Updates from December, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 20:57 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

    The peregrine falcons that lived under the old Champlain bridge will have their nesting boxes moved to the new bridge to allow them time to settle in before the old bridge goes away. Let’s hope they find the new bridge satisfactory.

     
    • Bert 21:04 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

      Not sure it was a peregrine, but there was a bird of prey feasting on a pigeon in the parking lot on Phillips Square a couple of days ago.

    • Kate 22:10 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

      I think it’s likely, if only because most of the hawks and falcons shown on the local Flickr wildlife group are peregrines, with Cooper’s hawks a distant second. We also have owls but the owl photos are almost always from wooded areas, not hanging around downtown.

    • EmilyG 09:17 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

      There are a lot of merlins, especially in the more suburban areas and the boroughs just outside of downtown.

    • Ian 15:19 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

      While I have seen peregrine falcons several times in the city and I know there are lots of nests, there are also tons of hawks of various sorts throughout town, I have spotted 3 species on the mountain alone.

    • Blork 15:38 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

      The turkey vultures are always a spectacle. Those things can have a six-foot wingspan, and they like to buzz the tall buildings downtown in the summer months.
      https://flic.kr/p/y5QZnx

    • Orr 10:12 on 2019-12-07 Permalink

      I was told by a birder (one of those with a 2 foot-long lens on her camera) that I was most likely to see a La Petite Buse aka the Broad-winged hawk. This was south of Montreal near the border where I see a lot of birds of prey. I find it hard to identify birds of prey outside of turkey vultures (easy) or eagles (easy but rare).

    • Dhomas 10:55 on 2019-12-07 Permalink

      I don’t know about turkey vultures, but I regularly see a group of turkeys roaming around in the East end. They’re usually close to the RDP train station. I was really surprised to see them the first time!

  • Kate 20:52 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

    CBC talks with Catherine Bergeron, whose sister Geneviève was one of the 14 women killed at the Polytechnique. I had no idea Ms Bergeron is also the mother of Clément Ouimet, the young man killed on the Camillien-Houde two years ago when an SUV driver made a sudden illegal U‑turn in front of his bicycle.

     
    • Meezly 10:53 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

      My god, neither did I until now. What are the chances of losing two loved ones in separate public tragedies in one’s lifetime?

  • Kate 14:16 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

    Experts are encouraging the city to reduce the number of parking spaces and make the rest more expensive. But whenever the city or any of its boroughs experiment with anything like this, it irks merchants in the area and some media delight in making the most of this dissatisfaction.

     
    • Kate 14:05 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

      The city has bought land on Île-Bizard to add to its big western park.

      At the same time, at the other end of the island, RDP-PAT is hoping to encourage more urban agriculture on 30 hectares of land. I wonder how long ago it was that agriculture ceased being done out there originally, but apparently a lot of the land is already contaminated with industrial effluent.

       
      • Kate 13:42 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

        La Presse headlines this story on the positive side: La cuisson au bois ne sera pas interdite, but the city plans to clamp down even harder on emissions from bagel and pizza places burning wood.

        According to CTV’s version of the story, the health department “found that three per cent of fine particle emissions in Montreal came from commercial wood-burning stoves.” The article adds “According to officials, it causes about 39 per cent of fine particle emissions.” I suppose “it” in this second cite means wood-burning overall, which – if an accurate summary and not a mistake – means only a relatively small proportion of the wood-burning in the city is done for commercial cooking.

        I’m wondering if the issue here is that wood-burning fireplaces are a toy of the relatively wealthy, so the city finds it hard to identify and fine the perpetrators. For example, I know an elderly couple in the posher part of NDG who have a fireplace they use, and no intention to stop using it on chilly winter days. I doubt an inspector will be sent to their house, or to houses in upper Westmount, Senneville, upper Outremont, TMR…

         
        • Alex 15:31 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

          A lot of fine particulate comes from Petrol/Diesel Engines but I guess its easier to wean people off bagels…

        • Alex 15:36 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

          Also I find it interesting that in the article they talk about transport emissions but don’t make a point to mention, as they do with wood burning, that breathing them in is also carcinogenic

        • Kate 19:57 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

          Alex, the CTV piece says: “[wood burning] causes about 39 per cent of fine particle emissions, coming second only to transportation, at 45 per cent.” As you say, it’s easier to make a big fuss over a few bakeries and restaurants than to ask people to drive less.

        • qatzelok 13:46 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

          Our system is geared towards selling as many things as possible. So after selling us rustic fireplaces and powerful motorized vehicles, we can then be sold iron lungs and various cancer drugs.

      • Kate 10:05 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

        We have a big red smog warning for the whole metropolitan area Thursday morning.

         
        • Kate 08:57 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

          The man shot in a hotel room early Wednesday morning has died, racking up the city’s 18th homicide.

           
          • Kate 08:54 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

            The REM has named its tunneling device Alice after a geologist called Alice Wilson.

             
            • Bert 11:54 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

              I wonder how long it will take for someone to throw a C before the first name of the thing.

          • Kate 08:52 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

            Costs are climbing and completion has been delayed for the tunnel linking Vendome station to the MUHC hospital.

             
            • Max 14:16 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

              This new tunnel is a clusterfuck. The path it follows is more than twice as long as the garage route. It connects to the hospital at the far side of the ‘D’ block, almost at the research wing.

              https://www.stm.info/sites/default/files/pdf/fr/vendome-plansduprojet.pdf

              Imagine using it to get to the Shriner’s. Might as well call a damn taxi if you’ve got mobility issues.

            • Benoit 16:29 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

              There would have been so many better ways to spend $110M… Elevators in 10 to 12 new stations, for example…

            • Kate 09:00 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

              Max, the existing arrangements are also a clusterfuck. I didn’t realize how lousy the new design is, though.

            • dwgs 11:31 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

              Looks like someone was getting paid by the foot.

            • Max 11:59 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

              If I had my druthers the Vendome platforms would extend west a bit, elevators would connect them to the top floor of 5252 de Maisonneuve, and from there a big ole scenic skyway would connect to the Vic.This business of going either through or around the parking garage is fuckin’ ridiculous.

              Anyway. Stay healthy, everyone.

            • John B 13:34 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

              Oh wow, I hadn’t realized the new tunnel goes out of its way to be extra long and go where the fewest people probably need to go.

              As a semi-frequent user of the Childrens, I hope the existing route through the garage doesn’t go away.

            • Max 16:03 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

              On second thought, it might not be so horrible. I just realized the diagram above depicts the existing passage from the metro only as far as the elevator / stairwell structure at the edge of the garage. It doesn’t include the stroll among the cars and the ambulance bays and the surreptitious smokers. My bad.

            • Uatu 18:10 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

              Looks like it will enter under the Cedars cancer center. Great. More lost patients. I think it is meant to link the bldg on de maissoneuve. The one that used to be owned by Air Canada and was bought by Porter using 40million$$$ of cash from the rvh foundation – cash donated to help patients but was used to buy real estate. Some doctors have clinics there (that charge 30% more from health care for overhead) and also charge for tests, but patients can opt to shlep down that new hallway to the hospital where it’s free. This includes pregnant women as one of the clinics is gynaecology. Get ready for a hike future mother! Why doctors needed a building for private clinics is beyond me as they just built a hospital that’s only 5yrs old. This just proves that patients are an afterthought. This hospital is for Doctors! Now they can hold their heads up high and impress their colleagues in the States and the rest of Canada that they work in a real hospital and not that old Hogwarts looking building downtown! … Ugh. Sorry but I’m just a little cynical and bitter. ;p

          • Kate 08:42 on 2019-12-05 Permalink | Reply  

            The idea of having the Tampa Bay Rays play half their matches in Montreal has been shut down by the mayor of St Petersburg in Florida, but some keeners are still holding out hope.

             
            • Kevin 09:06 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

              Addicts may be a better word

            • Faiz imam 11:45 on 2019-12-05 Permalink

              Its less that its been shut down than it has been delayed till 2028.

              That’s a good thing for opponents in that it means the boosters can’t have a few seasons at the BigO to pressure the city to help them shift the games to a new site.

              And it allows the market for downtown residential to fill up and increase pressure to use that site for that purpose, or at least making the stadium option considerably more expensive.

              But on the other hand, this now gives bronfman and other supporters 8 years to come up with a concrete plan.

              The fact is that the Tampa bay rays are very likely gone from Tampa in 2028, that lease will not be renewed and there is little appetite to build a new stadium elsewhere in the city. Does that put Montreal in a good position? or worse? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t celebrate yet…

          c
          Compose new post
          j
          Next post/Next comment
          k
          Previous post/Previous comment
          r
          Reply
          e
          Edit
          o
          Show/Hide comments
          t
          Go to top
          l
          Go to login
          h
          Show/Hide help
          shift + esc
          Cancel