It’s nice to read that an entrepreneur has donated an island in the Back River to the Nature Conservancy of Canada but there’s one line in the CBC piece that made me wonder: ” ‘I trust my children; I’m sure they’ll protect the island. But what happens after my children [are] gone?’ Vikström said in an interview.” So, has the island really been donated, or is it contingent on what this man’s kids decide to do after he’s gone?
Updates from December, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
With the latest surge in Covid cases, working from home is being recommended again by public health. Interestingly, no one is certain yet whether Omicron is to blame.
jeather
Hard to be certain if omicron is to blame (probably not, based on timing, though it will be soon) when we don’t sequence.
Faiz Imam
I work at RONA, minutes after the government announcement we received news that all office workers that started back at the office or in a hybrid mode only a month or two ago were to work from home until mid January.
Michael
Well, fuck me!
steph
I started a progressive return to work last week, one day a week. It’s now been called off. WFH has been 100% a sucess. I don’t know why any return is necessary. I won’t complain – in 2021 I went to the office a total of one day,
H. John
Public Health Ontario has a report out on early testing for Omicron. They found it probably counts for as many as 80% of new cases:
Highlights
- SGTF, a genetic marker seen in the Omicron variant, can be used as a sensitive variant screening method for identifying the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 lineage.
- The modeled proportion of samples screening positive for SGTF increased from 80% are likely to be Omicron.
- It is estimated that each Omicron case is infecting 7.7 times more individuals than Delta in Ontario during the November 28 to December 9 period
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Kate
Someone was mistakenly given a permit to convert a building next door to the La Tulipe show venue on Papineau into a residential space, and now this person is trying to shut it down with noise complaints.
Vazken
How the hell is this a thing? Isn’t there a “they were they first” law in place?
steph
In my short memory I recall the same incidents at MainHall & Greenroom, and then Divans Orange… how is it this can keep happening?
Joey
Maybe the bureaucrat who approved this conversion (how is that done in error?!?) is the same one who signed off on the Plaza St Hubert awnings. Either way, rest assured neither elected officials nor bureaucrats will be held accountable.
EmilyG
This is terrible. I hope something can be done to save it. I’m tired of this happening.
Blork
This is even more WTF than people buying next to a chicken rotisserie and then complaining about the smoke. HOW CAN YOU MISS LA TULIPE?
…athough the buildings on either side of La Tulipe both seem to be resiidential, so I’m not sure how that works. Is it just the ground floor that was non-residential?
Also, as stupid as this is, that doesn’t mean that showbars should have carte blanche to make as much noise as they want. Surely there’s some guidelines for what a reasonable sound level for a given space is (and surely there are some idiots who want to go way louder than that). But I suspect that’s not what’s going on here/ No. this is just good old fashioned stupid.
dwgs
Don’t forget Bobards…
EmilyG
Tweet about this from Luc Rabouin: https://twitter.com/LucRabouin/status/1470908266632912903?s=20
Le théâtre La Tulipe est là pour rester. La vitalité culturelle du Plateau est une richesse à préserver. Nous avons eu plusieurs échanges avec les propriétaires, et suivons de près les démarches judiciaires en cours entre les deux parties privées. Une solution émergera.Joey
That’s funny-sounding apology from the Plateau mayor…
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Kate
Temperatures and conditions will be going up and down throughout the week.
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Kate
Some apartment tenants have been exposed to asbestos during renovations, and they have very little recourse. A Shiller
Lavystory, what else?David
False reporting at its finest. This has nothing to do with Shiller Lavy. Brandon and Jeremy have their own real estate company called Hillpark which is not associated with Shiller Lavy. Fix your headline.
Ian
Haha what? Oui, Papa!
Shiller Lavy has bought out their failed ventures on several occasions, notably le Cagibi and several other Mile-End locations, they are an arm’s length business at best.
“The building in which Le Cagibi is located is co-owned by Jeremy Kornbluth and Brandon Shiller, who previously owned the building now rented out to Lululemon on St-Viateur, before the building was sold to real estate magnates Danny Lavy and Stephen Shiller (Brandon’s father) in 2015; Kornbluth and Brandon Shiller are also owners of a building at Jean-Talon Market where a controversial Starbucks was located from 2015 to 2017 (a petition against the outpost garnered more than 9,000 signatures).
Since 2014, Kornbluth and Brandon Shiller along with Lavy and Stephen Shiller (co-owners of Shiller Lavy Realties) have bought up no less than seven commercial properties, between them, along the small yet iconic strip of St. Viateur St. that is the heart and soul of Mile End. Along the way, they have been involved in the changeover of other businesses along the street, including the former Pâtisserie & Boulangerie Clarke Inc. (which closed in 2015 after 35 years and is now a sushi restaurant); Bishop & Bagg Pub (formerly a longstanding neighbourhood dive, located in a building owned by Shiller Lavy Realties); and were instrumental in attracting Gordon Ramsay to town for his ill-fated stint at Laurier BBQ .”
Ian
Not like Hillpark has the cleanest hands either…
“Évictions et harcèlement
Deux grands propriétaires immobiliers accusés de multiplier les évictions de locataires modestes au profit de projets luxueux ont laissé derrière eux un historique de rénovations agressives et de harcèlement dans les bâtiments qu’ils voulaient vider.”
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2021-04-06/evictions-et-harcelement.php
Kate
David – whoever you are, and you’re not my usual visitor david### – it isn’t a headline, and it’s a Shiller story, if not a Shiller Lavy one. It’s cute that you’re on first-name terms with those two, though.
dhomas
@David First off, I don’t see where on this site you see “MTL City News”. It’s a blog. The person running the blog can post whatever opinions she would like, so claiming it’s false “reporting” is a bit over the top.
Secondly, as Ian has pointed out, Shiller Lavy and Kornbluth Shiller are, if not officially the same company, close enough that it doesn’t matter. The family connection is there and the scummy practices are practically the same.Jeff
Local, provincial and federal governments should have the power to hold referendums to dissolve businesses owned by people who draw enough ire.
Ian
While I agree with you, the fact is that despite brave words about gentrification the City is scared to death of the lawyers of deep pocket firms like shiller and lavy or even blatant slumlords like Hillpark. This is why PM won’t act toward empty storefront taxes and act on easy wins instead.
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Kate
As I’ve mentioned, I use Lufa. They’ve just given clients three $30 certificates to give out to anyone new who signs up. I am not affiliated with Lufa and realize this is a ploy to lure new customers, but still, it’s $30. Email me if you want one of the codes. (I don’t get any kickback for this, and I don’t know how long you have to stay signed up after using them.)
jeather
I also occasionally use lufa, so if you run out, Kate, I will share codes.
Kate
Thanks, jeather. So far (14:45 Tuesday) no applications.
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Kate
Global has an odd headline here saying City of Montreal installs 16th ghost bike. It’s not the city that installs these memorials, it’s a group called Vélo Fantôme. At most, the city tolerates their installation on public property.
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Kate
Le Devoir reports Elections Montreal’s count that one third of the candidates elected in November are from diverse backgrounds – people of visible or ethnic minorities. Why, even in the photo we see Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, who is Black, and Peter McQueen, who is a ginger.
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Kate
Bordeaux Jail is coping with a Covid outbreak among 75 inmates, and there’s also an outbreak at Rivière-des-Prairies jail. Prisons have always been fertile sites for Covid transmission, as the stories relate.
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Kate
The old canopies on Plaza St-Hubert were pitched at an angle so that snow and ice tended to build up, then on slightly warmer days a big slab could detach and slide off to crash into the street. I’ve seen it happen. The new canopies were supposed to sustain the buildup safely. But nope. They have to be cleared, by hand, at night, using special implements that won’t scratch the glass. An expense the borough will have to defray for 50 years.
A consortium of firms designed the new canopy system, but you’re telling me none of these outfits correctly calculated its ability to hold a weight of snow, or took into account the consequences of accumulated snow being held over the heads of people passing by directly underneath?
Update: Plante is not happy and wants to track down the chain of decisions that led to the installation of canopies that are unsuited and potentially unsafe.
Kevin
My dad was a trouble-shooting engineer. He can go on for days about all the problems he has spotted in designs and drawings that were submitted for approval.
Equipment too large to fit in a room. Equipment that consumes more resources in a day than Canada produces in a year. Manhole covers too small for the task.
There are a lot of poorly trained engineers.
Mark
Some projects discover secondary issues years/decades down the road that would have been hard to predict. In this case, we are talking about the fundamental purpose of this project, and barely a couple years after opening.
Maybe it’s the architects, maybe it’s the engineers, maybe it’s both. The firm that installed this thing (Eurovia) has offices in Quebec, but is a French firm. Cue the Big O Taillibert “we didn’t realize that snow in Quebec weighs so much” jokes.
Heated cables?
MarcG
When they widened highway 15 a few years ago they rebuilt an overpass nearby but didn’t consider that pigeons would roost under it, so a month or so ago they had to go and staple a bunch of wire mesh in. Imagine all of the planning that went into the project and nobody said “so what are we going to do about the pigeons?”. Was it the first bridge the company ever built – or saw in their lives?
Spi
It was a design flaw from the go, I remember saying at the time the first renderings were shown that it would accumulate snow and would inevitably require human maintenance to deal with. Is maintenance and future up keep not a criteria they take into consideration when evaluating projects? I guess building a flashy new piece of anything is cool and let future governments find the money to deal with it.
Jonathan
I don’t want to be the stickler… but the issue isn’t that the marquise doesn’t support the snow, it seems that it does support the weight of the snow. It’s that it doesn’t keep the snow in place, meaning that the giant snow/ice masses eventually slide off of them and can seriously injure a passerby. That is the issue here being discussed.
Kate
Jonathan, not to stickle, but surely “supporting” snow should comprise not letting it slide off?
Mark
Just about every single residential/commercial/industrial steel roof has snow/ice guards to prevent large blocks from falling in one swoop. Asphalt roofs have much more traction and are not prone to this issue. The glass has little traction, like steel, and even though the slope is very flat, this seems like an obvious design flaw, especially considering that this is a feature for a pedestrian area. Source: I am not an engineer. I just live here.
Jonathan
Haha. That’s true Kate. I guess they didn’t consider that part.
CE 22:06 on 2021-12-14 Permalink
I figured that was him justifying not giving the island to his children. At least if it’s owned by the Nature Conservancy, it will stay undeveloped.
Francesco 22:08 on 2021-12-14 Permalink
Back River. 🙂
John B 22:17 on 2021-12-14 Permalink
I read it as CE did. I think he wants to make sure it stays undeveloped forever, not just until his kids die.
Blork 22:30 on 2021-12-14 Permalink
Ditto. I saw it as rhetorical. As in, “I trust my children, but I don’t know what lies beyond them, so FDS I’m giving it to the Nature Conservancy.”
Kate 00:09 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
OK thanks folks. I think my distrustful nerve is a little sensitive these days.
paulg 10:32 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
This could also be read as: ‘I trust my children, but my grandkids are the spawn of satan’
Meezly 10:33 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
SO nice! To read positive news for a change.
Max 14:41 on 2021-12-15 Permalink
Thanks for the badly needed good news. I’ll bet that man’s neighbours simply adore him.