Surprising nobody, Max Verstappen won the Grand Prix with Carlos Sainz coming second.
Updates from June, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Tenants of Park Extension social housing are being told to leave because their building needs repairs that may take years, and they’re not guaranteed to find homes in the area.
Not for the first time, there are reports that one third of the city’s social housing units are in poor shape, 400 of them boarded up because judged uninhabitable. (The headline here says one third, but the lede says two thirds.) I have no idea whether it would be better value to fix these buildings, or tear them down and start over from scratch. Either way, given the shortage of labour and materials, neither would be easy.
Ephraim
This is why we might be better off paying landlords directly to subsidize social housing rather than having the city run it. It’s expensive for a city to run and they don’t have the expertise. And clearly if they haven’t done the maintenance, they are proving the point. Vancouver pays the landlords and holds the landlords accountable for repairs and maintenance. It’s an expensive contract to lose and there are lots of REITs who are interested in such contracts with the city as it guarantees long term income.
SMD
Park Ex tenants held a rally against evictions on Saturday, CBC notes that even the few buildings that the city has acquired for social housing there are still sitting empty. Le Devoir reveals today that shovel-ready projects in Park Ex and Côte-des-Neiges are on hold as the city and province bicker over the financing.
Robert H
@Ephraim, La méthode de Vancouver semble être une bonne politique. Peut-être que notre conseil municipal, contrairement à l’assemblée nationale, ne serait pas trop fier d’apprendre un truc du Canada anglais ?
Ephraim
@Robert H – Milton Friedman: “The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.”
What’s the basic premise? Stick to your own business… well, running apartment buildings isn’t the government’s business… and well… they do it badly. Why should we have expected any less?
Kate
Ephraim, couldn’t the government spawn a housing authority? The city already has one.
Ephraim
It has one… it does a horrible job at it too.
Bell Canada (Enterprises) thought that they were such GREAT managers they could buy anything and run it profitably…. like Montreal Trust. They bought a 64% interest for $547M and sold it 4 years later for $290M…. because they ran it so well.
There are lots of such cases. Sometimes the best thing to do is simply hire someone who knows how to do it professionally and pay them their due. It’s faster and in the long run easier to just pay someone to install a new bathroom than to learn plumbing, electrical and carpentry.
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Kate
Radio-Canada talks about the festive mood around Grand Prix weekend while La Presse editorialist Nathalie Collard says flat out that Montréal est une fête. Most media have had pieces on how the event is good for business.
Some women held a demonstration Saturday against the sexual exploitation that accompanies the big party, and the mayor has put in a word about how Formula One should be more environmentally sound.
Oh, and there’s a car race in here somewhere. Max Verstappen took pole position Saturday in rainy conditions. That is all.
DisgruntledGoat
Just walking around my quartier the terrasses are full of relaxed people, street life is back in full with neighbours chatting outside bakeries and apartment blocks. I’ve found the mood in the city has been great since warmer weather started in a way it hasn’t been since 2019. Nice to be a part of it.
There was a rhythm to the summer pre-pandemic we used to mark time with started by the GP and the festivals one-by-one that has been missing for a few years.
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Kate
Here’s a lovely static headline: Canada Malting site in St.Henri still abandoned. It’s actually a legit news story about local residents not wanting the site torn down for high‑end condos, but it’s got a faintly comic ring.
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Kate
Ville‑Marie borough is planning a forum to discuss the future of the Village. Still reeling from pandemic closures, coping with a larger population of homeless people than most of the city, the neighbourhood has learned that their section of Ste‑Catherine Street will be excavated in 2024 for infrastructure work.
I would add, though, that the second photo in this piece, showing boarded‑up frontages of Amir, Da Giovanni and other businesses, has nothing to do with a pandemic downturn. This is the block being torn down so a new condo development can be built there, and that’s why those storefronts are empty.
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Kate
Transcontinental is suing the city over its ban on unsolicited flyers, the Publisac. The company says people have the right to opt out, and that should suffice; the city wants the opposite arrangement, where flyers only go to addresses that have requested them.
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Kate
Saturday was the coldest June 18 in a century, with a high of 11°, below the long‑standing record of 12.8°.
DeWolf
I think Le Devoir spoke too soon… the temperature got up to 15 degrees between 5 and 8pm.
https://www.weather.gc.ca/past_conditions/index_e.html?station=yul
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Kate
Some SQDC workers held a one‑day strike Saturday and croupiers demonstrated for better working conditions.
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Kate
The Ring was hoisted into position Saturday, using three big cranes to set it in place.
Blork
I like the ring, but I don’t understand how something that big and heavy can stay attached with only a few anchor points – especially given that the anchors are stuck onto the sides of buildings that were not designed for that purpose. I can’t help wonder if we’ll one day see that thing rolling down Boul. Robert-Bourassa, heading for the river.
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