An app has made it much easier to register a complaint about airplane noise, and – just as the internet makes it more convenient to kvetch about anything – thousands of complaints have rolled in.
You’ll notice people complain about the noise, but they never wanted to go all the way to Mirabel to catch a plane either. Can’t have it both ways.
I commented elsewhere on this CBC story about a woman with parking troubles in Griffintown. I averred that the city is not obliged to provide drivers with free places to leave their cars. Someone else rather snottily told me that, since drivers pay fees, indeed they are entitled to street parking.
I admit I don’t see it but I don’t know what the law says here. I think as the car invaded our society it was just assumed you could leave your car wherever you liked, so by now it’s simply an assumption car owners tend to make unless a big sign tells them otherwise. Who’s right?
The fees don’t include parking. Even the parking permits don’t guarantee parking… but if there isn’t enough space when it comes to permits, the city does expand the permit area.
Seems to me she has two options: get rid of the car, or leave. The borough councillor straight up said it won’t get better for street parking.
To put it in perspective, she says she’s had 4000$ (if she’s not exaggerating) in parking fines since 2014, which is about 800$ per year. I can almost guarantee that this is cheaper than paying for a reserved parking spot in a parking lot. When I worked in that area of town, a parking spot in my building was 350$… per month!
I don’t think drivers are entitled to street parking, but they are entitled to some consistency in the locally understood rules. If construction companies can simply take over a stretch of street for months at a time, it’s not good enough for the city to shrug and say “cars bad.” Having a long-term plan to reduce car use that is clearly explained so that people can plan ahead (get rid of the car or move, as Dhomas said) is one thing, cooperating with construction companies to treat residents with contempt is another.
I have a hard time believing that anyone that accumulates $4000 in parking tickets is even trying to follow the parking rules. As for construction companies “taking over”, from my understanding of the article they are paying for the exclusive right to use those spots. You can do the same, they are called “Permis d’occupation temporaire du domaine public” let’s say on moving day you want the 2-3 spots in front of your house to be free for moving trucks you can go to your borough and pay for it. Most people will put chairs and what not to reserve a spot but there is a proper way of doing it.
I feel that in high school, it should be required to take a financial planning & budgeting class, and one of the lessons should be how to budget car expenses as a car owner.
A few years ago, a friend of mine, who lives in East Plateau, took out a loan and bought a $50K parking spot in her condo complex, for the following reasons:
She got tired of moving her car around during snow clearing and street cleaning
She wanted to protect her car better from the winter
Street parking has simply gotten worse, as the neighbourhood has become more populated
She kept seeing parking spots increase in value by $5K each year, so she thought it’d be a good investment
In other words, my friend did some calculations and made a very grown-up decision.
So no, drivers are not entitled to free street parking just cuz they pay fees to have the privilege to drive.
And further to what Dhomas said, there are 3 options: get rid of your car, move somewhere less populated, or suck it up and invest in a permanent parking spot for your car.
International visitors were up by 5% this summer, according to Tourisme Montreal, with tourists from France, Germany and Mexico in particular surging onto our shores.
Their statistics aren’t great… they only have data from the airport and 20% of hotels, the rest of the business doesn’t talk to them at all. My experience… Germany was up quite a bit. Didn’t see a single Mexican visitor.
I keep seeing organized groups of mexican visitors around old Montreal and the Quartier Latin. Most of them with their passport in a clear plastic square hanging from their neck which seems to me like a terrible idea.
Construction of the REM very nearly meant closing the 40 for some time, which would’ve been inconvenient and messy for a lot of commuters. Instead, a new gadget has been invented to speed up construction and keep the highway open. Some quite interesting photos of the scale of the thing over the highway.
Mobile gantry cranes aren’t really a new invention. This one’s just a variation on a technology that’s been used on civil engineering projects a while now. Check this viaduct-building monster out, for example. I think it’s from 2015. Way less disruptive at ground level than the REM’s method. I doubt it’s very good at curves though.
That is pretty cooi, especially when you realize the little ants running around are workmen, speeded up.
A man was stabbed in the course of an apparent drug deal down by the Quartier des Spectacles – in fact, on the extremely obscure rue Evans. He’s not expected to die.
At the bidding of its Postmedia masters, no doubt, the Gazette is endorsing the Conservatives in Monday’s election. You’ll notice the byline is just “Postmedia Nework” [sic].
(Update: On Twitter, Steve Faguy observes: “A little bit of trivia: A judge ruled reporters have the right to a byline strike after one in response to CanWest’s attempt to impose national editorials on the Gazette in 2001.”)
La Presse is not endorsing any party. Instead, they looked at three themes: the environment, identity issues and the economy. François Cardinal ponders the contradictions: Quebec, the province with the highest concern for the environment, elected the CAQ, with the most meager environmental platform; voters may say they want a balanced budget, but when – for example – the government of Philippe Couillard achieved this by making harsh cuts in services, they threw him out.
Le Devoir has an interesting exercise where you can compare your impressions of the Trudeau government to the reality, also a fairly nifty infographic comparing party promises. Editor Brian Myles concludes, with faint praise, that voting Liberal is the least bad option for Quebec.
I can’t find any specific endorsement from the Journal de Montréal, although its opinion page shows a range of headlines concerning the election. No doubt who Richard Martineau’s “deux jambons” are.
Yes, more federal politics. But I reserve the right to make meta-commentary on what Montreal media are doing, and when I woke up to the Gazette tweeting for the Tories, I knew I needed to compare media endorsements.
The Gazoo’s criticisms of Trudeau seem correct to me, but to conclude the Cons would be better is a bridge too far.
I’d love to see Trudeau turfed out, and I really don’t care about Canada, only Quebec. There’s just no good option to replace though. Everything got screwed up when Mulcair didn’t win. Best cases now are either (1) a minority government from which the BQ can extract money for Quebec/Montreal infrastructure from whichever joker is in office (this would necessarily be a CPC government, as NDP/PLC would ignore the BQ); or (2) a minority PLC government with widespread losses across Canada that holds the line in Quebec, so that when they’re working with NDP, it’s a Quebec-dominated PLC caucus, which leads to more of a focus for Quebec interests that can be plausible defended as national. That’s what I’ll be rooting for when I vote NDP.
david100, if you see Trudeau turfed out that means Scheer is in. Is that really what you want?
In my view you can’t care about Quebec without also caring about Canada. Whether you like it or not, we’re still part of Confederation. Tearing down Canada doesn’t automatically benefit Quebec. It’s not a zero-sum game.
In my lifetime I’ve seen Quebec saying over and over “what can we squeeze out of Canada?” without ever saying “What can we give back?” and in the long run that isn’t tenable.
Roberto Rocha has done a study for CBC of film and TV shoots done in Montreal, through an analysis of the permits given out. Although various corners of town have stood in for a lot of other cities, it’s interesting that it’s our larger parks that are the biggest draw – suggesting that Projet’s investment in a big western park may reap economic as well as environmental benefits eventually. With an accompanying video showing a few clips featuring familiar backgrounds around town.
Ant6n 20:51 on 2019-10-19 Permalink
This kind of juxtaposition, a supposed hypocracy, is often used in internet arguments, and often a very weak argument. It’s very likely the people who complain about airplane noise are different people than those who don’t want to go to Mirabel.
I for one would be happy to go to Mirabel if they’d built a fast transit connection. Imagine they could urbanize Yul and make it part of the city.
Kate 19:40 on 2019-10-20 Permalink
Granted it’s not a good argument. But in general, nobody was happy with the long distance to YMX.
Blork 09:24 on 2019-10-21 Permalink
No kidding. I think I only flew out of there once, in 2002 on an Air Transat to Mexico. It was a really early flight, and for some reason I took a taxi instead of the bus (possibly the buses weren’t running that early) and the taxi cost about $100 (in 2002 money). Plus it felt like an eternity getting there. On my return I was able to take a bus, which was much less expensive, but took even longer and left me downtown with my bags, requiring a Metro ride and a long walk. It felt like I was flying out of a different city.
ant6n 14:05 on 2019-10-21 Permalink
When they re-electrified the Deux-Montagnes line in the early 90ies, they should’ve just extended it to Mirabel. That could’ve given a 50 minute ride to Gare Centrale, maybe 40-45 minutes possible with further improvements. Oh well…
John S 14:09 on 2019-10-21 Permalink
And one source was responsible for over half the complaints with an average of 65 complaints a day! – i’m sure some of these are valid – but there are also some who won’t be happy unless Trudeau is shut down (won’t happen for a long while)
ant6n 15:01 on 2019-10-21 Permalink
Given all the infra investment at YUL on the one hand (highways, trains, airport itself), and the demolitions at Mirabel, I doubt the move will ever happen. That plane has sailed…