There’s a smog warning in effect Sunday afternoon because of forest fires. The warning from Environment Canada doesn’t forecast any duration for the smog.
Updates from August, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Bill Brownstein tries to balance an ode to old‑school dépanneurs with a story about their fight for survival in the face of corporate chains. He doesn’t mention anything about the soaring commercial rents that have probably closed more deps than anything else.
DeWolf
Brownstein is missing the point when he suggests deps are disappearing because of competition from Couche-Tard and other chains. They are actually very few chain deps in Montreal. Many of the old-school ones are vanishing because they rely on people who smoke heavily, play the lottery and drink lots of industrial beer – and that’s a dwindling demographic in Montreal.
The real story isn’t the disappearance of the dépanneur, it’s the evolution of the dep. There are more and more new-generation deps that offer something extra like a lunch counter or good coffee, and which focus on local products like craft beer, Quebec wine and cider instead of industrial products. Places like Le Kahéra, which is a dep run by a young Egyptian couple that also has a lunch counter, good coffee and an interesting range of products like specialty coffee beans, craft beer, local wines and ciders, plus snacks.
I live equidistant from Le Kahéra and Dépanneur Christine (profiled in the article) and I often go to the latter, whereas the former really has nothing to offer because I don’t smoke, I don’t play the lottery and I don’t drink PBR or Molson Dry. Christine’s approach probably worked well 30 years ago but demographics have changed. Of course, those are two extremes. There are also deps that manage to find a happy medium.
Kate
Newspapers, too. Four dailies, various weekly “vedette” papers, cheap puzzle and game mags printed on newsprint, sometimes comic papers, there used to be car and real estate listing papers too. This stuff used to be part of the bread and butter of dépanneurs.
Also, as a data point: there was a Couche-Tard around the corner from my place in Villeray. It closed late last year and the land is for sale now. Being part of a chain didn’t save it.
denpanosekai
our local dep also serves as a delivery point for Lufa and something else I can’t remember. People tend to grab something else while they’re inside so it works to their advantage. And yes, craft beer is a must these days.
Kate
denpanosekai, I’m glad you mentioned that. I used to go pick up my Lufa order at a nearby café, but when the pandemic hit they stopped doing that. I’d become so accustomed to home delivery that I never noticed they resumed the pickup points. It would save me $6 a week to go get it. Might be worth doing, at least till winter.
Joey
Transitioning to a virtually cashless world must have been tough for dep owners.
Ephraim
And I wonder if the future will actually have human operated deps or simply giant vending machines. I think the places that will survive will be those that have more of a specialty, like Le Pick-Up, Sushi Depanneur or stock fancy beers. Couche-Tard is investing in Quick-serve restaurants in some and you should see their deps in Scandinavia! Fancy!
Incidentally, Couche-Tard has added a new service… Amazon returns. You don’t even have to pack it up, you just take it there, they scan it, put a sticker on it and it’s returned.
denpanosekai
@Ephraim, I noticed that on some of my returns, but I didn’t dare pick the option. The website says it’s only in Sherbrooke and St-Jerome for now.
Uatu
Most people especially younger ones will just use an app to get everything delivered. No need to get dressed up to walk down to a dep just answer the door in your sweats. Door dash even delivers school supplies now!
Ephraim
@denponasekai Well, it’s definitely available in Montreal. I did two returns that way. I ordered a case so protective of the phone, I couldn’t put it into a charger! And then I ordered the wrong size. Two items that would have been expensive to ship back to Amazon. I just walked into Couche Tard on Sherbrooke/St-Laurent, they scanned the code, tagged it and it was off. A few hours later, the credit was back in my account
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Kate
The STM has revived numbers for the metro lines – also reviving the perennial question why there’s no line 3 (it was intended to use the Mount Royal tunnel, but was never built).
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Kate
Le Devoir looks at restaurants that have closed or changed hands. Elegiac warning.
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Kate
A very small hairdresser’s storefront was firebombed early Sunday in Rosemont. Tenants nearby had to be evacuated.
JP
Can someone explain what these firebombings are about. Makes me worry about the idea of starting a small business. Are certain buildings or areas or being in a mall safer? Does this happen in other cities too?
mare
Do this fire bombings get ever solved? With the proliferation of doorbell cameras and dash cams you’d think there’s more evidence to work with.
If I had a store/bar/restaurant and refused or stopped paying protection money I’d put a few high-resolution cameras up, that automatically upload to the cloud. But I don’t and maybe more proof doesn’t matter anyway.
It feels like everyone, including the cops, just shrugs and sighs. “We can’t do anything about it.” Like organized crime is something like bad weather, orange cones and potholes, an integral part of living in Montreal.
DeWolf
When businesses are firebombed it’s often because they have links to organized crime. Maybe they borrowed money from a loanshark, maybe they’re operating as a front, maybe there’s some unfortunate family connection. But I imagine that makes it especially hard to solve because the victims aren’t necessarily willing to cooperate with police.
That’s not to say classic protection rackets don’t exist. But I don’t think the mob is going door to door and shaking down every retail business for money. It’s more specific and targeted.
Unfortunately there’s sometimes collateral damage. I live around the corner from the firebombing on St-Zotique that forced someone out of their home and led several businesses to close because of fire and water damage.
Kate
JP, if you look at the map I’ve created this year – and there’s no way it’s complete, because these stories tend to be covered only when they can’t find something more interesting or important to report, but I add them whenever I spot one – you’ll see there’s been business and vehicle arsons all over the island, all year. There was a hot spot in the industrial condo section of eastern St‑Laurent this spring but in general, they’re everywhere.
mare, there was a piece in May about arsonists getting arrested.
DeWolf, I remember that one, a year ago. It felt like it damaged that whole little neighbourhood. But arsonists don’t care about collateral damage.
mare
@Kate I missed that. So 3 out of how many arsons (not even in Montreal) are solved. Impressive.
@DeWolf You’re probably right that they don’t go door-to-door to collect anymore, and just collect it in Crypto. (Sorry, couldn’t resist, especially after the photo in the article about the arson near you.)
But it still happens waaay too frequent. I’m sure the SPVM and SdQ have a large undercover operation in progress that we’ll hear about soon, when a couple of gangs are going to be rolled up. Or does that only happen in movies?
Mozai 08:59 on 2023-08-07 Permalink
By the time I hear warnings like this, or boil-water advisories, it’s usually the day after the crisis ended. I wrote a bot to watch the City of Montreal website for warnings but they changed the website so that events from weeks ago are shown first and it takes multiple clicks to paw through the list of warnings checking the dates on each as I click and wait for each page to load. I should try again.
MarcG 09:36 on 2023-08-07 Permalink
If you create an account on the city website you can configure it to send you notifications for things like emergencies, roadwork, snow clearing, etc. And I don’t use it myself but apparently you can configure the WeatherCAN app to send you custom notifications (e.g. when air quality is less than X).
EmilyG 13:52 on 2023-08-07 Permalink
I guess it’s good that I wore a mask while outside yesterday afternoon even though I hadn’t known about the smog. Got lucky that time I suppose.
Kate 14:16 on 2023-08-07 Permalink
I got a big whiff of woodsmoke late Sunday afternoon but I wasn’t sure whether it was external, or one of my neighbours was burning wood. I suspect that by the time the forest fire particulates get into town, they don’t smell much like nature any more.