Updates from January, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 18:59 on 2023-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

    I kind of lost touch with noting weekend activities over the holidays, which are like a super long weekend… so: CultMTL, CityCrunch, Sarah’s Weekend List. Also a preview of Chinese new year from Time Out. That’ll be next weekend, on January 22.

     
    • Kate 17:33 on 2023-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

      Enough police quit the SPVM last year that promises to increase numbers of police have not been able to be kept. Yves Francœur, president of the police brotherhood, has a whole list of the bad working conditions faced by his members – for example that young cops – young cops with families – had to work both Christmas and New Year’s day.

       
      • Blork 17:40 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        …after all, the Crime Union gives its people that day off.

      • Ephraim 20:05 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Is it really a brotherhood if it’s job is to hide the malfeasance of it’s members? To quote John 8:12 here: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

    • Kate 17:23 on 2023-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

      Even though numbers calculated from cellphone use in the area say Montreal’s downtown footfall is back to 75% of its prepandemic level, office space vacancy is still down and predicted to fall further as working from home becomes a norm rather than a temporary measure. Changes will have to be made, but what?

       
      • carswell 17:56 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Two ideas. First, converting office buildings to other uses and passing by-laws requiring any new builds to be more conversion compatible than is currently the case.

        Second, downtown retailers, businesses, entertainment venues, residents’ associations, educational institutions, social and cultural organizations, etc. should also come together to work with the city and rethink the district. And their unstated purpose should be to make the place so attractive that Royalmount megaflops, that goal being a great way to focus their thinking and encourage their creativity.

    • Kate 11:12 on 2023-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

      Improvements at the east-end wastewater treatment plant will be good for the air and water – but will also be expensive and take time.

       
      • Blork 11:25 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Consistent with the Iron Triangle, in which product delivery has three dimensions: FAST, CHEAP, and GOOD, but you can only get two of those three.

      • Blork 11:28 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Oh wait… this one is only good. Not fast and not cheap. WTF?

      • MarcG 12:44 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Yes, slow and expensive but you can be sure that Quebec infrastructure projects will always be of amazing quality. We have our own Triangle of Sadness.

      • shawn 12:50 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Happy to see that “the city is looking to convert the incinerators into biodigesters,” which is great. Of course the biomethanisation effort in Montreal is having its own delays, but it’s the way to go.

      • Orr 17:22 on 2023-01-14 Permalink

        Anything they can do to fix the horrific stench from that part of Montreal in hot summer months is most welcome, imo.

    • Kate 11:11 on 2023-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

      Interesting list of words and phrases moving into Montreal French from Arabic, Haitian Creole and Black American argot.

       
      • shawn 14:54 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Some folks going to be furious about this, I reckon.

      • carswell 21:09 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        @shawn The same folks who have no hesitation about using *woke* and other anglicisms that they, as reactionaries, consider pejorative, I bet.

      • shawn 22:03 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

        Ha. True!

      • Ian 20:34 on 2023-01-14 Permalink

        I can guarantee that if the entire province starts speaking French at home and at work as the main language, the next target will be the “wrong kind of French”. The “existential threat” to Quebec’s culture cannot ever be resolved – the ethnonationalists would lose their raison d’être.

    • Kate 10:45 on 2023-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

      The STM union is concerned that so many bus payment machines are broken, just when the service is hurting from lowered usage.

      I can confirm this is true. I don’t commute now, but if I need to go somewhere in town I usually take the bus – and roughly one third of the time I don’t have to pay.

      Meanwhile, the STM is at pains to reassure us that the abolition of the “10 minutes max” system won’t trouble us a bit.

       
      • Kate 10:27 on 2023-01-13 Permalink | Reply  

        Although the snow hasn’t been quite the wallop predicted, some schools are closed.

         
        • walkerp 10:31 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

          Wonderful turn of events that the freezing rain was super brief and we are left with a beautiful blanket of white and very little iciness. I hope it sticks around.

        • Joey 12:25 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

          I don’t think any Montreal schools are closed (unless some privates decided to shutter).

        • Booyah 12:25 on 2023-01-13 Permalink

          No schools are closed in Montreal though, it seems

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