Doesn’t it tell you everything you need to know? If defeated as mayor, Valérie Plante would still participate as opposition leader at city hall; it sounds from this that Denis Coderre has no intention of spending time doing municipal politics if he’s not the boss.
Updates from October, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Valérie Plante is promising to put up $500 million for the REM de l’Est expecting this means the city would have more input into its final form.
Daniel D
The state of this. Having to offer money just to gain more input into how this project will change the city landscape. In a sane world, the city should have this input by default.
I guess this ties kind of ties nicely into the later post about Montreal’s role in Quebec.
-
Kate
Here’s the result of a Léger poll on what voters think is important “dans leur ville.” Affordable housing is #1, but we’re only at #2 – health services – when we stray into provisions of the province rather than the city.
-
Kate
A taxpayers’ group has put up a sign at the Tampa baseball field saying Quebec taxpayers don’t want to pay to return baseball to Montreal.
Incidentally, on his doorstep visit chez moi last week, Guillaume Lavoie tried to convince me you could have a baseball stadium and a team without it costing the city a cent. I made the case that it is simply not possible, that the city would always be called on to provide infrastructure, transportation, security and – most important to major league sports – tax breaks. He had some nitpicky remarks, but it’s inevitable.
Vazken
I will say it until I’m blue in the face. NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS.
If you’re a billionaire sports team owner, pay for your own stuff. All these wild valuations for teams are built of the normal taxpayer’s backs and it’s not right.
-
Kate
Denis Coderre is promising to hire 250 more police officers if elected.
And they would all know he is their boss.
In other police news, the SPVM are adding 9 more security cams to the 24 they already have in what they feel to be hotspots. CTV says they “can be viewed in real time” but evidently not by us.
Ephraim
Great, promise to lower taxes and then put more money into the largest budget in the city, so that more POC can be beaten up in the name of making the city safer. Meh
That’s about $28M more per year, without considering of equipment, pensions, etc.
SMD
The Québec civil liberties group has a quick reaction to the increased police cameras in public: https://liguedesdroits.ca/encore-plus-de-cameras-de-surveillance-du-spvm-la-securite-publique-ne-doit-pas-passer-par-la-sur-surveillance-des-populations/.
-
Kate
Following close on last week’s Le Devoir piece on the state of downtown, La Presse looks at how it’s doing as students and workers return to classes and workplaces in person, at least some of the time. La Presse also talks to Ensemble, Projet and Mouvement about what they’d do to support the area.
DeWolf
This piece reflects the reality I’ve seen on the ground. The offices are still largely empty, but more workers have returned than I would have expected. (Last Thursday, the bar at the Time Out Market was packed with office types having a 5à7. There were even people wearing suits!) The underground malls are quiet. But the streets are lively. As the café owner notes, the saving grace has been the steadily growing number of downtown residents. And people are clearly coming back to shop – the Sports Experts owner points out that for the first time in two years, sales at his Ste-Catherine location have outpaced Dix-30.
Faiz Imam
That last point is amazing. That Dix30 location is enormous and always packed.
Kevin
From my contrarian corner I have some questions.
1) What exactly is Sports Expert selling during October at the various stores? And did sales drop at Dix-30 because of construction around the bizarre mall?
2) What are the relative sizes of the companies coming to and leaving from the city? (The article points out one company that is moving downtown by reducing its office space by 40%, and that it’s staff are not coming in full-time.)
-
Kate
The funeral for firefighter Pierre Lacroix, who died during a river rescue a week ago, will be held Friday at Notre-Dame.
-
Kate
A man was shot overnight in St-Michel and had to be rescued from the Francon quarry, which is near the corner specified, Louvain and 16th Avenue. In the familiar phrase, he’s known to police.
steph 08:27 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
Why would anyone vote for him? It seems like I havn’t seen ONE issue worth giving him a vote. Any of his decent proposals, seems like Plante wouldn’t have the ego to reject and would as easily implement them if possible. Is the “Bicycles bad, give me parking” voter that naive and simple?
walkerp 13:10 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
Let us hope that those that are that naive and simple (or rather just selfish) are few enough that he doesn’t win.
dhomas 16:43 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
I hear parking is usually pretty bad at voting sites. Maybe some potential Coderre voters will circle around once or twice and give up to go home after they don’t find parking directly in front.
GC 22:17 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
‘Is the “Bicycles bad, give me parking” voter that naive and simple?’ Sadly, yes. All his going on about crime in the city–including just plain lying about the numbers, as shown in an earlier post from Kate–is possibly also making his base scared. His promise to hire more cops was a very good tactic. Those of us who don’t support it probably weren’t going to vote for him, anyway. Those who he has managed to terrify with his talk of boogeymen will lap it up.
GC 22:17 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
But thanks for the laugh, dhomas 😉