CTV has a brief piece about retail vacancies more or less as a frame around a reminder that hearings will be held into the problem next month, and there’s a survey about it on the city website (link in story).
Updates from December, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Writer Taras Grescoe tweets a video from his Outremont street, where a community is welcoming a new Torah.
jeather
Since I don’t know if people know, a Torah scroll costs 30,000+, it’s all written by hand and takes about a year, using special parchment and ink and a feather quill. If errors are made (including smudges or cracks in the ink), they can sometimes be corrected but sometimes require burying that page of parchment and redoing it. Commissioning a new Torah is a big deal and getting it is very celebratory.
Kate
I knew a little about the scribing – I know you have to get a scribe to make a mezuzah scroll also – but not the price for a new Torah. It must be considered a mitzvah to donate for it.
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Kate
The Centre d’histoire piece this weekend tells us about Hôtel Péloquin in Ahuntsic, where winter sportsmen used to congregate to hold snowshoe and sled races.
The Gazette has a few more seasonal things, including a Boxing Day sale at Sam the Record Man in 1983.
Radio-Canada looked back to World War II, soldiers who were able to come home for the holidays and some who were not.
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Kate
Regular reader Faiz Imam has made a video of crossing the new bridge by bike.
Faiz imam
I didn’t go all the way across so I only have an idea of the Brossard side, but I really was shocked how many people were there.
I guess its a mix of being a nicer day, a Saturday on a Christmas weekend, and still only a few days since the path opened up.
But still, its not *that* hard to get to and quite a wonderful view if you can get over the road noise.
There is a nearby park with a parking lot (ironically called “parc des Velos”) that i’m guessing will prove very popular for people to drive up and walk the bridge.
I showed my elderly mother the video and she was very hyped to walk it. even on a colder day.
And down the line, I can see users from all over the region getting to the Ils des Soeur train station just to walk the bridge.
Gonna be packed for summer fireworks I think.
EmilyG
Nice video!
Is it a shared bike/pedestrian path?Kate
That’s what the reports say, Emily.
Robert H
Merci Faiz, c’était vraiment un cadeau. Cela me donne envie de sortir mon vélo pour une petite balade. La ville se présente si bien lorsque vous vous en approchez de l’autre côté de la rivière.
nau
I rode it a couple days ago. It’s a pretty nice addition to the active transportation network, even taking into consideration the constant traffic next to it. It is a path for both cyclists and pedestrians, but as you can see in Faiz’s video, it would be a stretch to say the pedestrians are currently giving much thought to sharing it with the few cyclists. From Île des Soeurs, the path climbs steadly but is less steep than coming from Brossard. Only the viewpoint closest to Brossard has the plexiglass, the others have only those vertical bars. The view is pretty sweet not just towards downtown but also downriver to Pont Jacques-Cartier as well as southwards to Mont Bruno, Mont St-Hilaire and Rougemont. The closer you get to Île des Soeurs and its residential towers, the more the view of Westmount is blocked. One unfortunate aspect is that in various places where they have Slow signs with rumble strips made of a white material, these strips are already breaking down.
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Kate
Vets have seen a surge in new patients with the microchipping law that comes into force with the new year. As I posted recently, my cat was among the wave.
I’ve been pondering this chipping law and I have questions I wish journalists would ask, but so far I haven’t seen them asked or answered.
My first concern is that the collected data is in the hands of some private company presumably chosen by the city. That means the personal data of thousands of pet owners is at the mercy of an outfit who could do anything with it, or could leave it open or have it hacked. In addition, the database linking the chip with pet owners’ contact information depends on the continuity of that company. Should it go under, what then? (The company also sells pet insurance. It’s not disinterested in the acquisition of pet owner data.)
Another question I have is about the city pound. It’s been nearly ten years since the shortcomings of Berger Blanc were unmasked by Radio-Canada, yet some boroughs still contract with them. I don’t know whether it’s still the case that Berger Blanc doesn’t have a chip reader, and makes few efforts to identify or inform owners when an animal ends up there, preferring to put animals down to save money, but I have heard things like this on and off in the ten years since the Radio‑Canada report.
In other words: we’re obliged to chip our pets, but is there any guarantee that this business selected by the city, or at least by some of its boroughs, will even trouble to check for a chip in animals brought in, and act on the information? Since the city is charging us for permits and making us pay for chipping, they need to make clear what services they’re guaranteeing from their contractors.
And that leads to the promised city pound project. Like all modern projects it’s bound to end up costing a lot more than initially estimated, but it was conceived in response to a need. The Coderre administration promised the project after general outrage over the Berger Blanc revelations, but it has never materialized. The latest news I have on it is from a year ago when it was said to be delayed.
Jonathan
I had my cat chipped in Vietnam as a requisite for him being brought to Canada. But all they did was insert the chip and then give me the chip identification number. There was no registering or entering of data anywhere. If they scanned him that number would come up. But no information on him. When I registered him with the city I only had to enter his chip number into the system.
I don’t know enough about how vets do it here, but I just assumed it was similar.
The data rests with the city of Montreal, and to me the threat of a data breach is no different than with any other data the city has on me (such as municipal taxes, etc, or for some people who have cars then the make and licence plate numbers, etc)
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Kate
QMI lists 35 local notables who died over the last decade.
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Kate
Some calèche drivers are talking about defying the ban that comes in with the new year. I doubt this will happen or continue for long, because it’s not something that can be done on the sly.
CTV asks whether Old Montreal will lose some of its magic with the loss of the calèches.
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Kate
A snowstorm is expected over southern Quebec from Monday evening, 20 cm mentioned here as likely.
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Kate
The refuelling people at Trudeau are planning to strike on New Year’s eve, after rejecting a proposed contract settlement.
Those links are from French and English CBC, from CP, but I’m struck by one divergence in the presentation. On the English side, the lede reads “…threatening to disrupt the busy holiday travel season.” On the French side, this handy guide to the reader’s ideal response to the union action is nowhere to be seen. (The same wording is on CTV, so this is on Canadian Press, not the Ceeb.)
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Kate
The Journal is already dreading roadwork cones for 2020.
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Kate
Daniel Renaud writes about the fall of the house of Rizzuto at the helm of organized crime in Montreal. With the loss of Nick Jr., Vito and Nick Sr. over the last ten years, the family no longer features in lists of potential godfathers, if indeed the mob can continue in the classic Mario Puzo style.
Update: Adding a link to the Gazette’s timeline of the last decade in organized crime in Montreal
david100
I wouldn’t be so sure that Rizzuto-Sollecito isn’t consolidating right now, as per the article a week or two ago, the point of which seems was precisely this:
« dans la mafia, tout le monde cherche à faire de l’argent et lorsque tu n’es plus là pour diriger et gérer des conflits, cela ne donne rien d’avoir un nom de famille et de ne pas être capable d’agir », ajoute l’ex-policier.
So, when you’re looking at his four keys to understanding the continued strength of the Sicilians/Rizzutos . . .
Plusieurs facteurs expliquent cette situation, selon Nicodemo Milano. Un : la fortune des familles siciliennes, dont celle des Rizzuto. Deux : leur réseautage, c’est-à-dire ces personnes dont on n’entend jamais les noms et ces gens d’affaires, propriétaires d’entreprises légitimes, qui facilitent leurs activités. Trois : leur alliance avec des groupes criminels majeurs, dont les Hells Angels. Quatre : les enquêtes policières, qui ont affaibli les Siciliens, mais aussi leurs ennemis, dans des moments clés.
On (1), while the gang war has surely hit income, the wealth of the Rizzutos probably has only increased over the past few years (construction boom, money laundering boom, drugs steady), particularly as their legit investments bear fruit, this is probably the major reason that it’s Rizzuto rather than Sollecito himself who is the current ‘godfather’ – he brings the money; on (2), we don’t really know how the gang war has affected their network of extortion victims, associates, etc. but, again, these familial connections are probably a big reason that Rizzuto rather than Sollecito is in charge, at least nominally; on (3), reinforcing this link was the explicit takeaway from the article of a couple weeks ago, and it’s clear that Rizzuto/Sollecito are buttressing this pillar of their strength; and on (4), their enemies have been suffered worse, far worse, police scrutiny than have the Sicilians over the past couple years.
Anyway, it’s always interesting to get the insight of a guy like Milano, and it’s just common sense that the Rizzutos are diminished, as well as that the pickings for organized crime are getting slimmer. But crime that pays requires a greater outlay of cash, more sophistication than ever, more connections (especially for laundering), and a greater distance from the “street” or front line, where risk of being a police target is higher. So, from that perspective, it seems pretty plausible that Rizzuto/Sollecito could be around for quite some time, provided they can stay alive – there’s just no Montreal underworld type more connected, wealthier, and sophisticated.
david100
That’s IF Leonardo is sitting as the titular head of the family with Sollecito as the consiglieri. Still not clear that this is the case.
Kate
david100, is there any reason to believe there’s still some sort of capo-and-consigliere structure? Everyone “knows” about that from The Godfather but that’s long ago and far away, and fictional, and that story didn’t encompass Hells Angels and other crime gangs in the mix.
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Kate
On Christmas Eve, two men held up a Banque Nationale branch in TMR in the old style, with masks and a gun. The SPVM says it’s already caught one of them.
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Kate
The Gazette’s T’cha Dunlevy discusses the French “invasion” of Montreal (nice mistake, “tarte siflette” for tartiflette) now that 60,000 French nationals live in the city. With profiles of a few of the expats.
Update: Now they’ve fixed “tarte siflette” but have spelled “tartiflette” wrong.
Hamza
If there are people who can get upset at this headline there are probably anglos who never think to catch that ‘plateau’ and ‘mont’ or even ‘royal’ are all french too.
Michael Black
I don’t think this is about language, just an observation of a trend. And maybe made more obvious because a small area has a high density of people from France.
It’s not a new thing that people come over to go to University, but maybe is a more recent trend that people have stayed. Twenty years ago I knew a few dancers from France, Switzerland and I think Germany (but she spoke French), and they were here long enough that I thought they had moved here.
I guess the incentive is that they don’t have to learn a new language, but can move to a place that isn’t France.
Jo Walton
I go to book festivals in France fairly often, and I can confirm from personal conversations with people in France that there’s huge interest there in moving here for exactly the reason Michael suggests. Indeed, if I am in France walking along carrying my Fromagerie Atwater bag strangers will talk to me in the street about the possibilities of moving here. I always tell them yes, Montreal is lovely, yes, there are economic opportunities, yes, it isn’t perfect but… and that they need to know that people here take their shoes off in the house, because I wish somebody had told my (French) upstairs neighbours this.
dwgs
You’re doing the Lord’s work Jo Walton. I’ve had those neighbours.
Blork
Where I work, almost half of the new hires in the past five years or so have been from France and Belgium. These are software developers and data scientists in their late 20s and 30s who have skills and experience, and presumably they want to go somewhere where they can work without bearing the yoke of 50 invisible layers of patriarchy and social restrictions — I’m looking at you, France — and where their earnings can actually add up to something.
There’s also the issue of many of them wanting to improve their English without having to be fully immersed in an Anglo environment as they would be in The RoC, US, or UK. For example, where I work the day-to-day talk is mostly in French but probably 75% of meetings, 50% of email threads, and 80% of Slack threads have USers or South Americans looped in, so it happens in English. Also, 80% of customer interactions are in English.)
Kate
Jo, what’s the thing about shoes? Everyone takes boots off in the winter, but I was never raised to take ordinary street shoes off in the house when the weather isn’t messy.
I certainly don’t expect any visitor to do so, and I never like having to creep around in my socks in the houses of people who do enforce this.
DeWolf
Re. shoes – this is one of those things that makes people on the internet go wild because it’s about very deeply enshrined personal behaviour. I was raised to always take my shoes off in the house, which was also the case for everyone I knew in Calgary/Vancouver. It doesn’t seem as universal in Quebec where many people seem to wear shoes indoors in the summer.
Back to the main point: France has been experiencing a brain drain for a long time, but the global financial crisis sent an especially huge wave of people overseas and that wave never receded. Hong Kong’s French community exploded from about 5,000 people before 2008 to roughly 50,000 people today. Like in Montreal, many are young people on working holiday visas, but many more are young professionals who ended up having kids and staying. The French International School just built a fancy new campus in a newly-built suburb of Hong Kong that some have described as a kind of “French town.” When I walked around this fall there were already French bakeries and grocery stores selling imported European treats.
Kevin
I was raised to take off my shoes, as was just about everyone I’ve ever known.
I will bring my own slippers if going to someone else’s home, and I provide slippers for guests. (My of my gifts this season was a bag of guest slippers)
The first time I encountered people who left their shoes on indoors was when I was visiting relatives living in the US and their other guests kept their shoes on.
Kate
“Here, put a pair of these on” says the host, offering you a basket of hideous knitted things in garish colours, when your outfit is all black. No thank you. (Forgive me for feeling this is something of a power move.)
JaneyB
Also from shoes-off land eg: Wpg. Could be a holdover from the era of wall-to-wall carpeting. In apts, shoes are like elephants for those below. Phentex, ftw!
As for the Français immigrants, I’ll be the annoying person who wonders about all our home-grown software developers, data scientists, marketers, designers etc who can’t get work. I’ve met a few young Français and they always seem to have had way more experience and responsibility than our young grads. How can our grads compete with that?
Kevin
@Kate
If it’s a fancy-pants event, bring your indoor shoes.CE
I grew up on the east coast and shoes always come off, no matter the season. I was out there last week and dropped by someone’s house to pick up a friend and they said to to leave my boots on. I felt very uncomfortable walking through their house with boots on. When I lived in South America for a few years, you ALWAYS keep your shoes on in the house. That took a very long time to get used to.
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Kate
A man barricaded himself in a downtown hotel room early Saturday, and when police showed up he suicided out of the 12th-floor window. The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes is investigating because it was a death that happened during a police action, although in this case I don’t see how the cops can be blamed.
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Kate
CTV notes the similarities among the three domestic murder-suicides here recently, but doesn’t discuss the key factor: in all three cases, from what we see in the media, the marriage was ending and the woman was preparing to leave the man.
Radio-Canada talked to some people in Coaticook who knew Astrid Declerck, the woman killed on Christmas day by her partner, who then killed himself. The couple had lived there for a few years. TVA says she was planning to move back to France.
curious
The presence of firearms in the home is also probably a contributing factor.
Kate
The most recent incident was reported as involving firearms, but no report from the Tétreaultville killings in October, in which Jonathan Pomares apparenty killed his two kids then himself, allowing his wife to find all three bodies, mentions guns. Nor do reports from the December 11 killings allegedly by Nabil Yssaad, who later suicided by jump, mention guns.
I’m not implying anything about guns, simply reporting what I’ve seen in the media.
Dominic 05:52 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
Really interesting survey, hopefully some of the tick-boxes that are available as answers are things the city are legitimately going to look into.
Kate 09:40 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
Yes, but I found one item troubling. I’m not going to walk back through it to quote precisely, but one question had a response along the lines of “improve the street – better benches and trash bins, remove litter and homeless people.”
Our streets are not dirty, that’s not the problem. The questionnaire is dancing around the fact that one company has bought up a lot of the commercial frontage on several of our neighbourhood main streets and hiked the rents out of reach of independent businesses, but is fat enough to sit back and allow storefronts to sit empty, even if this damages the vibe of the street and the viability of adjoining businesses. In fact, that could even be a business strategy: drag the street down so you can buy up more of it. It’s predatory.
Daniel 11:12 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
I took the survey. One of the answer possibilities regarding what I’m looking for in a store/shopping area — beyond the dubious “fewer homeless people” that you mention, Kate — was whether I prioritized some sort of in-store virtual reality experience.
Uh, no. It’s safe to say I don’t care about that. There were some good answer possibilities and I’m glad they’re making it easy to register an opinion but, as always, the results are only going to be as good as the questions that are posed and I’m a little wary of some of these. (That said, some gave me hope. More temporary exhibits or pop-up/pilot stores, for instance.)
Kate 11:27 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
Daniel, I agree with you. Some of the answers seemed odd, but the possibility of pop-ups, events and exhibits is a good one.
Spi 11:47 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
I couldn’t disagree more with your statement that our streets not being dirty. At times they are absolutely filthy, some people and business don’t even put in the minimum amount of effort in disposing of their trash/recycling. Cardboard (mostly amazon) boxes that are just left all over the place until they are trampled or driven over until they start decomposing into a disgusting brown mulch.
More than once this week I’ve noticed what looks like soil from potted plants/indoor planters just dumped at the base of a tree outside, just like everything else in this city just dump it on the sidewalk.
david100 12:12 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
Three things they should do:
1) default to a conditional use occupancy permit on chain shops (those with more than, say, 7 outlets) in most neighborhoods, with a special derogation requirement for any such proposed shop wherein the applicant must show “extraordinary need” for the chain’s services/products – this will hammer landlords who raise rents/evict with a plain to move a chain in which, in turn, would lower the value of street level commercial properties;
2) chain shop restrictions should bring the assessed value of commercial property down, which will bring property taxes down, which is good for lessors, but also could mean the spaces sit empty longer if landlords bide their time, so the city should also enact a steep vacant storefront charge to encourage landlords to use their space – call it a nuisance fee, and structure it so that, to the maximum extent possible, it cannot be written off as a business loss (a lien on the property, maybe?); and
3) the city should massively slash its bureaucracy around getting a small business up and running – inspections should be outsourced with city audits so that businesses can started fast and correct issues identified by inspectors rather that suspend operations waiting on inspectors, fees should be cut, and there should be a council subcommittee tasked with finding ways to cut the costs of doing business in Montreal. It used to be a snap in Montreal – cheap rents, low inspection – and it made for a hotbed of entrepreneurialism and eclecticism. As Montreal has increasingly adopted the Canadian style of governance, its storefront offerings have increasingly come to resemble those of a Canadian city – with chain stores making up an increasing share of commerce, empty storefronts increasing on escalating rents, and worse.
It’s not too late!
Douglas 17:41 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
The commercial taxes for retail properties are way too high. But the city makes so much money from these retail taxes that there is no incentive to reduce it.
Commercial taxes can account for up to 1/3 of the actual rent.
Commercial tax rates are also 4x the residential tax rates.
The city of Montreal is like an overweight fat pig when it comes to taxes. It wants taxes, and more taxes, and ever more taxes. It also wants vacancies to reduce….
david100 19:29 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
This is true, but there’s no obvious solution, aside from cutting services.
Canadian cities do not have the taxing powers that Americans have – they’re not a level of government, they’re semi-autonomous administrative departments of the province.
Anyway, dropping the multiplier on commercial tax wouldn’t do much to deflate the cost of commercial rents – even if some became more viable for owners to lease at lower costs, most would pocket that difference. Rentierism, like we have in the residential sections of Montreal where building is prohibited by law.
There could be a rebalancing though – empty space fines could be slotted into the general fund and commercial property taxes on non-offending properties could be reduced by the corresponding amount.
Douglas 19:41 on 2019-12-30 Permalink
Owner wouldn’t pocket the difference in the majority of cases.
The rent is fixed, with commercial tenant responsible for the commercial tax bill. Meaning they pay the portion of the bill directly, whether it goes up or down.
The city of Montreal has a massive surplus, plus they love throwing money at pet projects that make people feel good. The poor fat pig Montreal can’t find ways to cut expenses to reduce taxes? Well too bad, let these vacancies pile up. Who cares.