Updates from October, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 20:11 on 2019-10-10 Permalink | Reply  

    A man who stabbed a transsexual prostitute to death with a katana in 2017 pleaded guilty to manslaughter before his murder trial even opened this week. It’s not clear whether the victim’s trans status had anything to do with the attack.

     
    • Kate 20:07 on 2019-10-10 Permalink | Reply  

      Valérie Plante has condemned the Extinction Rebellion action earlier this week that involved scaling the Jacques-Cartier bridge to unfurl a banner. Le Devoir notes that there was a time Plante belonged to a group that promoted nonviolent civil disobedience, but I don’t see that this fact undermines the need, as a mayor of a big city, to discourage actions that cause chaos – even if fundamentally she may agree with the protesters’ ideas.

       
      • Kate 20:03 on 2019-10-10 Permalink | Reply  

        New lane markings on Sherbrooke West have caused confusion among some folks driving in NDG. But they’re not a new bike path, they’re an attempt to make drivers leave each other more space.

         
        • Faiz imam 21:28 on 2019-10-10 Permalink

          Not sure what they were thinking. This is cheap and quick, but it clearly looks like a lane.

          The right way to do this is to have diagonal lines to fill up the area in the middle to indicate its a restricted space. That’s street design 101.

        • Dhomas 04:49 on 2019-10-11 Permalink

          It’s tucked away toward the bottom of the story, but they do mention that the city will paint those diagonal lines:
          “In some areas, perpendicular lines down the middle of the two lines add clarity. They’ll soon be painted along the rest of the road, according to the city.”

        • Joey 16:59 on 2019-10-11 Permalink

          Notwithstanding the pretty lousy job the borough has done (so far – the Plateau did things properly on St.-Joseph near Hutchison in the very recent past), it’s amazing how so many drivers fail to grasp one of the fundamental rules of the road: never cross a yellow line. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a single line, a double, two lines a few metres apart – stay on your side. I’m hopeful the notion that the borough painted a bike path in yellow paint in the middle lane is nothing more than a some manufactured nonsense by journalists looking to make the borough look extra foolish.

        • James 18:09 on 2019-10-11 Permalink

          Yellow diagonal stripes are now painted

      • Kate 08:07 on 2019-10-10 Permalink | Reply  

        The alleged attacker has been arrested in an incident in Villeray in August in which a young man had his neck slashed during an attempt to meet a stranger to sell a phone, but both the current item and the initial report are more interested in the victim’s hockey career (and his father’s) than the incident itself.

        Since this suspect is a minor, I suppose it isn’t the same person that was rounded up in a similar‑sounding incident in the same neighbourhood a few weeks later.

        Update: TVA has a photo of the young man’s stitched-up neck. The attacker is said to have just missed his carotid artery.

         
        • Kate 07:49 on 2019-10-10 Permalink | Reply  

          It had been proposed to make public transit free the day after major snowstorms, not only in Montreal but throughout the agglom, but the idea has been turned down.

          Update: We had a really interesting discussion when this was first proposed back in February.

           
          • Daniel 10:24 on 2019-10-10 Permalink

            This is disappointing. What would be the harm in giving it a try? I mean, yes it would cost money. But it seems like a good thing to try for at least one winter. Make it clear from the outset that it’s a test program and the results would determine its future.

          • Chris 15:43 on 2019-10-10 Permalink

            One downside I can think of is that such days are already the most packed and delayed. Free price means increased use, so it could be even worsened. But if they added buses that could compensate.

          • Kate 09:12 on 2019-10-11 Permalink

            Chris, that was one of the points raised last time. Free transit doesn’t help the regular user, and risks bogging down the transit system with unaccustomed passengers.

          • Bill Binns 11:37 on 2019-10-11 Permalink

            Does anyone seriously believe that it’s the 3 dollar fare that’s keeping people from using public transit in a snowstorm? Isn’t it far more likely it’s the certain knowledge that public transit will be jam-packed beyond capacity and that buses will be seriously late or not arrive at all (while you stand in that Blizzard freezing your ass off waiting) that leads to the decision to drive?

            If public transport worked as it should, the city could simply declare a weather emergency and ban all private vehicles from the road.

          • Kate 13:02 on 2019-10-11 Permalink

            “As it should” is not really fair. Buses are vehicles, and just as subject to road conditions and difficulties as any others. We’ve all seen the photo of the bendy bus that lost its back end during a storm and the video of buses and other vehicles sliding helplessly down an icy Beaver Hall Hill, and there was at least one day last winter when routes with steep hills were cut short because of ice. There’s no amount of magic that can cope when the worst of winter hits, and it isn’t the fault of the city or the STM.

          • Joey 17:01 on 2019-10-11 Permalink

            Maybe “as it should” is meant by Bill to mean that public transit should be comprehensive enough to accommodate a full suite of users plus every Montrealer who drives in the city – on basically zero notice and in terrible weather conditions. Now, it would be great if our transit system were that good, but come on.

        • Kate 07:47 on 2019-10-10 Permalink | Reply  

          Outremont made off-street parking free during Yom Kippur (which ran from Tuesday to Wednesday evenings this week) and, as previously, this burned the ass of a notable Outremont bigot. If you’ve got nothing better to do but kvetch about how some people got to park for free for 24 hours, you need some new interests in life.

           
          • Chris 15:50 on 2019-10-10 Permalink

            Indeed. But Kate, I don’t think it’s “some people” that got to park for free, sounds like anyone/everyone did. Doesn’t sound like there was any religious test required.

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