Radio-Canada and CBC are both reporting Monday on the plan to protect some of Chinatown (TVA too, and Le Devoir and Metro). It’s a pity nobody thought of this before the massive and damaging construction of the Guy‑Favreau building, but that’s ancient history now (constructed 1977-1983).
Updates from January, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Shelters for the homeless are working flat out to house everyone from the cold and the pandemic, but there are still not enough spaces for everyone who needs one. Refuges are suffering not only from lack of space but from shortages of staff.
La Presse has started a series on how people with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems, who are supposed to be looked after by the public curator, sometimes find themselves on the street because there isn’t any system in place to ensure they have a safe place to live. Quebec recoiled so hard from the residential insane asylums where it used to park so many unwanted people that it left those who actually need care and shelter to cope for themselves.
Update: The issue seems to be between operators of shelters who say there isn’t enough space, and the mayor, who says there is, but not enough workers to sort out the reasons why people are homeless and get them the help they need.
I wish Mike Ward hadn’t thrown in his stupid offer of tiny wooden shelters, because now the city has to look bad for turning them down, and Ward gets to buy some “aw, he’s a nice guy after all” points for doing nothing.
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Kate
A teenager was stabbed in the Plateau overnight; only 16, he was already known to police.
There were a couple of shootings over the weekend in Montreal North. CTV makes it 3 shootings.
No homicides to count, though.
Meezly 14:42 on 2022-01-24 Permalink
Nor that huge eyesore Hampton Hotel.
Nor that other huge eyesore ONE Condominiums.
Max 15:17 on 2022-01-24 Permalink
Anybody else remember when bricks were falling off the Guy-Favreau building? I think it was in the late 1980s around when I came back to town from university. Every single one of those bricks had to be replaced, both inside and out, because of a manufacturing flaw. At least that’s what I read once.
DeWolf 00:26 on 2022-01-25 Permalink
One thing that hasn’t been discussed much is the huge vacant lot at the corner of St-Laurent and René-Lévesque. Amazingly it has been empty since the 1960s, and it has been owned by various dodgy characters over the years, but since 2020 it has been used for a pop-up space in the summertime with funding from the city.
Last summer was particularly wonderful as one of the mature trees that have grown in the vacant lot was turned into a Chinese-style wishing tree by Karen Tam, a local artist. It was such a nice space that I really think the city should buy it and make it into a permanent gathering space, with maybe a few small buildings on the edge of the lot. Whoever owns it now is paying an insane amount of money in taxes for nothing in return, so the city has some leverage in that regard. But I’m just dreaming.