly frosted windows have become a hot potato issue.
posted at 10:33

 
Interesting collective blog on walking Turcot Yards and what can be found there.
posted at 11:04

 
Some of the more assertive defenders of Park Avenue are making up stickers to place over the name "Avenue Robert-Bourassa" if the change is given the nod by City Hall.
posted at 11:00

 
A monthly transit pass will cost $2 more as of New Year's day, but no news yet whether single fares or tickets will go up too.
posted at 10:50

 
The police want an additional $40 million to fight crime.
posted at 10:23

 
The visibility of women working out in shorts has provoked something of an issue at the Park Avenue YMCA.
posted at 10:19

 
The STM has decided not to ask the suburbs to share in its deficit, because suburbs wanted two members on its board in exchange.
posted at 12:16

 
The long-promised continuation of Highway 30 around Montreal, now planned as one of Jean Charest's beloved projet public-privé schemes, runs into cynicism in some quarters and outright resistance in others. A ministry page about the project has a map in pdf format and some rather sluggish Windows Media videos.
posted at 10:56

 
Saturday night saw two attacks on police stations using stolen cars. Nobody got hurt, but nobody knows who did it, either.
posted at 10:35

 
Enthusiastic review of this month's Opéra de Montréal production, La Traviata.
posted at 10:32

 
Montreal gets onto the infantilism map with the opening of a nursery for adults in the east end. Somehow I don't think this will make it onto the official lists of tourist attractions.
posted at 10:20

 
Inevitably, the STM now has to tighten up security at its maintenance sheds, after journalists demonstrated they could walk in without being challenged.
posted at 22:39

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