The city is paying out big bucks for lawyering over the Formula E cancellation, although note the tone in the lede: “après l’annulation de la course par la mairesse Valérie Plante.” Cancelling that deal was the only thing to do. We couldn’t’ve staged this lame event year after year to stave off a court case.
Updates from February, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
There’s a special weather statement about freezing rain coming for Sunday. As of now, though, Saturday ought to be quite mild-mannered.
Kevin
I thought it was a glorious day for spring skiing
Kevin
And sunday morning is here and it is terrible. Don’t go outside without your spiked boots
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Kate
Like a bad relative who borrows money, Hydro-Quebec has been collecting too much for years and is having a really hard time giving any back. According to this story, even if the utility obeys orders and gives out rebates for awhile, half the money still stays in government coffers.
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Kate
The mad baseball folks are now suggesting Montreal could share a baseball team with Tampa Bay. I don’t see how even Stephen Bronfman could sell this as a premise for building an entirely new stadium on public land.
qatzelok
By emphasizing the perils of ownership, the article suggests that professional sports are all about owning people.
Ephraim
Really? Name some business where employees aren’t essentially prostituting themselves for money? We all do it. Now, can we have some real insight? Like the fact that these teams aren’t really local anyway. If we put a rule that stated that you could only use locals… then maybe. But we don’t. This is nothing about local… it’s all about the money. But so is most of life.
walkerp
Let’s get a friggin’ NBA team here!
Bill Binns
@Ephraim – It was exactly that realization (that all the guys on the Red Sox did not grow up around Boston or at least New England) that killed forever any spark of interest in sports I may have had as a kid.
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Kate
I always raise a faint eyebrow at headlines like Canada’s oldest man dies at 110 because once that person on the leading edge dies, there’s another oldest man waiting to take his place, therefore the oldest man can never die. Yeah, don’t invite me to your dinner party.
Anyway, this oldest man was 110 and a doctor, and was born and died in Montreal. Item says his brother made it to 109, so they’re being studied.
Tim F
Are you kidding? You’re welcome over any time
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Kate
The head of security at the Montreal General has been fired after workers signed a petition for more and better security in the downtown complex. This isn’t the first time that safety for this hospital’s workers has been in the news: a nurse was attacked and promises were made about security cameras a year ago, and the Gazette reported last month on incidents and lapses in security there.
Hamza
This is a travesty and indeed from first-hand experience the hospital is very disorganized and chaotic. I cannot fathom the decisions being made by the MUHC and provincial authorities.
Uatu
I actually work there and the disconnect between the real world and the theoretical one discussed in the board room is palpable. The administration might as well be in a building on the moon.
Hamza
I have the highest respect for the nurses , orderlies and (occasionally) the doctors who work in these risky conditions. The administration/politicians who allow this to happen and make it worse through budget cuts are awful
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Kate
The city is putting up $18 millions for projects enlarging access to the river, and it’s putting further millions into spiffing up its parks.
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Kate
The Insectarium is to close soon for two years for a depth renovation. The facility will be getting much bigger, which is all very well – but I’ve said before I’m concerned about deserving projects gradually swallowing up the green space in the botanical garden over time.
Ephraim
Does that BUG you? (Sorry, could not resist.)
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Kate
Valérie Plante says the city’s being unfairly blamed for winter conditions by people sick of the season.
dwgs
She’s going to have to learn that sometimes it’s better not to respond…
Jonathan
What a good lesson dwgs!
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Kate
QMI asks whether the city’s expensive croque-glace machines were worth the price, given they can only work under specific conditions or else risk tearing up road and sidewalk surfaces. Note the heavy presence of Lionel Perez in this story. But it may be true that the city oughtn’t to have invested in a dozen of these gadgets before testing one in real world, real winter conditions.
mare
I vaguely remember they tested one or two (in Verdun?) last year.
Steve Q
I hate to repeat myself again but heated sidewalk would have been a much better investment. Yes, they wouldn’t be covering the entire city but so is these new ”toys” who won’t go on certain sidewalk because they are too narrow.s
dwgs
If we have purchased a bunch of these things why are we not seeing them in action? Are they waiting for an even icier winter?
Kevin
Ice needs to be at least 3 cm thick to use them without damaging the sidewalk. So if there’s one bare patch (because all the salt was dumped in one spot) they can’t use them.
Alex L
Problem is, we don’t seem to have real winter conditions anymore.
Bill Binns
I think the large scale heating of sidewalks throughout the city is unworkable. Even for a province that is swimming in budget megawatts like we are, the amount of energy needed would be staggering. Years ago somebody posted an article on this blog that explained what it would take to melt snow in place rather than trucking it around and it was eye-opening.
Faiz Imam
I susepct we will see more use for these machines as time goes by. The conditions for ice rink type hazards is a lot of snow on the ground, followed by worm temperatures and rain, followed by a deep freeze. We’re def going to see more of that sort of variability going forward.
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Kate
In Wednesday’s stabbing incident near Decarie Square, the older of the two victims has died, making him homicide #4. The background story is still vague but police seem to think the two men attacked each other.
Kevin
Kate
Thanks, Kevin! Added to my side column alongside the others.
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Kate
Snow is making it easier to track coyotes and get a handle on their behaviour in city settings. The east end has seen a surge in coyote sightings recently.
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Kate
On Citylab, Tracey Lindeman gives a solid summary of the state of play with the Royalmount project – “TMR needs the Montreal and Quebec governments to help pay for transit and public infrastructure associated with Royalmount, but it also feels strongly that it was within its rights to greenlight the mega-mall without their consent.” Also, that massive lot for 8000 cars which will “bring just five percent more cars to the area” – according to the developer.
Uatu
Carbon Leo will say anything just to get it built just like Porter did with the Superhospital. And when the traffic is a mess and no one uses public transit they’ll shrug their shoulders say “I guess we were wrong” and walk away counting their cash leaving someone else to clean up the mess
Kate
I’m afraid you’ll be proven right, Uatu.
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Kate
Chef David McMillan of Joe Beef writes about the excesses of his life and giving them up, in Bon Appetit.
dwgs
I saw that elsewhere last night, well worth the read.
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Kate
Two men were found stabbed early Wednesday in the Decarie Square parking lot. One account says they may have stabbed each other.
david100 08:10 on 2019-02-24 Permalink
I completely agree that there’s it should have been canceled, that short article points to exactly how nuts this idea was. Néanmoins, on se pose la question : six hundred thousand bucks (so far) spent on outside counsel, and Blake Cassels no less? Not great. Do we no longer have city employed attorneys for this sort of mess? Coderre’s long arm of stupidity and waste, yeah (guy should be in prison), but PM needs to make more significant changes to how business is done.
Kate 09:25 on 2019-02-24 Permalink
We don’t have nearly enough expertise at city hall any more, david100. Neoliberal views over the last couple of decades meant the city contracted out, and even though the speciousness of those views (especially as applied to public works) have been repeatedly demonstrated, city hall was hollowed out by them and is still not as strong as it should be.