Updates from February, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 21:06 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

    The city is promising a program to clear snow and ice from the house entrances of people with reduced mobility, to be ready for next winter. The way things were through Monday, it would simply be cruel to entice an old or disabled person out of their house only to cope with the state of the sidewalks I saw everywhere today.

     
    • Bill Binns 10:50 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

      This is a good idea but I would bet there is someone in every neighborhood who would be happy to help out with this if they knew there was a need. I would do it but I wouldn’t go knocking on doors asking people if they needed help. A little volunteer coordinating by the city could go a long way on this issue (assuming the blue collar unions would allow it).

    • Kate 17:51 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

      The problem is it has to be a commitment, and people are unlikely to make a commitment to do physical labour reliably on a volunteer but somewhat unpredictable basis. The resident has to know their front door will be cleared, not just hope it will.

    • Chris 20:56 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

      Bill, teens used to go around doing that, but it seems the practice has mostly died off.

    • Bill Binns 13:33 on 2019-02-27 Permalink

      @Chris – I know, I was one of them. All of the big ticket items of my pre-teen years (bikes, TV’s, Walkman, Atari 2600 etc) were bought with the proceeds of shoveling. My friends and I specialized in digging cars out which was a hell of a lot easier, faster and profitable than shoveling driveways and sidewalks.

    • jeather 15:05 on 2019-02-27 Permalink

      I definitely see people advertising car dig out services still. I find it takes me about twenty five minutes for one car, which is fine, but I admit I am often tempted.

  • Kate 20:27 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

    PricewaterhouseCoopers, which had been involved in the Formula E case against the city, has withdrawn from the suit. For some reason, this piece ends with a little homily from Lionel Perez blaming Plante, and not Coderre, for the Formula E debacle, which I find dispiriting. He can’t really think it would’ve been a good idea to proceed with that event year after year, but he’ll say anything if he thinks it makes Plante look bad.

     
    • Kate 20:24 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

      The inspector general says a tender for the Rosemont aquatic centre was written so only one bidder could get it, the sort of thing that got the Tremblay administration into so much trouble.

       
      • Ephraim 20:59 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

        We need a rule that says that if there aren’t three independent bids, the tender has to be rewritten. That will end this nonsense forever.

      • JaneyB 10:35 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

        @Ephraim – ditto.

      • paul 12:29 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

        With the market booming these days, contractors are able to be picky. I recently sought 3 bids for a contract and only received one offer. After following-up with the other potential bidders, they felt like they were too busy to bid for a contract they didn’t find particularly interesting.

        This is one of the detractions of a booming construction industry (in addition to the 25% mark-up)

    • Kate 14:07 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

      By the end of 2019 we should be able to pay for city permits online.

       
      • Kate 12:04 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

        The city is said to be increasing de-icing procedures on sidewalks – about time, as some might say. Le Devoir talks about the city’s need to rethink its response to winter conditions.

         
        • Kate 11:49 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

          The Plateau will soon have participative garbage cans allowing people to hang up cans and bottles that can be returned for deposit.

           
          • Patrick 13:37 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

            Nice idea, but how will they prevent the receptacles from being filled with random trash? I recall seeing In Paris special recycling bins on the street with openings on the side just big enough to push a wine bottle through.

          • Blork 13:55 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

            Patrick, it’s a normal trash bin, but it has a ring around the exterior where you can put bottles or cans to make it easier for bottle pickers to take them away. The idea is that bottle pickers don’t have to dig into the bin to get the returnable items.

            I suspect most pickers will still dig, because they won’t trust that everyone is using it right, but it’s a nice touch and doesn’t really cost anything or require any extra work on the part of the city, so why not?

          • Chris 19:57 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

            Yeah, sounds like a good idea that could work!

          • Bill Binns 11:00 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

            The city is finally getting into the business of regulating the scavenger business. This won’t end well. Who has the right to take this stuff? First come first serve? What if the first guy there is driving a pickup truck and cleaning out the whole neighborhood?

          • DeWolf 12:57 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

            Your faith in humanity never ceases to astound me, Bill.

          • Blork 15:16 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

            Bill Binns, you’re overreacting. This is simply a small modification to the garbage bins to let you put returnables on a ring around the bin instead of inside the bin. And nobody gives AF if someone drives around with a truck clearning out the neighbourhood because (a) it won’t happen (there’s not enough $$ to be made to be worth it), and (b) the main objective is to get that stuff returned for deposit instead of in the landfills, so who cares who’s doing it?

        • Kate 11:45 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

          The federal government’s lease on the Biosphere ends this year, and there’s no indication they intend to renew it to keep the environmental museum open. Text and audio from Radio‑Canada.

           
          • Kate 11:37 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

            La Presse looks at the new wave of food halls that are taking over from dispiriting mall food courts.

             
            • Kate 09:11 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

              The city’s in court over the payment of an old PR bill, but it also wants a ruling on its financial obligations when some fonctionnaire makes a commitment that doesn’t go through official channels.

               
              • Ephraim 09:52 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                How can you ask a mandarin to be responsible if you can’t hold them responsible for their own actions? When you have a normal job, you are paid to do your work and you have responsibility for what you do, you are answerable. But we don’t seem to hold mandarins to the same standard.

              • Kate 10:10 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                Right. We have these opaque organizations like the one that operates Jean-Drapeau park, and others. In a normal large organization I imagine at various levels people have discretion over certain expenses, above which the decision has to be made by a higher level. It sounds like this wasn’t being done in some parts of the city bureaucracy.

              • Ephraim 10:50 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                You take a salary, you take responsibility. We need to stop this idea that government employees have no responsibility. They have no responsibility IF they follow the guidelines and rules. Want to see how many unauthorized contracts they will sign if they know that they are financially liable? None.

            • Kate 08:02 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

              I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the renovation of the Biodome will cost another $3.5 million before it can be completed, and the reopening will be delayed. The building was originally a Roger Taillibert folly, and was never designed to be a waterproof, year-round interior zoo.

               
              • Mr.Chinaski 11:11 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                That first picture is great, I did not know there were still grandstands inside the Biodome, I was thinking they demolished them all back in the days! I remember as a kid walking into the Vélodrome, it was really steep and almost disorienting.

              • Kate 13:04 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                I imagine the grandstands are normally hidden behind walls? I’ve never actually been to the Biodome.

              • Faiz Imam 14:31 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                Yeah. they had tall partitions all around the old bike track as a cheap way to reuse the facility. You could kinda see the periphery if you looked closely when near the entrance, washrooms or restaurants, which I think are still original and out on the rim.

              • Ian 09:23 on 2019-02-26 Permalink

                I’ve been many times with my kids, that’s basically now an atrium when you exit the polar exhibit. Sometimes they put on little shows or presentations.

            • Kate 07:57 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

              The city is about to hold sessions on what to do with disused industrial lands in Lachine but developers are already ahead of them as usual.

               
              • Kate 07:40 on 2019-02-25 Permalink | Reply  

                Several major festivals have written an open letter complaining of problems at the Quartier des spectacles which divide into two main categories: the resurgence of the area means there are many new bars and restaurants with which the festivals’ own offerings can’t compete, and the popularity of the area for condo development has filled up all the empty lots the festivals once used.

                I’ve wondered before on the blog about the wisdom of turning the area into a residential one, and here we are. And the noise complaints haven’t started coming in yet.

                Update: The city is already concerned about noise from the Quartier des spectacles during festivals, and is putting in devices to estimate the sound levels.

                 
                • Blork 10:25 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                  “…the resurgence of the area means there are many new bars and restaurants with which the festivals’ own offerings can’t compete.” I find it hard to shed any tears about this one. Are they really complaining about downtown revitalization because it means they have a harder time selling overpriced and underwhelming snacks? Come on! I’d much rather a vitalized area with a lot of activity and smaller-level festivities than a downtown wasteland going through cycles of cash-grabbing and opportunism otherwise known as “festivals.”.

                  For example, imagine if the jazz festival had to scale back and just be about jazz, instead of being about creating a fenced-off private bar with overpriced shitty beer. Would that really be a bad thing?

                • Chris 10:33 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                  Ahem to that. The “beer” they sell at Jazz Fest is depressing. And of course they want to search you coming in in case you’ve brought something actually drinkable.

                • DeWolf 11:54 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                  Notice it’s just the big guys complaining. Somehow, smaller festivals have figured out that, if they sell booze that people actually want to drink at reasonable prices, people will buy a lot of it. Last year, Mutek partnered with Harricana to release a custom-brewed pale ale, and Pouzza has something like 20 different beers on tap from Beau’s and Trou du diable.

                  If you take the Jazz Fest route and sell cans of Coors Light for $8, well, you can’t really blame anyone for going somewhere else to drink.

                  I have noticed that the food offerings at the major festivals have improved a lot over the years, to the point where it’s actually worthwhile stopping by just to get something to eat from one of the food trucks. So clearly the festivals are adapting, but I guess they just wanted to whinge a bit along the way.

                • Kevin 12:01 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                  The longest food lineup at the JazzFest is for the people who carve mangoes.

                  I was sorely disappointed last year with the rest of the offerings because the food was very pricey for a tiny portion — so I walked away.

                  Francofolies had some nice offerings foodwise.

                • Kate 21:58 on 2019-02-25 Permalink

                  So the question is: are the festivals merely a profit-making venture for a few people, and is that a good thing for the city?

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