TVA has a lot of pictures of guns seized by the SPVM in various raids, although I suspect this photo essay will be hardware porn for some.
Updates from February, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Filomena Rotiroti, Liberal MNA for Jeanne-Mance–Viger (St‑Léonard), has announced she tested positive for Covid, after being at the National Assembly on Thursday. CTV says she’s the first MNA to test positive.
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Kate
I was struck just now by this image of an elevated highway running through San Francisco, re an elevated REM being forced through downtown Montreal.
Elevated trains through town have been unpopular for a century. This morning, Rosemont councillor Christine Gosselin posted a cite from the book Angus – Du grand capital à l’économie sociale – 1904‑1992 by Gaétan Nadeau, about a railway project that was never even completed, but scarred several neighbourhoods: “Depuis 1910, les quartiers de Préfontaine, Maisonneuve et Mercier sont marqués par des piliers de ciment qui devaient recevoir une voie ferrée surélevée.”
I’ve spent time rummaging through old Gazette issues on the Google newspapers site. I should have bookmarked the many items I noticed in the early part of the 20th century and between the world wars in which community groups and local councillors tried to fight the imposition of trains elevated on embankments that created breaks between neighbourhoods that linger to this day.
Kevin
I noted that even the Caisse people promoting the REM East don’t think the support pillars should be as massive as the ones for the rest of the REM.
These pillars seem thicker than what supports highways.CE
I would assume that if it were made of concrete, it would look more like the Sky Train in Vancouver wouldn’t it. Here’s a stretch of it that runs along and over a street.
DeWolf
Yes, it would more likely look like the SkyTrain, which is certainly not ideal, but it would hardly be a barrier between neighbourhoods. Here’s another Vancouver example in a more urban setting:
https://goo.gl/maps/rAAG4RtuXahoY3M96
And here’s a portion from downtown Vancouver where the SkyTrain runs very close to some apartment buildings. You can also compare it to the elevated roadway on the left, which is much bulkier and more overbearing:
David664
When it comes to development, 2/3 of the people who frequent this site could probably benefit from taking a pause before pronouncing on a given project to ask themselves: when was the last time I actually supported something? Like, peopl here are against virtually all change, growth, development, and progress in the physical space that we all (yes, “we all”) inhabit.
Kevin
The supports I spotted today near the Champlain bridge are like the bowl of a wine glass compared to the stems in those Skytrain photos.
Ephraim
SkyTrain runs along a corridor, not along a street for several kms. It crosses downtown… but isn’t this proposal to run along RL for a significant distance, no?
nau
DeWolf’s links show Skytrain cutting across streets but the REM East will go along René-Lévesque, so more like CE’s, which is however along a quieter street. Check out this section of Skytrain in Richmond and then transpose the Skytrain to the middle of the street on René-Lévesque.
ant6n
In downtown-proper, skytrain runs underground. I’d guess most of the taller buildings around the elevated sections of the skytrain were built after the train was put there. The first image DeWolf posted is 18km from downtown Vancouver, the second as at the edge of the inner downtown, where the skytrain emerges to go across that inner harbour area where the “science world” and the stadium is. I never found the skytrain very nice looking (or Vancouver, for that matter) – even though it’s not super massive, it does feel brutalist. It’s not as nice as the elevated subways built in Europe a hundred years ago on steel structures.
I think what bugs me most about the downtown section of the REM2 is how dinky it appears. Rene Levesque should host a high capacity trunk line going East and West, not be the terminus for some far-East one-off mini-metro. as an elevated line, its hard to imagine it could scale up to a high capacity trunk.
steph
Guy corner Argyle.. looks like an elevated train to me. All of Turcot, and all of the MET looks like gross elevated eyesore.
Jonathan
It seems like the province and CDPQ is trying to make the technology fit the context rather than let the context dictate the technology.
What I see most reasonable is the type of set up some Portland transit lines have. They run at a faster speed elevated or with a complete grade separated right of way outside the town, but once it reaches the city centre it runs along the middle in a dedicated right of way. The traffic lights dictated by the vehicles. You would run longer trains slightly less often to deal with a potential bunching issue.
Even the part under Lacordaire (?) Could run above ground potentially. That would significantly reduce the tunnelling costs.
You would need an actual person to attend to the vehicle for safety. But all of this just seems completely reasonable and fits in. Isn’t this also what is being done with the Eglinton cross town? Where there it functions as part metro part streetcar?
We need to flush this obsession with CDPQ and just really improve the transit planning process.
mare
The REM2 could also just run at the current street level. RL is located on the top of a ridge, and changing every other intersection into an underpass by changing the grade of the hill would not be super complicated. The street is also wide enough to make on-ramps. Build smaller tunnels at the closed off intersections for bike and foot traffic and it’s probably cheaper and less of a barrier and eyesore. (You probably have to built an anti-suïcide fence along the track; no idea how they solve that issue along the other tracks of the REM.)
DeWolf
Mare, that would mean turning RL into a wall with access points every few blocks. It would be way less permeable than an elevated structure that doesn’t block the ground level.
I know some of you think I’m some kind of elevated rail fanboy, so let me just say that I think the REM de l’Est is a terrible idea. The money should be spent on the Pink Line, or barring that, on a modern tram that can run in the median of RL before turning into grade-separated light rail in the east end. It would probably be cheaper and the capacity would be about the same.
But I also think there is a lot of catastrophizing going on about the prospect of an elevated railway. The Street View link that nau posted to the SkyTrain in Richmond is a perfect example. It’s not pretty, but it’s not particularly overbearing either, and it’s hardly a barrier.
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Kate
As Americans face an ice storm and related panics, articles are appearing on the 1998 ice storm and how Quebec coped, how weather causes pileups on highways and on how our grid compares to the U.S. ones that have failed.
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Kate
With the levels of downtown vacancy we’ve seen, do we really think a 25-storey tower will be built over the Bay store anytime soon?
qatzelok
Never underestimate the power of money-laundering.
dhomas
They can’t afford to pay rent, but they can afford this?
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-quebec-court-orders-hbc-to-pays-its-rent-despite-pandemic-strain/DeWolf
The Bay is not a developer, dhomas. They will either partner with a developer on this and split the rental income, or they will wait until the tower is approved and sell it as a turnkey project, renting out a portion of the space for a much smaller store. Either way they stand only to profit from this.
They probably would have done something similar in Winnipeg but there just isn’t demand for $100 million real estate projects there. So that building will be sold and may be demolished, just as Winnipeg demolished its fantastic Eaton’s building.
Phil M
They couldn’t build a tower on the nearly vacant lot across the street where they have their loading docks, and a dinky Hertz rental outlet?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for getting rid of the nasty concrete facade on De Maisonneuve, but this design has zero aesthetic relationship to the original building.
I vote no (fully aware I have no vote).
david672
Just to settle a personal score, I’d like to note:
But Raphaël Fischler, dean of environmental design at the Université de Montréal, questioned the market
for such a development, given the decreased demand for office space.No longer at McGill.
“I find it puzzling they would come up with an office project at this time,” he said. “Everyone is asking
questions about the office market and even the condo market.”Never worked in the field, has no idea about economics of commercial construction.
Fischler also expressed concern about highrise development in the downtown core, including a 61-storey
condo tower in Phillips Square, which faces the Bay.He’s talking about the development of a parking lot almost as old as the city, and expressing skepticism about introducing commerce-saving residents and workers, because . . .
“I don’t think we need such tall buildings in these locations,” he said.
Why? He has degrees from very highly acclaimed schools, why is he so skeptical about development when it’s basically his metier? Here’s a hint, in the form of a statement from another architect:
“Architecturally, the project for the Bay appears as an all-too-common example of the exploitation of a site
to maximize real-estate return,” Martin Bressani, director of the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture
at McGill University, said by email.The architects who don’t practice do not understand that the practice of architecture only exists in a world in which people pay architects for their services. It’s one of the most stark and adroit examples of ideology v. industry that there is.
People want some perfect vision that they’ve cooked up, that vision just doesn’t pencil, so they oppose whatever does pencil.
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Kate
The city and the suburban towns will be asking Quebec to outlaw hunting on the island of Montreal.
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Kate
The young woman hit by a bus entering the south shore bus terminus on St-Antoine last month died from her injuries. Exo is said to be adding more security features around the terminus.
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Kate
Montreal, Quebec City and Gatineau are demanding money for social housing from the CAQ government.
In tangentially related news, the city has bought a building in Hochelaga that used to be a shooting gallery, and will convert it into social housing with 14 rooms for low-income residents.
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Kate
There’s a petition to the National Assembly asking it to rethink building an elevated train through the heart of Montreal.
Nick D.
It’s just occurred to me that there already is a train track that runs from downtown (the old port) all the way east along rue Notre-Dame (and later, Souligny): it’s only for freight, though (and I guess it’s still owned by CN, or whoever). Those big long freight trains can take forever to pass if you’re trying to get out of the Science Centre! Surely it’d be cheaper to make a deal with whoever owns that track and then put in a few stations? The bottom part of that line (from the Molson brewery east) is almost the same as the proposes line of the REM…
Also: I’m not sure what happens to that line west of Peel basin.Kate
I’m not entirely sure they’re interested in finding ways to build it more cheaply.
Max
It’s actually the Port of Montreal that owns the railway that runs through the Old Port and along Notre-Dame East. It connects with the CN network at Point St. Charles and with with the CP at Hochelaga. I really doubt the port would be willing to let go of that essential piece of infrastructure.
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=2762,3099576&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
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Kate
Christopher Curtis replies to the complaints about “cancel culture” with stories from the other side.
David Senik
What an infuriating story. Meanwhile people like Mathieu Bock-Cote, Sophie Durocher, and Richard Martineau decry any effort to try to educate people on the causes, effects, and reality of racism in Quebec. Their argument basically boils down to “we’re too perfect a people to require any additional education on this topic and it’s insulting that one would even suggest it!”. My kids who go to school in the French public system (not the the language of their education or the school board makes a difference) and have heard the N-word used on the school bus and have asked me about it. “It’s a disgusting, hurtful word, that should never be used, no matter what” is what I’ve told them. There are over 171,000 words in the English language and over 100,000 in French. It is NOT oppressive to count some of those words as racist and taboo. Defending the use of the N-word is racist and should be called out as such. Point finale.
Jack
I taught two University courses this fall. We talked about Valliere’s work and I introduced and contextualized where that title came from. I also said I do not say the n-bomb in a High School classroom or in general. The reason being is pretty clear to me. That word is received by many in my classroom as license to murder, rape and sell them. What was the reaction in my class, ah….no shit. No one felt it was their right under the guise of “freedom of expression” to say it. Sadly some history teachers in Quebec feel that throwing that word around makes them feel “stronger” and we all know what’s that about. https://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/2552935/racisme-en-classe-impacts-sentiment-appartenance-reussite-scolaire/
I have argued on this platform for years that Quebecor is bad for Quebec, all of Quebec, but their business model of stirring hatred and fear sells a lot of cars and sofas. For goodness sakes Legault parrots their talking points not vice versa.
“Tito” Curtis writes this better than anyone.
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Kate
Très-Saint-Rédempteur church in Hochelaga was put up for sale a year and a half ago, but hasn’t found a buyer. I may have missed others, but I think to date the only really big church that’s been converted to condos here is the one on St-Laurent at St-Zotique, which took a long time and was obviously expensive to do. These buildings are not easily repurposed for residential space.
Hm, there’s the one on St-Denis near Duluth which became a gym and spa, but I presume that one, and the one that became Théâtre Paradoxe, take advantage of the main feature of a church building, i.e. they mostly consist of a big hall. This doesn’t work so well when creating condo spaces.
It may come to this: strip these buildings of any artwork, stained glass and boiseries, and tear them down. A lot of new residential spaces could be built on freed-up lots in the older parts of town. Not all our old churches are architectural gems that must be preserved at all costs. Many are already collapsing anyway.
Mark Côté
It may come to this: strip these buildings of any artwork, stained glass and boiseries, and tear them down.
That’s what they’re doing in NDG.
Kate
Good! But that was a fairly small church which, I think, was run by Lutherans for a long time, and they don’t go in for decor. Wouldn’t be much by way of art to remove.
Mark Côté
Of course it took years of negotiations with the local population and at least two owners of the land before they finally settled on a plan.
Kate
I remember that. A bigger residential project was shot down by the burghers of NDG.
DeWolf
You’ve said that before, Kate, and I’m always surprised that you think these neighbourhood landmarks should be dispensed with. It’s not the stained glass and frescoes that make them remarkable, it’s their very presence in the city. The big Catholic churches add definition and variety to the landscape, and they are a reflection of both architectural heritage and the city’s cultural heritage. Montreal developed around its churches and the city’s urban form doesn’t make sense without them. Tearing them down would be cutting off the city’s ears. It would become deaf to its own history.
Just because most churches are functionally obsolete as religious facilities doesn’t mean they have no relevance. They were built as community gathering places as well as social service centres. NGOs and community groups are always struggling to find room for offices and events – give them the parish hall. Turn the rectory into a rooming house. And turn the church itself into a performance space for independent theatre groups and indie music promoters who struggle to find space because of high rents or noise complaints. Or libraries. Or city-run gyms. Anything, really, because why build a generic concrete box for some kind of civic facility when you can use a church instead?
Tearing down the churches for redevelopment instead of converting them to secular community use would basically be a capitulation to the idea that the city exists only as a place to make money: you have the places where people live, and then you have the businesses where they earn and spent money, with nothing in between.
DeWolf
I should be clear I’m talking about the giant churches like Très-Saint-Rédempteur, which were the locus of urban development in Montreal, and not little churches like the one in NDG that didn’t play such an integral role in the neighbourhood around it.
Kate
DeWolf, I don’t think all the churches should go, but there are some that are really done. If you haven’t gone and looked at St-Eusèbe-de-Verceil on Fullum, go have a look sometime. I don’t think it has served any purpose for a long time. It’s not even acting like Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs on Wellington, or Saint-Esprit on Masson, by opening up the commercial street pattern in a beneficial way. And no church that has lively community uses in its church hall should go, but there are some that should.
That said, it’s a long-term problem if the community only uses the basement, whereas most of the expense goes to preserving the spire or the towers, the bells and the main church, which hardly anyone is using. Someone’s going to have to sort this out.
Clément
I believe this condo building in NDG used to be a church (could have been a convent or something similar though).
There’s currently a 2 bedroom unit in there for sale for 1.8 M$…DeWolf
The problem is that so many churches were left to rot in the first place. There needs to be a concerted effort to proactively find new uses for them. There should be a land trust with funding both from public and private sources whose goal is to maintain the churches and find ways to adapt them for reuse.
Kate
Some churches were left to rot, but there are two I know of (St-Jean-Baptiste in the Plateau and St Gabriel’s in the Point) which were badly damaged by fire a long time ago, patched up more or less, but would hardly come up to code if you inspected them, and lots which were not damaged (and have been more or less looked after) but which need constant expensive care not to fall down. St-Zotique in St-Henri had to give up part of one of its steeples a couple of years ago when it began to tip over visibly near Notre-Dame Street. And these three I mention are operating parishes, not abandoned hulks like St-Eusèbe.
The basic problem is that these buildings were put up for, and with the contributions of, hundreds if not thousands of parishioners, with the expectation that their descendants would happily chip in for maintenance in perpetuity, but that hasn’t happened. The Quebec government chips in, but there’s a limit to the sanity of patching them all up forever.
Clément: Nice find. I hadn’t thought of that one, I don’t think it was ever a parish church. Here it is – the Monastère du Precieux Sang. Just north of Villa Maria station.
That condo is really something – imagine living with that round window. And voilà – a breakfast bar.
PatrickC
I have a memory of a small church on Saint-Jacques in Ville Saint-Pierre (I, think, I would glimpse it from the 20) that was turned into residences, I believe, though I’m not finding it on Google Maps just now.
Daisy
St. John the Divine Anglican Church in Verdun was converted into condos.
http://www.vanishingmontreal.com/p/st-john-divine-anglican-church.html
Clément
Kate I don’t think your link is working.
As soon as I noticed the breakfast bar, I knew you’d comment on it.
Kate
Fixed the link, Clément, thanks.
Couldn’t resist.
orr
315 Prince Arthur west is a very nice church condo conversion. From outside it looks like an absolute jewel.
266 Rachel est is a convent (right beside the church) condo conversion that I also find very nice and not obtrusively modernized.CE
I second 315 Prince Arthur west. Extremely well done and the balconies on the side look really nice. I have a friend who lived in one of the La Cité buildings and could get a good view from it from there. I was always impressed by the conversion.
GC
I was going to mention that Prince Arthur one, too. It looks great from the outside.
Nick D.
What about the building on Duluth at Hotel-de-Ville (214 Duluth est), which viewed from behind looks like it must’ve been a church or synagogue — it’s now apartments. Ah, I just looked it up: the building was built as synagogue Beth Jehuda ( https://histoireplateau.org/toponymie/vp/duluth/duluth.html ) from 1913 to 1926 but turned into apartments in the 1960s. See also: https://histoireplateau.org/architecture/lieuxdeculte/bethJehuda/bethJehuda.html
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Kate
The city won’t be levying a punitive tax on commercial vacancies, but wants Quebec to move on controlling commercial rents as it does – in theory – with residential rents. Since Quebec has weakened and renamed the Régie du logement in recent years and since it has little motivation to give Montreal a means to keep its commercial streets vibrant, I suspect this may remain little more than a wish.
david649
This is like the exact opposite of good sense, as we all know.
Kate
david, please don’t speak for “we all”.
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Kate
There are pieces about how the city’s preparations for spring flooding are not up to scratch, but you just know if the city spends a lot of money on preparations but the flooding isn’t so bad this year, they will also be critiqued.
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Kate
The top honcho of CDPQ Infra, Jean-Marc Arbaud, says burying the REM would be a catastrophe, while the opposition asks nervously how much the government will have to pay in royalties if an extended REM is built.
Daniel D
It’s odd they refuse to release the studies. Or is stating buildings would collapse just code for saying the added expense of tunnelling would reduce their profits?
I thought most projects like this avoided such risks by just tunnelling deeper underground.
ant6n
I feel like the REM infowars are starting up again. The odd PR presented as expertise, which many journalists take at face-value because it´s from “le bas de laine des Québécois” – even though it´s obvious the incentives are all screwed up if a pension fund is proposing a specific solution, paying for (some) of it and wanting to make a bunch of money with it. I enjoy the presentation showing that it is somehow impossible get a tunnel built under Rene-Levesque.
I bet the strongest alternative voice will come from a bunch of NIMBYs along the Notre-Dame corridor further out who don’t want an elevated train blocking their view of the industrial port.
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Kate
Here are driving notes for a generally mild weekend.
Ephraim 20:08 on 2021-02-20 Permalink
Welcome to the dog and pony show.
MarcG 21:23 on 2021-02-20 Permalink
Seriously, this just looks like an ad campaign for les squads
Jonathan 12:04 on 2021-02-22 Permalink
yes MarcG! This is just trying to claim we need more hired guns in order to reduce gun violence.
You’d think that after hundreds of years of using this same formula we would think of something more innovative in 2021 (and at least something proven, like more support and community services)