Updates from June, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 21:10 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

    Grand Prix weekend is an odd time for the National Assembly to vote unanimously that no retail worker should say “Bonjour, Hi” to customers.

     
    • Kevin 21:40 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

      It’s always an odd time to pass non-binding motions that the population will completely ignore.

      That’s one thing about having more immigrants from majority francophone countries: they do have any hangups about what language anyone uses.

    • Roman 21:47 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

      Waste of taxpayer dollars.

    • Kevin 21:50 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

      Sigh. Do NOT have any hangups.

      And with that I will hang up my phone for the weekend.

    • Uatu 09:17 on 2019-06-08 Permalink

      I guess they have to put on a show for their voters in the regions that they’re defending the culture from the invading Grand Prix hordes of ‘muricans, canajuns, slimeball eurotrash etc. (although they’re willing to take their cash, nonetheless)

  • Kate 21:08 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

    Mayor Plante has failed in her bid to get the Formula E case thrown out of court. The city may now owe $16 million the Formula E body demands after the city cancelled promised races in 2018 and 2019.

     
    • Faiz Imam 21:12 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

      Unfortunate.

      Without knowing what the details of the contract are, its hard to judge, but in hindsight my thoughts are that it would have been better to keep the race but to shift it away from such a heavily used central area to somewhere less disruptive, perhaps more industrial.

      But if the city was forced to do it the same way as it was done before, then ripping up the contract was probably worth the cost.

    • Kate 21:25 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

      Move it somewhere obscure and it would’ve become more of a joke. The only reason most of the sparse crowd was there in 2017 was free tickets.

    • Faiz Imam 21:42 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

      It’s actually too bad from Fe’s perspective as well. It *was* largely a joke in 2016, a gimmick series to get the FIA a bit of green cred. But as a racing series its gotten massively larger since it started, and is one of the only forms of racing seeing any serious growth.

      Major automotive players that abandoned F1 are joining Fe, and there are serious conversations that F1 is not worth the cost and many of the teams currently in are talking about switching as well. If they were still around Montreal they would have gotten much more interest now.

      It would be really interesting to see them come back and race at Gilles Villeneuve, but with this legal stuff, who knows how their relationships are.

      I recall listening to their CEO talk, and they said they wanted to be in the middle of cities so that “urban residents would see EV’s as legitimate and start buying them”

      As the series shift away from a marketing gimmick and becomes more of a serious racing product, I hope using proper tracks would become more common.

  • Kate 10:44 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

    Weekend driving notes from the Gazette and from TVA. Everyone needs to be careful of the crazed Villeneuve wannabes out there this weekend.

     
    • Kate 10:22 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

      Quebec is imposing new rules on Airbnb-type rentals as of this fall, giving operators one more summer to rake it in.

       
      • Ephraim 10:48 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        It’s a STEP in the right direction. Especially for those in Condos…. who will have to prove that they have the permission of the co-op board. AirBnB actually gives access to the data to Barcelona… so they can do it. Barcelona actually fined AirBnB for advertising illegal accommodations. And the fines in Berlin are up to €100,000… which really made everything think twice before listing…. because one reservation online and the city just sends you the fine….

      • Douglas 11:31 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        I am moving to a building with strict anti airbnb rules. And I am seeing more and more high rise towers implement these rules.

        Every sunday the building is a hotel lobby with suitcases.

      • Douglas 11:35 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        I overheard one of these airbnb operators in the elevator bragging to another airbnb operator that he has 17 apartments in the building alone.

        I see him going back and forth between apartments cleaning them all the time. A freaking parasite. Management is so stupid.

      • Ephraim 12:02 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Well, his business is soon over. Condos for sale…. 🙂

      • Ephraim 12:21 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Oh and Douglas, for full apartments, the city also wants COMMERCIAL property taxes. These new numbers can’t be issued for full apartments, where someone doesn’t reside full-time, because they need a standard CITQ number and to get that, you need to show them your occupancy certificate. And then you have to post a rating sign outside… which means you need to pay COMMERCIAL property tax. Essentially, expect a lot of apartments to go on sale in September, or sooner.

      • Douglas 13:03 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Previous management actually rented 17 apartments to 1 operator. He didn’t own them.
        Lazy management didn’t want to find new tenants so every time a new apartment came up for rent, they called one of the operators.
        Now there is 60+ airbnbs in my current building.

      • mare 15:41 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Not that much change. You already need permission from your landlord for subletting, and a lot of condos already forbid it. And Airbnb already collects that tourism tax, the Tourist Board de commerce is apparently more powerful than Revenu Quebec.

      • Faiz Imam 21:08 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        its not that big a change if you are already legit, which is the goal.

        But we have so much hidden, as well as “management looking the other way/dont ask dont tell” style airbnb’s that will be significantly curtailed due to this law.

      • Ephraim 07:53 on 2019-06-08 Permalink

        Sorry, Mare, there is an important change, you have to list your permit number. The WHOLE apartment rental can’t get the $50 to $75 a year permit, even with a sublet permission, unless you actually live there… so multiple apartments, going to be a lot harder to do. You have to LIVE there. And with the permit number, they can see if you do, or if you have the apartment up for rent all the time.

      • mare 10:59 on 2019-06-08 Permalink

        I doubt many people who occasionally rent rooms in their own apartment or residence will have that elusive permit since its existence is only mentioned in the press.
        If you do a Google search or even expressly do a search on the Montreal or 311 or Revenu Quebec website you can’t find anything, all info is about the Full time permit that costs nearly $1000

      • Ephraim 12:21 on 2019-06-08 Permalink

        Mare, that’s the point, if you don’t have the permit number listed, the government will go after you… and the fine is $2500 per day personal, $5000 per day commercial.

        The full permit is NOTHING like $1000. It’s $256.28 plus $5.40 per room, though I think there is a fee for the sign, which must be legally posted. And you don’t get it from Revenu Quebec, but from the CITQ. My guess is that sites like AirBnB will start warning people and telling them to get the certificate. Or they will make the certificate number required on the listing, like they did in Vancouver. Soon after the government stepped in and starting looking at the numbers, finding those who were using their number on multiple listings, those who used someone else’s number, etc. And AirBnB was told in no uncertain terms to remove listings that didn’t have the permit number.

        In Vancouver, AirBnB hands over all the data related to rentals and you can’t rent unless you agree to them sharing the data. I havent’ read the law, but my guess is… it’s coming.

    • Kate 09:01 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

      Rosemont borough has had five cyclist fatalities since 2011. It will be upgrading its bike paths to make them safer, and adding more. Eventually parts of Bellechasse and St-Zotique will be made one-way. This is all reasonable, but it would be nice to see a bit more about pedestrian safety, since that borough has also had fatalities among people simply crossing streets on foot.

       
      • Bill Binns 09:37 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Cyclists are really enjoying their newfound legal ability to zoom into crosswalks from traffic lanes to avoid red lights without so much as touching their precious feet to the ground. As someone who walks two dogs, it’s pissing me off on a daily basis. It’s a matter of time until someone gets hurt if it hasn’t happened already.

      • Tim S. 10:17 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        For whatever reason pedestrians just aren’t as organized as cyclists when it comes to lobbying. I joined Pietons Quebec a couple of years back, but am still not clear on what they do, apart from sending out the odd press release.

      • Kate 10:22 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Likewise, Tim S.

      • DeWolf 13:56 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Don’t these cycling improvements inherently benefit pedestrians? They include traffic calming measures and less overall space for cars. And they often lead to significantly more street greenery thanks to planted medians (like on Rachel).

      • Tim S. 16:18 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Dewolf: sometimes. But as has been discussed here many times, many of these moves simply turn the car vs cyclist dynamic into cyclist vs pedestrian. For example, I saw somewhere, via @CyclistBartek I think, an extremely well-thought out design for an intersection that would protect cyclists from cars. The designers, however, thought that obliging cyclists to yield to pedestrians at the crosswalk could be an optional feature. So no, I’m not automatically cheering these plans. We’ll see.

      • Ian 19:02 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        If yielding is optional, most bicyclists simply don’t yield to pedestrians.

      • nau 20:03 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

        Of course, some attempts to favour the pedestrian in car vs. pedestrian situations end up worsening car vs cyclist interactions, such as when they widen the sidewalks to make the distance for pedestrians to cross shorter and in so doing force cyclists to move over into the space where the cars are travelling. It’s almost as if they can’t conceive of all three modes at the same time.

        Just as a necessary counterpoint to Bill and Ian’s standard line, in my walking around I rarely have problematic encounters with cyclists but frequently have them with drivers. What exactly drivers find hard to understand about their left turn not having priority over the pedestrian walking through the crosswalk on the walk signal, I’ll never understand.

    • Kate 08:49 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

      Despite the extensive roadwork on St‑Denis (in 2016), Ste‑Catherine and St‑Hubert, only 16 businesses have applied to the city for aid of which only five have qualified. The city theoretically has $25 million put aside for this, but has only handed out $134,700.

       
      • Kate 08:45 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

        Entomologists are now saying that urban beekeeping is bad for native bee species which don’t live in the familiar honeybee colonies, but do pollinate native plants. City hall opposition has taken up this cause and wants the city to limit beekeeping and promote planting of flowers known to be beneficial.

         
        • walkerp 09:56 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          Can you not have beehives with native species?

        • Kate 10:24 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          They don’t hive! Seems most bees don’t live in communities like honeybees do.

        • bpmpost@yahoo.ca 11:16 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          Despite our best intentions, humans keep screwing nature up. At least I learned something about wild bees vs honey bees today: https://www.gardenmyths.com/honey-bees-native-bees/

        • Raymond Lutz 11:23 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          For nerds around here, voici un Nature Scientific Reports souvent cité à ce propos: Henry, M., Rodet, G., Controlling the impact of the managed honeybee on wild bees in protected areas, Scientific Reports 8 (2018) .

        • Faiz Imam 21:15 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          Just FYI, for many of the bees that we want to promote, “bee houses” are a healthier solution.

          They look like this: https://www.almanac.com/content/bee-houses-solitary-bees

        • Kate 22:14 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          Faiz Imam, I read that and was vaguely interested till the thing about harvesting cocoons – and then what?

          I imagine most of us would do a better favour for the bees if we either put out some flowering plants, or refrained from cutting down wild plants like dandelions and milkweeds that bees like. (If we have the choice. Apparently in some places you can be reprimanded or even fined for letting your lawn grow into a natural wild meadow.)

        • Faiz Imam 23:40 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          Good question. I just read the houses are good, I don’t know the details on this one.

          I read elsewhere that the holes should be cleaned every spring. But i’m not clear on what the deal is with cocoons.

      • Kate 08:08 on 2019-06-07 Permalink | Reply  

        The new items at the north end of Dorchester Square were officially opened Thursday. I’m surprised there’s been nothing said about those two staircase installations vs. accessibility.

         
        • Martin 09:22 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          The staircase installations are not meant to be utilitarian as such (you don’t have to use them to go from one part of the park to another), but rather to provide playful estrades for people to sit and enjoy a slightly elevated point of there view of the park. In that sense, they are like public art comparable to those new sculptures with stairs in the Bonaventure linear park.

        • Bill Binns 09:34 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          Shhh, It will happen. Just wait.

        • CE 13:20 on 2019-06-07 Permalink

          It’s not going to happen. It’s sardonic and cynical to think it would.

        • Faiz Imam 12:45 on 2019-06-08 Permalink

          It’s no different than the rusty stairs along university in the new park. It’s fine. no one cares. Art projects don’t need to be accessible.

        • Kate 13:11 on 2019-06-08 Permalink

          Rusty stairs? New park?

        • Faiz Imam 17:39 on 2019-06-08 Permalink

          Im referring to these: https://goo.gl/maps/xxAceouDLqUeCXTE6

          Which I love quite a lot.

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