So many suspenions to mete out to blue-collar workers that the city has to space them out over six months or risk understaffing; Toronto writer inveighs against the blue-collar union and, by association, all of Quebec's unions: although he makes some obscure point about the city's motto, he gets it wrong (it's Concordia Salus).
posted at 10:27

 
There's a current mini web meme to anagrammatically remix subway maps. Le Untrod Map is by far the best version of a map familiar to Montrealers.
posted at 10:42

 
Interesting details on this year's Symphonie portuaire. There was one performance last Sunday, and another this coming Sunday.
posted at 10:41

 
The Montreal Yacht Club is to get public money to open a marina at the Clock Tower pier.
posted at 10:34

 
Dodgy February weather cut down involvement in the Montrél en lumière fest, although not in last Saturday's Nuit Blanche activities.
posted at 10:32

 
Reading this account of the current scare story about the megahospitals costing too much makes me wonder whether this is not a pantomime being put on to soften the public up for more private involvement in our health care. The Gazette calls it a "partnership debate" but where's this debate being held? All I see is Jean Charest and friends calculating how quickly they can impose private involvement on public health care without voters getting restive.

Nothing in today's Le Devoir article about partenariat public-privé, just that both projects want to insist that they're still within their initial budgets.

Notice how nobody ever suggests that it might be a good idea to build one super-new high-tech hospital in town: combine the total budget from both these projects, you'd have some real shopping money.
posted at 10:12

 
The city and its blue-collar workers are negotiating again to change details of the contract imposed on the union a year ago,
posted at 09:58

 
Montreal riding Sainte-Marie-St-Jacques sees the first candidate from the new Québec solidaire party for a by-election to be held in April. And, since I'm glancing at provincial politics, André Boisclair is laying out his plans for the next referendum.
posted at 14:18

 
Found via del.icio.us, a list of addresses for gourmets, although they're missing the Maison du Rôti on Mont-Royal East and Chocolats Geneviève Grandbois, but you can't have everything.
posted at 13:59

 
The Charest government didn't want to freak people out about mothballing the hospital projects, but seems to have failed in this aim. Meanwhile the head of the MUHC claims his project is not over budget.

It occurs to me to wonder if they'd plowed all the money from the interminable megahospital studies, preliminary work and public relations into building up better local clinics, whether perhaps one might actually have a faint hope of finding a family doctor in Montreal again within my lifetime.
posted at 13:45

 
People living in the northern and eastern parts of Montreal want commuter train service, specifically a line that would go up to Ahuntsic and then curve eastwards via Pointe-aux-Trembles and off the island. The numbers show that the ridership is there.
posted at 13:25

 
The city's going to ticket anyone who idles their vehicle for more than three minutes. I thought this was announced already, but perhaps it hadn't been enforced. Will the Green Onions be given stopwatches?
posted at 13:21

 
The background of the Leonard Cohen song Suzanne is a glimpse of Montreal bohemian history.
posted at 13:25

 
Interesting, sympathetic look at how things really are with the city's blue-collar workers, fighting bad press now besides the other difficulties of their jobs.
posted at 12:26

 
A rather vague report on Montreal's Livejournal community fixates on a single thread about last week's windstorm, glances at a few links on the main page, but completely misses the ongoing function of the group as a valuable resource for both local users and visitors.
posted at 12:22

 
Mayor Tremblay unveils ten-million-dollar cleanup brigade to keep city streets tidy.
posted at 12:16

 
The closure of a small synagogue in Côte-des-Neiges gathers together a lot of historical threads from the history of the Jews in Montreal.
posted at 11:19

 
Apparently the toboggan run in Place Jacques-Cartier has a long history.
posted at 11:16

 
The Montreal-Delson commuter train is still not running; seems that fixing a derailment on a bridge is not so easy.
posted at 11:14

 
Interesting, detailed obit for filmmaker/author Gordon Sheppard, whom I admit I'd never heard of either.
posted at 12:22

 
It's the weekend, so what's more exciting than... hospital news? The two megahospital projects have had the brakes applied by Quebec as projected cost overruns are already excessive.

And Ontario is making a new bid to get the Shriners to build their new hospital in London. If the MUHC plan falls apart, they'll have a better case.
posted at 11:48

 
This Sunday and March 5 are the Symphonies portuaires; interview with Susie Arioli about her latest recording; another brief piece on the Nuits Blanches and a piece on its electronic music event at Usine C.
posted at 10:13

 
Architect Jean-Claude Marsan does some fast-talking architectural numbers theory to prove that the Îlot Voyageur project will be fine! perfectly fine! and not make the area around Berri Square and the Big Bibliothèque feel horribly cramped and overbuilt.

Granted the bus station won't be any architectural loss, I don't see how you can generalize. Marsan is talking about how buildings look on an architect's maquette, but it won't be the number of storeys that makes the difference, but the way the new development interacts with the street at sidewalk level, on all sides.
posted at 10:06

 
More on the Imperial Tobacco condos story, with actual price tags for the potential condos.
posted at 09:58

 
Jean-Guy Chaput, head of arts grant entity SODEC, testified at a hearing yesterday about the flawed process that created the now-defunct Montreal FilmFest.
posted at 09:46

 
Michel Tremblay comments on the three productions of his plays that will be staged here this season; a new theatre and dance festival will be launched in May 2007; notes and comments on the spiffing up of the Main.
posted at 17:13

 
The old Imperial Tobacco factory in St-Henri is to be turned into condos, with half of them made "affordable" (as opposed to the other half, which will be unaffordable? what?) but residents want more bang for the low-cost market. Developers say the site's fallow now, so anything done is all to the good.
posted at 16:54

 
The pay packets of ten blue-collar workers will be lighter temporarily as they get penalized for slacking off on the job; the atmosphere between the city and its workers is said to be deteriorating.
posted at 16:51

 
Good glance at the high points of this weekend's Nuit Blanche.
posted at 12:46

 
Park Avenue will have a tramway in four years' time, according to Mayor Tremblay. (Is he getting a Drapeau-like glint in his eye?)

Apropos of this, it's interesting to look at Christopher DeWolf's selection of old tram photos from the STM archives.
posted at 11:52

 
City blue-collar workers caught skiving off work recently were to be punished today (write "I will not goof off at work" 100 times?) and the union itself may see trouble from a peaceable demonstration held yesterday morning in favour of a new contract.
posted at 09:58

 
Mirabel International is going to become Rêveport, a massive theme park with an indoor beach, giant aquarium, cinemas and other panem et circenses, developed by a French consortium. I can hear the TV commercials now.
posted at 09:51

 
Details have come out today about the public health department's take on the Peel Basin mondo-casino plan: it would be bad for the locals, possibly the worst possible location in terms of creating new problems among the poor and socially disadvantaged, and with no guarantee of attracting the international high rollers that the Casino management dreams of. In other words, it would suck the poor dry. The report is available on the public health site.
posted at 09:46

 
The Laval metro extension is announced as being almost complete, although it will be July 2007 before the stations go live, a meaning of "almost complete" that I hadn't run into before.
posted at 10:34

 
Demerged Island of Montreal towns say Montreal cheated them on the terms of the agglomeration budget; not surprisingly, leading them is Karin Marks of Westmount, who has never grasped why her wealthy little township ought to contribute a fair share to the collective needs of the metropolis.
posted at 10:11

 
On his first official Paris visit, Mayor Tremblay eyes their tramways and finds that they are good.
posted at 09:44

 
To offset the unpopularity of the îlot Voyageur project (a massive development of the block opposite the library, currently occupied by the bus station), UQAM is proposing a central bike station and parking lot for cycle commuters.

It all sounds very high-minded, but who would use it? Who wants to bike to UQAM, lock their bike indoors, then take the metro somewhere else?
posted at 12:14

 
People in the Plateau and Mile End are asking for lower speed limits on certain key streets. I'd have thought simply enforcing the limits along arteries like Saint-Urbain would be a place to start.
posted at 12:05

 
The Main is to be tarted up – unless that's the wrong expression – although calling the stretch between René-Lévesque and Sherbrooke "neglected" isn't quite right either. Then in 2007, Sherbrooke to Mont-Royal will be spiffed up, although nobody could call that area neglected. Frankly, getting rid of that horrible garish gas station at Sherbrooke would be the single best thing they could do for the whole stretch, but what are the odds of that?
posted at 12:01

 
Despite protests, and the report that the public health agency is against creating a massive Vegas-style casino project in the Point, the project is said to be still very much alive; Jean Charest has stayed mum on the issue; a summary of the situation.
posted at 11:45

 
Friday's train derailment still hasn't been righted because of the hazard of high winds over the river, and the problem is blocking the commuter line to Delson. Excellent photos of the situation from André Nantel.
posted at 11:35

 
Interesting if rather carping blog report on damage in the metro, with photos. The bit about metro security disallowing photos is interesting, as to my best knowledge it's normally considered OK to take photos in the metro provided you don't use flash.
posted at 11:40

 
Friday's violent weather nearly caused a state of emergency, but the authorities held back. But the icy surfaces have caused plenty of trouble anyway.
posted at 11:36

 
Another new report says the idea of moving the Casino downtown would be bad for the populace and not necessarily draw more tourists. And MNAs are nervous about being seen to back a casino project as schools and hospitals fall apart.
posted at 11:34

 
The Carmelite monastery on the northern edge of the Plateau is declared a historic property and is spared condo conversion for now.
posted at 11:29

 
The two policemen who arrested Anne-Marie Péladeau last October are being charged with assault. Clearly Péladeau clout is responsible for getting the cops charged, but if it means less police brutality generally then I'd say go for it.
posted at 13:37

 
Details on the fierce weather yesterday.
posted at 11:40

 
Big weather has slammed us: a 60-car pileup on highway 40 has killed at least one motorist and injured others; another, west toward Ottawa, killed three; in town, part of the Metropolitan is closed because of glass crashing out of nearby buildings; power outages are widespread and a train has been derailed. And the fireworks planned for this evening's segment of the Lumière festival have been put off till tomorrow night.
posted at 16:52

 
Major windstorm is hitting town as the weather begins its 25-degree slide to deep-freeze temperatures. I've just watched the wind empty a lot of recycling boxes on my street, and a garbage bin from the second floor was tossed down on the ground in a second. Batten down the hatches!
posted at 11:28

 
More details on the burning of Montreal in 1734 and the hanging of slave woman Marie-Joseph Angélique.
posted at 11:51

 
The notorious McGill party would seem to have broken an agreement with the police and the Régie des alcools, particularly in having drinking competitions, which have been known to be dangerous.
posted at 11:27

 
Montreal is to launch a 311 service next year, meant to help residents find out more about municipal services but also call in reports on problems and issues. It's a good idea, tested in New York City; I hope ours will also be answered by a live operator and offer help in several languages.
posted at 11:10

 
Thoughts on the end of the new film festival and recent changes at the Cinéma du Parc; lukewarm review for Que Dieu bénisse l'Amérique, opening film of the 24th Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois; strange tale of some people videotaping an attack on strangers, and ending up in jail.
posted at 10:47