Updates from December, 2018 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 09:59 on 2018-12-02 Permalink | Reply  

    In La Presse’s headline Rue Sainte-Catherine: un projet boudé à Montréal primé à Amsterdam there’s an implicit criticism, as local firm KANVA was awarded a Dutch architecture prize for the inflatable structure it proposed to put over part of Ste-Catherine Street throughout the extended roadworks. This plan was adopted by the Coderre administration in 2016 but thrown out by Projet last year.

    But this is the thing: the prize is for the plans only. The thing has never been built nor inhabited or used by human beings. This is academic architecture in a nutshell and part of what’s wrong with modern cities: architects show off plans to each other and award each other prizes, but by the time the thing is built and people are forced to use it, the architects have long since cashed the cheque and moved on to new projects. How the structure interacts with the specifics of the location and the local conditions (climate, economy, urban fabric) and what impact it has on people is not part of the picture.

     
    • Kate 09:51 on 2018-12-02 Permalink | Reply  

      Uber, which has been operating here under uncertain status for years, wants to make an honest business of itself in Quebec as of next year. This would involve having the province pay millions to current taxi permit owners to compensate them for allowing this to happen.

       
      • Kate 09:46 on 2018-12-02 Permalink | Reply  

        Local boxer Adonis Stevenson is in critical condition after a match in Quebec City. The news is being widely reported (graphic photo there).

        I’m going to go all female for a moment: I think a sport where the goal is to knock someone else out oughtn’t to continue. There, I said it.

        Update: Radio-Canada found a neurosurgeon to condemn boxing, saying it makes no sense when the goal of a sport is to cause concussion.

        As of Sunday evening, Stevenson is said to be stable in an induced coma.

         
        • Kate 09:37 on 2018-12-02 Permalink | Reply  

          Hells Angel honcho Martin Robert held a high-profile downtown wedding reception Saturday. The bride was Annie Arbic, described as the daughter of a notorious drug trafficker.

          (How can this guy be a Hells with such a boring name? Shouldn’t he be Martin “The Rat” Robert or something like that?)

          This event has led to sparring between Gilles Duceppe and the mayor, who says the party was an isolated incident and doesn’t need a special law passed to cover things like it. If Duceppe stopped to think, he’d remember that police relish mob and gang funerals and celebrations, because they can take note who shows up and get updated photos of anyone who interests them.

           
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