Updates from January, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 20:07 on 2020-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

    Several big unions are asking Mayor Plante for a moratorium on the Publisac ban to save jobs.

     
    • Chris 09:51 on 2020-01-14 Permalink

      So shortsighted. 🙁

  • Kate 20:05 on 2020-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

    The city’s hiking parking fines for the third time in three years.

     
    • jeather 22:14 on 2020-01-13 Permalink

      By a whole dollar, or five more if you park in a handicapped zone illegally. My pearls!

      (Though wow, parking in a handicapped zone went up a LOT in 2018. I don’t see it that often when I am driving my grandmother places, which is good, as there aren’t that many handicapped spots as it is.)

    • Bill Binns 12:20 on 2020-01-14 Permalink

      I often see my friends pull out their phone and extend their parking time with the app before the meter expires. I wonder if enough people are doing that, that fine revenue is dropping to the point they need to increase the fines.

    • Ian 19:49 on 2020-01-14 Permalink

      I read after that app got introduced revenues did drop fairly noticeably. Raising parking tickets is just another sin tax, this admin knows it can do what it wants in that regard.

  • Kate 19:32 on 2020-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

    Animal rights protesters crashed Joe Beef on Saturday night, with signs and a speech before the restaurant’s bouncers hustled them out. Seems to be the work of a group called Direct Action Everywhere.

     
    • david100 19:50 on 2020-01-13 Permalink

      I mused with a provincial cabinet minister a few years ago that if the vegetarians really wanted to score some successes, they should target the government itself. One of the easiest possible wins on this front would be for prisons and jails to go 100% vegetarian – saves money, zero public pushback, significant impact by volume, and it would (potentially greatly) add to the deterrent effect of prisons/jails.

      Joe Beef is small (locally grown) potatoes – go after the prisons/jails and the huge food service providers there!

    • Kate 21:36 on 2020-01-13 Permalink

      I wonder, david100. If federal prisons went veg, Alberta would have another reason to complain. I’m not joking. Last summer, the Weather Network tweeted “If you really want to help save the planet, you could seriously consider limiting the amount of beef you eat.” The Alberta-based beef industry instantly dogpiled on them and forced them to retract.

    • Chris 21:55 on 2020-01-13 Permalink

      david100, “the vegetarians” are not the same as animal rights protesters. There’s a substantial overlap to be sure, but many vegetarians are vegetarian for mostly environmental or health reasons, and not so much animal rights.

    • David100 13:22 on 2020-01-14 Permalink

      Yeah, prisons I don’t think the producers could do much to stop you – public opinion is strong and “why should we be feeding these criminals luxurious meals?” is a winner – but other government measures to curb meat consumption would probably run into more trouble. The trick with government is that you take actions that will increase the cost of meat products – additional inspections, labeling, higher standards, removal of subsidies and favorable tax treatments, all sorts. This is the true way to a vegetarian victory. Anyway, at many of these points you’d have major pushback from the ag sector and, possibly, as you say, retaliatory action by affected provinces.

    • qatzelok 10:18 on 2020-01-15 Permalink

      Putting the word “the” in front of “vegetarians” makes it sound like you could never imagine being one yourself. Just like “the cyclists” or “the non-smokers.”

  • Kate 11:49 on 2020-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

    Snow removal is set to begin Monday evening. The city honcho says he knows it wasn’t much snowfall but it was dense, and they want to keep it from freezing into place.

     
    • Kate 09:08 on 2020-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

      The city consultation on vacant storefronts will begin Tuesday. René Bruemmer discusses the decline of St-Denis and the gradual revival of St-Laurent Boulevard.

       
      • DeWolf 12:04 on 2020-01-13 Permalink

        There have actually been quite a few new businesses that have opened on St-Denis in the past year: Rachelle Béry, several new cafes like La Dépendance, new restaurants like Magpie Tavern. But the main problem is that the street feels like a highway. Maybe that was acceptable in the past but there are so many more streets in Montreal where you can walk, shop and hang out without sitting next to cars and trucks flying past at 60km/h.

        Hopefully the REV will help by calming traffic and attracting cyclists, who studies have shown are much more likely to stop and spend money than motorists driving through a neighbourhood.

      • qatzelok 14:02 on 2020-01-13 Permalink

        What would also help revive St-Denis (along with the REV) would be several mid-block pedestrian crossings with lights. Having to walk 500m to the corner to cross makes it inconvenient to take advantage of the street on foot.

      • Kate 08:29 on 2020-01-14 Permalink

        DeWolf, on the map, St-Denis is a highway, 335. I suspect this means the city is held back by the Quebec ministry of transport from putting in traffic calming measures or bus lanes, but I’m not sure what the letter of the law is on this.

        Also, Rachelle Béry only moved a block. That’s the original branch, which was at Rachel and Berri, hence the name.

      • DeWolf 09:50 on 2020-01-14 Permalink

        Indeed it is, but isn’t the REV already approved? The city made it sound like it would definitely be going ahead this year.

      • Kate 10:19 on 2020-01-14 Permalink

        DeWolf, you’re right. But I’m not sure what the technicalities are, as I mentioned.

    • Kate 09:03 on 2020-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

      No question of the bias in this TVA piece on the reserved lanes on Papineau. They talk to exasperated motorists and to a couple of officials who defend the lanes, but not a word to anyone taking the 45 or 445 express bus, whose commute must have been been speeded up and shortened by the lane.

       
      • Kate 08:53 on 2020-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

        A mild earthquake, 3.4, struck Monday morning southwest of town and was felt by some on the island.

         
        • Chris 10:43 on 2020-01-13 Permalink

          Seems revised to 4.0.

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