The big plan to relaunch the city will have to do it on $1.3 million, which is just about enough to hire a big PR agency to tell the public that it exists.
Updates from September, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
While top doc Theresa Tam says it’s too soon to speak of a second wave of Covid in Canada, cases are spiking in Ontario, three branches of McDonald’s around town closed quickly when workers tested positive, then scrubbed things down and reopened, more and more Quebec schools have cases of Covid aboard, and Régis Labeaume is unhappy that his town is facing an outbreak. Quebec announced a regional alert system Tuesday, while a court ruled that the province doesn’t have to offer universal online school as yet.
Joey
It’s OR between each block. So if you meet any of the conditions of one of the blocks, stay home.
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Kate
Mayor Plante has put herself in preventive quarantine after a meeting last week with transport minister Chantal Rouleau, who had in turn just met with Longueuil mayor Sylvie Parent, who recently tested positive for Covid. The mayor of Laval and several other ministers are also quarantined after various meetings among them.
walkerp
Why can’t she just get tested?
Kate
She says here that she’s going to isolate till Chantal Rouleau is tested. She hasn’t specified yet about getting tested, but I should imagine that would be automatic.
Blork
Also, testing results aren’t immediate. AFAIK it takes at least 24 hours to get test results back.
j2
A child in my family had a result in 12 hours, last week from the MUHC, but their parent was informed results take 24-48 hours.
steph
I had lunch with someone last Wednesday. He found out wednesday evening his girlfriend (whom he doesn’t live with but they spent all weekend together) tested positive for covid. He let me know on thursday around noon and he got tested thursday afternoon. I booked an appointment ASAP and got tested friday morning 8am. He found out he was negative friday evening. I found out I was negative saturday 11am. We all live on the south shore. Yes, from thursday to saturday I quarantined myself.
SMD
There is also the danger of testing too soon after exposure and getting a false negative. Best to self-isolate for 3-5 days and then test, your results will be much more reliable then.
Tim F
Remember freeze tag? That’s what this feels like sometimes…
We’ve had to “freeze” ourselves three times while waiting for Covid results. Twice my son had a cough, but at the CPE they don’t mess around. Once I was sick with muscle pain and vomiting. Negative every time, but you don’t know until you know.
Can’t wait till the kids get the sniffles at school. (shrugs) What else can you do?
Dhomas
Sniffles are not a symptom on their own. Thank goodness, or my son would never be able to go to school, as he has them pretty much year round.
EMSB asks us to “assess” our children every day. Here are the criteria:
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Is your child experiencing one (1) of the following symptoms:
-Fever (oral temperature 38.1°C/100.6°F or higher)
-Loss of taste or sense of smell
-Cough (new or worse), shortness of breath, trouble breathingIs your child experiencing two (2) of the following symptoms:
-Sore throat
-Nasal congestion or runny nose
-Extreme fatigue
-Significant loss of appetite
-Generalized muscle pain
-Abdominal pain
-Vomiting
-DiarrheaWas your child outside Canada (including the United States) within the last 14 days?
Was your child in close contact with someone who has COVID-19?
*A close contact is defined as a person who:
Lives with or has close prolonged contact (within 2 metres for more than 15 minutes (can be cumulative)) with an infected person.
###Joey
@Dhomas, FYI those are provincial guidelines (i.e., the same for all school boards). In our experience, if we are breing brutally honest, “sniffles” tend to come with a bit of a cough – not the ‘shortness of breath’ kind of cough, but still… a cough. One that is likely to be considered both ‘new’ and ‘worse.’ Which usually means a bit of a sore throat (post-nasal drip + all that coughing irritates the throat – maybe not a throat that’s sore all the time, but still). So you wind up with a kid who has what until last March we all would consider a very minor common cold that shouldn’t require multiple days of idling at home, and yet if we follow the letter of the checklist dispassionately, what choice do we have but to keep that kid home.
Kate
It doesn’t help that this is also a season when some folks will be sneezing from allergies. I have just a touch of late summer hayfever myself – it’s a much bigger deal to sneeze in public now than it used to be.
Daniel
So true, Kate! I’ve been taking allergy pills more often than I usually do. Usually I would just suck it up and occasionally sniffle or sneeze. But now the thought of doing that in public makes me uneasy. :/
jeather
I have a persistent COUGH ask me about being in public since March. (I have seen doctors. I have had chest x-rays. I have had this for years.) Luckily I am not interacting with people so I am not getting colds because then my horrible sounding cough turns into death cough.
ant6n
Dhomas, how do you combine the criteria into some sort of decision to stay at home and or get tested?
Joey
@ant6n that’s sort of the point – the criteria are so broad as to lead you to conclude that no matter how minor the symptoms, the child should stay home.
MarcG
I think he was asking how it works (do you need 1 from the first section and 2 from the second, or is 1 from the first enough?). I went to the EMSB site and they have a blog post bragging about their online assessment form that does the magical calculations for you but there’s no link to it.
Joey
Ah, OK. I think if you have at least one of the first list or at least two of the second list, you are to stay home. It’s a ministry tool – kudos to the EMSB for recreating it/taking credit for it. Six of 23 kids in my son’s class were absent today.
ant6n
@Dhomas
What I mean is, there appear to be four logiacal blocks: the (1) of the following, the (2) of the following, the outside Canada, the Covid-contact. Each of them may evaluate to true based on the criteria within.The question is, how do you combine the blocks to get the result.The criteria are vague already, but I have no idea, after having evaluated the criteria,how to get an overall result (for example, do all four blocks need to be true? In that case, as long as you don’t leave Canada, you can always go to school. Does just one need to be true? etc.)
Joey
If you satisfy the conditions of any one of the blocks, you keep your kid home. Imagine giant ORs between each set.
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Kate
Judge Eliana Marengo has apologized to Rania El-Alloul for telling her to remove her hijab in court – five years ago.
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Kate
Christopher Curtis, who won awards writing some of the best journalism the Gazette has had over the last decade, has left Postmedia and will be trying out a new model for journalism with Ricochet.
As someone who wrote for OpenFile for a time, and watched it sink… I wish him good luck.
Dominic
A big loss to the Gazette. One of the best anglo reporters in the city right now and his work on bringing native issues to the mainstream press cannot be understated.
Daniel
As a former newspaper editor, I am extremely sympathetic to his cause (i.e., trying to make a living outside the old-model media business, to say nothing of the reporting and rabble-rousing he hopes to do.)
I signed up because I’m in a position to support a few quixotic causes like this. And he’s as well positioned as anyone to make it work. I wish him well. It won’t be easy.
Jack
He is solid.
david25
Substack is pretty interesting. This sort of explains it, in a way.
https://digiday.com/media/how-substack-has-spawned-a-new-class-of-newsletter-entrepreneurs/The great heir to Hunter S. Thompson, Matt Taibbi, writes there, as do several culinary and travel people I try to follow. It’s legit.
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Kate
I have a minor chronic irritation with anglo media here: the constant nagging about bringing an umbrella, as here in a Gazette headline. CBC Montreal’s radio folks are very prone to this too, always ordering us to bring an umbrella.
I understand what it’s shorthand for, but I don’t like the nannyish sound of the phrase. I don’t like umbrellas and don’t have one so please, tell me if it’s going to rain, but stop telling me what to do about it.
Chris
My interpretation of that phrase isn’t that it’s shorthand for “it’s going to rain”, but rather it’s shorthand for “it’s going to rain more than a little, will get through your coat, and so you’ll need an umbrella if you want to arrive dry”.
Kevin
The mercury is rising — no it isn’t, nobody’s put mercury into thermometers in decades.
The white stuff — just call it snow.
Flames, blaze — it’s a fire.
Pontiff — the pope.Michael Black
It’s a folksy way of saying something, just like the air conditioner line you didn’t like.
That thing in the Gazette never sees print. It’s intended to give you the day “at a glance” on the website and is really pretty useless because the stories are elsewhere.
But it matches what the internet should be, intimate and immediate. It took a long time for groups and institutions to grasp that (amd likely came because others were doing it, not because they’d figured it by themselves)
Kate
Michael Black, I just ran a search and can’t find any reference to my not liking the mention of air conditioners. I’m sure you’re right but I wish I could remember what I wrote!
mare
I can’t wait until the phrase “Today, you might want to wear a mask.” will come into vogue.
PatrickC
Wasn’t there a thread a while back about the French press using “la langue de Shakespeare/Molière” instead of plain English and French?
But my pet peeve about “intimate” journalism is when broadcasters say things like “the weather for your Thursday”. Isn’t it their Thursday too, or do they have their own micro-climate? And don’t get me started on headlines of the “why we love X” variety.
Kate
PatrickC, French has a long list of periphrases for other languages, but I’ve observed before that when a journalist or editorialist veers into mentioning the “langue de Shakespeare” it usually telegraphs a certain displeasure.
Ian
…which is funny because Shakespeare’s English bears little resemblance to modern English.
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Kate
The red sandstone building of the Bay store on Phillips Square is such a landmark in downtown Montreal that it’s a little shocking to see that it’s up for sale. Supposedly the building will continue to have a store on the first couple of floors while the rest will be turned into offices, but we know that when buildings get sold it’s the new owner who decides what happens next.
Ian
While many have speculated over the years about how much longer the Bay will stay in business, strange choice to retrofit a department store as office space in the midst of one of the worst times to be an office space property manager.
In any case it’s not like the Bay didn’t do a number on the building over the decades since they bought it after Morgan’s went out of business – I hope at the very least some of the horrible aluminum panel cladding disappears so we can enjoy the facade underneath.
DeWolf
It will be a few years before any changes are made to the building so the pandemic will (hopefully) be over by then. It’s also likely that the new owner will apply for a zoning exemption in order to build a high-rise condo tower where the 1970s-era extension on de Maisonneuve is.
Chris
Ian, this being a ‘bad time for office space’ may mean that they’re buying it for relatively cheap. They’re probably also betting (correctly IMHO) that office space will be popular/valuable again in a couple of years.
+1 re aluminium cladding!
Max
Funny to think that the basement level of this 1891 structure determined the mezzanine level of metro McGill 75 years later.
But yeah, that cladding has to go. I’m all for maintaining an overhang over the sidewalk, but not that one.
Kevin
Considering how companies were already shifting towards hoteling their employees before the pandemic, I’m surprised that anyone is contemplating building office space.
On the other hand, those ceilings would make awesome lofts if anyone wants to live downtown ever again 😉Ian
The only reason I hesitate to agree with you, Chris, is that I happen to know some people that worked for Canderel and they have a heck of a time leasing office space in older buildings such as 1010 Gauchetière ouest – everyone wants to be in a new building. Retrofitting is a hassle and being in a new construction with good windows & HVAC is a big deal – plus with the Leeds certification rules it’s often cheaper to get new space than to retrofit old.The only advantage older spaces have is location, and if people want to work from home that’s much less important – and really the business district just down the hill is nicer.
Still, just look at the old facade of Morgan’s “Colonial House” in 1913 – that overhang was gorgeous at one time.
DeWolf
That makes me wonder why the Morgan’s overhang wasn’t replicated more widely around Montreal. Given our climate it would be nice to have more sheltered spaces along commercial streets.
JaneyB
And just as I suspected…the REM link is in the mix. Even though office space is depressed right now, the value of that building must have greatly increased due to its direct link to our massive newly expanded transit matrix. The new buyers basically cannot go wrong with an asset like that whether they make it offices, condos, or both. Interesting news but a bit sad since I kind of enjoy drifting around inside the Bay. Great deals on wool sweaters, people!
david25
It’s depressing to reflect on the Bay’s drop – just a few years ago, that atrocious Maisonneuve side was going to be renovated into a Saks shop. Now, this.
Still, whoever takes over would do well to restore that beauty of a building. However bad the marked gets, office will do great there: high ceilings, ideal location, perfect open floor plans, iconic/famous building, great views, and a walk/transit score of a million. They’ll land a Google-quality company for the space there.
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Kate
The Chamber of Commerce is launching a fancy plan to stimulate the city’s economy with appeals to all its viable sectors and to appeal to both Quebec and Ottawa for aid. It’s called Relançons MTL.
Over time, I’ve come to see these occasional fitful “revitalization” plans as methods of putting a front on transferring public money into the private pockets of friends. Am I getting too cynical?
Chris
You can never be too cynical. 🙂
Ephraim
Never trust the Chamber of Commerce… these are the kind of people that when you shake hands, you count your fingers afterwards. They ripped off the city with Bixi. What did they pay the city for the parking? 30c on the dollar? And they run Tourisme Montreal, paying high salaries and Golden parachutes. Look up https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2013/11/28/tourisme-montreal-defend-le-salaire-de-presque-400-000–de-son-pdg-une-somme-justifiee-dans-lindustrie and Jacques Parisien. The Chamber of Commerce should be dismantled, it’s corrupt in every which way.
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Kate
The new wave of Covid cases in Quebec is not coming from Montreal, while Quebec City is coping with its first outbreak, having largely stayed clear in the first pass.
Jack
Karaoke Kirouac , who would have thought.
Kate
What kills me about this is that one of the first things we knew about Covid was that social singing was dangerous for Covid contagion. People are idiots.
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Kate
According to this piece, the REM station at the airport is the only one to be financed entirely by private money. This isn’t the first article this summer saying the airport link is in question, so of course Aéroports de Montréal is now crying poor mouth and asking for a cheap loan to get it built.
In fact, depending how we recover from the pandemic, there may be no rush to finish it for 2023 as was initially planned. In theory, it’s silly to have the REM passing so close to the airport but not going there, but if relatively few people are travelling, the 747 bus and maybe a shuttle from the closest REM station should take care of things for a long time.
Jebediah Pallindrome
Wasn’t this originally sold as a direct airport link?
It would peak Quebec for a mass transit system sold to connect the city centre with the airport not actually get you to the airport.
david25
This will be built, and 50-50 it’s extended to Dorval station, as well.
The airport should absolutely get favorable loan terms, but let’s also make sure there’s a concomitant reduction in the airport surcharge to embark/disembark at YUL.
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Kate
A body with signs of violence was found in a Nuns’ Island parking garage Monday night. Not clear yet whether this will count as a homicide.
Update: The Journal gives more detail: the female victim was found in a vehicle parked outside a condo building in Nuns’ Island’s Pointe Nord.
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Kate
Recycled glass bottles will be one of the ingredients when two bridges on Nuns’ Island are rebuilt next year.
Ian
Wow, that’s amazing – what a great idea! I had heard of recycled plastic bottles being used in asphalt but hadn’t heard about glass being used in concrete. Ingenious.
Tim F
Where are these bridges they’re replacing? I used to bike through Nuns Island as part of my workout circuit, and I don’t remember these.
MarcG
Tim: Here you go https://goo.gl/maps/mXmcV7ebYjPMQx7n9
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