Montreal City Weblog

Kate 23:43 on 2020-12-04 Permalink Reply  

• JP 01:16 on 2020-12-05 Permalink

  Hmm…it’s a pretty big gated space…I feel fairly confident that gatherings can be avoided/prevented while still letting people go there. Just shows how out of touch the government is. Schools can stay open…30-35 kids in a classroom, but no, let’s not let citizens go for a walk in a vast park for their physical and mental well-being…

  I saw a MtlBlog fluff piece on Facebook today about “things to do if the pandemic is affecting your mood lately” sponsored by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux….They write “…There are still tons of ways to stay active and get those endorphins pumping. From skiing or fat-tire biking to winter hikes or learning a new ice skating trick, the options are practically endless.” Such hypocrites. And, I don’t even own the equipment to do any of that.

  If they’re so concerned about gatherings, they should’ve seen the lineups in front of the entrances of Carrefour Laval last weekend. No social distancing; people were mostly wearing masks. Lots of socializing, gathering. Saw a group of teenagers who didn’t seem like they lived together get out of the same van.

  Yes, I went to Carrefour Laval last week…judge away.

• dhomas 09:55 on 2020-12-05 Permalink

  Here’s an anecdote from my experience. I had to go get a part for my car at a local scrapyard recently. It’s a pretty big space with rows and rows of damaged cars raised up with no wheels (like literally over a thousand cars, if I had to estimate). As I was looking through the rows for my car model, I saw people who had apparently organized to meet here as they were sitting together on some old car parts and drinking beer… They couldn’t meet anywhere else, so they congregated here. There’s a 3$ entrance fee, so it’s not quite public. If people are willing to get together in such an aesthetically unpleasant place as a scrapyard, I can only imagine it would be worse in a place like the botanical gardens.

• Michael Black 10:35 on 2020-12-05 Permalink

  I had a dream last night that the neighbor was moving (he is, but in the spring) and was having a basement sale (but somehow the basement is the size of a warehouse). Lots of really neat stuff.

  Then suddenly, oops, I realize nobody is wearing masks, or keeping distance (to be fair, neither was I), and the dream ends.

  That’s at least the second time I’ve dreamed of being out and then remembered the pandemic.

• Raymond Lutz 10:41 on 2020-12-05 Permalink

  This is so stupid. Covid-19 is an indoor disease. Outdoors, the mostly turbulent airflows dilute virion charges. What A Summer Of COVID-19 Taught Scientists About Indoor vs. Outdoor Transmission.

  I’m appalled at most governments incoherent responses (and Qanon type movement emergences, linked to the former)… This doesn’t bode well for the coming climate change induced societal collapse.

• Spi 11:33 on 2020-12-05 Permalink

  @dhomas hits it on the head, the concern isn’t that too many strangers will bump up against each other, it’s that too many people will use it as a space to gather with people they know.

• Kate 12:38 on 2020-12-05 Permalink

  I can see the pro and con, but the gardens adjoin Maisonneuve Park, so if someone wants a walk or a run in a parklike setting they have a big park right there.

• Chris 13:16 on 2020-12-05 Permalink

  JP: and good luck buying any such equipment. Just like bikes in the spring, skis and the like are selling out fast.