A photo essay from Urbania on the Main after closing time in the summer.
Updates from November, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Valérie Plante is seeking more legal powers for the city and agglomeration to act to save the remaining natural sites in the archipelago.
david100
Toronto is, obviously, a desperately bland server farm of a city. But one thing that they really got right was creating a green belt. We should have done that 75 years ago, back when they were internationally in vogue. A real shame. Instead: ugly sprawl. And now any actions to correct it will take a lot more effort and money. Another big problem is that with our ultra low rise zoning patterns, preventing sprawl with a green belt would have led to a housing shortage/skyrocketing rents.
dwgs
Toronto has it’s faults but blandness hasn’t been one of them for quite a while.
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Kate
The SPVM is admitting it has a problem with systemic racial profiling and is promising to do something about it by next March.
I’ve been doing this blog for 18 years and several times have seen this issue raised and promises made by the police force, only for nothing to happen. I wish I felt realistic expectation that things will change this time.
Mark Côté
If some administration were to actually fix this, it would be this one. Mayyyyyybe.
Kate
I’ve never been able to suss out how much leverage any given city hall administration has had against the police force*. The most overt was Coderre, of course, who figured he could call up the police and get them to do things for him “because I’m your boss.” I don’t know whether this might work better than a more diplomatic approach, but then I don’t even know how the relationship is defined in law.
*On Saturday, it was made clear in this CBC piece that Montreal does not have the power to change how its police behave. Only Quebec does. I have no idea how this compares to city powers in other jurisdictions.
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Kate
Police had to separate two groups of protesters Friday at the Palais de congrès, where Simon Jolin-Barrette was making a speech.
Later, some details from CBC about what SJB was talking about in a speech CBC all but spells out was a humiliating comedown for the minister when faced by the business community.
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Kate
It’s odd that the Journal is claiming Friday that the city is facing financial disaster, a story unmentioned by any other media entity. Also, as the story mostly explains how the city is doing responsible things to balance and regulate its finances, it’s hardly a catastrophe.
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Kate
Rosemont is promising 20,000 new trees by 2025. Meantime in Lasalle, a small urban forest was razed without warning by Hydro-Quebec workers, one of whom allegedly showed his bare bottom to a local resident who protested.
Spi
I’m all for new trees but does the city or the boroughs do any maintenance/pruning of the trees besides cutting them down once they’ve been dead for years?
There are plenty of examples of overgrown trees/branches that are hiding speed limit panels/stop signs or dead branches overhanging sidewalks.
Jonathan
I live in Villeray and travel through RPP almost daily. I’ve noticed them pruning before. Not sure if it’s sufficient but I can’t recall ever encountering trees that were blocking my way or view.
Calling 311 with specific requests, SPI, could be the most useful way about it. City workers wouldn’t know otherwise.
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Kate
CBC looked into the Jean Drapeau archive and finds the origins of the Expos, who were initially meant to play at the Autostade, not at Jarry Park.
When the team played at the park, the blue line didn’t exist yet, so people were not going there via de Castelnau station as they do now for the tennis. Did they all pile onto the 55 bus?!
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Kate
Via reddit, an architectural report on a St-Hubert Street development which is less annoying than most of these because it re-uses a commercial/residential space in a modernized sort of way (whereas so many of these projects turn a duplex or triplex into a luxe little chateau for one couple). It’s still pretty haute for the neighbourhood, with most of the units sold for $722,000.
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Kate
The city has had plans waiting for ten years for a wastewater ozonation plant, an idea dating from the Tremblay era, and now it’s going ahead. The city hasn’t been disinfecting its wastewater, so that once this plant is operating it should be a major step for the health of the river. Unfortunately, standards have outstripped the plans, so they will have to be upgraded before the plant measures up. The price tag is currently half a billion dollars and is likely to be higher before the system is turned on.
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Kate
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