Montreal City Weblog

Kate 11:18 on 2020-08-15 Permalink Reply  

• Ian 16:34 on 2020-08-15 Permalink

  If the city wants to help small businesses survive, tax relief is way more effective than blocking off streets and beclowning downtown.

• Ephraim 17:26 on 2020-08-15 Permalink

  The number one way that Montreal could help is lowering taxes, but that would mean that either they find a new source of revenue or actually do something about efficiency. But you can’t really do something about efficiency when you don’t put in strong financial controls and open the data for citizens to see that you are doing it. Contracts still go out without proper tenders…

• Chris 19:07 on 2020-08-15 Permalink

  Ian, who says blocking off streets is only, or even mainly, to help small businesses survive? Closing streets has many benefits, and you still have a zillion other streets to drive on. People act like they’ve closed some large fraction of streets, when it’s probably 0.0001% or something.

• JP 22:14 on 2020-08-15 Permalink

  This summer in Montreal, I think way more than 0.0001% of streets are blocked. I am constantly encountering a deluge of orange and detours. Not saying it’s bad or good, but it feels like we’re fixing or re-doing a lot.

• Kate 10:52 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  JP. I’m going to do a post about this – but if roads need to be repaired, when better to do it than when a lot of people are staying home?

• Kevin 11:13 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  Chris
  If drivers have to zig zag around a closure and end up bumper to bumper in detours, they are creating more pollution.

  And if you look at the city’s construction map you can see how many streets are affected
  http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=7097,79001583&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

• Chris 11:15 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  JP, I’m pretty sure Ian was referring to streets being blocked to cars not for construction, but for conversion into pedestrian spaces.

  I tried to quickly google how many km of roads there are on the island, but I couldn’t easily find the number.
  I did find recent headlines like “Hundreds of kilometres of temporary bike and pedestrian paths coming to Montreal”. It’s definitely a tiny portion of roads.

• Ian 11:15 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  @Chris the city said that helping business stay afloat was the point. I know you hate cars but this is not a nail, Mr. Hammer.

• Chris 11:22 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  >If drivers have to zig zag around a closure and end up bumper to bumper in detours, they are creating more pollution.

  And therefore what? We should build ever more roads so that motorists have the most direct route possible? We’ve tried that for a century already, it doesn’t work. See also “induced demand”.

• Ian 11:29 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  Nobody was talking in favour of cars in this thread until you brought it up, stop straw manning to create opportunities to bang on about your bête noir.

• Chris 11:54 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  (I’ll not bite on your sniping.)

  Perhaps you could clarify your initial comment then? Perhaps I misunderstood it. When you said “… is more effective than blocking off streets”. Was that not saying that it is better to have cars on those streets than for them to be reallocated to pedestrians? Your very language of calling the streets “blocked off” is telling. They aren’t *blocked* at all, they are absolutely open to visitors, just not cars. They are only “blocked” when one thinks in a car-centric way. i.e. you started this thread “talking in favour of cars”.

• Ian 12:34 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  I mean exactly what I said. PM keeps blocking off streets to help small business – but that’s the only idea they have. Well, that and clowns downtown. Tax forgiveness would be more effective. You know, because this thread started off talking about property tax collection going ahead. Nobody even brought up cars until you barged in with your own snark about how much you hate cars, yet again.

• DeWolf 13:00 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  Municipalities in Quebec are not allowed to run deficits. And property tax is basically the only major source of revenue for the city’s finances. So how on earth would be able to give that up and still function as a city? Maybe if we had a government other than the CAQ in power, the province would step in to cover any shortfalls. But as it stands, if you want tax forgiveness for small businesses, say goodbye to your neighbourhood libraries, park maintenance, frequent metro service, and say hello to roads that are even worse than usual. Quebec has made municipal finances as a zero-sum game.

• Michael Black 13:27 on 2020-08-16 Permalink

  I think people know something needs to be done, but have no idea what. So they wave their hands and hooe.

  There was a brief time when car use was down, and that meant people and bicycles had it easier. At that point, nothing special was needed. Then the cars came back, but the remedies seem to miss that.

  We’ve seen here the illusion that bike use is up, Yes it was, more kids out, and adults doing recreational cycling with fewer cars on the road. But if they were commuting, it wasn’t car drivers, it was people who were already using public transport and wanted to avoid the germs.

  “Pedestrian corridors” make sense in crowded areas because there are lots of pedestrians. But that was the case before.

  But what fixes the problem, that sales are down? Focus on that problem,not use the situation to apply things yiu want changed.

  I love it when they close streets for street sales, but I don’t drive a car. I also know I can walk up and down St Catherine Street or St. Lawrence Blvd multiple times and but nothing, or very little. There isn’t much for me, I’d not buy much on those streets anyway. When they close Mount Royal ave, there is more that I might find interesting, and I probably buy some fruit or vegetables, maybe some used DVDs, but the street is full of neighbourhood stores, which probably means it fits pedestrians better.

  I loved it when the festivals outside stuff was low key, something in addition to the regular street life, but then tgey got big, and took over the areas and they became a target to attend, not a peripheral.

  So Ian’s right, doing things because they were popular in previous times doesn’t mean they’ll fix things now. Maybe clowns will bring me downtown (though I doubt it) but that won’t get me into the stores, because I wouldn’t buy there in the first place, and now I have little interest in going into storrs, weakness means I can’t go far, can’t carry much, and I’m not that interested in the rules and will be a burden if I get sick. Other people may want to limit going in stores beyond essentials, or don’t have the money.

  I’m surprised there aren’t more street sales. Because right now they may be a lure to bring people into the stores. Buy something and you don’t have to be in an enclosed space. St. Lawrence is closed right now, I suspect the restaurants are driving that, they seem to be driving the sales in ordinary times. And maybe it gets people back to a normal, a lower risk thing that maybe will bring them into stores later.

  But it’s all complicated, and not fixed by throwing solutions at the situation.