A second demonstration was held Sunday at the Lebanese consulate in Outremont, demanding a change in government in that country and asking Canada to send its ambassador home.
Updates from August, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Without tourists, St Joseph’s Oratory has very little revenue. Granted a building like that must have a sizable heating and maintenance bill – what else are they paying for? And what are they getting revenue from, since they don’t charge admission? (Or do they? I know Notre-Dame does now. I haven’t been up to the Oratory in quite awhile.)
Also, the Oratory has been promising on and off for years to open an observatory on top of the dome, and then not doing so.
DeWolf
Maybe revenue from the gift shop and cafeteria? Incidentally, maybe they should consider moving the café out from the bowels of the building into the nicely lit space next to the belvedere, it would be a wonderful place to get a coffee.
Kate
It’s funny, I almost feel like I remember that there’s a café-terrasse on the terrace facing north over Côte-des-Neiges, but there isn’t. It would be great, though.
Mark Côté
I’m assuming like any church (since they normally do mass) they get donations from the congregation, no? Though I’m sure whatever they get from donations is probably dwarfed by maintenance costs alone…
MarcG
There is (was?) a building here that had a cafeteria with a view https://goo.gl/maps/cPKF3HupWCBoZaHS9 the last time I was there around 12 years ago.
CE
They sell a lot of Saint Joseph oil.
MtlWeb
Was just there on Thursday. Front lawn is completely dug up as part of their major reno plans which takes away photo-ops from their balcony. Coffee/lunch resto was closed. Gift shop was quiet but maybe par for a Thursday morning. Plenty of signs/sanitizer access all over; clean washrooms. Agree that setting up a coffee/snacks trolley could be a decent source of revenue and would be appreciated by visitors; on nice days, bring it out to balcony area; rainy days inside. Not sure why they don’t charge, even $5 for admission. The place is beautiful and represents Montreal.
Kate
MtlWeb, thanks for the update. I imagine the lack of an admission charge is partly due to the size of the place. IIRC there are several entrances and exits at different levels, so either you’d have to lock them all except one – which might not be considered safe – and funnel all visitors through one door, or you’d have to collect admission in several locations.
Jonathan
Well hopefully the fact that they have never paid any municipal taxes helps
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Kate
Even though reports suggest more people have been walking and cycling this summer from a wish to avoid public transit, Bixi is facing a deficit because people have fewer places they need to go, and there have been no tourists.
steph
Is Bixi cleaning all the bikes between usage?
Kate
Going by this page it looks like they’re depending on users to sanitize them. To be fair, I don’t think they can be expected to place someone at every Bixi station to clean the returned bikes.
DeWolf
I have seen Bixi workers scrubbing the stations clean on several occasions, which I had never seen before this summer. But the risk of infection from a shared bike that lives outdoors seems infinitesimally low.
My bike has been in the shop for a month now (Covid production/shipping delays mean specialized parts are hard to get) so I’ve been using Bixi every day. I wash my hands with sanitizer after every ride and don’t really worry about it otherwise.
Ian
Between people working from home and there being no tourists I’m not surprised nobody’s renting bikes. The vast majority of people that ride bikes regularly have one.
Kate
Ian, I know someone who rides regularly, and always a Bixi. If she ever gets aboard a regular bike weighing half what a Bixi does, she will have a surprise.
Blork
Ian, not necessarily. In theory, the beauty of Bixi is that it lets you ride around and do your commute and basic shopping by bike but you don’t have the bother of needing a place to store your own bike or of having to lug it up and down two flights of steps every time you go for a ride.
That said, cycling enthusiasts will have their own bikes for sure, but if you live near a Bixi station and work near a Bixi station, and otherwise don’t care about biking, it frees you from all that. Also, you don’t need to have a place to lock your bike at work, and you never end up having to deal with your bike when your plans change, such as when you decide to go out for drinks after work instead of going straight home.
DeWolf
Exactly. I own two bikes but I still use Bixi all the time because I like the freedom of being able to mix cycling with walking – or even driving, thanks to Communauto.
DeWolf
I would have added metro/bus but I haven’t taken public transit since March, although I’d be more comfortable with it now that masks are required. In the “before days” there were times when I’d take four different methods of transport (Bixi, walking, metro, Communauto) in a single day.
Dhomas
When I used to use Bixi more often, the most useful use case to me was that I was not obliged to take a Bixi home if I took one to work and vice versa. If throughout my workday, it began to rain, for example, I didn’t have to bike back home in the rain. I could just take the metro home.
Ian
I did say the vast majority – of course there are always edge cases. That said I admit that when I used to work at Square Victoria I noticed that a lot of people that biked in did take Bixis, mostly because there was nowhere they could lock their bikes up. Also, it is kind of awesome being able to ride a Bixi downhill all the way and not have to bike back up.
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Kate
A man was shot and is in critical condition after a gunfight Saturday evening in St‑Laurent. Police are seeking a suspect, and I’m struck this morning how the suspect in this case is 68 and the suspect in the item below this one is 61. It’s not just young hotheads this weekend.
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Kate
Police are looking for this man in connection with two homicides over the last week.
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