The outbreak of Covid among Montreal meteorologists indicates office work will have to change, as this article about the impossibility of office tower layouts and elevators also observes.
Updates from May, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Montreal was the site of the first radio broadcast in Canada a hundred years ago from station XWA, which eventually evolved into CFCF and, like most of the AM band, has since been abandoned. Wikipedia says the early history is obscure, but that XWA’s first licence was connected with a training school on Rodney Street – but even the list of old street names in the appendix to Le rues de Montréal doesn’t list any Rodney Street.
Raymond Lutz
I can’t find confirmation on the net this (1919) was actually the first radio emission of voice from Canadian territory but learned that:
#1 Marconi deployed wireless telegraphy installations in Canada (St. John’s NL 1901 and Drummondville 1925) essentially to avoid legal battles and regulatory restrictions In Europe (from military, incumbent cable or radiotelegraphy competing companies);
#2 the first world voice 18 km transmission was achieved by a Canadian (born 100 km from here, East-Bolton!) using equipement built on Massachusetts coastline in 1906, Reginald Fessenden.
#3 Fessenden developed AM transmission and heterodyne signal processing: “Marconi Company purchased in 1914 a license to Fessenden’s patents from the National Electric Signalling Company (NESCO), which later became the Radio Company of America (RCA)”.
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Kate
Museums and libraries will reopen on May 29 although with restrictions. Normally, May 31 would’ve been Museums Day with free access and special free bus routes, but there’s no mention of it here. Items also mention drive‑in cinemas, which I didn’t think still existed.
EmilyG
I don’t think there are that many museums within walking distance of me. The radio one perhaps.
Alison Cummins
I saw C.R.A.Z.Y. af the Boucherville Ciné-Parc in 2005. Lots of fun, very social.
It’s still around, as are the ones in Saint-Eustache and Saint-Hilaire.
Dhomas
There are no longer any drive-in theatres showing any films in English in/around Montreal. My understanding is that they used to be able to show the film in either language by simply broadcasting the English and French audio tracks on separate radio bands, but they had to stop that practice when the film industry said they had to pay the license twice (once for each language). This made it unprofitable, so they stuck to French only. Not sure how much of this is true, as I don’t remember where I heard/read it.
I used to go down to St-Albans, VT, about once a year to go watch a film (in its original language) at the drive-in, but they closed that one too a few years back. It would seem like now would be a good time for a resurgence in drive-in theatres, though.
Dhomas
Oh, and @Alison Cummins, they tore down the screens at the Boucherville drive-in theatre last year, so it’s permanently shut down, sadly. It’s a shame because I’m sure they could have come in handy this year.
Alison Cummins
Dhomas, that’s too bad. I saw a story that a 4-month-old infant lying in a baby tent was run over by another car while the parents were packing up. (See, very social. You drive in, set up your picnic and watch the movie with your friends.) That may have been the last straw if the cinema was already not doing well.
Boucherville is still listed in cinemamontreal.com, which is where I got my info that it was still open. So the other two might not be open either.
I don’t like to watch dubbed films and that’s been their staple—american movies dubbed in French. But every now and again they have a Quebec film.
Raymond Lutz
Here in Drummondville (we had two screens!), the digital transition killed the drive-in theatre : the mandatory high def (and high powe)r projector cost in the 100 000 $.
Blork
I have a thing for drive-in theatres and airports. When I was a teenager there was a drive-in near the city airport and I learned of a dirt road off the airport road that looped around behind the drive-in, and by going off the dirt road and through a ditch you could basically sneak into the drive-in without paying. I did that a bunch of times and never got caught.
I also spent a few years flying gliders, and one of the fields where I’d fly was next to a drive-in (different town, different drive-in). You don’t fly gliders at night, obviously, and drive-ins don’t operate in the daytime, but they were notorious for starting the movie before it was fully dark (especially if it was a double feature), and one evening just at sundown I was coming in for a landing and I looked over and saw that the movie was already playing on the drive-in screen. So I am probably one of the few people on earth who can claim to have watched a drive-in movie while flying a glider. (OK, I watched maybe five seconds, but still…)
Blork
Ha! The drive-in from the second story is still there!
https://goo.gl/maps/e4pj5d5ee3aBCrty6Dhomas
@Allison Cummins: apparently, the closure had been planned prior to the tragedy with the 4 month old:
https://www.lareleve.qc.ca/2020/04/20/cine-parc-boucherville/In looking into drive-ins this week, I found that the one in Saint-Eustache (www.cineparc.mathers.ca/) now plays English movies on Thursdays.
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Kate
A writer for The Link looks at how a few (local, anglo) bookstores have been doing through the lockdown.
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Kate
The Journal looks forward to the reopening: clothes will be sanitized after customers try them on; gyms will have new cleaning regimes. They found that most store managements don’t intend to require masks; the STM will be distributing masks starting Monday.
Metro finds that some aren’t happy with planned street closures and say they were never consulted.
Meanwhile, we’re getting mixed messages deluxe. Horacio Arruda says the situation in Montreal is still dicey, while Mylène Drouin says things are looking up.
Daniel
It’s hard to imagine a more contagion-friendly environment than a gym, despite their best efforts. Everyone in there for an hour or more, heavy-breathing and touching everything. I’ve been exercising at home for a couple months now; I’m going to continue for many more months. It’s not great, but … other things that aren’t great include a pandemic and COVID-19. “¯\_(ツ)_/¯“
Tim S.
There’s a yoga studio at the end of my street, and with all sympathies to the employees I hope it never opens up again. It brought so much traffic to the street – giant SUVs at that – and the change in our neighbourhood street life has been so dramatic. The kids have been riding bikes/scooters/skateboards, the grown-ups have been jogging, we’ve been meeting neighbours (from a safe distance). I really want to keep it this way.
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Kate
QMI seems miffed that the city is maintaining its announced ban on self-service scooters despite the pandemic.
ottawaowl
Scooters are a hot topic in Ottawa. The Montreal experience in 2019 and 2020 is part of the debate. Bixis too! They were in Ottawa but municipal politicians dropped the ball and the National Capital Commission was left holding the four (!) docking-station bag.
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Kate
According to this CTV piece, landlords are positively rubbing their hands together and salivating about the impending mass evictions due to tenants’ inability to pay rent.
steph
A new tenant does not give a landlord the right to jack up the rent willy nilly. As I understand it, a new tenant can request the regie evaluate the appropriate rent increase like any lease renewal increase that is refused – this request can be done within 3 months a new tenant moving in.
Kate
A lot of tenants don’t know that, and many landlords count on it.
Alison Cummins
And even when they do know it, most people don’t want to start off their tenancy by pissing off their landlord.
Raymond Lutz
Coronavirus Calls for an Emergency Rent Freeze and Eviction Moratorium. In case Trudeau’s or Legault’s aides are reading montrealcityweblog 😎
GC
What Kate and Alison said. Also, are you going to sign a lease for a place you can’t afford, on the hopes that the Regie will eventually rule in your favour? What if it doesn’t?
steph
“most people don’t want to start off their tenancy by pissing off their landlord.” – sounds like a shitty landlord that isn’t going to respect your rights anyways. Tenants need to stop accommodating and bending to abusive landlord practices.
MarcG
steph, I think that’s called blaming the victim. My experience as someone looking to rent an apartment has always been one of desperation.
Ant6n
I once tried to contest a rent increase on a new lease, the regie told me to fuck off since i didn’t do it within the 2 weeks time frame after signing the lease. Of course during that time i didn’t even have the key for the apt, so didn’t want to start that fight before taking possession of the apartment.
Tim S.
I can report a similar experience to Ant6n. I forget the details – we thought we were in time to file, but nope.
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Kate
A fire in the early hours of Friday on the eastern edge of TMR, close to l’Acadie, killed one man and injured two others. It must have been intense, because the smoke woke me up all the way over in Villeray; this tweet told me it wasn’t nearby.
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Kate
While Ottawa’s purse strings are loose, it’s suggesting it might give money to municipalities – but only if the provinces agree. And it’s doubtful Quebec would allow Ottawa to meddle to this extent.
david22
Montreal should be spending every available dollar to get projects evaluated and as close to ‘shovel ready’ as possible. Like, everything else should stop – delay repavings, forget coloring bike lanes, etc. They should reassign city staff, ask for retired engineer volunteers, create cross-party committees, sideline naysayers, and absolutely every single dollar that can be spared/re-routed should be put into making the business case on these to the feds.
And, of course, if at all possible, the top three should be the pink line, the Bois Franc orange line extension, and the yellow line extensions (both to “old” Longueuil and, if possible, north and west with the Plateau and McGill college stops). They have so many studies to dust off as starting points, and could have three teams working great guns for a few months on these, giving Trudeau revised estimates at every stage along the way.
It’s not likely, but it’s not impossible! Show everyone, Valerie Plante!
david22
That said, there are all sorts of community centers, swimming pools, park renovations, etc. that we can trot out for the feds.
But getting a bunch of new metro stations, or even a new metro line going, man, that would be something. If it’s at all possible, it’s political malpractice not to try.
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