In its series on pedestrianized streets, La Presse visits St‑Denis in the Quartier Latin.
Updates from August, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The Griffintown REM station was supposed to open next year but CDPQ‑Infra is now saying probably 2027.
(Maybe the city’s Irish put a jinx on that station when it was set to be named after Bernard Landry.)
Forgetful
On the plus side CDPQ can take all the notes on the current stations and improve on their design. They’re definitely more accessible than the STM station and a step in the right direction, but I wouldn’t give them an A either.
Anton
In old AMT plans, I think that station would have been named Ottawa.
I think it would have been nice if they also added a station in point st Charles.
Ian
Yeah it’s a typical raw deal for the neighbourhood that residents of the Point have to endure the train noise without getting a station.
DeWolf
There will likely be a station near the Costco to serve the future Bridge-Bonaventure development. But the REM really only skirts the very edge of the Point, so even if there was a station, it would only be useful to people living east of the Nordelec. Otherwise the metro is much closer.
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Kate
Bixi has been breaking usage records, so the city is considering enlarging the fleet but nothing’s definite yet.
Meantime, the experiment with electric scooters in Jean‑Drapeau park is being called a success.
DeWolf
Last summer made me realize the extent to which Bixi is dependent on the people who move bikes around. Because of the pandemic labour shortage, there were times when huge parts of the city had absolutely no bikes. The station at the end of my block was almost always empty.
This year is much better and I hope having winter service means Bixi can keep more people on staff year-round.
Ian
The bixi trailer going over the speed bumps on my street several times a day is incredibly loud and annoying …
JaneyB
They should give Bixi discounts to people who will ride them to empty stations. There have got to be people who are open to doing this as an alternative to joining a gym. Using trucks to move the bikes to lessen car traffic is…non-ideal.
Alex
They have this already but its not well advertised, it’s called BIXI Amis, you get free passes and extra stuff with your membership
Spi
They changed the benefits for the Ami Bixi program and frankly it’s very unappealing and hardly worth the effort for most people. You use to get a discount on your membership now you’re rewarded with rather useless free rides for your friends after you’ve accumulated enough points. Also the algorithm they use makes it much harder to earn points.
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Kate
Towns outside Montreal may be facing the loss of their intercity bus link because the ARTM may stop leasing downtown bus terminus space as of next year.
Really? Is this the time to undermine the already limited public transit offer in the metropolitan area?
Thomas
As stated in the article, the whole point of this undertaking was for these municipalities to have their buses terminate at the REM. Otherwise there was no point in any of this.
Kate
If they can coordinate it – maybe.
Thomas
When the orange line extension to Laval was opened, the number of suburban buses needing to come into Montreal decreased drastically, leading to the closure of the bus terminal on the north side of Henri-Bourassa metro. Which has since been redeveloped into housing.
Now most suburbanites get on the metro in Laval, while those of us in Ahuntsic have fewer suburban buses to dodge and diesel fumes to inhale while attempting to get around on foot or bike in our borough.
This is how it’s meant to work — it’s good for suburbanites and even better for Montrealers.
Forgetful
TCV would work better as a terminus for long distance coaches from the US, eastern townships and maritimes. It doesn’t make much sense to shuttle Montreal suburban commuters onto buses that could just easily terminate at the nearest REM/Metro station. Shorter routes typically means faster turnaround and improved local service.
Joey
Seems reasonable in many instances to have the buses terminate at the REM, which might be faster to get to downtown Montreal than a direct bus route, depending on traffic, etc. Then again, for cities like Sherbrooke, it seems, I dunno, provincial to have them end in Brossard and not in Montreal.
Kate
That’s the thing. They’ve already said that the REM won’t go to St‑Jean‑sur‑Richelieu, and it certainly won’t go to Sherbrooke. So people accustomed to boarding their bus and chilling till they get into town will now have to troop off the bus and take the REM – and it’ll probably be more expensive for them too.
Tim S.
I took my first REM trip yesterday out to Panama. On one hand, it was clean and new and modern and there were nice views, on the other hand it was clearly designed as a sardine can to jam in as many people as possible. It wasn’t busy when I was on so everyone got a seat, but the seats were uncomfortable, even by public transit standards (not as good as metro seats, for example). It also wasn’t as fast as I expected – faster than existing buses in heavy traffic for sure, but probably slower in light traffic. So it’s probably fine for students who can stand, but not particularly great for middle-aged workers at the end of the day, and I can only imagine what it would be like to stand all the way to the West Island. And asking people, from say St Jean to take a bus out to the REM, then transfer to a sardine can, then walk to the metro and transfer again, well, we’ll see.
I’ll wait for the final product to be complete, I’m still excited for the possibility of rapid transit out to the Grand Parc de l’Ouest, but at the moment I’m still not convinced that this is much of a gain for anyone other than the inhabitants of Griffintown, for all the billions spent.
Blork
The intercity thing will likely lead to more cars coming in from the towns for their occasional visits. Because not only would those people have to change vehicles in Brossard, but they have to learn the new ticketing system just for a one-time ticket into the city (plus they have to deal with the inevitable lineups, etc.).
Plus there are issues going the other way. When you’re heading home after your big cheese-buying weekend and you have to figure out how to get to Brossard on the REM, you might end up being a few minutes late (your own fault or maybe a REM slowdown), which leaves you stuck in the Brossard REM station, possibly for hours, waiting for the next bus.
This all goes 180 degrees opposite of the usual efforts to get people to come by bus or train instead of car, which always focuses on the CONVENIENCE of doing so. Drop them off in Brossard and that argument goes right out the window.
Uatu
It’s probably easier to just drive into town than have to go through the nuisance of timing and scheduling especially if it’s just for a weekend day trip. And freeing up more buses is supposed to increase frequency, but that depends on how much the route is actually used. My connecting bus outside rush hour comes only twice an hour. That ain’t frequent and it becomes annoying when I think that I paid 190$ a month for this service.
Thomas
If taking the REM is just too much of a burden for the uniquely special citizens of these municipalities (I sure hope they don’t have to take the metro once they get into the city), they can still send their buses into Montreal. It’s just that the ARTM — which they don’t pay into — will no longer be providing them with a terminal.
However, they would be better off recuperating some of their own bus capacity by not running all the way into the city and improving their own local bus frequencies, given that the REM itself essentially has metro-like frequencies already.
Forgetful
We’re talking about the metropolitan area and TCV, but excluding SJSR, the towns mentioned are (a) nowhere near Montreal metropolitan area, and (b) none of their bus uses TCV.
Also weird; no distinction is made between very different types of services which are express routes like SJSR’s 96, and actual intercity bus like Sherbrooke’s EL.
When deploying express routes, like the 96, most transit agencies will typically fling them to the nearest rapid transit station — allowing faster turnaround for local bus service and letting the rapid transit network do what it’s intended for. That’s what makes sense. Intercity bus on the other hand, understood as coach services (which is what the Granby, Bromont, Sherbrooke bus fall under) are better when converging to more central regional hub, rather than a metro/tram/train terminus.
Looking at SJSR… it’s really just a Montreal suburb like Repentigny, Laval, Vaudreuil. What do burbs like Repentigny & co do? They send their buses to the easiest access metro station (again, because that what makes sense in transit planning even if some people want to frame the REM actually putting this principle on paper as more nefarious than it actually is).
Continuing on this tangent, because I feel this is a case of SJSR trying to have their cake and eat it too, and some folks in the press seem very eager to build them up as victims… the population growth we’ve seen in recent years in SJSR is not linked to an agricultural economic boom or the city itself, but to the rise in housing prices in Montreal. Thus, for someone who works in Montreal, Longueuil, Saint-Laurent, LaSalle, it’s realistic to live in SJSR. But SJSR would like to keep using the ARTM and Montreal infrastructures without financially contributing to them? Ultimately SJSR is going to have to join the Montreal Metropolitan Community. Who knows, maybe those changes in the transit ecosystem might encourage them to do so. There would be better control over the growth of this quickly developing burb, a growth that is largely due to its proximity to Montreal, but without having to follow CMM and ARTM regulation.
Forgetful
@Kate. Buses from Bromont and Sherbrooke don’t actually stop at TCV. That’s an omission from the article, which make it seem like the changes are a big loss for Eastern Townships’s travellers and “super commuters” when that’s not the case. I do believe that the future TCV could make a good terminus for that kind of service, and maybe the ARTM could move in that direction. However, considering the ARTM spends tens of millions in rent for TCV; it makes very little sense to keep it as is. TCV needs to change and that won’t happen if we obsess over suburbanites one-seat ride.
@Tim S. personally I did not find it was a “sardine can” at all. The station and platform are airy, and the train are wide (wider than the STM’s Azur). The seats are low tier for sure, but significantly different from Azur seat, not really, plus we are talking fairly fast trips in most cases. Also, considering the very high frequencies, I wouldn’t expect much dwelling and crowding at stations. As for standing all the way to the West Island, let’s be measured even when making apocalyptic scenarios and thinking only in edge cases; would someone getting on the eastern leg of the green line really expect to have no seat all the way west? No, because of all the alightment along the way.
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Kate
When the Parti Québécois was last elected, in 2012, one of Pauline Marois’ key decisions was to decommission the Gentilly-2 reactor. This was going to take 50 years and cost a lot of money.
Now Michael Sabia, in charge of Hydro‑Quebec, is pondering starting it back up to help meet demands for power without burning fossil fuels.
Editing to add the Journal’s look back at the mere 29 years Quebec’s reactor was in operation.
Ephraim
It can also be used as the only backup to Chalk River’s medical isotopes
Nicholas
This would be great if the financials work out. Quebec having a lot of dispatchable hydro power, which can be ramped up or down quickly, means it can support more carbon-light power that you don’t want to or can’t adjust (you want wind, solar and nuclear (and run-of-the-river hydro like Beauharnois) to always run at the maximum available at any given moment, because anything unused is wasted and marginal power is cheap compared to the high fixed costs, while you can conserve water in conventional reservoir dams for higher demand periods. We’re going to need a lot more power to electrify the automobile fleet (even if it’d be better to use more transit and biking, etc.), and any extra power will go straight to NY and New England, replacing fossil fuel power. And, as Ephraim mentions, having another source for medical isotopes can’t hurt.
Kate
I have a vague memory that Gentilly-2 can’t be used for isotopes but I may be misremembering something in the news from ten or more years ago.
Tee Owe
I am a bit naive here but in my medical-adjacent world, most medical isotopes are used in PET-scanning and are generated using in-hospital cyclotrons – no need for a nuclear reactor. Somebody correct me where I am wrong
Kate
Here’s Wikipedia on Canada’s nukes which seems to bear out your observation, Tee Owe.
anton
Sabia is now in going to privatize Hydro Quebec, after having privatized CN and significant chunks of Montreals rail transit network?a
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Kate
Radio-Canada is looking back 15 years to the death of Fredy Villanueva, and how Montreal North still does not have the community services it needs.
TVA is looking back one year at the killing rampage of the disturbed Abdulla Shaikh, who murdered three random men in August 2022. They talk to a victim’s brother, concerned about the kind of situation that allowed Shaikh, a known risk to public safety, to be allowed out to wander around.
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Kate
I’ve noticed in recent weeks that the media are being tentative in how they report this, because they know the news is unwelcome – but Covid is on the rise again.
MarcG
Friendly reminder that each reinfection increases risk of death, hospitalization and sequelae including pulmonary, cardiovascular, hematological, diabetes, gastrointestinal, kidney, mental health, musculoskeletal and neurological disorders regardless of vaccination status (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3/figures/5), masks work, and there’s no such thing as summer flu.
Josh
For what it’s worth, right-wingers see this exactly opposite from you, Kate. They are under the impression that the media is blowing it up, trying to “make something” out of COVID in 2023. Look at right-wing social media accounts and the takeaway is “they think it’s still 2020, they think they can make it happen again”.
DeWolf
You keep linking to the exact same study, MarcG, which focused entirely on US veterans – a group with already poor health due to socioeconomic conditions, compounded by wartime injuries and trauma. And as the study notes, the subjects were disproportionately white males. In other words, a completely unrepresentative sample. And any scientist will tell you that a single study, no matter how many participants it involved, is just that: one study. Evidence, not proof.
Here’s a nuanced look at the study you keep flogging:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/23/repeat-covid-infections-health-risks
MarcG
Actually, I don’t believe I’ve linked to that particular study before (perhaps it was one that used the same data set). It is not controversial that getting Covid is bad for you and that repeat infections increase the likelihood of bad outcomes.
‘Post-COVID-19 Condition in Canada: What We Know, What We Don’t Know and a Framework for Action’ published by the Office of the Chief Science Advisor of Canada: “Known risk factors [for Long COVID] include female sex, hospitalization due to COVID, pre-existing chronic health conditions, and repeated SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Another study published in Nature: “SARS-CoV-2 infection is linked to a substantially increased risk of developing a diverse spectrum of new-onset autoimmune diseases”
From the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) on Twitter: “Repeat COVID infections increase your risk for both hospitalization and Long COVID”
A study from the US National Institutes of Health: “The estimated proportion of [Long COVID] positivity was greater among reinfected participants compared with participants with 1 reported infection”
CE
Maybe the summer flu doesn’t exist but something seems to be going around. A few people I know have been sick including my girlfriend who has had something between a cold and Covid for the last few days. She dusted off a Covid test this morning and it came up negative, although I’m not sure if those older tests work for new variants.
MarcG
CE: They still work but have never been 100%, that’s why it’s recommended to test multiple days in a row. Also, not everyone knows that swabbing the inside of your cheeks and back of throat as well as the nose will increase accuracy (link).
Here are some more recent research findings:
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Kate
The city is growing and distributing free vegetables to those in need. They’ve grown carrots, potatoes, beets and cabbages.
Does everyone know how to cook these vegetables, and can they be bothered?
Nicholas
This is similar to people giving food to food banks: it’s often not what people want or even know how to cook. Give money to food banks and they can buy in bulk (at a tenth of the rate of retail) and get exactly what their clients need. Here, the city should just give people, or food banks, money, and people will figure out what works best for them.
Jonathan
Most of those vegetables can keep for well over half a year and are common to cultures all around the world. It mentions in the article that there are also other objectives of the project, like job training, etc.
I think it’s a great initiative. It doesn’t mean we can’t also give more money
Jim Strankinga
It’s interesting to see the city’s initiative to distribute fresh vegetables to those in need. It’s a well-intentioned effort that recognizes the value of healthy, natural food. But it brings up an essential question: Are these offerings aligned with what the recipients know and want? In some families, processed food is the norm. It’s what they can afford and what they’re used to cooking. So, when faced with fresh produce like carrots or potatoes, they might feel a bit lost. It’s not a judgment; it’s an observation of a reality that many are living. The city’s initiative is commendable, but it also uncovers a larger issue. Perhaps we need to think about what we’re giving and how we’re educating and supporting those we’re trying to help. This doesn’t mean one way is right and the other wrong; it’s just a thought on finding the best way to meet people where they are.
Kate
The veg may be well known, but the knowledge of how to make them tasty may not be – likewise not everyone has the kitchen space and storage, the utensils, the spices and the additional ingredients and the time it takes to do it.
I don’t mean to sound like “poor people only want chicken nuggets” but there are reasons that kind of food tends to be what a tired and overworked person wants at the end of the day, not to spend an hour in the kitchen coping with a cabbage.
MarcG
I mean no offense, Jim Strankinga, if you are a real person, but that comment has my AI flags waving.
Jim Strankinga
MarcG, I can guarantee that I’m a real person, and it’s fully my opinion I shared here. But your antenna is correct, I used AI to rephrase my answer, as it is not always easy to phrase an opinion in a sensible way in English, which is not my native language.
Ephraim
In case someone doesn’t know the secret to cabbage rolls…. freeze the head of cabbage and then defrost. They will be soft and pliable without having to cook them. Beets are easily roasted in an oven, along with potatoes. Carrots are very versatile. And if someone needs a great coleslaw recipe, here you go… https://gourmania.com/recipe/super-coleslaw/
Kate
Green pepper in coleslaw, Ephraim?
Ephraim
@Kate – It is one of the best coleslaw’s in the vinegar category that I have had. You can always skip the green pepper…. or if you like it spicy, replace it with Jalapeno pepper. Still, keeps well in tight sealed jars in the fridge and you can add some life to any dish. Cabbage is cheap now. And the sweet and vinegar makes it great with many dishes, including grilled cheese sandwiches
Blork
Nothing wrong with green (or any color) pepper in coleslaw! My “Coleslaw chez Blork” uses red bell pepper (thinly sliced), cabbage, fennel, and sometimes carrot. Also, cilantro and lime juice instead of vinegar. Not exactly poor people food with the price of fennel these days, but hey. #commentcreep
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Kate
Work has begun on the extension of the blue line, preparatory to actual digging next year at Jean‑Talon and Langelier.
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