There are more news stories on Autumn Kelly, but clearly nobody's digging up any dirt on the Pointe Claire woman marrying into the royal family tomorrow. British media are raising a few implied eyebrows over her plebeian background, and the National Post managed to find some priest to tut tut about her abandonment of her Roman Catholic "faith" in order to join her husband's Church of England, but that's a reach in a time when most people under 60 use a church only for the occasional wedding or funeral. After tomorrow, let's hope this remains a non-story. posted at 09:07

 
The city's Chinese community is raising funds to send to Sichuan to help victims of the recent terrible earthquake. posted at 08:59

 
The University of Montreal plan for its Outremont campus has won an urban design award – even though not a sod has been turned yet. posted at 08:56

 
Even though it opened officially last month, downtown's newest big venue, Salle Telus, won't be ready for general use till this fall – and, with Bell and Videotron sponsoring the big festivals, they're not likely to want to do shows in a hall named for a competitor. posted at 08:53

 
A quick look at several of the city's smaller museums as Museums Day approaches this Sunday. posted at 08:39

 
A slow summer is expected in local tourism, what with the strong loonie and other factors; Tourisme Montreal has certainly pulled out all the stops in its new "Montreal in two minutes" video.

Montreal remains a popular destination for sex change operations: although Quebec won't pay for them, other provinces will. posted at 08:28

 
I'm holding a printed copy of today's Mirror here (their website always goes up later on Thursday, so I can't yet link) and am pleased to see that this blog came in #3 in its category, after Midnight Poutine and Pregnant Goldfish, the latter of which I've never looked at. But the Poutine crew deserves congratulations. posted at 09:17

 
Municipal affairs minister Nathalie Normandeau now says she will make her decision on the division of metropolitan powers in two weeks' time. The suburbs are said to be fighting hard to get their 13 percent of the island's population recognized. I can tell you one thing: whatever solution the minister proposes in Bill 22, it won't last long. posted at 07:41

 
Concordia gets a gift from the Jesuits and McGill has bought the adjoining Anglican college now that Anglicans are down to less than 1% of the city's numbers. posted at 07:30

 
La Ronde opens this weekend for the summer season. posted at 07:26

 
Crime figures are down although some downtown residents still complain about prostitution and drug dealing. posted at 07:17

 
By chance, maybe, today La Presse is looking at medical errors made in our hospitals and the Journal at a specific instance of error: a north-end hospital that allowed a distraught patient to wander off and make a suicide attempt that was ultimately successful – a type of incident that's been seen before. But when emergency wards are overcrowded and understaffed it's inevitable that a few people will slip through the cracks every year. posted at 08:12

 
The municipal affairs minister's promise to solve the chronic power struggle within the metropolitan agglomeration by June has been dealt away in a political deal. It's not something that can be fixed by decree, anyway – the merger-demerger debacle has demonstrated that. posted at 07:59

 
The STM is promising better bus service in the western parts of the island; plans for a fast train link to Quebec City are on hold, waiting on endless studies. It only takes 3 hours to Quebec anyway, which makes little sense of the idea, although the point is made that the tracks between here and there are often busy. posted at 07:52

 
Many folks have no doubt noticed the postering campaign up and down the Main, urging that it be renamed for Lucien Rivard, a colourful Quebec bandit of the 1950s and 60s. Turns out it's a viral marketing stunt to promote an upcoming film by Charles Binamé; there's also a website here.

(I've also been told there's virtually no chance of removing any saint name from any Montreal street in the foreseeable future, due to longstanding sacerdotal clutch on city hall heart strings. This came up a few years ago when the Haitian community was asking about renaming Saint-Dominique.) posted at 07:39

 
The race track is being repaired and other little improvements added for next month's Grand Prix race. posted at 06:53

 
Yesterday's three provincial by-elections snubbed the ADQ, returning the PQ in two Montreal ridings and the Liberals in Hull and leaving the National Assembly balance unchanged. posted at 08:13

 
Pointe Claire enclave is all of a twitter over their part in this weekend's royal wedding. posted at 08:09

 
An interesting look at how independent video stores survive in a competitive market. posted at 07:56

 
This is the kind of piece Le Devoir can do so well: pondering what "forever" means in law specifically as applied to the land donated by Louis-Joseph Papineau for a public square, it first makes the case for allowing such things to be changed over time, and then the opposing arguments for letting the legacy stand. posted at 07:53

 
The Journal has some pretty specific details about the activities that got Selwyn House teacher Richard Doucet nabbed by U.S. police, although I have to say that the "super-flic" who spends not only his work hours but his evenings and weekends posing as a 13-year-old boy on chatrooms does not sound entirely happy either. Doucet remains jailed in the U.S. and may face more charges soon. Also an old boy's thoughts about the school – from Toronto, of course. posted at 07:47

 
The Bouquinistes who've set up Paris-style bookstalls along the Old Port yearly since 1992 won't be appearing this year because, in the end, it hasn't been profitable. posted at 07:21

 
The Vision Montreal party has dwindled since the departure from politics of its initial leader, Pierre Bourque, but the acclamation of Benoît Labonté as its new leader will either revive it, or consign it to the dustbin of history. But do we really need a year and a half of campaigning before the November 2009 election? posted at 07:31

 
Shopkeepers along Mont-Royal Avenue plan a march this evening to protest the city's treatment of their commercial area: high parking fees and those condos being built over the city parking lots are sore points.

(I understand their annoyance, but why don't they do more to emphasize their street as a walking street, and its easy accessibility by metro and bus? Surely nobody who's not disabled actually needs to drive to shop along Mont-Royal?) posted at 07:14

 
Water from Lake Ontario has been held back so's not to flood Montreal's ports, but the headline on this story seems chosen to build melodrama. posted at 07:05

 
A venerable and much-decorated firefighter on the brink of retirement says the escalating struggle between the city and its fire service has to stop or the public will inevitably suffer. posted at 07:01

 
A look back to an incident in 1936 that displays the cautious approach of Canada and Quebec to Nazi Germany before war broke out. posted at 20:05

 
The new area code 438 will slowly be coming into use, mostly for cell phone service at first; it's meant to provide more numbers for the 514 zone. posted at 19:57

 
The news that another Selwyn House teacher has been accused on pedophilia-type charges has upset students and parents at the tony private school. However, this time the suspect was entrapped online by U.S. investigators, and no charge has been made against his conduct as a teacher. posted at 10:56

 
Some of the British are getting only a bit excited over the marriage of Montrealer Autumn Kelly to the Queen's grandson next week, although some remain refreshingly snide. posted at 09:56

 
Guy Lafleur is still thinking about the Habs' season, how it went and how it might have gone differently; a La Presse writer also looks back, perhaps a bit wistfully. posted at 09:41

 
The tam-tam gathering in Mount Royal park is marking its 30th year this year but its origins are a matter for a little bit of debate. posted at 08:11

 
It's free compost weekend at the Saint-Michel environmental complex and several other locations. You need to bring your own shovel and containers and proof that you're a Montreal resident. posted at 13:59

 
Controversial airport flight path may be abandoned after protests, but of course the planes have to go over somebody's house sometime. posted at 11:00

 
Montreal Underground Film Festival runs next week, and the lineup's been announced for next month's Suoni per il popolo festival. Festival season is upon us. posted at 10:52

 
Museums Day, coming up on May 25, promises to be a good one this year, falling at a time when some exhibits are drawing to a close and others will have just opened. The Musée d'art contemporain is holding a huge "triennale" show, the Fine Arts show of Cuban art will still be open, and various special events are planned. posted at 10:02

 
Continuing opposition to the plan to "modernize" Notre-Dame East into a highway, plus thoughts on the utility of covering up the Ville-Marie and reclaiming the urban space lost when construction of the trench highway erased rue Vitre and its surroundings. posted at 09:44

 
The city is temporarily trapping raccoons on Mount Royal so they can be vaccinated and microchipped. posted at 09:09

 
Montreal municipal court tiptoes into the new century with a plan to find ways of helping homeless people suffering from mental disorders, rather than putting them in the slammer for not being able to pay fines. posted at 09:03

 
Today the Journal has a story about an ongoing collaboration and "secret agreement" between Radio-Canada and Gesca, the parent company of La Presse. Union rights are invoked and the question of the public broadcaster relying on private industry is raised. Radio-Canada has already defended its practices. A legitimate problem, or is this only the Journal cooking up another scandal to sell papers, and get in a dig at its competition at the same time? posted at 08:01

 
The plan to widen Notre-Dame East has been tinkered with again to add reserved bus lanes, although there will still be a section that's a sunken trench, Decarie-style. posted at 07:51

 
A woman's research into her family history turns up the first smoked meat deli on the Main a hundred years ago. posted at 07:48

 
Of 98 public gardening sites in the city, 22 are found to be too contaminated – with old industrial wastes, hydrocarbons and metals, mostly – to safely grow food. Montreal has been praised for its garden plot system, but it's several years now that stories about contaminated soil have cropped up in the news, and my suspicious side is wondering if this is not the beginning of a softening-up process via which the city will quietly reclaim some of these plots, set aside in the 1980s when the local economy was stagnant, and now looking much more desirable for construction. posted at 07:35

 
East-end residents get their water pressure back after repairs on a major main are completed; there were fewer water main breaks last year even so, compared to a veritable festival the year before. posted at 13:10

 
Work is to start on the contentious enlargement of Notre-Dame East in mid-October; not surprisingly, the Charest government is opting for one of its pet PPP projects to undertake the major rebuild of the Turcot interchange. posted at 13:06

 
Lysiane Gagnon marvels at the CHUM's wasteful flipflopping on its construction plans. She doesn't say, but the CHUM's contortions are pretty much mirrored by its mirror institution, the MUHC, which has been zigzagging between starting construction at the Glen site and enlarging the Montreal General, in much the same way (with the additional twist that they have to deal with the Shriners issue as well). posted at 12:57

 
The CCA is opening an exhibit on city life in Tokyo and London with an accompanying website; there will be a 3D photo exhibit of Montreal scenes across six locations this summer – no damn use for those of us without stereo vision, so somebody's got to go and tell me what it's like. posted at 07:49

 
Citizens are banding together to protest growing numbers of night flights in and out of Trudeau airport, a demo being held this morning outside Aéroports de Montréal's annual meeting.

Incidentally, Mirabel is mentioned in passing as still being in operation for cargo flights. Whatever happened to the scheme announced in 2006 to turn the mostly disused airport into a giant interior fun fair "destination"? posted at 07:47

 
The STM is to spend a million federal anti-terrorism dollars on a system that will chiefly keep random loonies, daredevils and teenagers from wandering on foot into its metro tunnels. posted at 07:44

 
Police helped deliver a baby in an SUV on Decarie this week. posted at 07:42

 
City administration to pour $400 million into infrastructure repairs this year, roads, water mains and sewers mostly. In the "you can't win" department, some journos are already kvetching about the inconvenience. La Presse has a PDF file listing all the upcoming work sites, although not with very specific dates, or you can check this section of the city site for details. posted at 07:38

 
Kahnawake's tobacco outlets are engaged in a price war bringing the cost of a carton of smokes down as low as $6. posted at 08:17

 
The CHUM is to respect the wishes of Louis-Joseph Papineau by not building its research centre on land he left for a public square, now Place Chénier. (Can't help noting that the city didn't think twice about burrowing under it for the Ville-Marie, though.) But this also means the new building will be built upwards rather than outwards, a trend that risks creating visual barriers et the edge of Old Montreal. posted at 08:12

 
Work is stopped at the Marché Saint-Jacques on Ontario because they had no permit. The owner wants to boost the market into a mini Atwater, which might be viable on the edge of the Village, a neighbourhood which will play host to 49 separate terrasses this summer as its section of Ste-Catherine goes pedestrian. posted at 08:04

 
The new roof proposed by SNC-Lavalin for the Olympic Stadium could cost $75 million because it would involve reinforcing the building and mast at the same time. posted at 08:02

 
Discussions on the Canadiens continue to percolate, including Bob Gainey's views on speed and thoughts about the future and future players; the Journal ponders the team's needs in tabular format – Carbonneau says he didn't realize how worn out Carey Price was; the head coach's famous loud tie is to be auctioned off for charity. He'll need a new one next season anyway. posted at 07:54

 
The Jazz Festival unveiled its indoor concert lineup yesterday with lots of piano players to underline its dedication to the memory of Oscar Peterson. There will be more than 150 indoor shows this year, the festival's 29th. posted at 07:42

 
Saku Koivu is off to play for Finland in the world hockey championships taking place in Halifax and Quebec City, after debunking the rumour that he and Alex Kovalev can't stand each other; Carey Price makes his mea culpas and other members of the team speak up: Kovalev, more from Kovalev, yet more from Kovalev, more from Price (that young man is having a bad time), Foglia on Price, Bertrand Raymond on making excuses for the team, re-signing Mark Streit, and many other post-mortems to the season. posted at 08:26

 
Words to haunt a Montrealer's dreams: a new roof for the Olympic stadium with hopes of making the building usable again throughout the winter. posted at 07:29

 
Jacques Demers gives his thoughts on the Canadiens' ended season and the evolution of the team; CH flags have vanished and bars are half empty around town; final postmortems are filed as the season ends in silence. posted at 08:42

 
UQÀM has 600 completed parking spots in the unfinished Îlot Voyageur building that could be rented out for ready money, but they're held up in some kind of legal limbo. posted at 08:09

 
The city's tenth murder of the year took place this weekend on Mackay, and another attempted killing happened nearby on Saint-Mathieu. Despite the proximity to Concordia the incidents don't seem to have any connection with the school, and cops don't know yet whether they have any connection with each other. posted at 08:02

 
Forced to use unplanned locations as snow dumps this winter, the city may have contaminated the soil in areas not prepared for that use. posted at 07:39

 
Possibly useful list of recycling misconceptions and tips (although, as I understand it, not all boroughs need you to separate your stuff). posted at 07:34

 
A major U of M urbanist dude calls the plans for the Quartier des Spectacles fast-food culture and thinks we should look higher and try harder. I like his point that it isn't wealth that generates culture, but vice versa. posted at 23:24

 
A brief but interesting list of big movies in English made here, but mostly set elsewhere. posted at 23:19

 
The Agence métropolitaine de transport has got itself involved in financial difficulties connected with the mortgage crisis in the U.S., which may have implications for its ability to sustain public transit growth here. posted at 23:18

 
Ben's Deli may yet be spared the wrecker's ball both by the Ville-Marie demolition committee and by its appearance on the top ten endangered list of the Heritage Canada Foundation. But is there any point or any interest in maintaining it as a museum? It's a good location for a restaurant, after all. posted at 23:13

 
Interesting review of a Guatemalan resto and general look at some other Latin-American restos around town. posted at 23:06

 
Kids from the regions (at least from around the Saguenay) find the thought of living in Montreal both unpleasant and frightening, and prefer the notion of Quebec City. posted at 22:35

 
Quebec is pouring more money into the conservation of its churches, with nearly $7 million earmarked for three years of work at St. Joseph's Oratory, where 200 Ford Mustangs were blessed this afternoon. posted at 22:20

 
There was no overexuberance in the streets last night as Canadiens fans went home, their hopes dashed as the team was eliminated from the playoffs. There are lots of post-mortems today, many focused on Carey Price and his fall from grace, but a goalie doesn't lose a game, or a series, all by himself; it may be one of the Habs' biggest weaknesses that they tend to believe in the arrival of the messianic goalie that saves all their asses. posted at 10:01

 
One of the buildings in Place Henri-Bourassa, recently in the news for being a notorious slum, has burned down in what seems to be an act of criminal arson. It had been boarded up and was going to be demolished anyway: nobody was living there. posted at 09:44

 
For those who read Spanish, a piece from an Argentinian newspaper talking about Montreal's cosmopolitanism and the Blue Metropolis festival. posted at 09:41

 
A big demo was held yesterday downtown in support of maintaining socialized health care; a smaller demo supported the legalization of marijuana. posted at 09:35

 
I've got no puns or wit for the news that the Canadiens have been eliminated after letting a 3-1 advantage slip through their fingers mid-game. posted at 23:08

 
Canadiens fans will be biting their nails this evening as the team tries to avoid elimination in a series in which history shows that coming back from 3-1 is a rare achievement. Carey Price will be in goal. posted at 16:16

 
On the many hazards faced by urban trees in a climate like ours: wind, pollution, salt, damage from sidewalk plows and deliberate human vandalism add up to a harsh environment, despite the city's tree policy. There are 675,000 trees on the city's territory. posted at 15:38

 
Saint-Michel is not uniformly pleased with the Tremblay administration's plan to hand off a lot of the old Francon quarry to a company called Smart Centres that basically designs huge malls; the city's refusal to delay consultation has made things difficult for entities that want to participate. And the city also plans a whackingly huge development out in Pierrefonds-Roxboro, bordering the Cap Saint-Jacques nature park. posted at 15:22

 
Tourism Montreal's PR guy answers a few questions about hockey riots, the strong loonie, the even stronger euro, car theft and competition from Quebec City and how they affect Montreal's potential as a tourism destination this year. posted at 14:47

 
The Rockland viaduct is going to be demolished because of creeping decrepitude in its 40-year-old concrete, although what kind of structure will replace it is not yet clear. posted at 14:43

 
No surprises as Benoît Labonté is acclaimed head of Vision Montreal: nobody else was trying for the position. posted at 13:45

 
The city's new hybrid bus has passed tests so far and will be introduced on several routes around town. Bringing diesel-electric hybrids online is a good move, but the initial promise of biofuels has lost its lustre now that we can see how the hunger for fuel will compete for the planet's food supply. posted at 13:43

 
There are already indications that emergency wards will be overcrowded and understaffed this summer. posted at 13:34

 
Plans by the Montreal General to add a large new section to its building are likely to block the view of Mount Royal enjoyed from downtown. Mountain preservationists ask why the development isn't being done at the Glen site behind Vendome metro instead. posted at 08:22

 
It seems to be big news today that U.S. investment giant Morgan Stanley plans to build a technical centre here, eventually creating 500 new jobs. posted at 08:17

 
The police force is cashing in on private contracts both consulting and providing security services. I would hope there's some official effort to make sure that developing their business doesn't cut into their front-line activities (I think of the cop airily laughing at the notion that police would waste their time looking for stolen bicycles) or create conflicts of interest, but I expect those will arise nonetheless. posted at 08:12

 
That busker who's been entertaining tourists on Place Jacques-Cartier for years with a fire-juggling act is given the boot by Ville-Marie's busker-auditioning committee. posted at 08:05

 
More good news on the public transit front: AMT is lengthening some of its suburban trains to welcome more commuters tired of traffic jams on the 13 and 15 at rush hour. posted at 08:01

 
At least Montreal doesn't have problems like this: a lion escaped from a private owner in western Quebec yesterday, but was caught after an intensive search. It's not strictly legal to be in possession of this kind of animal in Quebec, but the owner lived on a reserve. The articles also say the lion, still quite young, was litter trained. Imagine the size of its litter box and having to scoop it. posted at 08:37

 
The business of cranking out car flags featuring the CH logo could grind to a halt Saturday night as the Habs face elimination after slipping to 3-1 in their series against the Flyers. posted at 08:29

 
The city's about to embark on an ad campaign to encourage people to clean up their neighbourhoods, while the Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension borough is about to emulate Ville-Marie in imposing large fines for civic mess. posted at 08:15

 
The Bay store is suing Montreal over the affair of the cracked concrete slab that closed several blocks of downtown and involved expensive repairs last year. Other court cases connected with it guarantee that this will percolate through the courts for years and eventually cost a much larger sum than named in the article. posted at 08:09

 
There have been some good Urbanphoto pieces lately from Chris: on the fate of the YMCA vs. the YMHA in Mile End, on the poetry of back alleys all over town, and on strip club signs. I did an Urbanphoto piece myself in April on the history of St. Michael's Church, the huge domed landmark at the corner of Saint-Viateur and Saint-Urbain. posted at 08:00