Why the Park Ex police station is closing
The SPVM is closing Station 33, which serves Park Extension, and La Presse has figured out why – the new owner of the building has ties with the mob. It’s unclear whether the area will have its own station again at some point.
walkerp 11:32 on 2020-06-27 Permalink
Ah, interesting! Excellent journalism here, since none of the politicians seemed to know what was going on. Many things to critique here. How does the SPVM not prepare ahead of time for this contingency? They are now without a building where they once had one in an area where prices are (were) skyrocketing. Bad administration. How also do they get to make a move like this without explaining it to the public or anyone in politics ahead of time?
Chris 12:46 on 2020-06-27 Permalink
If they bought or built a whole new building, someone would complain: “Why are they wasting money? They should just rent from an existing building!”
Kate 18:00 on 2020-06-27 Permalink
walkerp, given the station was in place before the building changed hands, could politicians or the SPVM have blocked the sale even if they knew that the new owner had been in business with the mob?
walkerp 21:02 on 2020-06-27 Permalink
Probably not blocked the sale, but as a business you should always have a contingency plan for when your lease is coming to an end. And that plan should be triggered when the building you are in is going to be sold. Usually the plan is to cost out a move and other leases and find a bunch of potential spaces to move into.
An organization the size of the SPVM should have an entire department that just deals with real estate who should have put that plan into motion and found another spot to move them into. Ideally that happens before you have to leave, but you can at least do better than getting kicked out and having nowhere to go for a year.
But then again, this is the Quebec government and the cops so not super surprising that they feel they don’t have to follow basic business practices. There only real stakeholders are themselves. The people of the neighbourhoods they are supposed to be protecting are clearly not a priority for them.
Kate 08:20 on 2020-06-28 Permalink
Good point, walkerp.