Friday morning’s water main break in St‑Michel means that 75,000 Montrealers are under a boil‑water advisory. The map given in this article, and also on the city site, is hard to read: basically, east from d’Iberville and Frédéric‑Back park to a few blocks past Pie‑IX, and north from Rosemont Boulevard to the tracks beside Boulevard Industriel.
CultMTL reminds us that freezing water doesn’t sterilize it nor does running it through a Brita‑style filter.
When pressure was put on the drugs and homelessness situation in the Village, some of the unwanted elements moved to Chinatown nearby, and now the association there is petitioning for something to be done.
It’s been decreed that gay police will not participate in uniform in the pride parade planned for August 13.
✿Yay!!✿
Great news! FTP
So they’ll be wearing handcuffs and nothing else?
Maybe they’ll beat themselves up, or take turns rupturing their testicles at Station 10.
Le Devoir op-ed writer Aurélie Lanctôt dissects what QMI’s recent piece on dirty Montreal tends to mean as a dogwhistle for racism and xenophobia.
I really think she’s off base here. If Montreal is dirtier than usual, it’s because of increased homelessness, which is not race relate: it is capitalism related..There are many cultural communities represented among the homeless.
Capitalism – by creating a home market that is speculative rather than a way of providing homes for everyone, is now consuming itself by creating the conditions of another economic depression and a decayed society.
Race-narratives are often deployed as a way of hiding the crimes of capitalism.
Is Montreal dirtier than usual? I don’t think it is. That’s the thing, and it’s what Lanctôt’s is trying to say. By harping on the usual state of things in Montreal, the JdeM is sending code to its suburban and rural readers that Montreal is a horrible place full of nasty people who aren’t anything like them.
>Is Montreal dirtier than usual?
Probably depends on the neighbourhood. I wonder if there are actual proper stats gathered about this.
I find the places I travel are dirtier than usual. Garbage out on any day, bags torn open by animals, dog shit bags left around, garbage bins overflowing, etc. etc. Indeed Montreal has long been dirty like that, but I feel it’s worse of late.
And even if it’s merely only as dirty as usual, does that mean no one should complain about it?!
It’s odd that some people think racism is the root cause of everything. One can criticize uncleanliness simply because one dislikes it, no racist motivation is required.
I do see complaints about some Park Ex landlords and store owners chronically putting out large amounts of garbage on the wrong days. But in my general area of Villeray and Petite‑Patrie I never see anything resembling what that article was complaining about.
Two summers ago, while walking a lot more streets doing census work, I only found one stretch of one Villeray street to have a garbage problem and I think that must have been landlords as well because it’s a couple of blocks of apartment buildings.
Montreal is pretty clean compared to most American cities but I too have been finding it dirtier than usual. A bit more garbage around and the streets don’t seem to be being cleaned as often or as well as before. People also aren’t moving their cars on street cleaning days. There’s one stretch near my house that has not been cleaned once yet this year because there are always cars parked on Tuesday morning when the machine passes. I’ve never seen a car get a ticket there.
Some of it might be the labour shortage. Simply fewer people cleaning up the city. It can be a vicious cycle with some litter enticing people to litter more.
Is the street you’re talking about Lajeunesse Kate? I always found that to be the filthiest street on Villeray.
CE: Ding! Exactly right. Lajeunesse running north of Jean‑Talon is not much like the surrounding streets. It was actively unpleasant on hot days, and this during a period when the landlords had clearly evicted all the old tenants and were trying to refill the buildings with more affluent people. Most of the buildings were half-assedly renovated inside, much of the work incomplete.
I should note that on Saturday, I was saddened to find a fair bit of garbage on the sidewalks along St‑Denis north of Jean‑Talon. The borough needs to tighten up on this, do a serious publicity push about pickup days and then specifically fine any apartment building owner that’s putting stuff out on the wrong days.
Justin Trudeau, François Legault and Valérie Plante, as well as Philippe Couillard and Denis Coderre, were among the dignitaries Friday at the ceremonial opening of the REM.
I’d wondered who would get the honour of cutting the ribbon: this La Presse video shows that six people had scissors and they all snipped at the same moment.
Here’s the trip from Central Station to Brossard compressed into 30 seconds.
Make of it what you want but I thought it was telling that in the ribbon cutting video all male politicians ended up with a piece of ribbon in their hand, but neither of the women did… (at 32 seconds)
Ideas for the weekend from Metro, CityCrunch, Sarah’s Weekend List, CultMTL.
Highway closures of the weekend.
The biggest story will be the opening weekend of the REM. CDPQ and CDPQ Infra have spoken up in defense of the cost overruns and delays, with a reminder that the original promise in 2016 had been that the system would open in 2017 – did anyone believe it could be built within a year? – with no delays or extra costs. And here we are, more than six years later.
CTV has an unusually critical piece on the financial background to the REM, which we’re reminded is a for‑profit venture, wondering whether it will turn out to be an exemplary model of how to do this sort of thing – or not.
We have another severe thunderstorm watch for Friday afternoon and evening.
Perhaps not the best day to choose to be out on my motorcycle.
Environment Canada does have a tendency to overstate their warnings.
A serious water main break is flooding part of St‑Michel.
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