Despite huge snowfalls and other hits, the city has posted an $88-million surplus for 2008, but it's already been rolled into this year's troublesome budget. posted at 07:58

 
Plans for Notre-Dame East are again in flux as the projected cost of sunken highway work soars. posted at 07:54

 
La Presse is asking whether Frank Zampino went on a cruise with a promoter while he was still working for the city in 2007 and presumably negotiating a major contract involving the same promoter. posted at 07:39

 
Must-read Henry Aubin piece on Montreal's big weakness in allowing major projects to go ahead without independent scrutiny. Political necessity drives development, with politicians and planners unwilling to risk having their big ideas debunked by objective studies showing the projects are ill-conceived, and we end up getting expensive stuff we don't need, or not getting things we do need – or getting nothing at all.

(Aubin cites the new Université de Montréal site as having "twice the floor space of Place Ville-Marie" also, which makes me wonder if we have a new unit of measurement here.) posted at 07:36

 
More on yesterday's CHUM launch including a maquette of the new building, "twice the floor space of Place Ville-Marie." Le Devoir notes that many of the private elements in Jean Charest's beloved PPP formula are themselves not doing so well and quote him as having a "plan B" if the private investments don't materialize. posted at 07:26

 
On Coolopolis, J.D. Gravenor notes that Montreal incomes are down more than $5 per working day compared to the Canadian average, and asks why. posted at 21:42

 
A new housing project for Montreal North was announced today, meant specifically for young single mothers. I'm not sure that the Gazette's choice of a photo of Fredy Villanueva and family to illustrate the story is either relevant or tasteful. posted at 18:59

 
The Journal de Montréal union has brought a complaint to court that its employer is using scab labour to produce the newspaper while its unionized workers are locked out. posted at 18:57

 
Tenders for the construction of the new CHUM hospital were flung open today with ceremony by health minister Yves Bolduc, surrounded by other ministers including Jean Charest himself. And although one part of the project is supposed to be finished by 2013, the date of 2018 is given for the completion of the whole caboodle. The Radio-Canada piece has a good timeline, both of the historical milestones and the projected completion dates. posted at 18:32

 
The Blue Metropolis fest has announced its lineup including kudos for four local legends, and FESTIRAAM has also announced its plans, both bashes to take place later in April; the New York Times looks ahead to the headliners of the 30th annual jazz festival. posted at 18:25

 
British MP George Galloway's Canada ban has been upheld by a federal court judge. posted at 17:33

 
A new blog called Nontreal has a graphic response to my recent posting about the eyesore that is the Pepsi Forum. posted at 11:33

 
The promoter of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is denying the story that the track in the Gulf state won't be ready by November, possibly dashing Montreal's hopes of getting an F1 event after all this year. posted at 11:23

 
Nice piece on Canadiens doyen Elmer Lach, at 91 a survivor from the glory days of the team. posted at 19:00

 
I didn't blog all the noise following the death of Natasha Richardson, but have noticed that it breaks down into two camps: helmet law fans, and critics of Quebec for not having helicopters on call. Canada's socialized medical system has been slammed by some too, just on general principles. An ER doctor in Lachine refutes the idea that the actress's death is our fault, pointing out that a patient's refusal of care can seal their fate, and that, where there are medical helicopters, crews are not exactly standing by to scramble; it's unlikely that a chopper could've brought Ms. Richardson to Sacré-Cœur faster than the ambulance did. But if Tremblant arranges for a medicopter service for its elite clients in future, it would not surprise me. posted at 10:44

 
Big noise about the possible return of the Grand Prix this fall if the track in Abu Dhabi is not ready. Mayor Tremblay is on board – it would probably seal his triumph in November's election. posted at 10:33

 
Mayor Tremblay is suddenly withdrawing his objections to the current CHUM project, making me wonder what Quebec has offered him in exchange (support on the Quartier des Spectacles project, maybe?). Jean Charest's doing a PR exercise in launching the CHUM project with much fanfare tomorrow afternoon. posted at 10:26

 
Nice bit of local history with Martha Allan and the Montreal Repertory Theatre of the 1930s. posted at 10:05

 
The St. Lawrence Seaway opened fifty years ago and has seen ups and downs since then. posted at 10:02

 
Residents of Saint-Henri have been shaken by the discovery that a dead woman could sit in a parked car for several months and not be noticed.

I don't see why it's so surprising. This car was left in an unfrequented alley and must've been covered with snow till quite recently, when it was spotted soon enough by someone working nearby. It isn't a demonstration that we're oblivious to the fate of other people or testament to the soullessness of modern society, etc. etc. (The one surprising thing is that a car can be parked randomly anywhere in Montreal for four months and not get towed.)

An autopsy next week is expected to provide more info on how the 26-year-old woman died. posted at 09:59

 

Walking around yesterday afternoon I was struck again by the decrepitude and ugliness of much of Ste-Catherine between Atwater and Guy, but that isn't news to Montrealers.

What gets mentioned less often is the incredible eyesore created by the building that anchors the whole mess.

Sacrilege first: the original Montreal Forum was not a thing of beauty, but it had a certain solid presence and, of course, the cumulative history of the matches and performances that took place there.

This 1950s photo (originally from the city archives) shows what's under that present-day mess. Even so, the office-block-like addition along Atwater is already overbalancing the building in a weird way (it wasn't part of the original design, shown at top).

The major 1968 renovation enlarged the building and created a glass and concrete façade that was unlikely to lift the heart of the architectural critic, but was functional and didn't detract from its surroundings.

But now! Feast your eyes on this big box of mismatched siding, signs tacked up ad-hoc on ugly scaffolding (lots more of that along the Atwater side), dead exit doors on Ste-Catherine Street, a patchwork of junk basically saying nobody gives a damn. Cabot Square across the street could be quite a pleasant spot, but it has this right in its face. Children who look out at it from the hospital opposite are set back in their recovery from illness. This area will likely never be rescued and made right again until this eyesore is taken away and something less hideous replaces it.

A city like ours should not tolerate a blight like this on a major corner of a major street and, what's more, making mock of what once was a fabled venue. But people get used to things and feel they simply have to put up with urban ugliness because it's there and it's not going away. Until it does! Please, somebody, take it down and put it out of its misery. Like the Seville Theatre a block away, there's nothing there worth keeping any more. posted at 12:06

 
Earth Hour is tonight at 8:30: the city will be shutting off some lights and many of us will be closing down our main switch for an hour. Yes, yes, I know the argument that it's just a gesture. But I think anything that focuses public attention on environmental issues is worth doing. posted at 10:33

 
The body of Jessica Neilson, missing since December, was found in her car in a Saint-Henri alley by a construction worker puzzled when he noticed the same woman "sleeping" in a car two days in a row. Police are investigating. posted at 09:34

 
Nine years after the Taz skate park closed on Berri so the Grande Bibliothèque could be built, it's reopening in Saint-Michel today. posted at 09:28

 
The director general of Vision Montreal has quit, further gutting a party that was expected to provide a viable alternative to Mayor Tremblay in November. posted at 09:20

 
Toronto architect Jack Diamond will design the new MSO hall, supposed to be open by 2011. posted at 09:05

 
Profs at UQÀM are continuing their strike into a third week. They've been working without a contract for 22 months. posted at 09:02

 

Habitat 67 has been given heritage classification as an historic monument. posted at 08:50

 
Alain Dubé, czar of the Turcot project at the transport ministry, says the project is still in evolution after being challenged by those most likely to be affected (or afflicted) by the construction and the proposed form of the new highways. On Spacing, brave Jacob Larsen is proposing to summarize the BAPE documents on the project, a commendable effort that will put its findings more clearly in the public eye. posted at 11:06

 
The Quartier des Spectacles is about to get federal and provincial support, part of a bigger infrastructures deal between Quebec and Ottawa. posted at 11:02

 
A biker gang informant has fingered ten suspects in hits that happened during the 1990s biker wars. posted at 10:50

 
There's an urban sugar shack in Ville Saint-Laurent this week and till April 5; of course if you don't want to go to Du Collége metro there's a faux shack at Mont-Royal metro with tire sur la neige, and often there's tire at Jean-Talon market too. posted at 10:31

 
Backgrounds on the Grands Ballets Canadiens' Le Sacre du printemps at Place des Arts; interview with a Baltimore cantor who will be performing with the MSO next week; notes on the 40-year anniversary of the John and Yoko bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. posted at 09:47

 
Faced with a charge yesterday that the new CHUM hospital would be held back till 2018, health minister Yves Bolduc has gone out on a limb to promise it will be completed by 2013. I can hear the sound of breath being held all over the city. posted at 09:36

 
Louise Desnoyers has pleaded guilty in a Vermont courtroom to having drowned her son in Lake Champlain three years ago. It falls in with a recent spate of domestic dramas in which a Laval man killed his ex-wife and himself, and a woman in Sherbrooke killed herself and her son. La Presse is asking how we can stop these domestic horrors but maybe that isn't the right way to see the question. Until crisis occurs, we mostly stay out of each other's business and we want other people to stay out of ours. This isn't a society where it comes easily to ask a neighbour or a co-worker if everything is all right at home, but the curtain of (quite reasonable) privacy can conceal much. posted at 09:29

 
St. Paul Street will become a pedestrian mall this summer – for a few weekends, and for 200 meters only. Also some thoughts on transit in the area.

Which reminds me, Fagstein has a detailed list of bus route changes coming Monday. posted at 13:38

 
UQÀM got an injunction yesterday to make its striking professors tone down their picketing technique, which was alleged to have been blocking access to the school buildings. posted at 07:31

 
The residential development on the old Marianopolis land sold by the Sulpicians will be posh – million-dollar houses being planned for the site, which has been given the nod by the city's executive committee. No mention anywhere of a provision for affordable housing. posted at 07:19

 
First it was the mayor, now Jean Charest is affirming that, come what may, the Canadiens will stay in Montreal. The notion is being floated that the Caisse de dépôt ought to buy the team. posted at 07:16

 
The Château Dufresne museum has opened an exhibit on Quebec cemeteries. posted at 07:11

 
The federal government is giving the city twenty million smackeroos towards fixing up Parc Jean-Drapeau. (I didn't know it was broken.) posted at 23:31

 
Eep. The CBC is going to lay off 800 people and sell off some of its assets to try to balance its budget. The Radio-Canada union is blaming the Tory government for forcing the broadcaster to cut its budget too deeply. posted at 23:27

 
Taxi drivers drove en masse from downtown to the airport today as a protest in proposed permit changes: Aéroports de Montréal plans to have a private firm manage the special permits needed to serve the airport, replacing the lottery system that's been used in recent years. posted at 23:07

 
The Blue Metropolis festival, taking place next month, has chosen A.S. Byatt for its big prize this year. (It must be kind of fun to sit around and try to decide which major writer you'd most like to meet, then offer them a present to come visit you.) Linda Leith has a strangely deadpan anecdote about an earlier recipient of the award. posted at 23:00

 
Downtown restaurateurs are asking for a break on parking meter fees, especially in the evening, hoping that it'll help business to remove this obstacle to carefree noshing. posted at 12:24

 
An American fugitive on the lam since 2001 was arrested here yesterday after an eight-year evasion of charges of a sex attack on a kid. A tip from the TV show America's Most Wanted is credited for the arrest, the second this week of an American hiding from justice here in town. posted at 11:54

 
A nice slide show of some of the pieces in the Kees Van Dongen show on at the Museum of Fine Arts till April 19. posted at 11:43

 
The Conseil des arts de Montréal has given its big annual prize to the MSO, acknowledging that it's OSM. posted at 11:41

 
Benoît Labonté is appealing to Quebec to make a decree to start construction on the CHUM right away without any more tedious public consultation. Just a data point against the time Labonté declares his candidacy for mayor. posted at 21:07

 
An impact study on the rebuilding of the Turcot exchange predicts worse air quality in the environs after work is finished in 2016. No addition to existing public transit lanes is envisioned in the current scheme. The long period of demolition and reconstruction – seven years, supposedly – will also be very dirty and noisy. posted at 19:17

 
Andrew E. continues his spectacular sewer safari as he traces the Rivière St-Pierre through Lachine; Chris DeWolf puts his spin on the story on Urbanphoto. posted at 07:49

 
Harper's immigration minister Jason Kenney disowns the bizarre ban on British MP George Galloway entering Canada, and the man is still trying to get here to give talks in three Ontario towns and Montreal next week. His support for Palestinian groups has apparently put him on lists; his outspoken anti-war views are not supposed to be the issue. On the other hand, Kenney has not vetoed the ban, which he has the power to do. posted at 07:37

 
The Montreal symphony is going to tackle all nine Beethoven symphonies on consecutive days in 2010.

(Does anyone else think it's too bad they can't exploit the slogan potential of saying "Classical music is OSM!"? Or would online slang for "awesome" be unlikely to appeal to the right demographic... ?) posted at 07:27

 
Fagstein takes note of a public consultation tonight on the 515 bus, which has been chronically under-used since its launch, although I still think the business of running buses clockwise and counterclockwise on the same route has confused potential users too much. Anyway, they should give the route another trial this summer at least, and promote it to tourists, the people most likely to want to circulate quickly from Ste-Catherine to Old Montreal and back. posted at 07:23

 
Chris DeWolf has some thoughts and photos in response to the weekend's "shoebox house" item in the Gazette. posted at 07:17

 
Props are given to George Gillett for being a hands-off Canadiens owner; more on Gillett's circumstances and the future ownership of the team. posted at 07:10

 
Interesting obit of businessman and art collector Gerald Benjamin, of the Benjamin News distribution firm, who has left a large collection of pre-Columbian art to the Museum of Fine Arts. posted at 06:49

 
A British MP has been banned from entering Canada to give a talk at Carleton University. George Galloway is the only Respect MP in Parliament, representative of a lefty coalition, opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but demonstrably not dangerous to the people of Canada. Galloway had a piece in the weekend's Guardian in which he calls the Harper government the "rightwing, last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa."

Also reported today was that same government's cuts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. posted at 22:51

 
Mayor Tremblay says the Canadiens must stay in Montreal although it's difficult to know how he would stop a new owner from moving them; the players have other worries. posted at 21:46

 
Quebec has given the nod to Montreal plans to reduce the default speed limit to 40 km/h from 50; major arteries stay at 50 km/h and school zones at 30. posted at 21:40

 
Loto-Quebec's going to spend $300 million to modernize the Casino. posted at 15:20

 
The biggest story this morning is that the Canadiens may be sold but the official reason is that times are hard rather than that the team is tanking. George Gillett is also looking to sell the Bell Centre and his entertainment group. posted at 09:06

 
A man was shot by police early on Sunday after he broke into Station 33 – on Park Avenue near Jean-Talon – and threatened them with a knife. He's also suspected in a stabbing that had taken place nearby in Park Ex, and his life is not in danger. posted at 08:51

 
The city plans to embark on $90 million in arena renovation and repair without any guarantee of federal or provincial funds for the project. Fifteen of the city's arenas are in immediate need of fixes. posted at 08:40

 
CHUM planners continue to thrash around for ideas, this time talking about putting some facilities at the Viger station development, which is supposed to involve office tower construction, although how that can be justified on the borders of Old Montreal I've never understood. The promoter's also trying to attract University of Montreal offices, which suggests cold feet about finding non-institutional tenants for the project. posted at 08:33

 
NDG borough is about to embark on new projects for the Benny Farm area including a community centre and a library, but the folks hoping to return the Empress Theatre/Cinema V building to some kind of useful life are still waiting. posted at 18:30

 
The parade went off as usual today with big crowds, lots of families (babies wailing because they were getting cold in the shade), people selling flags and green plastic horns for people to honk on, helicopter flyovers and various groups playing bagpipes or drums or tubas. If nothing else, it's always stirring to see the Black Watch so beautifully turned out, so professional and so serious.

But there's a certain cultural disconnect. It's odd to see random people waving the Irish flag who may well have zero knowledge or interest in Ireland as an actual living country. I asked one flag seller about this.

"But I'm Irish," she said firmly.

"Really? You were born there?"

"Well, I wasn't born there."



There were also security guys in bright yellow dossards emblazoned with the logo of the United Irish Societies, whose motto is "Faith and Fatherland". I asked one of these guys what faith it was talking about and he didn't have a clue. I didn't embark on a discussion of fatherland.

La Presse ponders today how many francophone Quebecers have some Irish ancestry and has a list of Irish-related addresses, with another here. But what are people really saying when they claim to be Irish? I have no idea. posted at 17:18

 
March is fickle. The organizers of the St. Patrick's parade changed the date till the Sunday after the actual day, hoping for better weather, but they got chilly temperatures and some snow. Last Sunday was much nicer. But the Irish are used to adversity... posted at 08:51

 
Eye doctors will have services at the CHUM hospital, which irons out one of the latest hitches in the design of the perfect unbuilt hospital. Now another time-out is demanded while other specialists digest a 2000-page document containing the latest details about the layout. posted at 12:22

 
Today's tourism piece talks about Quebec City and Montreal in a tone I think we're going to get a lot this year: "Europe on the cheap". So it's not surprising to read the old chestnut that our Notre-Dame was "modeled after the Parisian original" which it never was. But quaintness will pay, so expect to hear a lot of stuff along these lines while the loonie's down and Americans who can still travel are nonetheless looking for a bargain. posted at 12:18

 

Interesting piece on the Montreal shoebox, a minimal style of residential housing that turns up in occasional rows, but sometimes surprisingly in the midst of bigger duplexes and triplexes. Also a photo essay showing a few typical ones. Above is a photo of a shoebox house I took in 2006, but it's since been replaced by a bigger house; another shoebox house on de Gaspé was demolished in 2006 and a condo building replaced it – but that just serves to emphasize the main drawback of these houses, which is that, unlike a duplex or triplex, they can't generate any revenue for the resident owner.

Urban density is the theme of another Gazette piece today in which Henry Aubin ponders tower height and its effect on residents, both internal and nearby, noting that the city administration is quite keen on building up, up, up, but that although it can be appropriate in some spots, it's devastating for others. posted at 12:12

 
UQÀM profs have rejected the recent offer from the university, so another week of strike action is in the offing. posted at 10:30

 
It's sadly not too surprising to learn that a black teenager has double the likelihood of being arrested of a white teenager, in Montreal. (This is a link to a Radio-Canada summary of a Le Devoir article, but that piece is locked so I can't link to it anyway.) posted at 10:28

 
Another look at the McCord museum's new exhibit on the Irish in Quebec, on the weekend of the St. Patrick's parade, which takes place tomorrow starting at noon, although without the Falun Gong detachment. posted at 10:18

 
City firefighters will have to go on working under their old work contract for now, after a ruling by the Tribunal d'arbitrage du Québec drew some lines in the sand. Meanwhile the police service isn't ruling out layoffs to meet the cuts required by the city's crisis budget provisions, which are being hastily integrated by borough administrators as well. posted at 09:43

 
Laval is doing a study on trolleybuses; a writer on Spacing asks whether putting our metro on rubber tires was a bad long-term decision, because it means you can't safely bring metro lines to the surface as happens quite routinely in other cities. posted at 14:53

 
A student at Concordia noticed a threat being made on a web forum by a UK resident who announced plans to attack a school in England, and his quick thinking caused the arrest of a student at the Norfolk school who seemed prepared to carry out an arson attack. posted at 12:15

 
There's a trend for recent immigrants to settle in the suburbs, not in Montreal proper. Maybe some of those Habiter Montréal posters ought to be printed up in Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish and a few other languages too. posted at 12:06

 
UQÀM has made an offer to its professors, who've been doing strike action all week. Their response is still to come. posted at 11:48

 
There are more changes to be made in the CHUM project, involving some infighting over whether ophthalmologists will be included in the new layout. To an outsider it seems pretty arcane: it's still a mystery to me why dentistry remains outside our medical system and at least part of eye care is not regarded as necessary either. I mean, try stumbling around without glasses and with a toothache and tell me that looking after your teeth and eyes is optional to your health. posted at 11:44

 
Here's a page of highlights of the Quebec budget. posted at 19:41

 
Pointed observations on the new czar of the Caisse de dépôt from one of the Globe & Mail's Quebec observers. posted at 11:11

 

A quick look at a second wave of the "Habiter Montréal" ad campaign which includes the item above. posted at 11:09

 
The federal government's ponying up $10 million for repairs and improvements to the Lachine Canal, with some vague stuff about how this shows the Tory government's concern for the city. It's slightly better news that U.S. improvements to Amtrak may make its Adirondack route better, which – considering it's been known to take between 10 and 13 hours to get home from New York by train – can't come soon enough. posted at 11:03

 

Radio-Canada's Maisonneuve is in quest of for new bright ideas for Montreal on the broadcaster's website, and probably to be mentioned on his radio show as well. posted at 10:12

 
Guy Carbonneau says he's still not sure what happened to his relationship with the Canadiens and he never saw the axe coming.

Craig Silverman explains the new Habs loonie and glances at the range of other memorabilia being produced for the team's centennial. posted at 10:03

 
After strike action disrupted classes yesterday, UQÀM profs are planning a rally and march this morning through downtown. posted at 08:44

 
As all the world knows by now, Natasha Richardson has died from what initially seemed like a harmless tumble on a Mont Tremblant ski hill, leaving an acting dynasty in mourning. posted at 08:40

 
More talk about reviving Expo 67, this time as an environmentally based exhibition in 2017. posted at 13:40

 
La Presse finds a parallel to our current science overlord's unwillingness to endorse evolution (the phrase "believe in" keeps being used, but one does not "believe in" a scientific principle in the same way one "believes in" a deity – one simply acknowledges its evident and overwhelming truth as a proposition) in the same Conservative government's choice of a culture minister who does not know who Félix Leclerc, Atom Egoyan or Guy Laliberté are. posted at 07:59

 
Another local sign of spring, the Jacques-Cartier bike path has been reopened for the season. posted at 07:48

 
It's a PDF file, which I don't usually link, but here's the official list of the initial photo radar sites in Quebec, including six in Montreal and several more in nearby suburbs, with maps. posted at 07:43

 
UQÀM profs have taken to the picket line to push along their demand for a new contract; apparently investigations have confirmed that the school's profs are underpaid compared to other Quebec universities. posted at 07:33

 
The city is ramping up its water mains infrastructure budget this year to $350 million, having spent $210M on it last year. The many water main breaks were just visible evidence that a lot of the old pipes have to be replaced. posted at 07:27

 
The feds are talking again about faster passenger trains for this neck of the woods, but it's an idea that's been around since I can remember, and news that another study's in the works is not too impressive. posted at 07:18

 
Martin Brodeur broke Patrick Roy's record tonight with his 552nd win in goal against the Blackhawks. posted at 23:26

 
The Conservative science minister, quizzed about his views on evolution, responded that questions about religion are inappropriate. Gary Goodyear, a chiropractor by trade, is the man who's been cutting funding for scientific researchers across Canada. Such classy people Harper has around him. posted at 23:16

 
The czar of the Port of Montreal has been sent packing after a year and a half in a post that's clearly a political hot potato, as the background information in this item suggests. posted at 22:59

 
Our recycling centres are unable to find a market for the constantly growing mass of collected materials and are storing piles of stuff outdoors in some cases. I don't have any easy answer for this, but after that monster fire last fall in the old CN railyard where massive stockpiles of used paper took days to burn out, we know how hazardous this kind of thing can be. posted at 22:49

 
The Îlot Voyageur site is to be revived to the extent of using its planned bus terminal space as of May, which should at least clear the buses from the improvised parking lot on the Bibliothèque block. posted at 07:50

 
Downtown merchants are very unhappy with the outcome of Sunday's police brutality demo, after their storefronts took the brunt of the protesters' ire. (Rue Frontenac goes on to quote a Plateau spokesman criticizing the Journal de Montréal's "campaign of fear" around the annual event, but it seems to me all local media were to some extent rubbing their hands together waiting for the demo.) Now the city wants the organizers to give advance warning of their marching route, but they say they won't, claming also that police blocked the crowd and herded them in the direction of the downtown core, where they hadn't originally intended to go. Now that the dust has settled, 32 people are facing criminal charges. posted at 07:43

 
The Montreal Juniors, who play at the Verdun Auditorium, are doing pretty well in the QMJHL. Previous attempts to float a junior team here have all fallen down, one way or another. posted at 07:33

 
It's in a lot of news media this morning that British actress Natasha Richardson, scion of the Redgrave acting clan, got seriously hurt in a skiing accident at Tremblant and was briefly looked after at Sacré-Cœur. posted at 07:28

 
I think it will be pretty cool when you can go up to the top of the Oratory dome and look out. Metro piece has a slideshow of the views, both inside and out, and Chris DeWolf has some thoughts on the benefits of a new view of the city. posted at 07:52

 
A look at the McCord museum's impending Irlandais O'Québec exhibit, although the "1933" in the lede ought to be 1833: Jacques Viger (1787-1858), the city's first mayor, designed the first version of the coat of arms of the city in that year, including a shamrock among the other motifs. posted at 07:42

 
Since my posting yesterday the arrest numbers in yesterday's police brutality demo have risen, anywhere from 48 arrests to 221 arrests being cited this morning, but many were for "unlawful assembly." Some innocent bystanders saw their cars damaged in the mêlée and there was an interruption on the orange line which police are blaming on the protesters, protesters on the police. posted at 07:28

 
21 people were arrested this afternoon at the hot-potato police brutality demo. I'd like to feel 100% confident there were no agents provocateurs on the scene, but I don't. posted at 19:45

 
An aperçu of the 26 Montreal acts playing at SXSW in Austin, Texas later this month. posted at 11:17

 
Today's anti-police-brutality demo begins today at 2 p.m. at Mont-Royal metro; nearby shopkeepers will be battening down the hatches. posted at 11:06

 
Job losses are beginning to afflict Montreal as reports show that Quebec is only following Ontario and Alberta in unemployment numbers. (I suspect in fact it's worse than the numbers look, because so many people now are employed on a casual contract basis and don't even qualify for EI, and thus don't get counted – and they're usually the first to be let go.) posted at 10:55

 
After conflicting and confusing bulletins this week it appears the four Médecins sans frontières captives in Sudan, including Montreal nurse Laura Archer, are free and safe. posted at 10:29

 
Martin Brodeur had a perfect day yesterday as he equalled Patrick Roy's record of 551 NHL wins in his own hometown and received the accolade of Saint Patrick himself. Red Fisher summarizes the Habs loss and Stéphane Laporte looks for the soul of the Canadiens. posted at 10:23

 

One turnstyle left at de Castelnau station for the old-style tickets. posted at 17:18

 
One day this week I stopped for a coffee at Café Olimpico. Ford pulled me my usual doppio, stood looking down at it for a moment, said "No, hang on," and chucked it away.

"What's up?"

"Tinkering with the grind."

He pulled a second doppio, nodded this time, and I paid for it.

And that's why the line's been snaking back around the pool table as everybody comes blinking out into the early spring light wanting a cup of joe. posted at 16:34

 
It feels rather petty to pick holes in this enthusiastic travelogue about Montreal, but the oddest one is to read descriptions of our beautiful gardens and remarks on taxi air conditioning in mid-March. Also "Frenchy Quebec"... posted at 16:11

 
It's a plot you wouldn't dare put in a novel: Oka warrior Richard Nicholas and photographer Tom Hanson – one the subject of an iconic photo from the 1990 crisis, the other who snapped the shot – died at exactly the same age this week, on exactly the same day. They never met. posted at 14:28

 
Legendary goaltender Martin Brodeur will soon be breaking a series of NHL records including Patrick Roy's mark of 550 career wins. But we'd prefer he didn't draw even with Roy's record tonight at the Bell Centre, which will be feting Patrice Brisebois' 1000th NHL game. posted at 14:16

 
Tomorrow's anti-police-violence demo is an annual event that always brings out the worst in both the protesters and the cops. Police are accused of upping the ante with a statement that they can't promise nobody will get hurt, and the protesters are saying much the same thing. Can't someone sensible help cool down this playground-like exchange of taunts? posted at 13:07

 
A fire this morning in Dorval gives some teeth to the Gazette piece this week encouraging readers to narc on suspected marijuana grow-ops, the chief hazard with these establishments being the risk of fire from a jury-rigged electrical supply. posted at 12:53

 
Quebec is kicking in $102.5 million to the STM to help pay for new buses to replace the low-floor lemons that Novabus delivered in the late 1990s. posted at 12:46

 
Cosmo Maciocia's political confrères are distancing themselves from his proposal to reduce the number of boroughs in the City of Montreal. I'm finding it curious that a mere notion is provoking so much response, as if it's occurred to a lot of people that it might actually be a good idea, but might rob them or their friends of their jobs. posted at 07:50

 
The city has failed to convince the Essential Services council that it's unsafe for police to wear the protest camo pants that our cops have been wearing so long it will seem odd now if they stop. The immediate issue was the SPVM's claim that they won't stand out sufficiently in this weekend's annual police brutality protest, always an occasion for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

And with the police department facing part of the city's budget cuts, maybe they should be glad that officers are providing part of their equipment out of their own pockets. posted at 07:40

 
The pedestrian closure of Ste-Catherine through the Village is to extend even longer this summer with even more terrasses open along the stretch from Berri to Papineau. posted at 07:27

 
The snow is slowly retreating, the seagulls are back in town, and the city launches a campaign against potholes – can spring be far off? posted at 07:24

 
It's a glimmer of good news amid the gloom: our dull, cautious, conservative banks turn out to be doing better now than the rest of the world's financial institutions. It doesn't protect us from the whole crisis, but it helps. posted at 10:33

 
Mayor Tremblay has a clever idea about tapping Quebec's Fonds Vert to make up the STM's shortfall. posted at 10:01

 
Gazette's right on board the Maciocia train with praise for the borough reduction idea, although the editorial immediately back-pedals with observations that yeah, it's not a great time for radical changes.

Mayor Tremblay has turned aside the ethnic worries expressed by Louise Harel this week, essentially a concern that re-drawing borough boundaries risks creating ethnic-based enclaves within the city. Kudos to him for expressing an inclusive agenda. posted at 09:52

 
TV vedette Guy A. Lepage is to take over animating the big Fête nationale show at Parc Maisonneuve this summer. It's the 175th anniversary of the holiday, begun in 1834 after Ludger Duvernay and friends attended a St. Patrick's Day event in Montreal and got the idea of establishing a similar national day for Francophone culture. posted at 09:44

 
Interesting backgrounder to Hydro-Quebec's new Romaine River project: the Uashaunnuat, who actually own the land, want no part of it. posted at 09:16

 
Bob Gainey's first outing in this go-round as Habs coach was an overtime victory 4-3 against the Oilers last night. Radio-Canada takes note of immediate improvements in play; a Toronto sportswriter ponders Gainey's dangerous bluff. posted at 08:19

 
Cosmo Maciocia's proposal to reduce the number of city boroughs appears to have legs, if only because of the number of folks lining up to say it won't work. Municipal affairs honcha Nathalie Normandeau is saying not now, and borough mayors themselves are divided in how they feel about it – after all, it doesn't do to look like you're against cost-cutting measures in times like these. Meantime Louise Harel has got herself in a bit of eau chaude with a riff about the city breaking up into ethnically dominated boroughs, a view that sparked some irritated responses from "ethnics" themselves. posted at 08:07

 
The police involved in the Villanueva shooting last summer want to testify in anonymity at the public inquiry to be held in May. A judge will rule on this request next month. The officers have already been cleared of criminal wrongdoing. posted at 07:56

 
I'm tickled to be able to announce that I've got more than 100 followers on Twitter now. Follow me here! posted at 20:12

 
Henry Aubin does an interesting comparison here between The Monitor – which ceased being a paper publication recently after a respectable 80-year run – and Transcontinental's new paper newspaper for the area, Le Citoyen. He finds that the new "newspaper" comes across as basically a PR fluff effort and says "either nothing is replacing the community press as it wanes or that, as in this case, pseudo-journalism is replacing it." Fagstein pointed out to me the online Monitor's own excoriation of the new paper, calling it a "propaganda pamphlet."

(Incidentally, what the hell is wrong with Transcontinental's community paper websites? The text is always illegible, too small and with some weird letterspacing going on.)

Can blogs possibly fill the gap of being informed and informative about local affairs and intelligently critical when it's called for? Even at the borough level? I'd like to see evidence that people are not only willing to make this effort, but willing to do it weekly, regularly, over the long haul. Local journalism is not glamorous, but it's the real challenge now that world news can be called up with the flick of a finger in several media. posted at 19:27

 
A reader emailed to point out to me an op-ed open letter from Mayor Tremblay in today's Le Devoir in which he sets out his achievements and aims concerning public transit, and his intention not to let budget cutbacks roll back services. The only sting is a solid elbow to Quebec's ribs about supporting the service with regular payments. posted at 19:07

 
Red Fisher defends Bob Gainey in his decision to sack Guy Carbonneau. So does Ronald King in La Presse, which has a retrospective of Carbo's coaching career in photos. posted at 07:40

 
East-end borough mayor Cosmo Maciocia had a radical cost reduction idea: reduce the number of boroughs from 19 to 10, thus cutting the number of elected officials and saving on administrative and bureaucratic expenses, but Mayor Tremblay says it isn't a good time to destabilize a city coping with financial difficulties and still dealing with the fallout of the merger-demerger fiasco. (La Presse's Michèle Ouimet thinks the city stucture is a mess resulting from compromises made during the demergers mess, and suggests it be rethought completely. More here on borough powers and city structure. I've been waiting for the centralization-decentralization pendulum to start moving back...) posted at 07:14

 
On Spacing, Cédric Sam comments on the progress of the Plaza Swatow and provides a link that shows how it's meant to look when completed. (Swatow – 汕头 – more commonly known as Shantou these days – is a city in southeastern China.) posted at 06:49

 
Guy Carbonneau got his pink slip today and Bob Gainey is to take on the Habs head coaching job himself. posted at 18:51

 
Spacing Montreal has some good recent stuff: a piece on hidden urban waterways by Andrew of undermontreal, a piece on Rosemont's cité jardin, thoughts on perceptions of the city and various photos worth a look. posted at 08:11

 
A Toronto-based view of Montreal's effort to, as it says, take back the accolade of "fashion capital of Canada" from Hogtown. posted at 08:04

 
Residents of Outremont as well as Université de Montréal profs are trying to fight the school's intention to resell a major convent building to a condo construction firm. They want the building, and the whole area, to remain dedicated to education. A well-known urban critic suggests the university should work on its existing campus, instead of idealizing the (completely unbuilt) Outremont trainyard campus to the detriment of the existing buildings on the side of Mount Royal.

(I note that the Sulpicians wanted the old Marianopolis building to remain dedicated to education, but it's being turned into condos. Once you sell something off you don't have much say any more in what the new owners do with it, q.e.d.) posted at 08:02

 
Some folks living near Molson Stadium are less than thrilled with the money going into it, the expansion causing damage to Mount Royal, and the increased traffic that a bigger venue will bring. This blog has noted earlier efforts to quash plans to enlarge the place, but professional sports has its own agenda. posted at 07:56

 
Funny how with all the head-clutching about financial shortages, Quebec can produce $19 million and Montreal can find $4 million to put into Molson Stadium for the Alouettes. posted at 20:53

 
Obit for J.D. MacLean, the doctor who started the well-regarded Centre for Tropical Diseases at McGill. posted at 12:05

 
After yesterday's special on life in the metro, today there's a careful look at suicide attempts, a subject the STM keeps very quiet about, and a glance at how they affect workers and passengers who witness them or have to clean up afterwards. Interesting statistics and brute facts, the bluntest of which is that it isn't an effective method and often leaves the victim alive but with serious disabilities. posted at 11:22

 
A cop was bitten by a breastfeeding woman during what sounds like an ill-judged police action against a family peacefully driving in Côte-des-Neiges yesterday. posted at 10:54

 
An examination of styrofoam and why the city doesn't recycle plastic #6 (and nobody else does either). With a list at the end of things you can and can't recycle. Also a piece on the dangerous and unpleasant stuff put mistakenly into recycling bins. posted at 11:43

 
Chris DeWolf ponders the role of the Mohawks in constructing the highest buildings in our cities, with a clip from the 1965 NFB documentary High Steel. posted at 11:28

 
La Presse has a dossier of stories today on aspects of life in the metro: the Jehovah's Witness offering tracts and the Hare Krishna chanting the name of God, the curious bookshop-dépanneur at Outremont station, a glimpse of how a blind man learns the metro. More interesting still is a night-time excursion with the workers who repair things in the tunnels after the last train has passed, and a daytime excursion with a team that diagnoses mechanical problems in the tunnels by listening for them. Other stuff too – a great weekend read, plus video clips of some of the participants. posted at 10:01

 
Very Toronto views of Old Montreal from the viewpoint of a lady of the world and of a spa on de la Commune. posted at 20:41

 
Louise O'Sullivan, once a city councillor under Mayor Tremblay, has launched a new party with an eye on the mayor's seat for herself. The Parti Montréal Ville-Marie - they plan to run candidates in every borough, not just the downtown core - is so new it doesn't even have a website yet. posted at 20:15

 
Interesting look at Quebec's most influential women throughout its history till now. Thérèse Casgrain is #1, Céline Dion #6 in a list that puts Pauline Marois at 13 and Marguerite d'Youville at 14, but it's an interesting read towards Sunday's International Women's Day. posted at 13:27

 
Borough mayors are reeling from the city's budget cuts while transit advocates reel from the $40-million cut to the STM budget which will inevitably create either a deficit or a cut in services. posted at 08:02

 
The Montreal Juniors are called a success in this most hockey mad of cities. posted at 07:55

 
The Impact were close to reaching the CONCACAF semifinals last night, but a late rally by Santos Laguna sent them out of the running and into a 5-2 loss. posted at 07:54

 
The notorious block of Saint-Laurent Boulevard between Ste-Catherine and René-Lévesque is likely to be razed and rebuilt as an "eco-friendly showcase of art and socially responsible retail" with an undeclared height of office floors upstairs (a very important point – the Main shouldn't become a canyon, three storeys being optimal along a street so narrow). The Main Importing Grocery and the Montreal Pool Room are holding out, and the Monument National remains sacrosanct. posted at 07:50

 
Convicted killer Valery Fabrikant has been blocked in his attempt to sue the Cité de la Santé in Laval for inadequate care. posted at 07:46

 
Spacing Montreal reports on blogger Controleman's exposé of the vulnerability of the McTavish reservoir. posted at 07:33

 
I promised a disgruntled reader that I'd try to be less carping and be more optimistic about our levels of government and what they're trying to do. But it's difficult to maintain a cheery façade when blogging about the $155 million the city has to ax from its budget (up already from the $100 million quoted on Tuesday), calling on the boroughs to tighten their belts and make do with less, and siphoning off $40 million from the STM's budget, although with promises that services won't be cut. (Cue "Look for the Silver Lining" as a chorus of blue-collar workers emerges from the wings and does a dance number with picks and shovels, ending by tossing their hard hats in the air.) posted at 08:01

 
Projet Montréal's Richard Bergeron makes a really good point about the state of our sidewalks: it's between snowfalls that they become a problem, often turning into treacherous slabs of pitted ice after a few cycles of freeze and thaw. He suggests we should have a sidewalk squad to make sure they remain usable, quite separately from the snow removal effort. posted at 07:42

 
Aéroports de Montréal has already started building a train station by Trudeau airport, investing $25 million in a scheme that hasn't yet been given the nod by either Quebec or Ottawa. posted at 07:35

 
It's going to stay kind of chilly and we may get some snow as the vernal equinox approaches – no surprises there. The equinox is on March 20 at 11:44 UTC; we put our clocks ahead to DST this weekend. posted at 07:28

 
A public letter in Le Devoir calls attention to the Université de Montréal's plans to sell a convent building it had acquired, as well as other properties on its side of Mount Royal, into private hands for development, endangering that whole side of the mountain. The writers are profs or retired profs from the school itself. posted at 07:18

 
Gilles Blackburn, rescued after nine days lost in the B.C. hills during which his wife died of exposure, takes part of the blame for having gone off trail but says the RCMP should've looked for him sooner. posted at 08:05

 
Plans to run a bus corridor along the route of the soon-to-be-demolished Bonaventure Expressway may risk damage to the New City Gas building, built on Wellington Street in Griffintown in 1861. posted at 08:01

 
More details on the atheist bus placard we'll be seeing next month. Toronto will be getting some too, but the Halifax and Ottawa transit companies have apparently turned them down. posted at 07:55

 
Montreal is to invest $2.4 million in supporting the local fashion industry, adding to money Quebec's already put in. Nathalie Petrowski visits the Marché Bonsecours for Fashion Week. posted at 07:52

 
Residents around Saint-Viateur East are trying to stay involved in plans to rework the slightly rundown but artistically fertile area east of the Main. posted at 08:01

 
Mayor Tremblay is pondering possible new taxes to allow the city to bridge that $100-million hole in its finances. posted at 07:58

 
Eyes are on Bob Gainey to see whether he effects any more trades before the Wednesday afternoon deadline. posted at 07:51

 
Louise Harel is said to be interesting herself in the mayoral election, possibly aiming to take Benoit Labonté's job. posted at 07:48

 
A car racing circuit called the A1 Grand Prix may replace the F1 version that used to run here in June; the NASCAR circuit has signed a three-year deal to come back here later in the summer. posted at 07:28

 
The Plateau plans to discourage car usage, slow traffic down, improve public transit and encourage bicycle use within its borders. posted at 23:04

 
The Saint-Michel environmental complex is to be the centrepiece of Montreal's pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 expo. posted at 22:47

 
French experts, here for a city lighting conference, say Montreal knows its chops, ville-lumière-wise. posted at 08:00

 
Now Devimco is saying that even its scaled-down Griffintown project won't happen without financial help from the city it seems like the game is likely over, at least for now. posted at 07:54

 
A poll finds that two thirds of us support the locked-out workers at the Journal de Montréal. posted at 07:51

 
Items in Toronto papers discuss how financial stress is revealing the fault lines in Quebec's political and economic life: Jacques Parizeau's critique of the Caisse de dépôt situation and Jean Charest's handling of it; analysis of federal feebleness in countering the PQ's move to make hay of the Caisse crisis. Meantime funding for major projects is in doubt.

I was at the Nuit Blanche last night, walking around with friends. We remembered, and missed, the days when the Nuit Blanche involved bright lights and lively activities outdoors around Place des Arts. But lots of people were moving around in the street – in fact, the event is verging on becoming a victim of its own success, as many of the more interesting events involved long waits in lineups.

Nonetheless, what stood out for me as we looked around was: Holes. A hole where the Spectrum used to be, and no work being done now that the Best Buy project has been put off. Big holes being dug for the Quartier des Spectacles project. A big hole remains on Saint-Laurent and Ste-Catherine where no work has begun on a building meant to anchor the Q des S, and another big hole at de Maisonneuve and Saint-Laurent where plans for a condo building collapsed even before the economic news turned unrelentingly dire.

A survey of how the recession is hitting the entertainment business ends up harping repeatedly on the need for cultural entities to raise more money from private sources now that the Harper government has made it clear that arts funding is irrelevant to it. They don't mention that the whole downtown area where they hold most of the major festivals is pockmarked with what looks like bomb sites. Are we going to surround them with Potemkin villages of paint and canvas so the (theoretical) tourist visitors this summer don't see them and wonder what the hell is going on? posted at 17:34

 
A sad story of a woman who was driven like a slave for ten years in a Nuns' Island building before grave illness revealed her situation, also a related story of mind-boggling exploitation of immigrant workers. If those don't bum you out sufficiently, there's also the fate of aboriginal people whose numbers in Montreal aren't even clear, largely because most of them are homeless. posted at 17:31

 
There was a protest yesterday in which FRAPRU and 400 supporters made the point that Quebec should continue building social housing especially during a recession. posted at 17:12

 
The recession is forcing the city to cut $100 million from its expenses. posted at 17:07

 
There's $277 million for the metro in the Transports du Québec budget for this year, meant for new cars and general upgrades. Commuter trains get almost as much, although I wonder how their usage numbers compare. Article has a detailed breakdown at the end of how the sums are to be spent. posted at 17:04