Levels of arsenic in the air in the east end are still too high, but have gone down since the problem was made public two years ago. The arsenic is a byproduct of a copper refinery in Montreal East.
Updates from July, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
An eight-year-old boy has died after being hit by a car in St-Henri on Wednesday afternoon after leaving his day camp.
I know that bit of St-Henri fairly well. There are no traffic lights along that section of St-Ambroise for a long stretch. I sometimes walked down through Sir-Georges-Étienne-Cartier square to the canal, and it was often tricky getting across because nothing impedes the flow of cars. Poor kid.
MarcG
It seems unsual that the accident happened as the driver was coming out of a stop at the stop sign – they couldn’t have been going very fast and you would think they would have seen the kid.
jeather
No traffic lights at all, and stop signs not quite every other intersection, which people often are quite casual about (and some of which are hard to see, especially since you don’t know which intersections will or won’t have a sign — though honestly I think most of the people who are casual about it know perfectly well what they are doing).
John B
There’s 4-way stops at both the intersection where the accident happened and the intersection before. It should be relatively easy to cross.
Kate
John B, it should be, but trust me, it often was not. You know how drivers feel pressured by other drivers to keep things moving. That section of St-Ambroise is a case in point. At rush hour especially, it was often difficult to cross on foot.
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Kate
A day camp on the South Shore has been shut down because of a Covid outbreak and there are reports of other day camp outbreaks.
If this is happening, what about daycares, kindergartens, grade schools?
Mark Côté
School is more structured than daycamps and they don’t rely on teenagers to try to enforce discipline. Daycares have been open for a while now and I haven’t heard of any outbreaks there.
That said, I think an outbreak or two are bound to happen at some schools. The way they are planning to open schools is more about harm reduction than total risk avoidance, e.g. by having kids restricted to groups of 4-6, so, in theory, an outbreak would hopefully affect only that group at most. It remains to be seen how well this will work, of course.
Kate
Five day camps in the Montérégie now have outbreaks.
Meezly
Day camps and playground re-openings seemed like trial runs for we’d be up against if schools were to reopen in the fall. We signed our kid up for outdoor day camp for 2 weeks in Outremont, which ended on July 10th. Mostly teenagers in charge of the kids, very lax about distancing amongst themselves and the kids. Being with her friend and other kids was really good for her, and for us since we both WFH full-time, so it was a risk. Thankfully we have not exhibited any symptoms, nor heard of outbreaks from that camp. Surprised and relieved. Maybe it’s the luck of the draw. My understanding is that outbreaks are bound to happen. But don’t know what this may entail for schools this fall. I just don’t want to wait for hours lining up to get tested if it comes to that.
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Kate
I had a visit last week from the fire inspectors. They gave me a new kind of smoke detector (with a ten-year battery) and told me they would be back sometime to verify it had been installed, and if it wasn’t, I could be fined thousands of dollars.
Anyone have a sense how long they wait before coming back? Anyone been fined connected with this?
Patrick
Got one last year and they did come by approximately a year after. I had to push the test button to prove it was installed and working. Not sure about the fines.
GC
Isn’t that kind of your landlord’s responsibility, if you are renting? (Maybe you are not, but I thought you were based on things you’ve said in the past…)
dwgs
They’re generally dead simple to install. All you need is a screwdriver. If you want to be talked through it just shoot me an email.
Bert
According to the Montreal FD it is the owner who is responsible to provide and install them: http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/sim/en/smoke-alarm-faqs
That said, once a renter is in the place, the renter must have some responsibility. I have heard first hand stories where renters disconnect detectors because of false alarms, particularly around the kitchen.
Kate
GC, I do rent. I asked them about the landlord’s responsibility and they said nonono, it’s on you. They didn’t say why, but I think it may be because I live in a classic Montreal triplex with doors to the street and thus no common areas indoors.
dwgs, I have a ladder and a power drill and so on, but this is the thing: they said it has to go on the ceiling, and I’m short.
Bert, everyone: I have had a smoke detector but yes, I’ve taken it down because it was impossible to cook anything without having it go off, making me and the cat jump out of our skins, and having to climb on a chair and poke at it with a stick. Couldn’t boil up a pot of pasta without the damn thing going off. There’s no range hood here, so it’s all a bit iffy. (I pointed out once that there should be, and the landlord blew it off. A range hood is not something a tenant should be putting in.)
I will install this smoke detector, or have it installed, a little further away from the kitchen.
I can be called foolish for taking down the smoke detector, but I know I have a very acute sense of smell, especially for burning things. When I lived in the Plateau north of Duluth, one winter night I woke up, certain I could smell fire. I scouted around the immediate area, and while I could smell something burning, it was clearly not close by. Found out the next morning that there had been a fire – down on Ste-Catherine Street. More recently, about ten years ago, there were forest fires outside town and wind was coming from that direction in the wee hours. It woke me, and I got online and posted and tweeted and had a pile of grateful responses from people who woke up later than me with the same thought – something’s on fire nearby. But I woke up first.
So I don’t lose sleep over this. If something’s on fire, I’ll wake up. But I know I have to do what they said, or risk a fine.
By the way, I must be getting on. The inspectors looked really young. Or maybe they’re a sort of cadet stagiaire?
Tee Owe
Install away from the stove – that’s actually consistent with what they are meant for. Better to have them than not
It just needs a screwdriver, a stepladder is a good thing to have (or borrow), even for those of us who are less-than-short.
As for the perceived age of agents and fonctionnaires, they just keep getting younger, don’t they – !Ephraim
Install in hall in front f bedroom door or in the centre of the apartment. You should have one in the bedroom. I only install 10 year interconnected alarms now. So if one goes off, the all go off. The Carbon Monoxide detector isn’t needed if you don’t have a fireplace or gas appliance… but having one makes some people feel safer.
JP
Did they give you any notice that they were coming? How do we know if we can trust the people who come by to inspect and that they are who they say they are? I’m genuinely asking. I really don’t like letting people I don’t know into my home, particularly when nobody else is home.
Kate
JP, no notice. But I’m certain they were what they claimed to be. They were clean-cut young men with fire department patches on their shirts, and clipboards, wearing masks. It was mid-afternoon. Also, they gave me a smoke detector and hung some slick-looking printed material on my neighbours’ doorknob, presumably because they weren’t home.
Preparing all these props would hardly have been worth it to get inside my place.
JP
Thanks Kate. That’s reassuring. I’m sure it was legitimate. I guess I’m just letting my imagination get the better of me.
Ian
I saw a notice to this effect up at the local hardware store in Mile End but haven’t heard anything from the fire department at all… I wonder if the inspectors coming around is a borough initiative.
Kate
Here’s a rough floor plan, not exact as to dimensions but pretty close. Am I planning to install the new smoke detector in a bad spot? It really wasn’t supportable in the old location. NB this is a ground-floor apartment.
Andrew
I know you can’t beat free and you’ve already got it, but when I replaced mine I figured spread over 10 years a WiFi connected smoke detector is not that expensive, and I can’t reach mine either. The Nest Protect is supposed to be better at differentiating humidity from smoke, will give you a “head’s up” alarm before going full blast, and can be silenced from the app. Also you’ll get a notification if it goes off when you’re not home.
Tee Owe
Couple of points – when they go off wrongly, just wave a teatowel at them, no need for sticks. The location you propose looks good to me. We have a house, one per floor, centrally located (and away from the kitchen). Only occasional false alarms. Glad to have them, feel safer. No comment/no knowledge about Wifi alarms. Good luck!
Kate
Andrew: I had a look for those and they’re always around $150, which I could manage, but they also need to be wired in, which I’ve no right to do here. Nice idea though – if I owned this place I’d probably get one.
Tee Owe: Thanks for the advice. When they go off I simply have this need to MAKE IT STOP, I guess.
Dhomas
@Kate there is a wired version of the Nest Protect, as well as a battery version. They sometimes go on sale for around 99$. I have mine set up in the kitchen and it only goes off when there is “real” smoke. Disabling the alarm via the app has been very useful.
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Kate
Temporary container-based assistance counters have been set up at Place Émilie-Gamelin to aid the homeless who tend to hang out there.
The old Royal Vic will also be reopening to act as a support system for a possible second wave of Covid.
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Kate
The Journal is taking a line that downtown Montreal is in bad shape, a veritable ghost town, a phrase also taken up by CTV. Even Le Devoir is calling city hall’s modest plans an electric shock to revive the area. (Why is it even news that there aren’t any tourists? Of course there aren’t tourists this year. Anywhere.)
CBC is noting that office workers – even more than shoppers, the downtown core’s natural denizens and raisons-d’être – are staying away in droves.
People may be forgetting that there was already a lot of hand-wringing about the state of downtown before Covid struck. But since the 1980s there have been qualms about the state of Ste‑Catherine Street, or parts of it. The stretch between Atwater and Guy was moribund for years before it evolved into the city’s second Asian neighbourhood, for example. Over the last couple of years the excavation and rebuilding of parts of the street and the REM construction site were already deterring visitors, and now Covid, whose eventual resolution as a social dampening force is still an unknown quantity, is doing its damage.
But there’s no reason to catastrophize and make everything sound even worse. There’s also no reason to place blame. The whole world is dealing with Covid, it’s not just us. To be honest, if I needed to go downtown (and I’ve just endured the longest period of my life without setting foot on Ste‑Catherine, and have no plans to take a bus or metro downtown anytime soon) I certainly would not feel my visit improved by clowns. I hope it helps some people feel less grim, but I’m not sure it’s exactly what’s needed.
I follow several local-themed groups on Facebook and some of the participants are older, and have clearly not been to Montreal in a long time. They’re rather prone to intoning that the city is dead, downtown is full of empty storefronts, everything is terrible. That this is old news, that things (the city, the world, technology, local politics, the whole goddamn zeitgeist) have changed since the late 1980s when they were last living here and going downtown, makes no mark on them. The only problem here is that too much catastrophizing, too much negative bla-bla, can become self‑perpetuating.
Yes, we’re stuck in a bad time. No, it will not last forever: even if we do have to come to terms with Covid being a permanent, endemic fact of life, things will change, we will adapt and Ste‑Catherine, which has survived earlier epidemics, will still be there.
walkerp
On a positive note, we spent a couple of very fun hours at the Place des Festivals, playing in the fountain and the musical swings. Didn’t spend any money but quite enjoyable for children and relaxing for adults.
Kevin
More than the lack of tourists (foreign and local) it’s the lack of *anyone* in the city’s core.
I don’t think office workers are coming back even once the pandemic passes. Companies are going to downsize and save money on rent. If they need to hold a meeting in person they’ll rent a conference room.
I’m one of the few who has never stopped working at the office and it’s tough to imagine, tough to realize that the streets have been empty every single day. I’m sitting in a room with desks for 70 people (and honestly, we could all be here and still be more than 2 metres apart) and there are only six people here. It’s been like this for 130 days and I expect it will continue for another 330 if not more.
Add in the fact that more than 100,000 students will not be coming to class downtown this fall. Or winter.
That’s a lot of spending that just isn’t happening. Morning coffee break? Nope. Lunch at a restaurant? Nope. Popping into a store after work? Nope.
If your business relies on foot traffic from workers — you’re toast. Sorry.
I once quipped that Projet Montreal wanted a city where everybody lived and worked in the same neighbourhood — but that’s exactly what we have right now because of the pandemic, and it’s become the government’s nightmare.
Stephane Daury
“I certainly would not feel my visit improved by clowns.”
That genuinely made me laugh. But isn’t that the Montreal way? When in doubt, add more clowns (preferably in office)!
Kate
Stephane, credit to Ian whose comment 2 posts ago made me phrase it this way.
Kevin: thanks for reminding me about how students will also not be coming downtown this fall and winter. I had left that out of my mental calculations. That’s big.
Andrew Kemp
Pre-Covid I was impressed with the direction in which Ste-Catherine was heading, fueled mostly by students and herds of teenage shoppers. I thought people complaining about restricted parking weren’t in line with how the area was developing. But now it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds for the downtown core
DeWolf
There are already 100,000 people who live downtown and the number is growing. As Kate mentioned, the formerly moribund stretch of Ste-Catherine between Guy and Atwater is now packed with Asian businesses, and they mainly serve people who live in the west end of downtown. I expect other parts of downtown to take a similar path as more and more residential projects are completed. There will be fewer places for a business lunch but more grocery stores, casual restaurants, hardware stores, etc. Montreal is simply taking the same path as Toronto and Vancouver whose downtowns have become very residential.
dwgs
I’m transitioning back to work at McGill and it’s very strange to say the least. It’s quiet outside but there are still enough people that it’s relatively normal. Inside the buildings it feels like Chernobyl ghost town time.
EmilyG
I can’t even get downtown, unless I want a really long walk. I’m still wary of taking the bus for something non-essential (I think the local government is encouraging people to take the metro, but I still don’t feel too comfortable doing that if I don’t need to.)
Although, walkerp, it is nice to know that they have the swings again. I enjoyed those.Patrick
I wonder what proportion of the activity west of Guy (at least the first few blocks) is driven by the Concordia students who normally pack the coffee shops. Many of the Desi (if it’s OK to use that term) customers in the places like Thali cuisine indienne there seem to be students too.
Kevin
@DeWolf
Vancouver’s ‘downtown’ was always much more residential than ours. I think the closest analogy would be NDG and Westmount around Sherbrooke St.But now downtown Montreal feels like Coal Harbour did 20 years ago.
DeWolf
I’m not really sure what you mean, Kevin. Historically, the West End was the only residential neighbourhood in downtown Vancouver. I’m referring specifically to the rest of the downtown peninsula that was almost exclusively commercial/industrial until the early 90s and is now densely populated – areas like Yaletown, Crosstown and Gastown. It’s similar to how the Entertainment District in Toronto is now packed with apartments when 20 years ago it was mostly parking lots and former industrial buildings. We’re seeing the same trend in parts of downtown Montreal that were previously devoid of residents but now have thousands of new apartments, either recently built or under construction – around the Bell Centre, in the Quartier des spectacles, on the western and eastern flanks of Old Montreal.
JP
I’ve gone downtown or close to it the past couple of weekends. I’m getting tired of simply going for walks in my own neighbourhood and those adjacent to mine. While I have a car, I don’t really have the option to get out of the city or anyone to go with, and the brain needs some novelty.
I’ve generally always liked the atmosphere downtown and in areas around it, including Old Montreal. During the weekends, the metros allow for sufficient distancing. Sometimes I start at Vendome and walk over to Square Victoria. I feel relatively comfortable at the Eaton Centre precisely because the crowds there have been relatively light. Maybe it was two weekends ago, but the section between Atwater and Guy seemed busy, though I do understand appearances can be deceiving.
I did walk along the canal from Atwater to about McGill Street with a friend last week, and that I had regrets about…partly because as much as we tried to maintain distance, there were times where I think we got closer than we should have. I think it’s just easier for me to be on my own when I venture out these days.
Kevin
@DeWolf
When I lived in Vancouver around the turn of the century Yaletown, Gastown, the West End and Downtown felt extremely residential, and a lot of it was relatively low density too. You can walk from Robson square to a residential neighbourhood in 5 minutes.Whereas in an area the same size in downtown Montreal you’ll find blocks and blocks of commercial space and office towers. Yeah, we’ve got lots of apartment towers too — especially west of Guy.
I guess I’m saying when you think of the downtown heart of each city, there are differences between Vancouver and Montreal and how much space the commercial core takes up.
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