Drivers can get valet parking downtown for $8 on weekends as part of a city effort to make downtown a more appealing shopping area.
Updates from March, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
While others were swigging and jigging uptown, a group held a vigil in Square Victoria for the victims, now numbered 50, of the attack in New Zealand.
j2
My partner was disappointed it was so poorly announced, at least in the shadow of the events. She wanted to attend with the kids. (We did make the parade, but would have gone had we known.)
Kate
I didn’t see any notice of the vigil till it was over. There are at least two anti-xenophobia events planned next weekend, which I’ll post about soon.
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Kate
The St Patrick’s parade: Photos from Le Devoir and CBC, as reports say it was crowded if chilly.
Le Devoir reports on the plans for a new park for the Black Rock. It’s not yet clear to me whether the rock will be moved any distance, because the whole point is that it stands where bridge workers found buried bodies from the Irish fever sheds.
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Kate
Several times this week I’ve seen this tweet from the city warning of a rental shortage and directing us to a page with resources for finding places to live. Passing it along.
Ian
Kind of weird to be thinking of rental shortages this time of year – it’s not beginning of term, it’s not July 1… I wonder, what’s the catalyst to the concern here?
Kate
I figured it’s because tenants with the classic July 1 lease will receive rental increase notices by the end of March, so it’s coming up.
PO
I don’t think it means there will actually be a shortage of apartments for rent come July, just that there’ll be a shortage of listings as some places for July for some reason get posted further down the calendar. The panicked plan-ahead types will be disheartened that they may not find a place immediately, but I’m confident that places always pop up as May, April and June come along.
Tim
Are there any numbers from the city to back up this assertion? Otherwise, this is just fear mongering.
Kate
Tim, depending on neighbourhood, there are chronic reports of the loss of conventional rental space to Airbnb, for starters. Here’s a piece from the end of last year about the low vacancy rate.
Tim
I can’t argue with those numbers Kate (great job). A brief Google search shows that anything under a 4% vacancy rate indicates a tight rental market, so the 1.9% reported by CBC bears this out.
Ian
New concept: Guerilla renters. Locate illegal AirBnBs and refuse to vacate them after the rental period, offering a reasonable monthly residential rent instead.
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Kate
Radio-Canada has a piece about what it calls three surprising stories about architecture here: more on the Mies service station and the Eaton’s 9th floor – both of which have been written about extensively, including a piece about the station blogged recently – but the Masson house at 2250 Sherbrooke East is less well known. The house is not currently habitable and is only rented out from time to time for film shoots. Nice to see a few photos of the interior.
Radio-Canada has also mapped out the Montreal-area buildings on the official heritage register.
Ian
Man that Masson building is gorgeous. Makes you think of all the beautiful places that got torn down for ugly condos just because they weren’t built on contaminated ground.
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Kate
A church in eastern Ville-Marie caught fire Saturday evening and 80 firefighters were called on to put it out. Saint-Eusèbe-de-Verseil church is no longer in use, and the item mentions squatters using the premises.
Update: CTV also reports the fire but calls the church Côté Pierre Vicaire Episcopal, which has some listings although little information. So I guess the old Catholic church has been used by a different denomination.
Alexis Hamel tells us the building was designed by Aristide Beaugrand-Champagne and opened after a long period of construction that started during WWI. Beaugrand-Champagne also designed St Michael’s on St-Viateur – a radically different building, constructed around the same time – and the lookout chalet on Mount Royal.
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Kate
On my sidewalk Saturday afternoon: a procession of four machines, an ice-eater plow followed by a regular plow, then another ice-eater and another regular plow. Only managed to video the second pair, but when they were done, the sidewalk ice was gone.
walkerp
Cool! I want to see one of those! Great video. Thanks!
Kate
The ice chewing gadget wasn’t as big as I’d expected from pictures. But it works.
I’m wondering about later consequences, since we were told a couple of months ago that it couldn’t safely be used on thin ice or mixed surfaces. By the time these guys passed, this sidewalk was partly naked, partly iced in different thicknesses, partly puddles. Will it have damaged the concrete surface? Watch this space.
steph
I can see the teeth pattern in my sidewalk where it passed. I’d call it damaged on my street.
Ian 19:21 on 2019-03-18 Permalink
Holy cow, PM is backing reasonably priced parking to support business? Never thought I’d see the day. I can only imagine what silent fury this causes Ferrandez.
Joey 09:03 on 2019-03-19 Permalink
I guess the valet parking they had on Laurier during the recent construction was a success. I think most of the indoor garages downtown charge about $8 for all-day weekend parking (though I guess this wasn’t known to CTV), but maybe the cachet of having a valet guy park your car for you will make some kind of difference.
Chris 22:29 on 2019-03-19 Permalink
Ian, not sure why you conclude that. Backing reasonably priced parking, as opposed to the City providing *free* parking left and right, is exactly what should be done.