The old Champlain bridge is going to come down very slowly as it can’t exactly be blown sky high.
Updates from August, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
I’m not sure how thrilled I am at news that Sunday’s rain sent people into movie theatres. Do I care if someone’s wiping down the seats when Covid transmission seems to mostly be via aerial particles?
In some cases, people eating at restaurants will need to give out their contact info for tracing in case of Covid outbreaks.
I am not the only person around here apprehensive about the new rule allowing gatherings of 250 people.
EmilyG
However it’s transmitted, a bunch of people in an indoor space for an hour or two doesn’t sound like a good idea.
Ephraim
Do they have HEPA filters? Is the air conditioning system recycling enough air? Airplanes recycle the air every 3 to 4 minutes through HEPA filters…. which means that the risk is those sitting around you, not the whole plane. Now, can a cinema say the same thing?
Jonathan
Cinemas are considered lower risk among ‘cultural activities’ because people don’t typically talk during films. Regular breathing doesn’t correspond with a high viral load being released.
Ian
Mental note not to go see screamy horror films or hilarious comedies, or any movies for children… just serious art films. you know, the kind that promote even, regular breathing.
Kate
people don’t typically talk during films
That hasn’t been my experience the last half-dozen times I’ve gone.
Andrew
Most commercial air conditioning systems the air filters are only for the outdoor air being brought in to the building. They are designed for efficiency, so they will recirculate as much indoor air as possible and just mix in a little outdoor air to keep it fresh.
Ephraim
@Andrew That’s exactly the problem… Times have changed, we need a filter the inside air. Either drawn through a filter to move the air away or out. So either we need air filters for the building or AC systems that exchange more air.
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Kate
Aaron Derfel’s latest Twitter thread is about how François Legault promised to have the Covid numbers tracked by race, ethnicity and class, but he never has.
JoeNotCharles
The only surprising thing about this is that Legault ever even pretended to promised such a thing.
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Kate
CBC says there’s a trend for city folk to move to the country – and if you have big retirement savings or a very portable job, it may look attractive right now. A La Presse writer gives an idyllic description of decamping to the countryside.
One woman cited by CBC is already beginning to realize that living in the country will be quite different come wintertime.
I wonder what happens if families move out there, and growing kids are suddenly faced with not having anything to do but look at a field all day, and needing to be driven anywhere they want to go. A Quebec study shows teenagers are already more idle in front of screens with the pandemic – and I’m sure it isn’t only teenagers.
Ian
In my experience the country was a great place to be a little kid but kind of dreary as a teenager. One of my friends moved to Saint-Sauveur about 10 years ago – it was great, he had lots of space, woods in his backyard, lots of nature for his kid to experience, a short drive from Montreal… and lost his job when winter hit because he got snowed in too much. Even if you’re telecommuting be aware that in most rural areas there isn’t cable so if you nee high speed internet you will need satellite and part of that is getting up on your roof after every snow to make sure it is free of ice and snow or you won’t get a good signal. It will also work poorly if there is rain or snow or even too much cloud cover. Even cell signal can be iffy, there are parts of even Mont Rigaud where you don’t get a cell signal.
That said, most people that I know who have a cottage or access to one and can work remotely have been there most of the summer. I won’t lie, I wish I was one of them. One of the nice things about living in Quebec is that there are so many lakes a short drive from the city that you can get a decent but smallish 3-season cottage for well under 150k, and when you look at the prices of places to live in town I can see the temptation to move to the country for good… but it’s a 20 minute drive to get milk, assuming the roads are open.
GC
I find it odd that they included Lemieux. Considering she started looking for farms a year ago and “sold her house in Montreal just before confinement measures were put in place.” Surely they could have found someone who was more representative of the headline?
Uatu
Just move out to st. Bruno or st. Hilaire. Close enough to the city but you can still walk around in the woods or hike up the hills. The country is nice but it gets old real fast and once you’re in your teens you want to get a car and get the hell outta town like me and most of my friends who grew up on the south shore.
Ian
I’ve wondered about that area of the south shore – is it walkable? In the sense of being able to walk to a dep, or a restaurant, or a post office, or a library?
I’ve only been to a couple of further out places that weren’t but is it as spaced out as the West Island? I guess you might be able to get by in Pointe Claire or right in Ste Anne without a car but anywhere more residential would be a stretch.
My point being that if you live far enough out that you need a car to get around it kind of doesn’t matter where you live anymore, as long as you are within wha you perceive as a reasonable commuting distance to where you need to go – assuming you need to go to the city at all.
Mr.Chinaski
Well lots are lots, so the bigger they are, the more you need a car. It’s a simple distance to ammenities versus density ratio.
There’s pretty much no walkable place South Shore unless you talk about really, really small zones that would be nearby a small downtown core (like 500m surrounding “downtown” St-Bruno near Clairevue/Montarville). But you will still do a vast majority of your travels using a car for anything other than food. Perhaps only in the Vieux-Longueuil would it be possible for an entire neighborhood to be walkable, but there are still pockets that are food deserts
Walkscore is always a good indicator!
Uatu
Yeah vieux Longueuil and streets near downtown St. Lambert come to mind. Parts of Brossard near taschereau Blvd as well. It’s possible to live without a car in the burbs, but as usual with real estate it’s location, location, location.
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Kate
A Twitter follower has pointed out two interesting La Presse articles on forgotten waterways in the city, originally posted a year ago. I blogged one of them at the time, but the other I missed, so although the date is 2019 it’s worth saving this piece on the remaining streams on the island of Montreal.
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Kate
Despite an unexpected win in their opening game of the series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Canadiens nonetheless failed to attract the crowds to sports bars on Saturday night. Maybe it’s all the news about how sitting close to others indoors tends to propagate Covid?
The Journal rams the point home with an Agence France-Presse piece describing how Montreal feels without tourism, and without most of its normal downtown denizens. As usual, I’ll add a reminder: we’re not alone in this, it’s not just us, it’s everyone everywhere. English of the same AFP piece from CTV.
Update: The recorded anthem was sung in English only by Michael Buble, whom CTV describes here as a superstar. Some are not happy with this. Isn’t it time we canned this anthem thing before sports events? What does national fervour have to do with a hockey match?
mare
Everyone everywhere is not necessarily true. Europe has opened its internal borders and there’s quite some tourism there again. But lots of tourist attractions are still very restricted.
Francesco
North America is the only place in the entire free world where national anthems are played before every single domestic (or league) sporting event. Even though three of the four major leagues have contests on both sides of the border, they are still not considered international games. But in the US they play the anthem before *every* event, from Little League to NASCAR races to high school swim meets to…
To me it’s silly, and smacks of jingoism.
Ian
As a kid growing up in Ontario we had to sing the national anthem every day. Both my kids started off in the EMSB and never sang the anthem once at school, ever. In fact, the only kids who knew the anthem were the ones that watched hockey. Of course, they knew the American national anthem, too.
I get it, Quebec nationalism, but while playing the anthem before every single event ever (or even singing it every single morning) seems weird, it seems weird to me that a kid could grow up not knowing the words or even the tune to their own national anthem.
JaneyB
Growing up in Manitoba in the 70s, we also had the national anthem every day, piped through the schools’ PA systems. No one sang; we just stood. We all learned the words, in both English and French, btw. (The English lyrics have changed at least 3 times since then so I totally know why Anglos normally don’t really sing along). Bublé should have sung it in French. For Habs game? – of course. Sometimes English-Canada is just tone deaf. How does stuff like this still even happen.
Kate
Hmm. I think I was mostly anthemed up in my brief excursion into the Brownies, which in those days was quite military in style – I’m not kidding, there was lots of standing at attention, marching, stuff about the flag and the anthem, and uniform inspections. Brownies is why I know what “at ease” means. I don’t know why this was considered “fun” as we spent the day in uniform (school tunics) and the idea of being criticized after hours for faults in another uniform now seems like insanity. I pretty much crashed out.
MarcG
I moved from Montreal to Toronto in 1995 and was suddenly asked to stand for the Canadian national anthem every morning (still highschool, Grade 12, no CEGEP). I made a big stink about it, told them it was against my morals, and was excused from participating. I would be walking across the sports field while it played and I could see the kids inside standing in the windows (and they could see me). I wonder now if some people thought it was because I was from Quebec.
Ian
Probably 🙂 We also used to have to recite the Lord’s Prayer every morning when I was in primary school, my father insisted I be allowed to stand in the hall with the Jehovah’s Witness kids. Still had to sing the anthem, though.
Uatu
The only time we sang the anthem was during remembrance day ceremonies. Most of the faculty in my high school were younger so being super patriotic wasn’t all that important to them I guess
Michael Black
I only remember hymns, and maybe the Anthem in grade 1, maybe grade 2 also. So about 1967 at the latest. I didn’t sing along.
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Kate
Early Sunday there was a nonfatal shooting in Ahuntsic and a nonfatal stabbing in Old Montreal.
Tangential remark: the second link gives a good view of the current livery of our police cars. I remember when they were a less strident design, but around the time the force decided to jettison its sky-blue shirts (back in 2013 – you can see a bit of the older car livery here) and go for American-style blue-black uniforms, it also changed to this more American look for the vehicles. More muscular, more forceful and altogether unnecessary in a town where the top stories on the weekend are a couple of minor nonfatal assaults.
This is the kind of police mentality people are starting to question – and if I see it partly in terms of graphic design, that’s my trade. Police have been militarizing in style all over but people are beginning to make a group decision that it’s not good for society. I’m not saying cop cars need Comic Sans, but that current design reeks of redundant machismo.
DeWolf
The new livery also entombs the SPVM’s spiffy little modernist logo inside a frilly coat of arms, for no good reason.
mare
I don’t like the dark cop cars either. I hade the Dodge Charger’s look, but at least in white it was somehow okay. It was totally indistinguishable from the 50% of other cars on the road that are also white. Cop cars should of course be fluorescent and retroreflective so they’re very visible when they do high speed chases and go through red lights. Look at the livery of almost every cop car in Europe. They’re bright, even brighter than ambulances and fire trucks here.
(Of course “to serve and protect” is not the idea of cops here, it’s more “To sneak up and fine” (or worse, if you happen to be mentally ill or not white.)Ian
@Kate the Orange County FL squad cars used to say “Making a difference” in comic sans. They may still do.
http://greynotgrey.com/blog/2012/06/08/do-not-use-comic-sans/
david200 18:39 on 2020-08-03 Permalink
Would love it if they could instead secure it an turn into a sanctuary for migrating birds.
Kate 09:31 on 2020-08-04 Permalink
Apparently it would constantly leach toxic crap into the river, david∞ – it has to go.