The small garage and mechanic businesses one used to see around seedier parts of town are being pushed out by gentrification.
Updates from April, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Montreal is moving toward a ban on single-use plastics of all kinds: straws, cups, packaging trays used in grocery stores.
I work with a young man who gets a take-out lunch every day. He could eat off a real plate with real cutlery where he gets the food, but he prefers to bring it back to the office, eat, and then throw away the foam box and plastic utensils. Five times a week, 50 weeks a year. Somebody must make a permanent or at least semi-permanent lunch carrier that could replace something like that?
Of course, users would have to wash their box and their cutlery to keep it hygienic, and that might be one thing too many for some.
Another thing the city is doing, in response to a petition, is consider the future of the Publi‑Sac.
I admit to mixed feelings about this. I’ve had a “pas de circulaires” sticker on my own mailbox for years, but the Sac sometimes does contain a local weekly paper and it may actually reach the few people who don’t use the internet. Also, among other things I’m a graphic designer working in print, and the loss of print ads, circulars and newspapers is not good for the business generally, although it’s a long time since I’ve done newspaper ads. Still, I can see its time has come.
John B
For the publi-sac, use the weekly as the container for the flyers, & actually put it in the mailbox. Plastic solved.
I wouldn’t mind getting the weekly, but I don’t want the rest, especially the bag, so we too have a “pas de circulaires” sticker.
For straws & stuff, I hope there’s some sort of exception for people who need things like that for accessibility.
walkerp
It’s just insane how plastic has invaded everything. It’s a gigantic market for oil and then another gigantic market for plastic manufacturers and distributers. At school, the kids get sliced apples in a plastic bag with a little plastic container of honey. The whole point about apples is that you don’t need to wrap them in anything!
I have a hard time taking the accessibility argument seriously. It feels like that has to be coming from the industry. What is the real issue for somebody with physical disabilities if single use plastic gets outlawed?
DeWolf
A lot of restaurants, bars and cafés have voluntarily done away with single-use plastic straws, which tells me the accessibility argument is bunk, as is any cost argument. You can get a metal, glass or reusable plastic straw for not very much money and it will replace a lifetime of disposable straws. It’s cheaper in the long run, both for the user and for the environment.
John B
On accessibility: Some people with physical disabilities have a hard time drinking from a glass without a straw. I don’t have accessibility reasons that we should allow single-use water bottles or publi-sacs, though.
About Kate’s co-worker: There’s no reason he should have to wash a theoretical reusable container. If he sat in the restaurant and ate, they would wash his dishes. If they provided a reusable lunch container, and charged hefty refundable deposit, he might use that, and when he buys lunch today he could return yesterday’s container off a the restaurant to be washed & re-used.
JaneyB
Until about the 80s, straws were paper. There’s no access crisis here. The plastic packaging thing is really newer than young people think. If we went back to the rates of consumption and the rates of plastic usage we had in 1970, there would be no carbon problem. The 70s were plenty modern and convenient, they just weren’t the frenzy of plastic that we have now (coffee pods, bite-sized kitkats, thimbles of yogurt, strings of cheese etc). Fully 50% of the carbon burden we earthlings now have was produced in the last 30 years alone. Just about none of itwas necessary.
Kevin
I still find it laughable that people have signed a petition online because they were too lazy to put a sticker on their mailbox. :/
jeather
Just because plastic straws are new doesn’t mean they don’t solve things for some (but not all) people. They can be limited without needing to ban them for the people who DO need them.
I was told that the publi-sac sticker meant that you don’t get notices from the city, which I get regularly for construction/closures/etc and find very helpful. Am I wrong? I sometimes skim the publi-sac but mostly I just toss it in the recycling.
Ephraim
I’m an adult, I can drink without a straw…. all these people using straws to drink remind me of toddlers with sippy cups. Both A&W and Harvey’s have stopped with the plastic straws… life continues. Always surprises me that Costco, which is “on trend” hasn’t done something about their own packaging… like individual packed items for their restaurant.
Kate – An Indian tiffin. (There have been a few companies that tried lunch delivery services in tiffin containers) Japanese use a bento box, but it’s generally for cold food. There are also the Chinese take-out containers, which the metal is recyclable, the paper as long as it’s shiny (not wax) is recyclable. In fact, shiny paper boxes are also recyclable. Genpak, Denico and Bio-Sposables all make biodegradable containers…. but they are more expensive and people are cost conscious… of course until forced by government to do the right thing. Some containers look like plastic, especially PLA… but completely bio degradable.
Mr.Chinaski
Well, let’s not talk much about Japan here, because they are probably the worst first-world country in terms of waste and recycling. Almost no recycling, no composting, plastic everywhere…
Blork
This will require a lot of changes all around, but none are insurmountable. For example, people who need straws in order to drink can just get in the habit of bringing their own. Re-usable metal straws are all the rage these days and can be found in stores all over the place (they come with tiny little cleaning brushes!). Or just buy a box of paper or plastic ones and keep a few in your car/handbag etc.
That said, an outright ban might be highly disruptive and not in a good way. While it’s easy enough for me to bring a container to work with me and to carry it with me to whatever takeaway place I might buy my lunch, that only works for people who regularly do this. What about people who hardly ever get a takeaway lunch but one day they need to? Or tourists or other visitors?
And what about pizza delivery? I can’t imagine how they will get around not using pizza boxes.
My inclination would not be an outright ban, but instead to impose a fee (not small) for using disposables. That way it’s still available for people who don’t have re-usables, but it ENCOURAGES people to use re-usables — especially people like the guy who Kate mentioned who gets a takeaway lunch every day.
Blork
Mall food courts are huge creators of throw-away packaging BTW, but this is where it’s easiest to fix. If people are staying in the food court to eat then there is no excuse not to use washable plates and cutlery. Sure, it requires an initial investment and some changes in how things are done, but it is totally do-able.
To see it in action, go to the food court at the Promenades St-Bruno mall. As food courts go, it’s a pretty nice one. And all dishes are washable/reusable. They’ve put in a really good system that works well. You eat there once and it really makes you think about the next time you go to the Eaton Center or some other food court that uses all that plastic and foam.
Marc
@jeather: I have one of those no-junk stickers (like this one http://www.villeenvert.ca/wp-content/uploads/pas-de-circulaire-150×150.jpg) and still get city notices about construction (as well as Videotron’s garbage on the door handle – infuriating!)
walkerp
Is that really true about Les Promenades St-Bruno, Blork? I find it almost unbelievable in this day and age. Was it done for environmental reasons? Would you happen to have any links to the backstory? Thanks!
walkerp
Never mind, used Google myself. 🙂 It’s Caddilac-Fairview and was part of a big reno in 2014. They have the same policy at Carrefour Laval. Makes me want to go there just to support the initiative.
“Comme cela avait été fait en 2009 au Carrefour Laval (autre propriété de Cadillac Fairview), la vaisselle en plastique et en carton sera bannie de l’aire de restauration. Tous les restaurants devront utiliser de la « vraie vaisselle conçue sur mesure » et des couverts en métal. Le lavage sera assuré par le centre commercial, qui se mettra aussi au compostage. À elle seule, l’aire de restauration du Carrefour Laval (1200 places assises) avait coûté 54 millions.”
jeather
When I (very rarely) get a drink at a food court, it comes in a cup that is often too wobbly to hold to drink, I need the straw because the cup is so cheap it doesn’t work to drink out of any other way. (Especially common when the drink is tap water.) It’s a real pain.And they generally won’t fill up a water bottle for you.
The food court at Carrefour Laval also uses reusable dishes, it’s really nice. It’s more pleasant to eat from and everything. Strong support..
Mark Côté
The ban is just about plastics, so your pizza boxes are safe (they’re compostable!). Also more places are providing paper straws (like the cafe near me). They’re probably also compostable.
-
Kate
The city has a budget surplus of $213 million for last year, being ascribed to the hot real estate market. Benoit Dorais is quoted: “Right now we have a situation where the real estate market is very, very, very good for Montrealers.” But is this real estate thing an unmixed blessing?
Robert H
Non. Faut qu’on soit proprietaire dans une zone favorisée, mais pour nous les locataires…
-
Kate
No cops will be charged in the death of David Tshiteya Kalubi in police custody, two years ago. He was picked up on two minor charges and died as a result of a heart ailment, according to the coroner’s report.
-
Kate
Marc Cassivi comments on the irony of Robert Lepage being accorded a prize by an artists for peace group in the year after SLAV and Kanata.
EmilyG
I think the last paragraph in that article tells us what we need to know about Lepage’s thoughts on the matter.
-
Kate
The Journal is alleging that the five-year-old who drowned in a back yard pool in Pierrefonds on the weekend may have been pushed in by his brother – but that the brother then tried to fish him out.
JaneyB
That poor kid. Siblings are normally pushing each other incessantly but what a terrible consequence that one time. How fast accidents can happen – the parents almost lost both of them in their own backyard.
Kate
Don’t think it was the kids of that family – the item suggests they were foster kids from another household. Which isn’t to say it won’t haunt the pool owners or others involved, like the neighbour who tried to save the kid.
Bert
Absolutely no security around the pool! Negligence? I think so.
Kate
There are laws about having a fence around a yard where an in-ground pool is, but if the family had admitted the kids to play, I don’t think any laws were broken. This time of year they may not even have thought of a half-empty pool as a hazard, but it doesn’t take much water to drown a five-year-old.
Bert
I will admit I am not a pool owner and even less an expert, but I am under the impression that pools need some sort of secondary protection. For above ground pools that means that removable stairs are required. i.e. the little-ones would have to grapple up the side of the pool. For in-ground pools this requires a dedicated fencing around the pool, separate from the back-yard fencing.
The photo shows the back of the house, with a patio-door, a set of stairs and the pool. A fencing around the pool is not visible.
Again, it may be a grandfathering issue, but strictly from the photo, the installation does not look safe.
steph
If the yard is fenced off from the public/street, that probably counts as dedicated fencing.
jeather
The secondary protection was made mandatory maybe 10 years ago and any places that already had an in-ground pool without a secondary fence were grandfathered in.
-
Kate
Flooding is still the biggest story Wednesday as rain pelts down. The peak is expected to come Thursday or Friday. Quebec is offering to buy certain houses for $200,000 to get people out of the worst flood zones, a maneuver examined here by the Gazette. It’s fine and dandy to say you have a $900K house on Île Bigras, but if it’s literally underwater, you may be best advised to cut your losses. Surely owners have some responsibility for making a choice to live so close by the river – even if government also has to admit that zoning certain areas residential wasn’t exactly smart either. At least flood maps are being redrawn in the Montreal area.
Upside: Montreal may get some of its wetlands back because the rivers are making their wishes very clear.
Other upside: Can people still be living in denial of climate change?
steph
are these people/houses insured?
dhomas
@Steph that was my initial thought, too. $200k should be enough to buy a new plot of land, then insurance should cover the rebuilding costs (I know my insurance covers rebuilding my home in the event of a complete loss). I then proceeded to check my insurance policy (and I have pretty robust insurance), to find the following:
“Flood
WE DO NOT INSURE loss, damage or expenses caused directly or indirectly by flood.
“Flood” includes waves, tides, tidal waves, tsunamis, seiches, dam breaks and the rising or
overflow of any stream of water or body of water, whether natural or man-made.
This exclusion applies whether or not there is another cause or occurrence (whether
covered or not) that contributes concurrently or in any sequence to the occasioning of the
loss, damage or expenses.
However, we insure loss or damage caused directly to insured property by a fire or explosion
resulting from flood.”That said, I’m nowhere near a flood zone, so I may have opted out of such coverage. But my insurance is already so expensive that I can only imagine how much adding “flood insurance” would cost, especially in a high risk area.
Marc
I think I recall my insurance company sending an update a few years ago saying that the plan I subscribe to no longer covers flooding. If there’s one thing humans are good at it’s denial.
Ephraim
Climate change, flat earth, KKK, Sandy Hook, man on the moon, chemtrails, windmills give cancer…. people will believe silly shit if it means that they feel it gives them, understanding, certainty, control, security and helps maintain a positive self-image. And a lot of society rejects any change at any cost… try to get someone using Tide detergent to change, even if something works better, costs half as much and doesn’t pollute… If their flip phone batteries never died… they would still be using a flip phone.
walkerp
What I heard on the radio this morning was that if the insurance companies do not cover it, that’s when you are entitled to government emergency funding. When insurance companies start covering new disasters, then the government doesn’t use emergency funding. Floods did not used to be routinely covered but now they are starting to (though probably at prohibitive cost if you continue to live in a high-risk area).
Mark Côté
My house insurance also informed me some time ago that flood protection was no longer included in the basic plan. If you want confirmation of big shifts like climate change, look no further than insurance companies.
SMD
A Rigaud resident’s helpful perspective, in Le Devoir today:
« Tu veux savoir pourquoi on a construit une maison en zone inondable ? C’est simple : ce n’était pas une zone inondable. Quand j’étais petit, j’attendais l’autobus scolaire le long de la rue là-bas, même quand l’eau montait à la fonte des neiges. Des inondations, il n’y en avait pas », ajoute-t-il. Les eaux avaient envahi le chemin en 1976, mais ce n’était rien de comparable avec les inondations de 2017 et de cette année.
« Les changements climatiques, on a les deux pieds dedans. Ceux qui n’y croient pas devraient venir voir ici. C’est évident que le climat change », dit-il en marchant péniblement dans la rue envahie par un demi-mètre d’eau.
He also says he’d take the $200K to move, in a heartbeat.
Ian
He’s right, 76 was a rough year across Canada, but that area is considered a 50 year flood plain – that it is apparently now annual-ish is regrettable, but not unforeseeable, especially since people have been talking about climate change flooding for well over 30 years now.
Mr.Chinaski
Il faut simplement faire comprendre à la population c’est quoi la ligne 0-20 ans, et c’est quoi la ligne 0-100 ans. Fait un vox pop, la majorité des gens n’ont aucune idée de ceci et ce que ça veut dire (même si c’est très évident).
Raymond Lutz
Denial? I’ll paste my pinned mastodon toot:
I don’t believe anymore good arguments can change something in people’s head. I don’t believe anymore in Rationality as a driving social force: we’re hardwired to hang to our misconceptions. Read this Atlantic article for a starter. Here’s a quote: “Having social support, from an evolutionary standpoint, is far more important than knowing the truth.” Pascal Boyer
steph
So they [i]could[/i] be insured but chose not to be? Do you think that would work with my car insurance?
Ian Rogers
In other news you can buy a 3 bedroom house in Île Bizard for under 150k now…
Chris
Ephraim, you forgot ‘deities’ in your list of “silly shit” that people believe in “if it means that they feel it gives them, understanding, certainty, control, security and helps maintain a positive self-image”. 🙂
dhomas
We get it, Chris. You’re an atheist and think everyone else should be, too. It’s getting to be a bit long in the tooth and, frankly, equally as annoying as religious folks who try to push their beliefs at every opportunity.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, we just don’t need to hear it every time you post, even when it adds very little to the conversation.Max
The Globe and Mail has a fairly detailed piece on the ongoing problem of inadequate flood mapping:
-
Kate
CDN-NDG mayor Sue Montgomery is in court this week over harassment from a man who has targeted her since she was a journalist for the Gazette – repeatedly taking photos and videos, posting them to a blog – which I’m not going to link to – and showing up for council sessions. Reading about her experience makes my skin crawl: she has my respect for continuing with a public career despite this nuisance.
Tim S.
Well put Kate. I’ve had some tangential experiences with Sue Montgomery in the past, and this person has always been a constant presence. She has, as far as I know, always handled it well and not let it put her off.
-
Kate
The winter just past – a long one, which started November 13 and ended with an April snowstorm – is costing the city an additional $6 million for snow removal. Fluctuating temperatures and resulting icy conditions also meant more salt and gravel work.
Ian
This amidst plans to not actually bother repairing potholes in any serious way.
“The City of Montreal says it is going to scale back road repairs and focus on long-term construction designed to make the city more “livable.”
In other words, the city is going to cut back on patching potholes, and will instead spend money on rebuilding roads and increasing the number of bicycle lanes, widening sidewalks, and planting trees.
Many roads are currently being repaved to extend their life cycle by an average of ten years. The Plante administration said it wants to refocus its efforts on roads that need to be completely rebuilt and use the occasion to redesign them, as it did on Papineau, north of the metropolitan.”
While this is a nice idea to beautify the city and focus on major roadworks, the entire length of Hutchison, to take one example, is a mess of potholes top to bottom – there are even potholes on the speedbumps. Not just little patches, but actual holes to the bottom of the roadbed.
newsflash: bicyclists are also affected by potholes, it’s not just the evil cars and trucks. In personal experience, I blew out my front tire on one a couple of years ago – fortunately it was a side street (on Hutchison), I wasn’t going very fast, and there was no traffic to fall into – but there are major potholes all up and down Parc, Saint Larry, & Saint Urbain – effectively all the major north-south streets in Mile End. Beaubien is a serious mess of deep, unavoidable potholes right where the Van Horne bike path starts, Bernard & Saint Viateur are falling apart – I’ve seen the city just place traffic cones in the deepest holes and leave it at that for weeks at a time… But good news, they put major work into bike paths in on Clark & Jeanne Mance, no need to worry about the potholes on major streets /s – this administration has decided to stick with the old patch up the hole and hope for the best approach which is pennywise and pound foolish at best, we will see more ghost bikes chained to the pretty new urban furniture over the next few years I’m sure.
Joey
Maybe this is an unspoken admission that none of the contractors in this city will properly repair streets to prevent potholes from re-emerging soon after the work is done, so we might as well just make do with things as they are.
mare
Maybe the streets riddled with potholes will convince drivers to keep to the 30km/h speed limit. Hahahaha.
Ian
You’re absolutely right, mare, it’s clearly to the public benefit to leave the potholes. Maybe the city’s budget surplus from gentrification can go into more beautification stuff like building nicer tennis courts for the yuppies in Fletcher’s Field, or redoing the cycle path median on Clark that narrowed the street too much for fire trucks to pass.
Steve Q 23:55 on 2019-04-24 Permalink
While I understand it may be hard for some small owners of such businesses, I think it is a good thing that they are being ”puched out” in order to make room for apparments or condos. I also wish it was the same thing for huge gas station such as the one corner St-Laurent and Sherbrooke or Du Parc and Mont-Royal, per example.
Roman 04:13 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
Ya more like are probably cashing out on all that land.
Kate 06:41 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
Roman, there’s no indication these folks owned the space they were using.
Steve Q, a city is more than just a dormitory.
Marc 08:32 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
I’ve been watching this happen in Verdun since I moved here 10 years ago. There are still quite a few small garages around, though.
JaneyB 08:43 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
I like seeing those little auto shops around (@Marc – that one on Bannantyne!). Very handy if your car breaks down. Reminds me of the time when neighbourhoods had everything. What’s the point of densification if there are no services other than restaurants and bars? That’s just a kind of congested suburb with a lot of deliveries. People meet their neighbours by doing chores nearby not by sitting in a café staring at their screens.
Kevin 09:13 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
Each neighbourhood should be semi-independent. Heading out of your neighbourhood in order to fulfill basic functions pretty much defeats the point.
CE 10:17 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
I’m typing this while waiting for the forklift to get out of the way of the entrance of the brewery where I work (in a « seedy » part of town). It’s moving all our equipment to Joliette. The owners of the building tripled our rent, probably the app developer that moved in next door a few years ago wants to expand.
People look at these ugly industrial areas around the city and think they all need to be « revitalized » but forget that people work in these places and that they actually produce stuff (like beer in our case). As more of this happens, anybody with an industrial job will be working and living in the suburbs which I guess some people might see as revitalization.
Mr.Chinaski 10:40 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
The Bannantyne garage is really good actually, one of Verdun’s hidden spot 🙂