A man descending the Camillien-Houde on a motorcycle Sunday afternoon hit the barrier and was badly injured.
Updates from April, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A man was found dead Sunday morning near a homeless shelter on La Gauchetière just east of Chinatown. It isn’t being described as a homicide yet, but it is being called a suspicious death.
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Kate
The housing crisis in Montreal and surrounding areas continues to expand. Is there really such a shortage, or are landlords inflating prices because they feel tenants are vulnerable to exploitation?
Ephraim
Or do you think that maybe as the price of property increases, they want to be able to cover their mortgages? The repairs? The insurance? The heating? Property taxes?
The general CPI for Canada in February was 138.9 and yet homeowner’s insurance is at 267.7. Maintenance and repairs at at 144.1. Fuel oil (for those with oil heating) is at 221.3.
The thing about tenancy is that it’s not as with commercial rent, NetNet. The landlord still has to pay property insurance on the property, the landlord has to buy insurance on the building and liability insurance, the landlord has to do repairs. And it depends on the tenant how involved those costs are… most landlords don’t have to deal with bugs or rodents, but in larger buildings, get one problem tenant and you have to deal with those costs repeatedly. Is heating/electricity included? As I have pointed out, even condo buildings that didn’t divide the electrical when they converted are problematic… no one closes the lights when they don’t have to pay the bill. Who should pay when the plumbing is clogged? And should the tenant be calling the landlord when the plumbing is clogged? How about when tenants repeatedly pour grease down the drain?
It’s all costs. It’s one of the reasons that I think that over time, we may move more towards a leasing model… where the tenant is responsible for regular maintenance.
Kate
We may be having a real estate fandango lately, but I don’t think it means that mortgages set several years ago are requiring higher payments. Landlords know that tenants are cowed, and some are making hay on it.
Ephraim
Lately? It’s been like this for a very long time. The estimate on my home, purchased 12 years ago is a 285% increase. Even the down payment goes up by that amount… Remember that once house exceed $1M, the down payment is 20%… without exception. The mortgage payment will go up by more than double, assuming they can get the same low rate. And that doesn’t even include the increase in property tax that will happen. (And that’s based on a REALLY low rate… I have a discount of 112 basis points below mortage prime.
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Kate
La Presse’s Paul Journet looks at Denis Coderre’s return to the fray: can he really be a reformed character? If he takes ideas from the Projet playbook, what can Projet do to reposition itself before November?
I’ve got to say, as a resident in and blogger about this city, I’m not happy that Coderre’s back. I was hoping that someone new would come along, maybe to challenge Plante and Projet to do better, at least to bring some fresh ideas from another angle. Either way, at this point, after coping with a pandemic for more than a year plus the economic and cultural challenges that come with it, the city needs new voices and new approaches.
But I’ll be slogging the blogging about Coderre now till November, so I ask in advance that my readers forgive me. I didn’t want him, but we’re stuck with him, so I will do my best.
jeather 21:52 on 2021-04-04 Permalink
I know this isn’t the point but isn’t Camillien-Houde an east west street? Which direction is north?
Kate 22:17 on 2021-04-04 Permalink
It depends whether you’re thinking compass north or Montreal north, plus the road snakes around. The TVA piece says “vers le bas sur la voie se rendant vers l’avenue du Mont-Royal” which is about as accurate as it can be, I think. You can’t go downhill on the C-H in but one direction, because the road changes name at the top so if you find yourself going downhill in the other direction, towards Côte-des-Neiges, you’re not on Camillien-Houde any more, but on Remembrance Road.
jeather 10:30 on 2021-04-05 Permalink
Why would anyone describe compass north for routes in the city? I actually never remember where the road changes names, anyhow.
Yes, other articles described it clearly as “descending towards Mont-Royal”, which is fine, but who would call that direction north, even at the Gazette?
Kate 10:52 on 2021-04-05 Permalink
I think it’s the same principle that leads journalists to write that something happened in “Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension” or “Ahuntsic-Cartierville” – i.e., it’s technically, literally true, it’s what they got from a police handout, so they can’t be called out for making a mistake.
To a Montrealer it hardly matters whether someone descending Camillien-Houde toward Park Avenue is technically northbound, because it’s not how a Montrealer perceives the geography. Likewise, whether an incident happened in St-Michel or Park Ex, Cartierville or Ahuntsic, has significance, but the journalist may not have been arsed to check which one it is, on a map.
Maybe too many people in editorial don’t live in town and have never lived in town?
Blork 11:03 on 2021-04-05 Permalink
“Maybe too many people in editorial …”
No. The problem is there aren’t enough people in editorial. As in, all they have is writers, no editors. Because the editorial offices have been stripped to the bone.