Updates from February, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 16:50 on 2020-02-23 Permalink | Reply  

    Many travellers returning to Montreal from visits to China are choosing to self-quarantine for two weeks, and the Chinese community is supporting them by bringing them food.

    La Presse says that a plane carrying a passenger from Iran infected with COVID-19 stopped over in Montreal on February 14. CTV has picked up the story. There have been at least six deaths in Iran from the disease, as well as an outbreak in Italy, and the links to China in these cases are not clear. There have been an estimated 78,000 cases worldwide.

    Montreal’s public health has a page on the disease. No cases have been signalled yet in Quebec.

     

    • Kate 10:39 on 2020-02-23 Permalink | Reply  

      I didn’t think of laundromats as part of history but Radio-Canada does, even finding a clip about Net-Net, which I used to use when I lived in the Plateau. It’s true that you see fewer laundromats today, but Net-Net is still operating.

      I was actually hoping this “buanderie” piece would’ve gone further back. If you look through Lovell you’ll find an era when there were hand laundries all over, many of them run by Chinese folks. The only one of those I’m aware still exists is Nettoyeur Hum on Mont-Royal.

      Radio-Canada has done two pieces this year about Montreal’s old winter carnivals, one pointing out we had a carnival before Quebec City did and one about how the famous ice castle at Place d’Armes became the site of an anglo-franco pitched battle.

      (While checking what I’d posted about carnivals, I see I noted a pre-Lent carnival a year ago in Little Italy. If held this year, it should’ve been this weekend, because Ash Wednesday is this week, but I haven’t seen anything. Anyone?)

      The Centre d’histoire piece this weekend shows us the St-Hubert BBQ that was on Dominion (now Dorchester) Square in 1951. The modern photo shows us what a mess has been made of the old façade once hidden behind the famous rooster.

       

      • JP 18:22 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        I remember reading somewhere that the Word bookstore used to be a laundromat many, many years ago.

      • Kate 19:22 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        My research through Lovell shows that the little building was a Chinese laundry and then a bookstore. The laundry was called Sing Tom or variations on that name. It’s never been anything else but those 2 things.

      • SMD 13:40 on 2020-02-24 Permalink

        “On March 22, 1975, The Word Bookstore officially opened for business. A Chinese laundry had been on the premises for 70 years. […] Before it was a laundry it was a stable; city records date it back as far as 1835, and it feels even older.”

        From a 2015 profile in the Montreal Gazette.

      • Kate 13:43 on 2020-02-24 Permalink

        Thanks, SMD! I didn’t know about the stable. But all the older parts of town must have had places to park horses, back in the day.

      • Ian 16:30 on 2020-02-24 Permalink

        Architecturally it definitely has some of that coach house vibe for sure.

    • Kate 09:58 on 2020-02-23 Permalink | Reply  

      This year, Nuit Blanche will be on Leap Day, next Saturday, February 29. The metro will be open all night.

      There are various listings and selections besides the official one: the Quartier des spectacles, the CCA event, the SAT event, a Concordia contribution, a memo about the all-night bars. The Maudits français also have some ideas.

      Here’s Daily Hive’s suggestions and selections from CultMTL.

      Will add more here as I find them.

       

      • j2 11:09 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        There’s a paid fast pass for the Ferris wheel and slide at place des arts. My partner and visitor basically skipped the 2 hour wait for each although the slide still has a slight wait, but boarding the wheel was immediate. Each is about $5. (Sorry for vagueness she’s still enjoying a sleep-in)

    • Kate 09:34 on 2020-02-23 Permalink | Reply  

      VIA Rail says trains will be running again Monday. Protesters are also reported to have left the St-Lambert encampment that stopped the Candiac Exo line, so that’s expected back as well on Monday.

      Clarification, as noted below in comments: it’s the trains between Quebec City, Montreal and Ottawa that should be running.

       

      • Chris 13:02 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        Kate, maybe add “some” trains there. Doesn’t look like the most important, Montreal-Toronto, will be running. The protesters are still in Belleville afterall.

        Also, Montreal-Ottawa has been running for days now already… something odd about that article.

      • Filp 14:32 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        The encampment in st-Lambert was actually blocking the Mont-Saint Hilaire line. The Candiac line passes Kahnawake, so it’s definitely going to be blocked for the extent of this crisis

      • Kate 15:17 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        Thanks for the clarifications, folks.

    • Kate 09:16 on 2020-02-23 Permalink | Reply  

      Quebec has made a deal with director Roland Emmerich to make three movies in Montreal and is putting $10 million into the project.

       

      • Faiz Imam 13:17 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        another government subsidy for a largely healthy movie industry who would have project rolling in regardless. Doubtful taxpayers will get their money back given how large the gift here is.

      • ProposMontreal 23:12 on 2020-02-23 Permalink

        For as much as I believe, this is not a subsidy, but more of an investment. This director makes triple AAA movies and getting him do make movies HERE versus New York, TMZ or even T.O or Vancouver may put a spotlight on Montreal that will bring more big block buster in our city. That’s a multi-million industry in which many many Quebecois makes a living in. 10m$ for him is peanuts, you said it, but this will help hundreds of locals put food on their table and pay taxes that will return in the government pockets.

        That’s the problem with looking at things at the first degree, you often forget what’s the idea behind it.
        Source: I used to work in the movie industry and many of my friends still do.

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