You know when the silly season is peaking: a story about the Montreal bagel will crop up.
Updates from August, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Some odd things have been found in restaurant food, although considering that humans prepare food, cut themselves, put on band-aids, and occasionally have to use sub-par equipment, the finding of nuts, bolts and bandages is not too surprising. But I think I’ll make my own supper tonight.
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Kate
If you’d ever wondered about the history of the Lachine Canal you can now discover its history in a walking tour or in a kayak. I was told stories about the canal from my childhood, some of them quite morbid, so although I enjoyed walking along it when I was working down in the Hank, I’ll let others hear the more sanitized versions.
Max
Some Concordia students and Parks Canada put together an hour-long audio tour, along with a nice 50-page booklet back in 2013.
http://postindustrialmontreal.ca/audiowalks/canal-2013
The mp3’s been languishing unlistened on my phone for years now so I can’t actually vouch for it, but it appears promising.
You’ll need to setup a free account to get at these PDF articles from The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, but it’s well worth the effort for anyone seriously interested in the history of the canal.
https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=lachine+canal&filter=
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Kate
Tourism numbers are looking good this season.
Chris
Perhaps thanks, in part, to Airbnb making to easier and cheaper?
Ephraim
Chris – Nope. AirBnB has nothing to do with it at all. I can tell you also that the mix this year is different than other years, with less Europeans coming in August than normal. AirBnB has almost no effect on the tourism numbers, other than to lower GDP and increase taxes because they help people with tax evasion that you and I have to make up with our taxes.
BTW… before you consider doing AirBnB in Montreal, remember that Montreal is big in the porn industry… and the sets are often AirBnB rentals 🙂
Chris
“AirBnB has nothing to do with it at all.” Saying so doesn’t make it so. Has anyone studied it? You have anything to back up the claim?
Joey
Since Airbnb “has almost no effect on tourism numbers,” what aspect of the economy does it affect so significantly as to lower our GDP? Thought experiment: abolish all short-term tourism rentals in Montreal overnight. Does tourism go up, down or stay the same? Do restaurant and concert revenues increase or decrease? Do hotel prices go up or down?
The critique of airbnb that Ephraim posts five days a week on this blog is valid and persuasive, but the idea that Airbnb has no impact on tourism is ludicrous.
Ephraim
The statistics say it’s so. They look at hotel numbers, AirBnB numbers essentially don’t exist because they don’t give out a count of people. The statistics are based on Tourisme Montreal numbers. Of course those aren’t right either, since only about 40% of hotels and less than 10% of the other accommodations give them any numbers. But statistics basically say that part of statistical numbers should correlated, but that’s an assumption. Many of the hotels have turned their back on Tourisme Montreal. They also use statistics from AdMtl, which of course doesn’t really have a way to know WHY people are coming and of course doesn’t include rail or car. And of course, you can’t really get car unless you could count, because how do you know who drives through, who stays, etc. For the most part, it looks at people in hotel rooms, nothing more.
They lower GDP because the income is generally not declared on income tax and income tax is not paid. (Also GST/QST are not paid.)
Chris
Ephraim, if “AirBnB numbers essentially don’t exist” then how can you conclude that “AirBnB has nothing to do with it at all”? Which “statistics say it’s so”? Can you share a link?
I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m saying you’re not convincing. 🙂
Ephraim
Chris, look at tourist statistics for Montreal. AirBnB sometimes, for political gain, will release their numbers when they are trying to make a point. But otherwise, they don’t participate. They will cite how much they have paid in the 3.5% tax. Of course we have no way to correlate that with tourists, though it’s supposed to go to tourism. We know they are reporting the money as a lump sum, so they can hide the sources. But I’m not sure if they have to report it regionally, so each region gets it’s fair share of the 3.5%.
The source of tourism numbers in Quebec has always been AdMtl and Tourisme Montreal. Not that I’m saying that these are good sources. For one thing, people often lie a borders saying they are here for tourism, when they can be here to work, stay or study, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of the border guard or getting a work visa. For another, at an Airport doesn’t really tell you where they are going, because they could fly into Montreal to go to Vermont, for example.
But the statistics just don’t have AirBnB in them…. well, slightly, in that they would appear in the Admtl stats. But I’ve seen these statistics and my own business for a long time. I can tell a good year from a bad year by looking at my receipts. Last year the Europeans came much earlier than normal. This year, they didn’t. It’s hard to tell about September/October when you deal with older travellers and then leaf travellers, just yet. Also booking patterns differ wildly between the groups. But that is something that you learn in the business. I also didn’t deal with as many AirBnB rescues this year… the crying phone calls looking for a place to stay.
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Kate
Some arcane calculation by Maclean’s has declared Montreal Canada’s 296th best community.
ProposMontreal
I like the fact that the Gazette is getting mad that someone else is bashing Montreal then them.
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Kate
Friday evening the Alouettes’ match against Saskatchewan was cut short by the thunderstorm, leaving the Als down 17-10 in a game that hadn’t completed its third quarter. The rain lasted so long that the partial game was adjudged as a final score, a thing that has apparently never happened before in the CFL, although I presume it’s in the rule book.
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Kate
Mathias Marchal, always a voice of reason, estimates here that if the city succeeds in getting the land it wants for the big West Island park, it will get close to its target of 10% green space, but still not quite make it. He’s got the numbers.
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Kate
Masson Street will be getting a new pedestrianized space between 5th and 6th Avenue. Like the one on de Castelnau, it’s visually anchored by a big church. If nothing else, those random old incursions into the commercial space do help, visually, to break up a pattern.
Patrick
Good idea. Rue Masson is already a pleasant street to walk and stop for coffee, and this will make it even nicer.
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Kate
Rosemont borough is going to stop putting in fake turf on sports fields, because it doesn’t help with heat island effects at all.
In other park sports news, Sud-Ouest has closed a baseball diamond after stray balls landed on terrasses of nearby restaurants. There’s talk here of the city eventually putting up some kind of net that would allow the field to reopen.
Chris
That fake turf stinks when it’s sunny too.
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Kate
Two people were shot, not fatally, overnight at Clark* and Sherbrooke during a brawl.
There’s a little more detail in this Journal piece, where it says one of the victims is a woman who was hit by a stray bullet, and was probably not involved in the fight.
*Note to TVA: Clarke is in Westmount. Clark is downtown.
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Kate
I thought the fences along l’Acadie that separate TMR from Park Ex were the island’s only example of geographical apartheid, but there’s also one separating Pierrefonds and Kirkland. How bizarre.
EmilyG
I wonder about Dorval Island. You can’t get there by walking or car, and I’ve heard that only people who live there are allowed to go there.
EmilyG
Also, I’m wondering if the Pierrefonds/Kirkland gate has to do with the fact that Kirkland is a city, and PIerrefonds is part of Montreal.
Kate
Dorval Island has an effective moat. I too have heard that if you try to land there, you will be headed off. Also nobody lives there in the winter except one caretaker.
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