Updates from December, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 17:57 on 2020-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

    Jeanne Corriveau looks at the failed attempt to renovate and repair Station 26, the handsome old fire station on Mont-Royal at Des Érables, which has been reduced to a sad bit of scaffolding.

    After embarking on rebuilding the façade, contractors found that the whole building was in dangerously precarious condition. It had to come down. This is the fire station that made international “ironic news” items in 1999 when, running to a call, firefighters forgot a pot of oil on the station stove, so that their own station caught fire. The building was partly boarded up and in visibly rocky shape for years after that.

    The original budget for repairs has been used up, and although there’s a possibility of re-creating the old building, it would be at a high price. It’s not clear whether it will ever happen.

     

    • Kate 16:53 on 2020-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

      At the start of winter it’s good to read that the city has a tentative deal with its blue-collar workers for seven years.

       

      • Kate 13:34 on 2020-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

        I’ve cleaned up and finalized the weblog calendar for 2021, available above. It’s 11×17.

        Someone asked about the earlier calendars. I started doing calendars for 2017:

        2017 – historical photos and graphics of Montreal from the U.S. Library of Congress image bank.

        2018 – historical photos, cover based on a promotional poster from the Crystal Palace in 1884.

        2019 – theme: brutalism.

        2020 – theme: columns on various buildings.

        The historical notes have not changed all that much year to year, but every year I add a few more.

         

        • MarcG 14:55 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          Thanks Kate, too bad you lost the 2017 one. I’m curious why the quotes in the 2018 calendar mostly seem to be from 2014.

        • Kate 16:33 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          MarcG, I changed the post after I found the directory of images for 2017, so I added it.

          I think I felt that since there was no calendar before 2017, I should find some of the better quotes from earlier years as well. For 2019 onward I’ve stuck to cites from the year ending.

        • Chris 21:40 on 2020-12-22 Permalink

          Nice work Kate!

      • Kate 12:24 on 2020-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

        Taylor C. Noakes, who usually writes in English, takes up the crayon de Molière to comment on the latest panic over the decline of French.

         

        • PatrickC 14:34 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          Good piece!

        • Meezly 13:58 on 2020-12-22 Permalink

          Agree. Interesting he has to defend his name at the end and make a point of saying he’s more French- than English-speaking.

        • Taylor Noakes 17:24 on 2020-12-22 Permalink

          A joke got mangled in the editing… the idea was more to poke fun about who is and isn’t Quebecois, and whether a Francophone with a real bloke name like my own can criticize language policy without assumedly being labelled ‘Anglo’. Unfortunately in the effort to undermine the tribalism it wound up coming across as reinforcing it, which still seems funny to me given the article was written in French.

          I wasn’t crazy about using the photo of the Canadian and Quebec flags as a symbolizing the language debate either, but freelancers have surprisingly little control over such things 🙂

          Thanks for the post @Kate

      • Kate 09:59 on 2020-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

        Mario Girard sums up the travails of Projet Montréal as they prepare to face the final year of this term in office.

        Update: CBC’s Isaac Olson made a similar roundup of Projet’s slings and arrows to date.

         

        • Jack 11:03 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          People I am not a big fan of Mario Girard and his new role as leader of the opposition at City Hall, however considering Lionel Perez I guess we have no choice. This column provides a really good summary, based on the court case, of why the situation in NDG blew up.
          After reading it I was left with the feeling that we elect our city councillors and Mayors to reflect the policy and ideals of the electors, or at least thats why we bother to go vote . However in actual fact when confronted by unionized bureaucracies these officials have the same power as the kids you voted for in your High School student council. You know that sharp kid with good ideas until he meets the Principal and VP. The Principal in NDG is Stephane Plante, borough Manager.
          “À l’origine de toute cette affaire se trouvent les plaintes répétées d’Annalisa Harris concernant l’indifférence de Stéphane Plante lorsqu’elle lui demandait des documents ou de l’information. L’insistance de la directrice de cabinet a été perçue comme du harcèlement psychologique par le directeur de l’arrondissement.” Psychological harassment are you kidding.

        • David667 15:14 on 2020-12-22 Permalink

          ^ Excellent and exactly correct comment.

      • Kate 09:57 on 2020-12-21 Permalink | Reply  

        There’s snow down Monday morning, but this journalist is already dreading how a warm and rainy Christmas Eve will deprive us of a white Christmas.

        It’s a mystery to me why this matters so much, but every year, articles come out panicking about the likelihood of snow on the ground at Christmas. Is it so central to general happiness?

         

        • mare 11:27 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          Blame Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby. And the fact that in large parts of the US and Europe snow around Christmas is a possibility but doesn’t happen very often. Snow is very nice in these dark days and I’m happy we have some now.

          In the Netherlands, where snow is rare because it either rains or the cold polar air is too dry, it is also a thing. I think it occurred only once every 10 years, just often enough to make it extra special.

        • steph 12:24 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          It’s the Bing Crosby song “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas”. This holiday is to measure if you’ve been naughty or nice. The naughty people don’t get their wish of a white Christmas.

        • Mark Côté 14:45 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          I mean, it’s the biggest holiday of the winter for historically Christian societies, even though it happens early. We have this long, long stretch of winter with no real holidays ahead of us, so if we have no snow on the ground for Christmas, it feels like we don’t really have any winter holidays to speak of.

        • Kevin 15:25 on 2020-12-21 Permalink

          One of my favourite Christmas memories is of my children and their friends playing on a new pogo stick out front on Boxing Day.
          Only happened because it was a green Christmas.

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