Montreal City Weblog

Kate 11:54 on 2023-03-30 Permalink Reply  

• qatzelok 12:20 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  For trolls who blame bike lanes for commercial collapse, Sherbrooke in NDG is a totally bike-pathless car sewer with oodles of street parking. It should be a model of urban success for suburbanites looking for cheap drip coffee.

  But it isn’t. It’s an unpleasant strip of asphalt with wide-but-empty sidewalks.

• shawn 12:45 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  I know you’re going to link to this anyway but here’s a new Gazette story. “Montreal aims to crack down on zombie construction sites and vagrant orange cones” https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-aims-to-crack-down-on-zombie-construction-sites-and-vagrant-orange-cones

  I never heard that term “zombie construction site” before but it’s perfect imo. Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd comes to mind, quite recently. They had put kilometres of cones to mess up traffic but no actual work being done.

• Tux 14:04 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Pedestrianize it! I say that as someone who lives in NDG and owns a car! Pedestrianization is a proven way to revitalize neighborhoods and encourage the growth of small business.

• Ephraim 14:20 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  The closure of St-Lawrence at Pin is creating a killing ground for businesses in that area. So many of the businesses and restaurants are closed now including Dirty Dogs. La Main Supermarket is closed because of a fire… and surprisingly not because of horrible management, but then again, maybe that’s what caused the fire, who knows!

• Kate 14:34 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  shawn, I might have missed that, thanks for the link.

  Tux, I don’t think Sherbrooke can be easily pedestrianized, because it’s also highway 138 and I have a feeling the city’s not allowed to block it off to traffic.

  qatzelok, you make a cromulent point there.

• shawn 15:05 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Ephraim, how long will that intersection be closed do you know? They are doing a big underground repair at the same time as they are refurbishing Pine. That’s the right approach and with our ancient and neglected water system this must be done. But yes I noticed that supermarket was shuttered.

• Tux 15:09 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Kate, I just want to make the island as inhospitable to cars as possible. Wherever you get rid of cars, you make room for *life* I recognize my antipathy to cars is pretty impractical politically but if it’s all the same to you I’ll keep advocating for getting rid of them here. If I took my ideas to the municipality or the province they’d dismiss me as a bitter crank, and based on how many people I can find in real life to agree with me, they wouldn’t be far off the mark! I promise to do it in good humor.

• Kate 15:38 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  No, I’m with you, Tux, I love the feel of a good walking street with no motor traffic. I was just explaining why I think e.g. NDG‑CDN can’t decree a chunk of Sherbrooke Street closed to traffic.

• DeWolf 15:40 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Pine and St-Laurent is only closed for six weeks. I’m not sure how that could force any businesses to close unless they were already bankrupt.

  The entire Pine Avenue reconstruction is on budget and on schedule and will be set to be completely finished by the fall. I’m not sure what there is to complain about.

• DeWolf 15:49 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Sherbrooke in NDG could do with a St-Denis style facelift. Bike paths on either side and pedestrian crossings with landscaped refuge islands. It’s such a wide street you wouldn’t even need to get rid of any parking, just the painted median in the middle.

  Of course there’s also the issue of transit. If the 105 ran more often, it wouldn’t be so crowded and people would be more easily able to access Sherbrooke without a car. (Car access seems perfectly fine as qatzelok noted – I’ve driven there a number of times and never had any issue finding a place to park.)

• Kevin 15:56 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  The people I know who closed their businesses on Sherbrooke did so because the rent has increased drastically in the past few years.

  And there are always plenty of pedestrians and cars parked on Sherbrooke. The street’s not failing because of a lack of shoppers/customers. It’s failing because speculators are pricing it up.

• DeWolf 15:56 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  @Tux Sherbrooke is so wide I’m not sure how you could pedestrianize it without it feeling like a ghost town all the time. Monkland is much better candidate for pedestrianization, but if I recall correctly, even the short-lived street fair that took place there was shot down by nearby residents. NDG is unfortunately very car-centric.

• shawn 15:57 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Ok. Yes, six weeks for a hole that big isn’t bad, I reckon. And yes that stretch of the Main has been in bad shape for a long long time, pre-closure.

• shawn 16:00 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Someone replying to Brendan Kelly on Elon Musk’s site said an issue for him is it’s a hard street to cross (which I never noticed but makes sense). But if its could be humanized like St-Denis while still allowing for enough vehicular flow, that’d be great.

• Kate 16:07 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  St-Denis is not great for crossing either, and they’ve never closed the street to traffic north of Sherbrooke that I recall, although they’ve had occasional sidewalk sales. But it too is legally a highway, the 335.

• dwgs 16:12 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Speaking as someone who lives half a block from Sherbrooke in that area…First of all, there is a good, heavily trafficked two way bike lane one short block away on de Maisonneuve so putting another one on Sherbrooke might not be the best way to spend limited financial resources. Also, that stretch of Sherbrooke is pretty rideable, I do it often. The sidewalks are wide and there is a good sense of community, it’s far from the urban hellscape that some here would have you believe. Could it be better? Sure, just don’t turn it into another Monkland, we like our slightly downmarket vibe. (btw, many of the vacant storefronts are Se***kis properties)

• shawn 16:31 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  St-Denis is fantastic for crossing now imo. Traffic quieting and those long blocks all have cross-walks in the middle. Nothing like when you used to have to dash across.

• Tim S. 17:17 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  The Monkland street fair was closed because it actually impeded rather than promoted access to local businesses. I very much enjoyed it myself, but it was more of a dispute between merchants and the organizers than anything to with cranky car-driving local residents.

  And agreed with Kevin and dwgs that the problem with Sherbrooke is likely to be more about landlords than foot/car traffic.

• DeWolf 17:24 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  @shawn, Yeah, that’s what I mean. The new crosswalks on St-Denis between Roy and Mont-Royal are the best in Montreal. You never have to cross more than one lane of traffic at a time before you have a refuge island. Sherbrooke only has crosswalks at signalled intersections, absolutely nothing in between, so if you’re crossing at Oxford, Belgrave or Beaconsfield (for example), good luck. That’s the main issue with the street in terms of design.

  @dwgs The bike path on de Maisonneuve is not great, and there’s no reason you need to have only one bike path per neighbourhood. You’re right that Sherbrooke isn’t a terrible street for cycling but it’s not great, either, and if you don’t have proper cycling infrastructure on commercial streets, you can’t expect ordinary people to use their bike to buy groceries or do ordinary things. And crucially it’s the rare Montreal street with an excess of space, so it would literally involve moving the parked cars 1.5 metres into the street and eliminating the painted median. Not exactly an expensive procedure.

  @kevin, Good point. I wonder if PM’s vacancy tax (supposedly on its way) will have enough teeth to actually do something about speculation by our local oligarchs. Sherbrooke has a similar problem in Westmount where Cromwell owns virtually every building.

• Ephraim 17:26 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  The city’s website says “fermetures partielle de l’intersection de l’avenue des Pins et du boulevard Saint-Laurent jusqu’à la fin septembre 2023.” It’s started in February. It’s a pretty sad piece of street at the moment. Nino has a going out of business sign, I noticed for rent signs in Au Pain Dore, and more. I can’t remember how many doors were shut. Some of the restaurants were dark as well.

• shawn 17:27 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Yes I love love love Saint Denis again. Great job by the Plante administration. And it was the REV the drew me back. Now I pretty much make up reasons to go there. (Not today tho. Give me some warm weather pls.!)

• shawn 17:29 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Wow that’s much longer than 6 weeks of course – but are you sure that doesn’t refer to the completion of *all* the refurbishing alone Pine, not the current closure at the corner? That’s what the “partial” suggests to moi.

• Kate 18:23 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  Good to hear that about St-Denis. When I lived a block over near Duluth, although the street had its charms, it was inundated by traffic, and the blocks are long, meaning you had to slog to get across.

• Kevin 18:56 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  @DeWolf
  I honestly don’t know. If an owner is using the building to claim depreciation of fixed assets while waiting for multi-million increase in building value, probably not.

  As others have pointed out, there are some owners with substantial holdings giving them very deep pockets. Building owners are doing nothing to attract tenants, and in some cases are actively discouraging them.

• dhomas 19:11 on 2023-03-30 Permalink

  St-Denis street should be used as a template across the city of what a livable urban thoroughfare should be. I went to the Renaud-Bray there a few weeks ago, and it was very pleasant. Sooooo much better then the urban highway it was used as before.
  The same day, I had to go to the Renaud-Bray on St-Hubert (I needed multiple copies of a book so I had to hit up a couple of shops). I didn’t think I would, but I kinda preferred St-Denis. I kinda missed the old awnings on St-Hub. The new ones are bizarre to me, but it might just be nostalgia.

• Orr 02:40 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  @dwgs Sherbrooke is the street with shopping and is where I want to travel safely on bicycle separated from the busy car traffic to do my shopping. To REV St-Denis-ify it would be a huge safety and mobility improvement. So many people live a couple of blocks from it, but won’t bike for shopping because (wait for it) it’s not a safe street to bicycle on. REV Sherbrooke best thing the city could do to it to improve quality of life for local residents. De-se***kis-ing it a strong second to give entrepreneurs a chance to start storefront businesses without $10k per month rent.

• MarcG 09:19 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Free idea: Charge $20 a head to observe the tarring & feathering of the landlord-whos-name-will-not-be-said in Girouard park and use the profits to revamp Sherbrooke.

• DeWolf 12:37 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  @Ephraim That’s for the entire Pine Avenue project. Pine will continue to be closed west of St-Laurent, but the intersection itself will open in a couple of weeks and northbound traffic on St-Laurent will resume.

  From the city website:

  Corner Boulevard Saint-Laurent and Avenue des Pins: complete closure
  Repairs to underground infrastructures require the complete closure of the intersection from February 27 to mid-April 2023.

  https://montreal.ca/en/articles/avenue-des-pins-project-news-and-impacts-17463

• Joey 13:57 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  Long-term, shouldn’t every single street in the city have some kind of dedicated cycling infrastructure? The idea that the only safe way to bike from, say, Sherbrooke and Girouard to Sherbrooke and, I dunno, Hingston, is to bike down to de Maisonneuve and take the bike lane is kinda nuts, no?

• Kevin 14:11 on 2023-03-31 Permalink

  There are dedicated bike lanes on Notre Dame and Cote Ste Antoine too.

  I don’t get why somone would perceive Sherbrooke as being unsafe. In each direction it’s one lane of traffic, one of parked cars, and the flow is generally slow.