It’s clear that someone knows the transit cop goons can’t be trusted, even if they’re going to become “special constables” this summer. (I’m beginning to read “special” here as in the sense of special education.) They won’t be allowed the big boys’ toys: no tasers, no pepper spray, no guns. At most, an extensible baton. And a good thing too.
Updates from April, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Interesting changes in transit pass prices will come into force in July: kids ride free till age 11 if boarding with a fare-paying adult, and people 65 and older will get a much bigger break.
david638
This is a much bigger story than indicated – first time we’re getting REM pricing, unless I missed something!
It’s going to be cheap(ish)!
Now the remaining question: pricing integrated with the metro?
dwgs
It was very rare that any bus driver or metro booth person asked my kids to pay until they were 12 or so.
Mark Côté
It was already free for kids under 11 on weekends and during the summer holiday, so this will only really affect kids that travel by bus for school—but I imagine that might be a relief to a big family.
Kate
But do kids travel by bus to school with a parent?
John B
It’s also a relief for families who travel to any after-school activities by bus, when after-school activities are a thing.
Some kids go by bus to school with a parent. Especially kids who go to schools other than their neighbourhood school, like FACE, or one of the many alternative schools in town.
Bill Binns
I’m really curious about how much it costs the STM to collect fares. All the machines, all the enforcement, all the employees, all of the servers and back office stuff, the accountants etc. What’s left of those fares after all of those costs are counted? Is it even worth it?
Kate
Someone should do a piece like this New York mag article about the MTA about how the STM collects and counts fares.
Bill Binns, I will look into this. I seem to recall they do need the revenue, although how much of it goes uselessly into policing fare fraud I don’t have a clue.
John B
@david638 : This CBC article implies that a ticket will be good for all transit forms within a zone, which, if true, is welcome.
Maybe my privilege is showing, but how badly do seniors need super-cheap transit passes? Most seniors I know are better off than most working-age people I know. Is there data that says seniors in 2021 are poorer than 30-year-olds, or is this an outdated idea that’s stuck in popular opinion & politics, (like the “middle class”)?
Kate
Not all old people have amassed sufficient wealth to call a cab when they need to get around. I will be very happy to get a cheaper pass when I reach 65.
In the UK, you get to ride transit free after that age.
Mark Côté
“But do kids travel by bus to school with a parent?”
Under age 11, I would guess yes. Maybe not their parent, but an adult at least. I don’t know what it was like to grow up in the city, but at least nowadays I have a hard time imagining 9 or 10 year olds taking the bus by themselves. Quebec has no real clear laws when it comes to kids being left alone (either inside or outside the home).
Uatu
Hmm. Seems I’m going to be paying 10$ more for my fare. So 165$ a month to wait in the cold to catch a bus to catch a train to catch a metro. Wow. Thanks artm. My life has improved so fucking much with this new train.
Tim
I agree with John B: seniors, as a group, are better off than just about everyone else and do not need reduced fares en masse. A whopping 70% off seems excessive.
This reminds of the current vote buying efforts included in the Liberal budget: $500 dollars for everyone over 75 (a completely arbitrary age limit) and a 10% bump in OAS payments. The following Globe editorial makes a strong case that this money should be targeted to poorer seniors that get the GIS and who need it, not everyone getting OAS.
Kate
John B., Tim, not all seniors arrive at retirement age with accrued wealth, whether from pensions or inheritance. The wealthier ones will be driving or taking cabs and won’t need the cheap transit passes. The poorer ones will.
Ant6n
I thought cost of fare collection and enforcement is around 10%? And fares pay half the cost, perhaps a bit more, the rest are subsidies. (Except for the REM, which is gonna be 3/4 subsidies)
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Kate
Every so often doing the blog I stumble over a Dezeen piece on a house, so here’s one called Park Ex House that’s entirely clad in shiny white siding with stingy, ill-placed windows. And there it is, the breakfast bar.
Josh
I will admit to being puzzled by your relationship with the breakfast bar, Kate. I grew up in a house that had one, and in retrospect I can see for my parents how it would’ve been very handy: Helping me with my homework while cooking, serving breakfast, talking to guests who arrive before dinner is ready, etc.
Having trouble thinking of a single con for breakfast bars, actually!
CE
That house has been there for a while now and its ugliness has always puzzled me. I can’t figure out why would anyone choose to live in such a structure!
Kate
Josh, it’s just the pervasiveness of the thing. I can only assume budding architects have to take Breakfast Bar 101 in architect school. Houses with perfectly fine tables only a step away are equipped with them. Upscale mansions have them. Tiny condo layouts still wedge one in, so tightly that the users of the breakfast bar would practically be sitting on the shoulders of the person at the dining table behind them.
Besides, why would anyone want to eat breakfast with their legs dangling off a bar stool, when there’s a perfectly good table and chairs right there?
Phil M
The counter height makes it easier to eat standing up, which can be helpful if you’re in a rush. Regardless, if the “breakfast bar” keeps being sold, people must like it.
As for the house, while the cladding might not have been my first choice, aesthetically, I like the overall look of the house.
dwgs
Speaking as someone who is employed by an Architect School I can say that not only do they not teach Breakfast Bar 101 but the whole idea of designing something as boring and utilitarian as a house is both sniffed at and frowned upon.
Kate
dwgs, what are they meant to aspire to?
Blork
The breakfast bar has almost nothing to do with breakfast or even seating. In open concept kitchens it is very practical and desirable to have a large “island” counter, which is convenient AF and becomes the centrepiece of the kitchen. That’s where most of the work happens because it is large and open, and there’s plenty of room for cutting boards, bowls, scales, etc.
The idea to stick a few stools there is almost an afterthought. And it creates a nice social atmosphere when one or two people are doing the meal prep and another person or two are sitting there talking with them, or doing homework, or having a drink, etc.
An open concept kitchen that did NOT have a large island would be as silly and awkward as a bathroom without a sink. It just doesn’t make sense. So it’s not about breakfast! It’s about being a modern and highly efficient and organized kitchen!
Kate
Blork, I’ve long suspected the kitchen island’s popularity comes from a desire to feel like a TV chef. But then, I watched as friends installed one in a kitchen that had barely enough room to move around it, and I didn’t find it much of an improvement. Maybe if you have a really big space.
Blork
It’s not so much about the size of the space as the arrangement. When the kitchen is open to the living area (as opposed to being in a closed room) it’s both a delight and a must unless you’re in a little studio apartment. Not only does it visually separate the space, but it provides a large glorious workspace.
I have a fairly large kitchen, but it’s not fully open to the other rooms, so there is no island and no room for an island. And I am constantly running out of counter space. It drives me nuts. Seriously, I love cooking but I’m always running out of counter space. The mythical kitchen reno (which might never happen) involves taking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and adding a goddamn island!
Bearing in mind that the average middle-class home cook prepares more sophisticated meals than they would have a generation or two ago. It’s not just a matter of boiling your veg and frying your pork chop. Between all those food channels on TV, food web sites, etc., people are doing more interesting things at home. Not “fancy” just more interesting, and that usually means more fresh veg (therefore more space needed for chopping and setting aside) more pans on the stove, and overall more mise-en-place before you even turn on the heat.
And all that “mise” just begs for counter space!
Josh
Blork: And you’re not even mentioning kitchen appliances! In the last five years I’ve acquired a fancier coffee maker than ever before (with a larger footprint), a stand mixer, and an Instant Pot. All these things have to go somewhere, but some of them wouldn’t even fit through the clearance on my 70s-era kitchen cabinets were I even inclined to store them there! Add in a drying rack, a knife block and a few other odds and ends and you can be out of counter space before you even begin.
I would *love* an island or peninsula just for the extra, practical, kitchen real estate it would provide.
GC
Yeah, even if you don’t actually put stools under there and use it as a bar, it’s extra counter space. And I’ve never lived somewhere and thought “Gee, I wish I had _less_ counter space”. I am a fan of mine, however, and eat there often. My friends put their wine racks under theirs, which meant they still had the extra counter space but also repurposed the other side for something more useful to them.
I wholeheartedly agree that the outside of that house is an eyesore, however.
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Kate
For the first time, as many as 30% of the Polytechnique’s graduates this year are women.
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Kate
Announced Thursday: vaccinations will soon be open to all adults. The schedule is in this CBC article.
A regular reader suggests I mention that the Montreal General is vaccinating and has a lot of availability plus free parking. You enter on the west side (Livingston) and walk right through.
jeather
I went to the MUHC just this week. They have a giant lot set up on gravel for vaccines only, but there is a steep staircase between it and the clinic (6 nurses set up in a hallway). There is a sign saying if you have mobility issues to ask. My understanding is that parking is free at all vaccine clinics.
Also as a rule clic sante opens up between 4 pm and 8 pm the night before eligibility officially opens for a group.
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Kate
The union that includes the city’s engineers and other classes of professionals has voted to strike.
thomas
I always wonder why the city of Montreal has 20% more engineers than the much larger city of Toronto. Furthermore, much of Montreal’s engineering work seems to be outsourced.
Kate
Older city, needs more patching up.
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Kate
A man was stabbed in Lasalle Wednesday night, but his life is not in danger.
Once again, I will note this city’s good fortune in being the kind of place where a single non-fatal stabbing is the only police story in a cycle.
Bill Binns
I completely agree and I really appreciate Montreal’s near miraculous murder rate. However, since the cops aren’t busy tracking murderers and carjackers and bank robbers, why can’t they do something about the daily stabbings? That story going around of some dude stabbing strangers in LaFontaine park is especially concerning.
You would think that after such an event that we may see some cops actually walking around in LaFontaine. No such luck. You can walk the streets of this city for days without seeing a cop outside of a car.
CE
We don’t have daily stabbing in Montreal. Even if we had a single stabbing every day (which we don’t), we’d still be doing much better than most cities of similar size in North America.
Kate
Bill Binns, I appended this story as an update in the original post, but maybe I should’ve made a separate post about it: three days after the story about the guy stabbing people in the park, there was an arrest.
As for the stabbings, there’s a limit to what authorities can do. Knives are everywhere, and there’s not enough crime here to justify having metal detectors all over the place.
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Kate
The House of Commons adopted a back-to-work law to force striking port workers back to the job. It still must be debated in the Senate on Friday.
steph
If they’re expanding the definition of “essential” to guarantee protection of the economy, they might as well make unions illegal.
Kate
I agree, steph.
Alex L
I wonder why the rush. Are vaccines shipped by boat?
dmdiem
Considering how many vaccines we’ve received, I’m guessing they’re shipped by unicorn.
ant6n
@dmdiem
You mean Uber?
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Kate
The idea of turning the old Saint-Sulpice library into a “Maison de la chanson” as an archive and cultural centre for Quebec songwriting has struck a chord with a long list of Quebec notables. But as of now it’s just an idea.
Bill Binns
I look forward to visiting the Gino Vanelli wing and the Musical Spoons Pavilion. The Celine Dion temple is beautiful in the spring.
Kate
I’ll be satisfied they can settle on any purpose for the building, because it’s a nice one and risks falling into ruin if it isn’t inhabited soon.
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Kate
CBC looks at how Montreal public health has so far enabled the city to avoid the worst of the third wave of Covid.
Tim S.
Throughout the crisis I’ve had the impression that Montreal public health has been more on the ball than their Quebec and Federal counterparts. All credit to them. That said, it’s just pure luck that the gym superspreader event happened in Quebec City and gave us time to close up again.
Also, having just finished an article, bylined March 1, about how people in India may have greater immunity to COVID, I feel like CBC jinxed us.
Meezly
Interesting they were careful to only credit the public health officials, not the CAQ. Is it possible that the politicians are finally listening more to medical experts?
@Tim, yes I think that gym ended up unintentionally helping the rest of the province by forcing everything to close again!
mare
Avoided for now.
We don’t have the P1 variant circulating yet, which has a longer incubation time before symptoms show up, is more contagious and can be more severe in younger people. It might already be there, but people that have it get tested later, so it shows up later too.(I have family who are medical specialists in Vancouver, and they told me it is a totally new disease, with different symptoms and outcome.)
walkerp
I don’t think the gym outbreak being in Quebec City is entirely a function of chance. That region votes conservative, tends to lean right which correlates with individualism and covid skepticism. We have our share of covidiots in Montreal, but I believe the proportion is higher in the capital region and thus you have a greater chance of an ignorant, arrogant gym owner and clients.
Raymond Lutz
J’abonde dans le même sens que walkerp, Québec est une ville principalement de morons, ceci explique l”inexpugnable popularité du “putois des ondes”… Non, pas Jeff Filion mais André Arthur, “un fervent fédéraliste, non pas du fait d’un attachement particulier au Canada, mais plutôt parce qu’il croit que l’indépendance entraînerait une augmentation du socialisme au Québec.” (Wikipedia) Dire qu’il est né en Turquie! Oh, et la principale radio de la région était (est encore?) covidosceptique.
Bill Binns 07:40 on 2021-04-30 Permalink
Gee, you would think if the Metro was patrolled by a battalion of ultra violent “goons” there would be fewer people sprawled across the floor and living comfortably down there while using any convenient corner as a toilet.
I have personally tried to sic these goons on the group of people who enjoy smoking crack while agressively begging in the vestibule of Berri-UQAM. They seemed wildly uninterested. They must have been tired from punching totally innocent women in the head for no reason at all.
Kate 12:15 on 2021-04-30 Permalink
I hold out a faint hope that if the STM goons actually become constables, in some sense, maybe they will get more training about dealing with people who need help, people who are not criminals but are, for various reasons, unable to cope, and are inconveniencing the folks trying to use the system for transit.
Bill Binns 12:45 on 2021-04-30 Permalink
Since I’ve lived here I have seen a total of one person get arrested in the Metro. By far the thing I see the goons doing more than anything else is standing around in groups of 2 or 3 chatting with each other.
If you think the recent takedown of the biter is a sign of some kind of systemic violence problem by Metro security I would ask you how many times you would allow yourself to be bitten by a human at work before getting somewhat violent in response. Also, weren’t at least some of those guys actual city cops?
Kate 16:41 on 2021-04-30 Permalink
The question is what happened before she bit anyone. Is skipping a ticket sufficient to justify having one or more transit security men put their hands on you?
Tee Owe 16:51 on 2021-04-30 Permalink
See comment from Bill Binns below – ‘is it worth it?’
Bill Binns 17:57 on 2021-04-30 Permalink
@Kate – Great question. She got caught jumping the turnstile. 1000 to 1 odds but somehow she was caught. Instead of being a grown-up and taking her ticket and deciding later if she’s going to plead guilty and pay, or go to court and explain herself, she decided to ESCELATE. She refused to identify herself and the big boy cops got involved. Just as with any other type of citation if you refuse to identify yourself you get arrested. So she again ESCELATED and tried to escape forcing cops or security or both to put their hands on her. During this process she made another decision to bite one or more officers or security people multiple times. Then those guys did a little escelating of their own.
So what should have been done here? Treat the fare system as a “suggested donation jar”? Just give up and wave her through when she refused to identify herself? That would be a hell of a loophole wouldn’t it? This woman didn’t get the shit beat out of her for fare jumping. She got the shit beat out of her for resisting arrest and assaulting cops/security.
So many of the stories we see in the news about bad outcomes with the cops follow this pattern. People commit very serious crimes to avoid the minor consequences of minor crimes. Any interaction with the cops can be escelated to them beating or even killing people. They are never going to just let people go because they really want to go and they shouldn’t.
GC 19:15 on 2021-04-30 Permalink
Do we know that is the true sequence of events, Bill? I will confess I haven’t followed the story too closely, so I’ll take your word for it if that’s been established. Unfortunately, there are too many cases were the police relate a tale like that and then later witnesses or a video reveal a different sequence of events.
I’d like to have the same faint hope as you, Kate, regarding the training. But do even our local police really have a great track record dealing with the mentally ill, etc.?