Rosemont borough is going to dismantle the Christophe-Colomb bike path, which was intended to be a temporary measure in any case.
A planned branch of the REV (Réseau express vélo) has been postponed in Sud-Ouest borough.
This evening, paging through news sites, I’m finding even more car ads than usual. Even when I go to listen to CBC radio for the news, I get a video ad for cars first.
A survey found that slightly more Montrealers would change the name of Lionel-Groulx metro station than Quebecers in general, although there was no majority in favour of changing it. The key finding was that most of us are very vague about who Lionel Groulx was.
*than
than?
I think you edited the post since I commented – was the “than” between “station” and “Quebecers” always there?
As I wrote before the only thing in Quebec not named after Lionel Groulx are house hold appliances. Mountains, schools, theatres, roads, parks etc.
Why can’t the city of Montreal reflect in its toponymy people who were born, lived and created in this city.
I know Groulx was a nationalist icon but nationalist iconography is reflected everywhere in Quebec.
I find this to be a crazy blind spot in this society.
Quebec is suspending its daily count of covid cases in schools, saying it’s changing how it makes the count.
A study shows that Black anglo kids in Montreal are five times more likely to be reported to child protective services than white ones. The researcher suggests that the kids and their families have the burden of being minorities in two different ways, which can lead to communication breakdowns.
Yeah, I’m sure there’s no other obvious variable that can account for why black anglo kids might not have the same family stability as white anglo kids.
Just to be clear, if the line now that we’re pretending that we’re American and have American history full stop, or just that we’re guilty for the American racialist mentality? Hard to keep straight.
@david33 Can you explain the obvious variable? The article explicitly says that the “root cause for disparity remains unclear” according to the study.
David, your transition form a guy who incessantly and insultingly rage-posts about zoning regulations to full-on reactionary has been quite something (a few posts up you are calling for some sort of people’s justice).
The de facto and de jure similarities between Canada and America in terms of race based oppression are well documented. From slavery and immigration quotas on through the modern disparities in education, housing, employment, policing. Do you suppose that since we are not a carbon copy of American society that that gets us off the hook? Considering that you demand very precise messaging from any and all progressives, why would you then fall back on such a vague idea being “guilty” for a “mentality”? Or for that matter characterizing every one of your own beliefs as “obvious” while those in opposition as impossible to understand.
David## is racist. Full stop.
Well said, Wilton.
Yes, david33, what is that variable?
That’s some serious racist shit right there. FOH.
Maybe ten years ago there was a story about a woman moving some things with the help of some friends. And the cops showed up to make sure they weren’t stealing. She lived there, she wasn’t moving in. I rrecognized her name, she organized some events. It was clearly because she was Black.
Then there’s the sixties scoop, native kids taken away from their parents,. Though, Cindy Blackstock says more native kids are in foster care now than when the scopp happened.
So maybe there’s more likelihood that someone won’t trust the parents because they are Black?
Or maybe there is legitimate need, because the parents are making less money?
Maybe there’s other reasons but thise stories aren’t being told because there aren’t local Black columnists to get the stories into view?
Most people can’t evaluate native stories because all they see is the tip of the iceberg.
Fucking morons.
The variable is obviously that most anglo whites in Quebec have long-standing ties and concomitant privilege, and most anglo blacks are going to have a much more recent history in this country.
David (x), How rude.
Also, bold of you to presume that black people somehow aren’t “from” here in the way other English speakers are. At the very least there has been a strong & distinct black community in Montreal at least since the late 1800s – which is well before a lot of other English speaking immigrant communities even showed up.
“Just to be clear, if the line now that we’re pretending that we’re American and have American history full stop, or just that we’re guilty for the American racialist mentality? Hard to keep straight.”
That you could write this and still have the temerity to me (us) “fucking morons”, well… you’ve clearly disproven the assertion that you’re an angry and insulting reactionary. Case closed I guess.
How long do we have to put up with this insufferable, pretentious twatwaffle?
dwgs, I will have a word with him. Thanks for the word twatwaffle.
So I looked it up, it was Gemma Raeburn-Baynes who was moving some stuff in 2004 and a neighbor called the cops (four cars arriving, with guns drawn), despite her living there for 30 years. It’s her 70th birthday today, something I didn’t know till I checked for these details. They want people to donate to an existing fundraiser for health care workers in Grenada (where she was born, coming here as a young teenager); it’s going to spike today as a result
The Union United Church started in 1907, apparently because they weren’t feeling welcome at existing churches. Not way in the past, but only 40 years after Confederation. According to wikipedia, there were restrictions on immigration that kept Black people out (I didn’t pursue it to see if it was racism or economic based discrimination), which makes any “Black problem” a conveniently non-issue except for people who were here. People did trickle up from the US. The immigration law changed about 1964, so population has changed since then. My impression (which obviously was limited as a kid) was that Black people here were English speakers, and it’s tipped in more recent times to a French speaking majority (of a Black minority).
But like I said, racism is defined by the ones who suffer from it, the only thing that matters is that it hurts people, not how many, or how nice things appear on the surface.
Thank you, Michael Black. I remember well the incident with Gemma Raeburn and the garage. And you’re entirely right about who it is that gets to define racism.
I have had a word with participant David, and asked him to take a break.
The corner of de Maisonneuve and Decarie has never been a propitious one for pedestrians. A woman of 84 was knocked down Thursday afternoon by a vehicle on the turn, and the driver sped away. Cops are looking for it.
oh my god. fuck that crossing. RIP that woman.
I hope it’s not true but likely a death sentence.
Sad. 85 years old, still able to go out on her own because she took care of her health. Last year an 89 year old man… We need protective infrastructure for pedestrians and bikes at that speedway intersection! Maybe vehicles exiting the 720 St. Jacques should be blocked from Decarie. . Hundreds and hundreds of pedestrians cross there every day.
Friday morning, there’s no news item saying the woman died of her injuries, so it’s not quite RIP yet. The one upside of where she was knocked down is that it was so close to the MUHC.
It was my dear sweet aunt Anna. She died Friday Sept-11th at 2:30pm. Our family is devastated.
She was a sweet soul that did so much for her family. We pray that the Police find the person that is responsible for taking an innocent life. May she Rest In Peace.
It’s a travesty that work was done on that corner recently related to the hospital and bike paths but nothing done to make it safer for people on foot.
My heartfelt condolences Anthony, may she rest in peace indeed.
Anthony, I am so sorry.
Thank you Dwgs.
Thank you Kate
The woman found earlier this week dead in a car on Nuns’ Island was the victim of a homicide, #15 of the year.
A woman convicted of murdering her mother in 2018 has been given a reduced sentence of six years and six months because she was in a psychotic state at the time. Ming Ye has already served three years since the incident.
A repeat drunk-driving offender who caused a crash that killed her friend and put herself in a wheelchair has been sentenced to four years in prison.
A Brossard story: on Monday a driver killed a pedestrian and gravely injured a cyclist in two hit‑and‑run incidents a few minutes apart. CBC spoke to the family of the woman who was killed, who sounds to have been a dynamo: coming to Canada in 2018 with minimal English or French, Huiping Ding opened a business and ran half marathons in her spare time. This item suggests there was no accident involved, but that the accused driver targeted two random people and attempted to kill them. He’s up on a litany of charges including murder.
I’m sure this “justice” feels very fair to the families of the victims, and that if we all had a vote, this is the system we would choose.
Imagine you save 20 years and your entire life’s savings is stolen by someone you trusted, an accountant or a family member or whatever. Imagine then that there’s no way to recover the money, and that the end result is that you made years of small sacrifices, acted responsibly, etc. all to end up broke because you trusted the wrong person. Imagine the penalty for that crime in our country.
Then, instead of imagining that this person took all your money, imagine that they killed your spouse.
Democracy in the sense of the demos, the Americans suffer from an excess, it’s apparent in every facet of life in that country.
Quebec and Canada, in things small (the ongoing debate over the supposedly autocratic imposition of bike lanes) and large (kill someone, don’t even go to prison in many cases, how the hell is a victim’s relation supposed to feel that’s justice?), we could probably use more democracy.
Inspectors will be handing out fines to people without masks, especially in areas coding yellow on Quebec’s new zone system. Montreal could move from green to yellow very quickly as things stand.
Wednesday evening, my neighbours held a party in the alley. At least a dozen people from multiple households nearby hung out, ate, drank, sang together, with no distancing and, as far as I could see, no masks. I didn’t attend, but wondered how many similar social events are taking place now, as people face a combination of the end of summer with no end in sight to the provisional lockdown.
A bank and another business on St-Hubert Plaza were held up at gunpoint Wednesday.
That’s my bank! I haven’t set foot in there for a while, use only banking apps and who needs cash these days, but it was the only bank that accepted me as a new client when I was still waiting for my permanent residency. Maybe because they were used to immigrants; a high percentage of their clients is South-American, and the staff are all trilingual. It’s not the first time they were held-up, and now everyone is wearing a mask it must be nerve-wracking for them (and other bank tellers).
Why do people bother holding up banks anymore? It’s not really worth the risk/reward. Most banks use Teller Assist Units, which limits how much money can be dispensed and of course, can dispense marked bills. Not to mention dye packs, GPS trackers. People overestimate the amount they can steal from a bank, it’s particularly SMALL.
[Ephraim got in first while I was typing this]
How much money do you think these guys actually walk away with? How many c-notes do those brown bags in the cartoons with dollar signs on them hold? A hundred is only ten grand. Say the take is what? 50K? – how long can they really live on that? I mean, you’re not going to put yourself through the ringer like this just to live like you’re on welfare, would you? What’s the point unless you can put yourself on “rue Easy” and live large, ordering four pound lobsters for you and your henchmen at Milo’s, flashy set of wheels, etc?
Assuming you aren’t using a TAU, a teller isn’t allowed to have that much money in the drawer at any time. Anything over $2K and you have to put it in the timed safe. So that’s at least another 5 minute wait, which is more risk and you have to be SUPER quiet so you can hear it click, because you only have about 10 seconds to catch it, or it relocks and you have to wait again.
But a lot of crime pays really badly. They’ll steal that bike because they know they can get a few dollars for it. If they went after more expensive bikes, it would bring in more money, but more work to get that greater money.
Unless they sell an item themselves, there’s a middleman who will expect a cut.
Holding up a bank requires little overhead, so the return doesn’t have to be that much. It’s better than having no money.
Cashing in cans for the deposit brings in little money, but it too requires zero money to get started and generally it’s really easy to cash them in.
Those starting with some money can afford to plot and buy (or I suppose steal) the things needed to pull off a bigger job. At some point the risk is likely bigger, because the bigger the loss, the greater someone is willing to pursue the theft.
Precisely because of all the things mentioned above, bank robbery is a bottom-feeder crime these days and so most likely the perpetrators here are drug addicts. So not a lot of long-term strategic thinking involved.
Michael, it’s all about risk/reward. And the risk on a bank robbery is definitely high, but the rewards are no longer high. With a bike, the risk is minimal. So considering the risk, the reward is good. Frankly, learning computer skills and phishing has so much better rewards and lower risk than a bank robbery.
Between TAUs and CCTVs, the risks are really high. I don’t know about Canadian banks, but in some banks they have fog systems, dropping gates, doors that only the police can unlock, etc. That brings the risk so high that most criminals won’t even contemplate it, anymore. Those dropping gates were big in the UK… having a ton or two of metal drop down at the front door and in front of the tellers, with only the police having the key, were really effective in the UK.
The city has bought the Hutchison Plaza building across from Parc metro, with the intention of turning it into social housing. The building’s saga involved a new owner evicting a lot of small ethnic businesses and social assistance offices first, but under the circumstances, this is the best thing that could happen to the building.
The city is still waiting on funds to proceed with fulfilling its promises on social housing, but differences between Quebec and Ottawa are holding the money back.
The Gazette also has an article on this acquisition https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/city-uses-new-pre-emptive-right-to-buy-park-ex-building-for-social-housing/wcm/d99fea05-ce19-4b15-8903-d126b4e531d7/
Apparently this preemptive right is being applied by our executive committe to a couple of hundred properties. Article quotes a Projet Montreal rep stating that the 1200 affordable housing units promised by Plante are 75% attained.
Unfortunately, I could not find any reference to what BSR group originally paid for that building to determine their profit. I always thought that the idea of luxury condos there was ludicrous.
I also do not understand why the city plans to immediately sell the building to a non-profit. They had better include some type of first right of refusal in the contract so that they can take it back in the event that the non-profit is unable to extract an appropriate level of government funding to make a go of it.
This is one of the few cases where I say: forget about affordable housing.
This building had a lot of affordable office space, which is secretly vanishing, and which covid won’t bring back. But the city can!
mare 00:09 on 2020-09-11 Permalink
I saw a city crew today working on the Chistophe-Coulomb bikepath. Removing it? No they were improving it!
Three guys were making the path narrower and single file in front of a school. They erected some extra green pylons, and added a stop sign and painted line. Was a lot of work, they spent a whole day on it.
Kate 07:49 on 2020-09-11 Permalink
That may be a separate project, mare: there was recent news about making the environs of schools safer.
CE 10:20 on 2020-09-11 Permalink
That’s too bad because it was a really good nbike path. Not just for the cyclists but I’m sure for the residents of the street as well. I lived on Christophe-Colomb (right across from the school mentioned above) for about a year and it was easily the noisiest street I’ve ever lived on in Montreal. I really hope it comes back next year.
DeWolf 11:54 on 2020-09-11 Permalink
Apparently (and maybe this is just ass-covering spin) the path can’t be made permanent just yet because the funds to make it a temporary VAS came from Quebec, and the city could be accused of misappropriating that money if they turned it into a permanent installation. But there has been so much support from cyclists and people who live on Christophe-Colomb that I wouldn’t be surprised to see if come back next summer.
As CE said, Christophe-Colomb was very noisy before and I imagine it wasn’t very pleasant for its residents, who wouldn’t have been able to open their front windows or enjoy their front balconies without suffering all that engine noise. The bike path had the effect of calming traffic without creating congestion. I drove down CC a few times and not only did traffic flow better than before, it was much less harrowing as people were going slower and that weird 3/4 lane of traffic next to the parked cars was no longer there.
mare 18:48 on 2020-09-11 Permalink
@DeWolf Not only have two lanes disappeared, but the maximum speed has been lowered to 30 km/h from 50.
So now people drive 45, and not 60, unless there’s an asshole before them who drives exactly 30 (that would be me, I’m mean). Combined with the awful state of the tarmac, the highway nature of CC has been brought back to a city street, which makes for a more pleasurable sound level, but also drive IMHO. I’m sure other drivers, especially commuters to Laval, don’t appreciate it at all. CC was much faster than St-Denis, and since the bus lane Papineau became more congested too.
But the best part of the bike path is the situation near the CN underpass and the near the 40, where the Boyer path makes a lot of unnecessary turns. Also, you have much longer green lights, compared to the lights on Boyer.
I’ll miss it and really hope it will come back in a permanent form. Boyer is very narrow and dangerous and the other North South paths on De la Roche and further East have many intersections without lights or 4-way stops.